Liverpool City Council’s Children’s Services team have been commended by Ofsted following a two-day monitoring visit. The visit, which took place in March and was concluded just recently, found that the leadership team are continuing to drive improvement “with pace, determination and a strong sense of purpose”. Timely progress is being made to improve services for children who are the subject of child protection plans and children in need.
Ofsted found there is a higher recognition of the risk of harm to children than a year ago, with social workers seeing children more regularly. Assessments of children’s needs are now completed in a timelier way and have improved in quality since the first monitoring visit in December 2023. Caseloads of social workers have reduced significantly, however, the quality and impact of social work practice for children is still inconsistent, with some assessments not consistently strong enough. The quality of social work visits remains too variable and there is work to do in demonstrating a clear understanding of improved outcomes for children.
Ofsted praised the commitment and financial investment of senior leaders working to improve services for children. Staff have more time to develop as practitioners and improve the quality of their work with children and families. Child protection plans have improved since the inspection a year ago, however, some are still too task-focused.
Councillor Liz Parsons, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services said, “There is no greater responsibility for a Council than caring for vulnerable young people, and driving improvements in Children’s Services is our number one priority. A huge amount of time and effort is being devoted to making the changes necessary to deliver on our vision of excellent services, but we fully accept that despite the improvements made over the last year we still have a way to go. The commitment that has been put in over the last 12 months is starting to pay dividends in improved outcomes for our most vulnerable young people.”
The Council is recruiting to a number of roles in its assessment, safeguarding and permanence teams as part of their Children’s Services improvement journey. To find out more and apply, visit their website
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