Agenda item

Children’s Services in Buckinghamshire had been judged to be inadequate by Ofsted in August 2014 and November 2017.  Following the November 2017 ‘Inadequate’ judgement, Ofsted had recently conducted their reinspection of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers. As part of the inspection, inspectors evaluated:

·                overall effectiveness of the service

·                the experiences and progress of children in need of help and protection

·                the experiences and progress of children in care and care leavers

·                the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families

This inspection had found that Buckinghamshire was no longer ‘Inadequate’, and the overall judgement of Children’s Services was ‘requires improvement to be good’. The report had been published on Friday 11 February 2022 and could be accessed here.

Members thanked staff for the work that they had done over a number of years, including during the pandemic, that had resulted in the latest Ofsted rating.  It was stated that there was no room for complacency, and it was the aspiration for the Council that Children’s Services be rated at least good at the next Ofsted inspection.

RESOLVED –

That the positive outcome of the Ofsted re-inspection of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers be NOTED. 

Children’s Services in Buckinghamshire had been judged to be inadequate by Ofsted in August 2014 and November 2017.  Subsequently, the Secretary of State had appointed John Coughlan CBE, former Chief Executive of Hampshire County Council, as Children’s Commissioner to undertake a review to determine if the most effective way of securing and sustaining improvement in Buckinghamshire was to remove the control of children’s social care from the Council.  The Council had retained control of its Children’s Services and an Improvement Board had been established to drive sustainable improvement across Children’s Services to address the feedback and areas of concern identified during the November 2017 inspection.

Between July 2018 and October 2019, Ofsted had completed 4 monitoring visits, which had reflected that progress had been made, as well as the general challenge in improving services and the specific challenges around recruitment and retention of social workers.

The fifth monitoring visit had been scheduled for Spring 2020 but had been postponed due to Covid-19.  A Covid focussed visit had been conducted in February 2021 which had again noted the challenges in relation to recruitment and retention as well as the significant increase in demand as a result of the pandemic.

Ofsted had conducted their reinspection of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers between 29 November and 17 December 2021.  As part of the inspection, inspectors had evaluated:

·            the overall effectiveness of the service.

·            the experiences and progress of children in need of help and protection.

·            the experiences and progress of children in care and care leavers.

·            the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families.

Inspectors had reviewed approximately 400 children’s case files and over 350 documents. They had also met with staff, partners, children and young people, care leavers, parents and carers, adopters and foster carers, as well as the Leader, Cabinet Member Children’s Services & Education, Chief Executive and Senior Leaders within Children’s Services.

The Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services informed Members that the recent inspection had found that Buckinghamshire was no longer ‘Inadequate’, and the overall judgement of Children’s Services was ‘requires improvement to be good’. The report had been published on Friday 11 February 2022 and could be accessed here.

Paragraph 2.12 of the Cabinet report detailed some of the actions that the Council needed to take improve the Service:

(i)             The understanding, and reduction of, a high rate of re-referrals and assessments that result in no services being provided for children and their families.

(ii)           The consideration and cumulative impact of earlier interventions and family histories in children and family assessments. 

(iii)         The quality of social workers’ direct work with children.

(iv)         The support provided to children aged 16 and 17 years who present as homeless.

(v)           The impact of independent reviewing officers (IROs) in decisively escalating children’s cases when there is drift and delay in the progress of their care plans.

(vi)         The quality of case supervision for social workers in order that it promotes consistently effective work with children.

(vii)       The engagement and participation of children in care in the corporate parenting work of the council.

Members discussed the report and Ofsted outcome and commented:

·            The inspection had found that no children were at immediate, unassessed risk of serious harm and that there were no widespread or serious failures for children across the range of services.

·            That the Council would have to submit a Plan back to Ofsted by 25 May 2022, addressing all the actions for improvement that had been identified during the inspection.

·            Information was provided on measures and support being taken to retain, attract and recruit Social Workers, including on the Council’s Social Worker Academy, and on the work that was being done to support older children (16-17 years old) who presented themselves as homeless.  The Council had a legal responsibility to children in care until they reached 25 years.  Details were also provided of the work that was being done through the Corporate Parenting Panel to support the homeless.

·            In response to the Ofsted finding that some assessments were too superficial, it was explained that a lot of staff training had been done over the last 6 months to ensure that data (that was often very complex) was better recorded and that greater evaluations took place.  Staff turnover could often impact on this particular issue.

·            It was acknowledged that there were long waiting lists for CAMHS assessments, sometimes over a year and particularly for autism assessments.  The Ofsted inspection had not detailed the myriad of support that was in place to support children who were on a waiting list, and this would be included in the Plan submitted to Ofsted by 25 May.

·            That it was important to have a stable workforce who had manageable workloads.  There had been a 73% increase in child protection work during the pandemic.

·            Further information was sought on Corporate Parenting and the role of Councillors.  Members were informed that the Service was currently undertaking a strategic collaboration report and encouraging children to get involved and to hear their voice.  Work on the strategy was being led by an ex Care Leader.  It was likely that one of the outcomes of the review would be to encourage Councillors to become mentors to young people.  Some of this work had been delayed by the pandemic but was not being rolled out.      

Members thanked staff for the work that they had done over a number of years, including during the pandemic, that had resulted in the latest Ofsted rating.  It was stated that there was no room for complacency, and it was the aspiration for the Council that Children’s Services be rated at least good at the next Ofsted inspection.

RESOLVED –

That the positive outcome of the Ofsted re-inspection of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers be NOTED.