Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care and Disabilities introduced the report on the Children’s Care and Support Self-Evaluation and OFSTED Inspection Readiness.

Children’s Care and Support (Children’s Social Care) was last the subject of a full OFSTED Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) inspection in February and March of 2019. The resultant OFSTED judgement from that inspection was one of ‘Requires Improvement’, which followed the previous inspection in 2014 that determined the same judgement. OFSTED uses classifications for its judgements. ‘Inadequate’; ‘Requires Improvement’; ‘Good’ and ‘Outstanding’.

Since 2019 work to deliver improvements in the service have been continuous, and progress throughout has been the subject of various briefings to elected Members, including updates provided to Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC).

The Cabinet Member advised that the next inspection was due to take place in 2023 and there had been many challenges since the last inspection, in particular the COVID-19 pandemic which produced significant strains on safeguarding services for children while removing protecting factors such as school services.  The Borough had also grown rapidly since 2019, with the fastest rate of child growth in the country whilst being one of the most deprived boroughs in the county, of which brought many different challenges.

The service was improving; however, the pace and consistency of improvements needed to go further if the Council were to meet ‘Good’ by the next inspection.

Members of the Assembly gave thanks to staff that continued to work for the borough in difficult times and were pleased to note that improvements to the service would continue, despite budget limitations.

The Assembly resolved to:

(i)   Note the preparations for the expected OFSTED Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services inspection, as detailed in the report; and

(ii)   Note the Children’s Care and Support OFSTED Self-Evaluation 2022 at Appendix A to the report.