York's children’s services in ‘decline’ since 2016, inspectors warn
Joe Lepper
Wednesday, May 4, 2022
Ofsted has warned City of York Council of “a decline in the quality” of its support for children and families since its last inspection six years ago.
In a critical report, following a visit by inspectors in March this year, the council is warned that “there is significant variation in the quality of services and social work practice provided to children and families”.
While acknowledging that council leaders have increased investment in children’s services in recent years and are aware that improvement is needed, inspectors say “the pace of change has been too slow”.
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A lack of accuracy in written reports is among concerns raised by Ofsted, which has graded York children’s services as “requires improvement to be good” across all areas of the department, including its leadership, child protection, support for care leavers and children in care as well as for overall effectiveness.
The quality of assessments, social work supervision and return home interviews for children that go missing are also in need of improvement, according to Ofsted.
“Trained volunteers, independent to the child, complete return home interviews,” inspectors detail in their report.
“However, the analysis of information by social workers is weak and there are missed opportunities to explore reasons for going missing and potential risk factors.
“If children are missing on multiple occasions, each incident is considered separately and therefore services are not sufficiently coordinated to reduce the risk of going missing for all children.”
Despite the concerns, inspectors said some areas of children’s services are offering effective support, including the multi-agency safeguarding hub, early support for families and the City’s virtual school to support looked-after children’s education. But Ofsted warns that in each area work is needed to ensure there is consistently good support for all children and families
At its last inspection in 2016 the leadership of children’s services as well as adoption and care leaver support were graded as "good" by inspectors.
City of York council has been contacted for comment.
Meanwhile, Ofsted has praised children’s services in West Berkshire, which has been handed a rating of "good" across all aspects of its support, leadership and overall effectiveness.
Inspectors praised the development of an early response hub, which has “developed highly effective working relationships with universal, voluntary and community services, so that children and families benefit from intervention and help at the earliest opportunity”.