‘Steady progress’ in children’s services
Improvements to children’s services in West Sussex are making ‘steady progress’, an Ofsted inspector has said – but there is still a long way to go.
In May, inspectors carried out their second monitoring visit of the service since it was judged inadequate in 2019.
The visit was conducted remotely, using video calls for discussions with social workers, managers, leaders and partners.
In a letter to Lucy Butler, the county council’s director of children’s services, inspector Tracey Scott praised the progress made so far. She said: “Senior leaders have a realistic self-evaluation and clear understanding of how to improve.
“They have a good understanding of the weaknesses in the service and have a clear and coherent plan to focus on the necessary improvements.
“A permanent senior leadership team is helping to build stability and consistency across the service. Senior leaders are ambitious and determined to improve services for children in West Sussex but recognise there is a lot still to do.”
Ms Scott highlighted a number of shortfalls within the service where that ‘clear and coherent plan’ will be needed.
Case-loads for social workers in some parts of the service were found to be still too high, while some children were given a change of social worker too many times.
Other youngsters were reported to have lived in ‘circumstances of chronic neglect for too long’ before authoritative decisions were made about their needs and future arrangements for care.
And others were found to have been left in ‘unregulated or unlawful placements’ for extended periods.
There were plenty of positives to the inspector’s letter.
Most youngsters were found to be living in homes where they were doing well and their needs were being met.
There were early signs that the consistency and quality of support was improving as well as ‘improvement and focus’ in the way children’s life stories were put together.
The letter said: “Children adopted since 2018 now have life story books and later life letters to help them understand their history and identity.
“Inspectors saw some good examples of colourful, accessible life story books and creative direct work with children to help them understand their histories and the decisions made for them.”