Tough report into Oldham children’s services

Councillor Jenny Harrison: we can do better

OLDHAM Council says it “can and must do better” after an Ofsted inspection demanded improvement in local children’s services.

The report, which follows a four-week investigation in May and June, says particular attention is needed in help and protection, looked-after children and care leavers.

But the report said there are no widespread or serious failures that leave children harmed or at serious risk of harm.

The “requires improvement” rating puts Oldham in line with around three quarters of councils.

Inspectors highlighted improvements in the adoption service, now rated “good”, and also praised Oldham’s efforts to tackle child sexual exploitation, human trafficking and drug distribution.

The report notes that leadership, management and governance require improvement but admits relations between political leaders and senior officers are good and acknowledges their “continuing efforts to protect children’s services from budgetary reductions”.

The “vast majority” of children in Oldham receive services appropriate to their needs, inspectors say, but the overall standard of social work is too variable, leaving a small minority insufficiently helped.

Councillor Jenny Harrison, Cabinet member for social care and safeguarding, said: “This is a tougher Ofsted inspection regime and we’re assured it found no widespread or serious failures in any of our services.

“As a council we’re not funded on the basis of how many cases we deal with so that means we’re working doubly hard in this area to ensure that our vastly reduced budgets don’t stop us delivering good services — even at a time of rising demand.

“The inspectors are right about the challenge of recruiting and retaining social workers. There is fierce competition for those staff and, while the report recognises our social workers feel supported and have manageable caseloads, staff turnover means around 40 per cent of our safeguarding work is handled by newly-qualified staff. It’s clear that better-performing authorities have a very stable social care workforce. We are working hard to address those issues.

“There are good things to learn from this report and we are committed to deliver the inspectors’ 15 recommendations. Though the report puts Oldham in line with around three quarters of councils, we can and must do better.”


Ofsted’s 15 recommendations

1. Auditing of children’s cases should ensure that all shortfalls in practice are identified, addressed and checked to ensure compliance.

2. Ensure that all social workers benefit from good management oversight and supervision that provides direction, is well recorded, improves the quality of work with children and young people and is consistently of good quality.

3. Performance management systems must enable staff and managers, in particular those with responsibility for care leavers’ services, to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their service so remedial action can be taken promptly.

4. Ensure children and young people have good quality assessments and plans which are up to date, take account of historical information, prioritise tasks and ascribe actions within clear timescales.

5. Ensure that strategy meetings include staff who are responsible for any subsequent child protection investigations.

6. Children and young people on child protection plans must receive statutory visits in line with the local authority’s expectations.

7. Make sure core groups and child protection conferences are recorded in sufficient detail to show the progress made and reflect the views of participants. Children’s contribution to child protection conferences should be strengthened.

8. Ensure that independent reviewing officers (IROs) robustly challenge plans for children where there is drift and gather the views of children and young people before statutory meetings.

9. Track all children’s cases through legal proceedings from the pre-proceedings stage to the making of final orders to ensure that drift and delay are avoided.

10. Strengthen transition planning for disabled care leavers and other young people with complex needs so that they receive all the services they are entitled to, including support from the aftercare service.

11. Ensure that all care leavers have full information about the entitlements they can expect from their corporate parents in addition to the more generic guidance currently available.

12. Record return interviews with children who have been missing on their electronic records so that this information is clear and accessible and can fully influence planning.

13. Ensure there is equal consideration and evaluation of the risks to young men who go missing as for young females who go missing.

14. Ensure that the pupil premium is used to best effect by schools to enhance children’s and young people’s learning and ensure that schools inside and outside the borough monitor its impact.

15. Actions taken in relation to concerns about adults who work with children must be fully recorded so respective responsibilities and tasks are clear.