‘Progress’ in improving children’s services, Ofsted reports

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.

Inspector Tracey 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.

The inspectors also raised a number of areas which were not yet up to scratch. While the workload of most social workers was described as ‘manageable’, for some it was still too high. Ms Scott added: “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 experiencingtoomanychanges of social worker.