The Chair referred to the recent Ofsted
Inspection of Children’s Services and invited Councillor
Paffey, the Cabinet Member for Aspiration, Children and Lifelong
Learning and Hillary Brooks, Executive Director –
Children’s Services, to address the panel
The panel noted the following:
- That the overall judgement of this
Ofsted Inspection was that the service required improvement, with a
few areas that were judged overall as good.
- There were no areas that were judged
to be inadequate.
- The Ofsted Inspection recognised
that Children and Families Services had made significant progress
in the delivery of services for children.
- The Ofsted Inspection found that
children and families were receiving a prompt and proportionate
response.
- The Ofsted Inspection report noted
that there had been substantial improvement to services for Care
Leavers, schools were held effectively to account for the impact of
their work and that there was energy in corporate parenting
roles.
- The Ofsted Inspection identified
that the service needed to build longer term uninterrupted
relationships with children as plans progressed, and to make sure
all children got the right help quickly through improvement in the
assessment of the effectiveness and impact of front line
services.
- Children and Families Services had
begun work on an improvement plan to make all services good or
outstanding.
The Chair expressed thanks to all the front
line staff for their work to help keep all our children safe.
RESOLVED that a formal report
on the Ofsted Inspection of Children and Families Services and the
response from the Children and Families Service would be included
in the agenda of the next meeting of the Panel.