Published on Friday 11 February 2022
Raising the standard of Children’s Social Care is a top priority for BCP Council as work to drive up improvement continues.
Following a recent visit by Ofsted (6-17 December 2021), BCP Council’s Children’s Social care services was judged overall as ‘Inadequate’. The council accepts that the Ofsted report is balanced and fair. Inspectors identified that the services to children needing care, help and protection are improving. However, they acknowledged more work remains to be done.
A key priority, that will positively influence the council’s ability to improve services, is to recruit and retain skilled front-line social workers and team managers and to reduce the numbers of agency staff. This is a national issue which many other councils across the country are facing in attracting experienced and skilled staff to the sector. A recruitment drive is currently underway to build a strong, resilient workforce to support committed frontline teams who continue to work under great pressure.
Whilst the report identified areas that required improvement, Ofsted also recognised that the key building blocks are in place to drive improvements and highlighted where services are showing progression and working successfully. These include, safeguarding children with disabilities effectively, supporting young people who are vulnerable to criminal and sexual exploitation and making sure that children in our care have a secure base in long-term care.
Praise was given to the Edge of Care team who were noted as a valuable resource and that the Private Fostering team safeguard children well. The experiences and progress of children in care and care leavers was judged as requiring improvement to be good. In other areas, inspectors acknowledged that progress was being made. However, they stated it was too early to assess the impact on children and young people at the time of their visit.
Cathi Hadley, BCP Council’s new permanent Director of Children’s Services, said: "Improving Children’s Social Care services in BCP Council is my top priority and I’m determined we will reach a level where all of our children, young people and families are receiving good quality and consistent services across the board. I have achieved this in previous councils where I have worked, and I can see that the building blocks for future success are already in place. We have a clear plan for improvement, we know where we need to make changes and how we need to get there. I’m confident about leading our committed teams all the way on our improvement journey. improvement is never simple or straight-forward and our improvement plan is a marathon rather than a sprint. It will take sustained effort over time to achieve our ambitions. However, the best response to a critical inspection report is to roll up our sleeves and get on with it. That is precisely what we are doing."
Councillor Mike White, Portfolio Holder for Children’s Social Care, said: "We have already implemented some of Ofsted’s recommendations for further improvement and we will work with the government and our local partner agencies to deliver what is now required of us. We remain determined to improve our services to the point where they are judged as good, and I will also be asking council later this month for significant budget increases to support our improvement journey. I am proud of our staff who have made many positive changes already. Like me, they know we have much more to do, but with strong leadership, a skilled and committed workforce and a clear improvement plan, I am confident we are heading in the right direction."
The full Ofsted report can be found online.