Children’s services sees steady progress

West Sussex County Council is making ‘steady progress’ in improving its children’s services, Ofsted has reported.

Inspectors carried out a monitoring visit in September – their third visit since the services were judged inadequate in May 2019.

The visit focussed on how social work practice is improving the lives of children with disabilities, as well as how decisions are made, how well managers oversee things and the capacity of social workers to provide help and support.

There were many positives in a letter from inspector Tracey Scott, published last week, as well as areas in which the council still needs to improve.

Ms Scott wrote: “The local authority is making steady progress.

“The support that disabled children receive has improved since the October 2020 focused assurance visit, when significant concerns were highlighted for disabled children in West Sussex.”

She also highlighted the commitment of the senior leadership team, the fact that social workers know the children they work with well, and that the voice of the children was largely being heard.

Jacquie Russell, cabinet member for children and young people, said the improvements were ‘encouraging to see’ but recognised that there was still work to be done.

The inspectors raised a number of areas which weren’t yet up to scratch.

While the workload of most social workers was described as ‘manageable’, for some it was still too high.

Ms Scott wrote: “While the quality and effectiveness of assessments, plans and supervision is improving, it remains too variable.

“The impact of social work support that children receive is inconsistent, and for a small number of children this continues to be ineffective.”

She also pointed out that, while child protection enquiries were ‘comprehensive’, for a small number of children they took too long to complete.

The effectiveness and impact of social work support was described as ‘inconsistent’, with some youngsters experiencing too many changes of social worker.

On the other side of the coin, though, there was some positive feedback about the improvements being made.

One parent told the inspectors that their social worker had ‘made such a difference’ and had been the ‘first person to listen’.

A child added: “Whatever I say, she listens.”