Senior leaders at Slough have worked purposely and carefully to ensure that early permanence planning is embedded in practice across the children’s workforce, Ofsted said.
In the sixth monitoring visit since the local authority was judged inadequate in February 2016, inspectors found that senior leaders have continued to respond to the findings from previous monitoring visits and the recommendations from the single inspection framework in 2016.
“Based on the evidence gathered during this visit, leaders, social workers and managers continue to demonstrate a commitment to improving outcomes for children in Slough,” said the report.
“Practice to bring children into care is timelier than it was at the last inspection. Most children who become looked after are assessed appropriately, placed swiftly and make positive progress towards early permanence. Nonetheless, senior managers recognise that there is more to do to ensure that all children who need care are identified early and that authoritative action is taken, as some children still come into care too late,” it added.
During the course of this visit, inspectors reviewed the progress made in the area of children in care. Inspectors highlighted:
Ofsted also found that the workforce is increasingly stable and, consequently, the number of children who have had two or more social workers in the last 12 months has reduced from 38% in February 2017 to 24% in February 2018.
Staff seen by inspectors are positive about working for the trust and morale is good, the report concluded.
New Deprivation of Liberty court launch for children
A National Deprivation of Liberty Court dealing specifically with applications relating to deprive children of their liberty has been announced by Sir Andrew McFarlane, president of the family division.
The court will deal with applications seeking authorisation to deprive children of their liberty and will be based at the Royal Courts of Justice under the [...]
Independent review into CSE in Oldham finds child protection procedures were not followed
Some children have been failed by the agencies that were meant to protect them because child protection procedures had not been properly followed, an independent assurance review into historic child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Oldham has found.
Evidence of poor practice was attributed to a structural flaw the review team found in the multi-agency system [...]
Sixty Second Interview with Chloe Bach
Find out more about our Business Administrator Chloe Bach who has been with WillisPalmer since 2009.
Tea or coffee?
Coffee (oat milk latte)
What 3 things would you put in Room 101?
Migraines, slugs and war
What is your favourite place in the world?
Wherever my family is (but I do love New York)
If you were on death row what [...]
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