Ofsted begin to see progress in children’s services

Ofsted has found that within children’s services in Cheshire East “pace of change has accelerated, and appropriate steps have been taken to improve the quality of social work practice” following an inadequate inspection judgement last year.

A monitoring visit focused on the front door service, was carried out in February, and a letter has now been sent to the council summarising the findings.

There is particular praise for the council's strong governance arrangements and highlights that political support has been pivotal in driving improvements. The children's services budget has been realigned to new strategic priorities, resulting in strengthened capacity at both senior and frontline levels.

Staff working within children’s services are positive about working in Cheshire East. They are involved in changes to the service and understand the direction of travel.

Ofsted also recognised the Cheshire East Consultation Service (ChECS) has improved its triaging and decision-making processes, ensuring more timely and appropriate responses. Victims of domestic abuse receive sensitive and helpful independent support and decisions routinely consider family history, partner information and previous involvement with services.

The council needs to strengthen its quality in assessments and multi-agency partnership, including all partners in decisions making. Plans are underway to develop an integrated front door to address this.

Also highlighted in the letter was the need for more social worker supervision, which is something the council is focused on through its drive to recruit more social workers and lessen the dependency on temporary workers, ensuring better supervision and support

Councillor Laura Crane, chair of Cheshire East Council’s children and families committee, said:

“I am pleased that our first Ofsted monitoring visit was positive. We’re continuing to work hard to not only support vulnerable children in the right way, but to drive forward the transformation and improvements to our children’s services. 

“Since the ILAC inspection last year, the pace of change has quickened and improvements in practice were visible to Ofsted. Whilst we have made improvements and instrumental changes to the way we work, we know we still have more to do to support our children and families. We will continue to use their feedback to better shape our services for the future. 

“Children in Cheshire East deserve the very best and we are working tirelessly to make sure they get this. Ofsted will conduct another monitoring visit in the Summer at which point we look forward to being able to show further improvement.”