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The findings of a routine unannounced Ofsted inspection of the IW Council's children's services department will help its continued improvement, the authority's chief executive has said.
Following publication of a summary of last month's two-day Ofsted inspection, chief executive Steve Beynon said the task now was both to build on the strengths found and also to address the areas of development highlighted.
The inspection looked at the quality and effectiveness of contact, referral and assessment arrangements and their impact on minimising any child abuse and neglect. Inspectors considered a range of evidence, including electronic case records, supervision files and notes, observation of social workers and senior practitioners undertaking referral and assessment duties as well as other information provided by staff and managers.
Inspectors also spoke to a range of staff including managers, social workers, other practitioners and administrative staff.
Mr Beynon said: "The inspectors have expressed their thanks to the staff interviewed as part of the process and I would like to echo that.
"As I have previously acknowledged, staff in this department have had to work with more changes to senior personnel than was desirable. Now however we have a new senior management team in place which, Ofsted found, is already providing strong leadership which has led to improvements in front line services.
"This new management was highlighted as a strength by inspectors and this is an important finding that is to be welcomed. It demonstrates that we now have a stable platform on which we can build and establish similar robustness throughout the department."
As well as this key strength, there were many areas also found by Ofsted to be satisfactory.
Mr Beynon said: "While we must set our aspirations higher than merely providing a satisfactory service, I am pleased that, having worked through the recent challenges, we can use these satisfactory areas as a basis from which we can continue to improve.
"The report does also highlight areas for development of course and our priority now has to be to improve practice in these areas. Notably, however, no areas for "priority action" were identified which would have attracted an immediate full inspection.
"We need to both eliminate weaknesses and build on our strengths but I believe this report captures a watershed moment for the children's services directorate.
"It highlights the progress that has undoubtedly been made and recognises that, with a strong management structure now in place and with the support of staff, we are prioritising our limited resources on the areas most in need which, of course, we are seeking to do throughout the authority.
"Ofsted acknowledge that we are aware of our strengths and weaknesses and moreover what we are doing – and intend to do – to improve performance where necessary."
Mr Beynon said the recent move to increase the pay of child social workers was one such step taken by the authority to improve performance as it would to retain staff as well as attract new social workers.
Dawn Cousins, IW Council cabinet member for children's services said: "I would like to thank the staff throughout the directorate and from top to bottom for the work they have undertaken to put us in our current position from which we can continue with confidence to improve the service."
A summary of the full report will be published by Ofsted later today (Thursday 8 July).
Strengths
The new senior management team are providing strong leadership and structure leading to improvements in front line services.
Satisfactory practices.
Decisions are made in accordance with statutory timescales. All contacts are seen by a manager within 24-hours and appropriate decisions about incoming work are being made.
Section 47 enquiries are undertaken in a timely manner by appropriately qualified and trained social workers.
Child protection work is prioritised. At the time of inspection there was no unallocated work within the duty and assessment service.
Thresholds for the provision of safeguarding services are the subject of multi-agency agreements and consistently applied.
Use of the common assessment framework is increasing leading to early intervention to meet the needs of children through a range of family support services.
Despite capacity issues caseloads are of manageable proportions. Newly qualified staff receive support and undertake work in accordance with their level of experience.
Case records are up-to-date. However, the quality of the content of records is variable.
Clear working arrangements between the Intervention and Assessment team and Children with Disabilities teams on complex cases helps to ensure that the assessed needs of children and young people are fully understood and responded to appropriately.
The Local Safeguarding Children Board ensures that lessons from serious case reviews and research to improve the quality of front line practice are communicated to all staff.
Areas for development
Due to limited social worker capacity, children in need work is not always allocated in a timely manner. Some assessments are out of timescales before the assessment commences.
Performance indicators are generally satisfactory in comparison with statistical neighbours although in relation to the timeliness of completion of core assessments performance is significantly lower.
Initial and core assessments are of variable quality and management oversight of the quality and timeliness of assessments is not consistently rigorous. In some cases analysis is of a low standard with insufficient use of historical information.
Risk and protective factors are not always clearly identified.
Some assessments contain insufficient information to make effective decisions or plans. For example, some assessments were closed prematurely leading to further contacts being made soon after case closure.
Information regarding the ethnicity of families is not consistently gathered at the point of contact. Case recording does not always demonstrate how cultural, linguistic, religious or disability needs are addressed.
Although children and young people are seen routinely, recording and plans do not consistently evidence that their wishes or those of their parents and/or carers are taken into account in assessment and planning processes.
The frequency and quality of recording of supervision are inconsistent.
Supervision is not providing appropriate challenge of the quality of casework and the professional development of some staff.
Decision-making and effective planning is not sufficiently well evidenced in case records.
There is no effective protocol between partner agencies to screen and consider the best response to the large numbers of incidents of domestic abuse that are referred to the council. Consequently, resources in the contact, referral and assessment team are not used in the most efficient way.
