Final Ofsted report into Croydon’s Children’s Services has been published

Two years ago the council’s Children’s Services department was rated ‘Inadequate’.

In September 2017 the service was rated ‘Inadequate’ by Ofsted and has since been subject to a series of monitoring visits.

The inspectors’ final monitoring visit took place on October 16 and 17 with a report published today (Wednesday, December 18).

It is expected that Ofsted will carry out a full inspection of the service within the next six months.

There was a delay in publishing the report due to the purdah period in the run up to the general election.

While there was a slow start to progress when the council department was first placed in special measures, Ofsted now says that it has now been sustained and is continuing.

The report reads: “Concerted and dynamic leadership continues to drive rapid progress in the quality of services for children in Croydon.

“Improvements were evident in almost all areas of practice reviewed during this monitoring visit. Progress over the last eight months has

been sustained and is continuing to gain further momentum.”

Now Ofsted says that “almost all children” receive at least a reasonable level of service and work with children is “increasingly positive and purposeful”.

Child protection

This final visit focussed on services for children with ‘child-in-need’ or child protection plans – this service is made up of 13 teams.

Some of these children have received a poor service in the past. The report says this presents challenges but these are understood by managers.

It found that children on both plans are now visited more regularly with social workers more confident in their work.

Inspectors also found that few children were on the plans thanks to “concerted oversight by senior leaders”.

The staff

There are still problems with the recruitment of staff which has had a negative impact on some children.

While there is now a permanent management team in place there is still a vacancy rate of more than 40 per cent in the department.

Inspectors said there are positive signs of progress in this department and that agency staff are well supported and caseloads remain manageable.

The report said: “Progress for some children has been negatively affected by staff turnover and a legacy of drift. As a small number of children have spent an extended period of time on child protection plans without purposeful work being undertaken, resulting in little or limited impact.”

But it adds that recent work is making a difference and progress is being made for some of these children.

And staff that are in the service now feel “well supported” and report being happy at work.

The average caseload has gone down to just over 14, which is below Croydon’s target of 16 for the service.

The report said: “Staff commented very positively on the progress under the current leadership, describing a culture of open communication and a dedication to positive change.”

‘We have come a long way’

Councillor Alisa Flemming, Croydon Council’s cabinet member for children, families and learning, said: “This is an encouraging final monitoring report. Most importantly, we are delivering a better service for children and families, and we are keeping up the pace of change.

“We have come a long way since our inspection in 2017, and the commitment and dedication of our staff, from senior executives to case-holding social workers, along with our investment in the service, is starting to pay off. We are moving in the right direction to be out of government intervention at our final inspection.

“However, our improvement journey doesn’t end here, nor will it end when we receive our final inspection. We still have a long way to go to get to where we want to be. As Ofsted noted, Croydon faces some unique challenges, but as they also recognised, we are determined to meet these challenges. We will not rest until all our children and families are receiving the best, right across the board.”