Children's services 'requiring improvement' says OFSTED - we question council on findings

The report on Buckinghamshire Council’s Children’s Services following an inspection by OFSTED in December 2021 was published on Friday (11th February), revealing the service has again fallen short of a ‘Good’ rating.

While improvement since the 2017 inspection, which found Children’s Services to be ‘Inadequate’, was noted, an overall effectiveness rating of ‘Requires improvement to be good’ was applied.

The report stated: “Children’s services in Buckinghamshire are no longer inadequate, but still require further improvements to be good.”

Here is the rating summary:

Particular areas highlighted in the report for attention were:

• The understanding, and reduction of, a high rate of re-referrals and assessments that result in no services being provided for children and their families.
• The consideration and cumulative impact of earlier interventions and family histories in children and family assessments.
• The quality of social workers’ direct work with children.
• The support provided to children aged 16 and 17 years who present as homeless.
• The impact of independent reviewing officers (IROs) in decisively escalating children’s cases when there is drift and delay in the progress of their care plans.
• The quality of case supervision for social workers in order that it promotes consistently effective work with children.
• The engagement and participation of children in care in the corporate parenting work of the council.

Following the release of the OFSTED report, Bucks Radio had a chance to question Councillor Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services and Richard Nash, Director of Children’s Services, after they gave a short presentation on the findings.

Ms Cranmer opened the presentation with the following sentence: “We are very, very pleased with our OFSTED report."

She went on to misstate the rating the council received. The cabinet member wrongly claimed that the rating the council had received was "improving to good", quite different to the actual rating of "requiring improvement to be good."

Richard Nash stepped in to acknowledged the error when Bucks Radio pointed it out.

Nonetheless, we wondered if there was some complacency around the report's conclusions and asked how the council could reassure the people of Buckinghamshire that things will improve, as the report said they must.

Anita Cranmer responded: "I think that you are taking what I said to sound like we’re complacent - we’re not. We’re pleased that we are ‘requiring improvement to be good’ – that’s a long way from being inadequate and we’re pleased with all the four areas that we have to concentrate on are areas that we had started concentrating on earlier.

"So, if you look at us in six to eight months, it probably will be a different result.”

Mr Nash added: "There’s no complacency at all. This gives an opportunity to pause and look over our shoulders for a moment to see how far that we’ve travelled as a service.

"To be twice failed in a county the size of Buckinghamshire and then to improve, which is no easy feat in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, is an achievement, but none of us are content with where we are. What gives us reason for optimism is the trajectory that we’re on."

We then asked what they would be doing to improve the support given to 16 and 17 year olds who present as homeless - an area specifically highlighted as requiring improvement by OFSTED.

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services replied: "First of all, we agree with that comment. We do need to do more and we do have plans in place."

Richard Nash, Director of Children’s Services, said: "Absolutely there’s more for us to do and this is around our consistency and making sure that every single young person of that age who presents as having a need around homelessness receives the same holistic assessment of all of their needs and that there’s consistency between the work that the children’s social care does, our colleagues in housing at the council, and indeed the very strong representation in this area for third sector organisations in Buckinghamshire. So it’s a matter of coordination and it’s also a matter of consistency."

[PICTURE: Councillor Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services]

Earlier on, Buckinghamshire Councillor Robin Stuchbury, told Bucks Radio: “Having been involved as a councillor when Children’s Services went into ‘Special measures’ sitting on the Education and Children’s select committee, it is positive news that they’ve got an ‘improvement’ rating. However, we mustn't take our focus off the care of the children and vulnerable who rely on the service, and we must continue to support the staff so that they can bring the service forward.

“Equally important is to ensure we maintain the funding for the portfolio and not become complacent due to the improved OFSTED rating.

“I must congratulate the staff for all their hard work and I will remain continually interested in this journey because nothing is more important than the people this service looks after.”

You can view the full report here: https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/44/825

The next inspection is likely to be in 36 months time.