To share the feedback letter from Ofsted following their sixth Monitoring Visit conducted in February 2025

Report and Ofsted letter to follow on 20 March 2025.

ChildrenCHTHE MEMBER the The member for children’s and young people introduced the report.  Noted this was the sixth monitoring visit and took place on 18th and 19th of February 2025.  The focus of the inspection was around the quality and timeliness of the social work assessments following referrals into the multi-agency safeguarding hub and those that were deemed to meet particular levels of need, including those activities under section 17 of the Children Act and section 47 of the Children Act.   

It was highlighted that the headline findings reported by Ofsted referred to the timely completion of assessment and support conducted by social workers and family support workers and that they were having a positive impact.  The inspectorate also commented that the leadership was now making tangible progress to improve the quality and consistency of practise within those assessment teams.

The thresholds guidance document inspection found that those thresholds were being appropriately applied and that informed decisions were being made about the level of intervention. Regarding children being accommodated into care, the inspectorate found that these decisions were at the right threshold and that these decisions were appropriate. The inspectorate reported positively on the conduct of strategy meetings and the focus on dealing with risk within those discussions.

In respect of re-referral rates, it was confirmed that the service were aware, and this was the subject of further work and analysis, in particular the service are looking to understand what may be around barriers to accessing early help for families to sustain positive outcomes. It was noted that this was also an indicator of improved confidence from partner agencies to re-refer matters back to children services where they felt the need to do so.

Partnership working was something that had been mentioned by the inspectorate on previous visits, the inspectorate reported on the range of professionals and agencies that were involved in making an important contribution to those assessments as well as providing support to those families.

It was noted that Ofsted also reported positively about effective information sharing and that decisions were being made together with partners.   It was highlighted that in respect of working with children and families, Ofsted reported that many social workers developed meaningful relationships with parents and carers in a skilled way.   It was confirmed that during that period of assessment they were undertaking direct work with children and families to make sure that responses to risk were appropriate and timely.

There was a focus on young carers and there was positive reporting about the comprehensive of the assessments and the child focused reporting that staff advocated for and supported children. Ofsted recognised that was informing the service’s audit work, and that was giving meaningful insights on the impacts of the service’s practise.

Regarding quality of practise, Ofsted found good quality and timeliness in the assessments.  The cabinet member highlighted a number of elements which were in the report, noting that section 47 enquiries were thorough, the risks were fully understood and explored, and safety  ...  view the full minutes text for item 82