Torbay remains inadequate, finds Ofsted
A re-inspection of children's services at Torbay has judged them to be inadequate.
Some improvements have been made, but not enough, and all judgements from the 2015 Ofsted inspection apart from the adoption judgement are unchanged, said Ofsted.
"The quality of practice ranges across and within services, from areas showing serious weaknesses, such as fostering, to pockets [...]
Bournemouth told to improve
Ofsted has told Bournemouth children's services that they need to improve and rated the authority as 'requires improvement'.
Senior leaders have not made progress with a number of recommendations from the previous inspection and practice deficits remain in key areas. Leaders have also not paid sufficient attention to address areas of practice where performance is poor [...]
Local authority spending on children's services rises
Local authority spending on children's services rises. Spending on children's services increased the most out of all local authority expenditure, the government has said.
Expenditure on children’s social care increased by £368 million from £8.4 billion to £8.8 billion - an increase of 4.3% in 2017-2018, the provisional outturn estimates of local authority revenue expenditure and financing [...]
Reading improves services for care leavers
Reading children's services is improving services for young people preparing to leave care and care leavers, Ofsted has found.
In the seventh monitoring visit since the local authority was judged inadequate in June 2016, inspectors found that young people aged 16 and 17 are carefully prepared during this transition period through closely planned joint work between [...]
Barnet maintains focus on improving social work practice
The London Borough of Barnet has maintained a consistent and strong focus on improving services and the quality of social work practice, Ofsted has found.
In the fourth monitoring visit of the authority since it was rated as inadequate in July 2017, Ofsted said some changes and improvements are now well established, such as the quality [...]
Blog: Advocacy for Care Experienced Young People
A blog on advocacy for care experienced young people by Luke Rodgers.
Luke Rodgers is the Director & Founder of Foster Focus, starting his life in care - he like many other children, unfortunately, didn't feel his experiences were positive ones. After moving from foster home to foster home, living in children's homes and in and [...]
