Further to minute 60 (15/3/11) the Interim Director of Children’s Services submitted a report which summarised the outcome of the Safeguarding and Looked After Children inspection which was undertaken by OFSTED between 24 January and 4 February 2011.

The inspection was led by a Lead Inspector with 3 Inspectors, a shadow Inspector and an Inspector from the Care Quality Commission who inspected health services. The inspection took evidence from a number of sources. These included discussions with children and young people and their families who received services, social workers and their front-line managers and senior officers including the Interim Head of Safeguarding, the Head of Branch for Children’s Social Care, the Interim Director for Children’s Services, and the then Interim Chief Executive. Elected Members and a range of community representatives were also seen by the inspection team.

The inspectors undertook a structured review of 20 case files and also evidence from a further 29 randomly selected cases. They also reviewed a number of documents, reports and procedures. This enabled the inspection team to form a view of services provided over time and the quality of reporting, recording and decision making undertaken.

The report gave a summary of the OFSTED report and the grades received in each area, 13 being ‘good’, 6 ‘outstanding’ and 3 ‘adequate’. The inspection report gave a number of areas for development including three within the Safeguarding part and four within the Looked After Children part of the inspection.

A detailed action plan had been drawn up by the department encompassing the areas for development and also additional actions extracted from the body of the OFSTED report, which would support the continuous improvement journey to make the transition to outstanding, in all areas. This action plan would be developed in team and Branch plans and would be monitored on a monthly basis by the department. Progress on the action plan would also be reported to the Council’s Safeguarding Reference Group.

Responding to comments from Members, both Julia Hassall, Head of Children’s Social Care and Tracey Coffey, Strategic Services Manager, outlined the existing audit framework and the processes involved in auditing cases including themed audits. In respect of the IT requirements, there were a number of providers of Integrated Children’s systems with each having their own strengths / weaknesses. It would be dependent on the Government’s response to the Munro Review of Child Protection as to what system they would recommend on a national level. The Interim Director commented that the department was someway off from bringing forward proposals for a new system.

Members expressed their congratulations to everybody involved for such an excellent inspection report and the Chair expressed her personal thanks particularly in respect of partnership working.

On a motion by the Chair, duly seconded, it was –

Resolved –

(1) That this Committee notes the positive and successful outcome of the inspection by OFSTED and the action plan which has been produced to meet the areas for development and thanks all the staff involved.

(2) That the Action Plan be accepted and a further report be brought to the November meeting.