Progress at inadequate council 'too slow', Ofsted warns

A monitoring visit by Ofsted in September examined the Greater Manchester borough's efforts to improve services for care leavers, young people who go missing and children in care.

"The local authority has made some progress in the period since the last monitoring visit, but the pace of change is too slow," a letter outlining Ofsted's findings said.

Inspectors found that the council's improvement plan was not translating into coordinated improvements or consistent frontline practice.

"As a result, despite the hard work of staff and managers, the pace of change and improvement remains too slow," the letter states.

Ongoing problems include plans to introduce written referral forms for professionals not being delivered, meaning social workers still have to record verbal information when making decisions about children's needs.

Meanwhile, casework audits were found to focus on compliance over outcomes for children and, despite improved handling of return home interviews, the council's response to those interviews was inconsistent and - in some cases - slow.

Tameside's recording systems were also found to remain "a significant weakness".

"The authority cannot compare numbers of children who go missing with numbers who have return home interviews," the letter said.

"The authority is also unable to run its own reports on timeliness of the work."

There was also confusion about who should complete pathway plans for care leavers and while no care leavers have been placed in bed and breakfast accommodation for six months, the council's accommodation options were deemed to be "unlikely to meet future demands".

More positively, Ofsted welcomed the decision to exempt care leavers from council tax until they turn 21 and an increase in the size of the leaving-care team.

A spokesman for Tameside Council said the the findings represented "an important step on our improvement journey".

"We feel that this gives us a useful indication of where we need to focus our improvement work at this point," the spokesman said.

"There is however significant further work to do and our teams will work to ensure that children and their families receive the best possible service.

"The findings highlight the need for us to work closely with our partners to achieve an increased pace of improvement in the coming weeks and months.

"Although we have made sustained improvements in some areas, it is clear that we need to accelerate the pace of improvement and ensure that the progress that has been made is sustained and well embedded."

Ofsted has also published a monitoring visit report for Worcestershire County Council, which was rated inadequate in November 2016.

The monitoring visit focused on the county's contact and referral service, Family Front Door, finding that it is beginning to make progress on the back of a "succinct and well focused" three-month improvement plan featuring measurable goals.

Improvements included significant investment in extra staff, clearing Family Front Door's case backlog and a system of daily reviews that helps to ensure most cases receive initial decisions within 24 hours.

However, Ofsted noted that the service's electronic case management and performance management systems remain "unfit for purpose".