Agenda item

Report of the Ofsted inspection of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers (CC9).

The Oxfordshire County Council’s provision for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers was recently inspected by Ofsted as part of its regular programme of local authority inspection.  

The inspection took place between 29 April and 21 May. The report will be published on 30 June 2014 and therefore is unavailable to be circulated with this Agenda.

The Director for Children, Education & Families, will share the outcomes of the report with Members and give a brief presentation, drawing attention to the key points to emerge from the inspection prior to the formal meeting of Council.

Council is RECOMMENDED to receive the report and discuss its implications for the Council.

The Council had before them the Ofsted Report on the Inspection of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers.

The report had concluded that Oxfordshire County Council’s leadership in delivering services for children in care and in need of help and protection was “strong and effective” and made “a demonstrable difference” in improving the life chances of some of the most vulnerable children in Oxfordshire.”

More than 3,100 children in Oxfordshire receive a specialist  children’s service, 512 are the subject of a child protection plan and 467 are looked after by the County Council.

Ofsted has four levels of ranking for local authority children’s services – Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement and Inadequate. Under Ofsted’s new inspection framework, which it describes as a ‘harder test’, there are few councils ranked as Good or Outstanding.

Inspectors visited Oxfordshire County Council from April 29 to May 21 and have concluded that the council should be rated “Good” across all three key categories of their inspection

• Children who need help and protection,
• Children looked after (including adoption performance and experiences and progress of care leavers)
• Leadership, management and governance.

The report made clear that the work done by the joint County Council, Thames Valley Police and health service Kingfisher team to combat child sexual exploitation was “high quality”, and that “large numbers of professionals had been effectively trained to identify potential indications of child sexual exploitation”. It also said that “good arrangements are in place to respond when children go missing from home and care”. 

Ofsted also noted that the Council’s two children’s homes were judged to be “good” and “outstanding” in their most recent Ofsted inspections.

Councillor Tilley moved and Councillor Hudspeth seconded the recommendations as set out on the face of the Agenda.

In moving the recommendation, Councillor Tilley congratulated members and staff on the excellent outcome of the Inspection.

Council made the following observations:

·         The rating was the result of hard work by everyone who worked with children and families.  Council praised the consistent leadership from both the Cabinet Member and the Director and the cross party working in this area.

·         Council noted that the issues for improvement set out in the report “were of no surprise” and were work in progress.  However, Council noted the importance of continual improvement within the area.

·            Council noted that children’s social services were strong and effective, and made a real difference to the lives of the most vulnerable children and young people in Oxfordshire.

·         Council praised officers for the way the council worked with other agencies to manage issues linked to child sexual exploitation.They further noted that work to help troubled families was targeted and responsive with good take up by those families most in need.

·         Child protection inquiries were carefully planned by children’s social care with the police and other agencies and investigated thoroughly.

·         Council highly praised the social workers and in particular those with responsibility for children in care and noted that children said they had good, long-term relationships with social workers.  Council particularily praised “children’s voice” and the Children in Care Council.

·         Council commended the work of the Corporate Parenting Panel.

·         The council noted that further work needed to be done around the virtual school, school governors, local members visiting children’s homes and attainment for Children in Care.

Following debate, the motion was put to the vote and was carried unanimously.

RESOLVED: accordingly.