‘We have turned a corner’ More work needed at children’s services
PROGRESS has been “accelerated” in improving Gloucestershire’s children’s services but young people who are at risk are still left “unassessed for too long”, according to a government watchdog.
Earlier this month, Ofsted found there is “clear vision” to develop Gloucestershire County Council’s children’s services after rating it inadequate in 2017.
But its latest feedback to the authority still criticises the “delayed start” to improvements and the overall rating remains ‘inadequate.’
Ofsted inspectors said that the improvements were “not consistent” and that the authority has not yet successfully addressed certain areas of practice.
According to the report, visits to children with safeguarding concerns are “not consistently timely” and some children “remain in situations of unassessed risk for too long”.
The report added that child protection processes are “not always followed where there are clear disclosures of abuse”.
The report also said that this is the case “particularly for older children”.
The letter, sent to children’s services director Chris Spencer, said the large financial investment and resources have led to “service improvements and better outcomes for children”.
As it stands, children’s services in the county is set to cost £6million more than the county council expected, despite an extra £16million being pumped into this year’s budget.
The children’s services watchdog visited the department on October 2 and 3, where inspectors judged the local authority for the fourth time since it was rated inadequate in March 2017.
At that time, the Ofsted inspectors found “serious and widespread failings”, and “too many children” were being left in situations of “risk and significant harm for too long” because dangers were not recognised
Now, Ofsted praised the authority for having a “permanent leadership team” in place to tackle the issues that face children’s services.
But Ofsted warned “significant challenges” remain to maintain a permanent workforce, as the children’s services has been harmed by a high turnover of staff.
The letter said: “As a result, too many children experience frequent changes of social workers.”
It read: “The local authority has made considerable progress in establishing an environment in which good social work practice may flourish.
“The vast majority of social workers have manageable caseloads and only a small number of children experience delays in being allocated a social worker.
“Social workers report feeling supported within their teams and by line managers, and were positive about working for the local authority.
“Increasingly, social workers have the appropriate level of skill and experience required to provide effective interventions for children, supported by a comprehensive training and development framework.
“Managers’ oversight of practice and staff supervision is now more regular and frequent, although this is not yet consistently providing staff with suffi- cient challenge or direction in order to identify and address deficits in practice.
“Despite the positive progress made, significant challenges remain for the local authority in establishing a permanent workforce, and there is a high turnover of staff.
“As a result, too many children experience frequent changes of social workers.”
Councillor Richard Boyles, cabinet member for children and young people at the council, said the report shows “we have turned a corner” but admitted “more work needs to be done”.
Mr Boyles (C, Blakeney and Bream) said: “The team has worked incredibly hard to increase the speed in which we are changing the way we work to make a positive difference to vulnerable children in Gloucestershire. This report shows that we have certainly turned a corner.
“We are not complacent though; we know that there is more work to be done to make sure the improvements are consistent across children’s services. To go from inadequate to good usually takes 18 months to three years, so we’re realistic about what still needs to be done.
“We are all committed to making sure children and young people are as safe as possible. We will be focussing on recruiting more social workers, improving the consistency of social work practice across the service and improving outcomes for children and young people.”
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