‘A robust action plan is in place’

Firstly, I would like to state that I’m somewhat taken aback that Coun Hannah Kitching’s first question – on last week’s letters page – is not to ask about the safety and wellbeing of the children within the home, which is what I would have expected from a fellow corporate parent.

However, in response to the points raised in the Barnsley Chronicle, I would absolutely refute the point made about a lack of transparency.

As lead member for children’s services, alongside my director of children’s services, we are absolutely accountable for ensuring transparency and we take this responsibility very seriously.

However, before we put this information into the public domain it was important that we established the facts, and ensured that there was a robust action plan in place to address the issues raised.

The usual reporting process for any children’s home inspection is for the report and findings to be discussed at the Corporate Parenting Panel which is a public meeting with publicly accessible reports.

In addition, the report itself is a matter of public record.

As a fellow corporate parent, I would like to assure Coun Kitching that a robust action plan is in place to address the deficits reported within the report, this has been shared with Ofsted and is being overseen weekly by the executive director of children’s services and service director of children’s services.

A recent compliance visit by Ofsted confirmed that the home is making progress to address the issues raised and all compliance notices have now been lifted.

I continue to receive fortnightly briefings on progress and there will also be regular progress reports considered by the Corporate Parenting Panel in due course.