‘Progress’ made by children’s services – Ofsted

Department was in special measures

THE CHILDREN’S services department at a West Yorkshire council is making “steady progress” 15 months after it was placed in special measures, a watchdog’s report has revealed.

Ofsted said managers at the Labour-run Wakefield authority are “working tirelessly” to improve life for children in the care of the council, after inspectors visited on October 9 and 10.

The agency has closely monitored the department ever since it was rated inadequate in the summer of 2018, when a number of failings within the service were highlighted.

Now, in its most positive assessment of Wakefield’s children’s services since then, Ofsted said that case recording, which was identified as a weakness last year, has “significantly improved” and vulnerable children were seeing “positive change”.

Wakefield Council welcomed the findings, saying they were “pleased” with the regulator’s feedback.

In the original report last year “serious and widespread failures” were identified across children’s services in the district.

It said there were cases where appropriate action had not been taken to help and protect children and serious delays in ensuring the needs of vulnerable children in care were met.

In the latest report, made public yesterday, inspectors said: “The local authority is making steady progress in improving services for its children and young people in need of help and protection.

“Extensive work in building core service foundations means that circumstances are improving for some children.

“Children are now regularly seen by their social workers, and more recent social work practice is leading to improved outcomes for some through better focused interventions.”

On improved case recording, the report added: “The local authority has redesigned and relaunched new systems for recording children’s experiences, and continues to design a suite of new templates to support improving practice.

“Work with children is now routinely recorded.”

Ofsted also highlighted some shortcomings within the service, saying that the effect of repeat neglect on some children is “not always explored and understood”.

It added that poor practice was still sometimes unchallenged by senior managers.

Reacting to the report, the council’s corporate director for children and young people, Beate Wagner, said: “Overall, we are pleased with Ofsted’s feedback.

“They could see the developments since their last visit and that we continue to build and strengthen the foundations to provide a robust service.

“Importantly, they saw that our focus on the quality of practice is now gaining traction and highlighted improvements in core social work practice and multiagency planning.

“However, we are not there yet. We still have a lot of work before us which we are approaching in a systematic and staged manner.”

We are not there yet. We still have a lot of work before us. Beate Wagner, Wakefield City Council.