Children removed too early from child protection plans in Surrey
Too many children continue to be removed from child protection plans too early in Surrey children's services, Ofsted has warned.
In the first monitoring visit since the local authority was judged inadequate in May 2018, the inspectorate found that too many children continue to be removed from child protection plans before there is substantial evidence [...]
Ofsted notes significant changes at Thurrock
There have been significant changes within children’s services at all levels in Thurrock, Ofsted has identified.
The Ofsted single inspection in 2016 found that services to children in Thurrock required improvement to be good.
However, since then the council has re-established a permanent children’s services senior leadership team and has restructured the services. Leaders have increased [...]
Inconsistency in practice at Wolverhampton
There is inconsistency in social work practice within locality teams in Wolverhampton children's services, Ofsted has said.
A focused visit to the City of Wolverhampton council children’s services in September explained that children in need and those on child protection plans are allocated a social worker in one of eight locality team hubs.
"Inconsistency of practice both [...]
Care proceedings duration highest since 2014
The duration of care proceedings is the highest average since early 2014, it has emerged.
Ministry of Justice figures show the average time for a care or supervision case to reach first disposal was 30 weeks in April to June 2018. This was two weeks up from the same quarter in 2017 and the highest [...]
Slow progress in MASH arrangements in Lewisham
Progress to improve multi-agency arrangements in Lewisham since the previous Ofsted inspection in 2015 has been slow, Ofsted has said in a report.
A focused visit to Lewisham local authority children’s services in September which focused on the ‘front door’ arrangements for the service that considers contacts and referrals, including decision-making within the multi-agency safeguarding hub [...]
Some progress made at Sandwell says Ofsted
Sandwell Children’s Trust is making some progress in improving services for children involved in the Public Law Outline and pre-proceedings work, but overall some deficits in services remain, Ofsted has said.
Senior managers in the Trust and the local authority are acutely aware of the scale of change still required to improve services for children and [...]
