Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Deputy Chief Executive (People)

The Scrutiny Board considered a briefing note by the Director of Children’s Services, which detailed the outcome of the Children’s Services Ofsted Focused Visit held on 26^th and 27^th February 2019.

Ofsted re-inspected Children’s Services on 6^th to 30^th March 2017.  The outcome published on 13^th June 2017 indicated that Children’s Services were judged as ‘requires improvement to be good’.  Children’s Services were no longer considered inadequate.

A report on the future arrangements for continuing and sustaining improvements in Coventry was presented to the Improvement Board by the Independent Chair and the Director of Children’s Services on 3^rd October 2018.  It was noted that the Children’s Services Improvement Board would be replaced by an Executive Group to retain political and corporate oversight of Children’s Services Continuous Improvement.

The note indicated that the Continuous Improvement Executive Group would ensure tighter focus on continuous improvement and Ofsted preparation.  The impact of performance would be managed and monitored by the Group.  This was an interim measure before returning to business as usual in accordance with the revised arrangements for Children’s Safeguarding, and subject to satisfactory inspection by June 2020. 

Ofsted’s revised framework included focus visits to local authorities who were judged as ‘requires improvement’ and the first visit was held on 30^th and 31^st January 2018.  Two inspectors spend two days reviewing the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and speaking to social workers and partners.  Visits were also made to two area social work teams to review children in need cases.  The letter confirming the outcome of the visit was published on 22^nd February 2018.

A further Ofsted Focused visit was held on 26^th and 27^th February 2019.  The visit focussed on permanency planning and achieving permanency.  This involved two inspectors reviewing leadership at all levels and specific areas of Return to birth family; Connected (family and friends) care; Adoption; Long term fostering; and Special Guardianship.

Feedback from the visit overall was positive with strong evidence of an improving service.  The redesign was having a positive impact for children who experienced less turnover of social workers, life story work was improving and fostering to adopt was an emerging strength.

Ofsted stated that the Council knew themselves well, and that the self-evaluation was accurate.  Ofsted recognised that there was a strategic drive to achieve permanence for children, but for some children this took too long and some children experienced too much drift and delay.  In addition, the audit and quality assurance function was complemented, which reinforced how important it was that audits were undertaken each month and the learning fed back into practice.

Ofsted identified a number of areas for improvement and the Scrutiny Board were advised that these were in areas where the service expected rather than newly identified areas, and that work was ongoing within these areas to ensure that the improvement continued.

Ofsted published a report on the outcome of the visit on 21^st March 2019 and a copy was appended to the briefing note submitted.

The note indicated that a further focused visit would be undertaken prior to the next standard inspection, which was likely to take place between December 2019 and June 2020.

The Scrutiny Board sought clarification on an issue identified in the Ofsted report which suggested there were delays in family finding where there was a plan for adoption and this was due to a linear approach in which prospective adopters’ reports were shared one at a time with social workers by Adoption Central England.  The process carried out to find families for children with an adoption plan was explained and the Scrutiny Board were assured that the Council were confident that the practice identified by Ofsted was not what happens within Coventry.

In addition, there was concern that there appeared to be a consistent comment from Ofsted at all inspections and focussed visits regarding the consistency of paperwork and Care Plans.  The Director of Children’s Services indicated that there had been improvement in the completion of paperwork and Care Plans but acknowledged that there would always be some level of inconsistency due to the volume of contacts and open cases being managed. 

The Scrutiny Board expressed their appreciation of staff within Children’s Services for the work they are doing and the improvements made within the service and requested that this be conveyed to them.

RESOLVED that the Education and Children’s Services Scrutiny Board (2):

1.  Note the letter form Ofsted detailing the areas for development.

2.  Indicate that there were no further recommendations for the appropriate Cabinet Member at this time.

3.  Request that their appreciation be passed to staff within Children’s Services for the work they are doing and the improvements made within the service.