Minutes:
Ofsted
Focus Visit
The Director of Children’s Services advised that
there had been an Ofsted Focused Visit and the report was published on
15.07.2021. The Director outlined she would circulate a presentation to Board
members and if there were specifics that the Board members wishes to focus on,
this could be added to the agenda going forward.
The visit was conducted by 4 social care and 1
educational inspector , who looked at the service with
a covid lense.
They were generally pleased with the Local
Authority had dealt with the situation and Middlesbrough had put in place the
major incident plan swiftly and we put in place new ways of working across the
Council.
There were some positive comments made in relation
to partnerships, especially the way the local authority engaged with schools ,
however there were comments made that the Local authority need to understand
more about children missing from education.
In terms of main findings:
·
Demand for children’s
services has steadily increased over the past year
·
Front door work has
improved.
·
Inspectors provided
positive comments in relation to our work with children and the relationships
with children and young people in terms of care leavers.
·
Social work is focused.
In terms of improvement:
·
We have Variability in
practice
·
Lack of suitable foster
placements in children’’ homes but this is external.
·
too many care leavers in
NEET
There was a significant focus on Education and
the Inspector stayed focused mainly on virtual schools.
There looked to ensure that children were in
registered provision, rather than unregistered and that 2 children had their
appropriate education provision.
The visit was varied and they inspectors looked
at SEND provision
There were two additional recommendation from
the focused visit, which were additional to the recommendations made at the
full ofted visit which are being worked on regulary.
Firstly, we needed Management oversight for
those vulnerable children and those with special needs and secondly, the Local
Authority need to focus on the identity of children and young people and their
diverse needs.
Next
steps
The Commissioner had been working with
Middlesbrough over the past week and would be writing to the Minister. Initial
feedback was positive.
Looking towards an Ofsted Monitoring visit which
would come at the end of the year/ early 2022.
Corporate
Reference Group
The Director of Children’s Services outlined
that the group which is Chaired by the Chief Executive which looked at two
aspects. The first looks at how all the Council Directorates can contribute to
children’s improvement agenda and there is a plan in place. Secondly, how the
Council can redevise Middlesbrough Children Matter, so that there is a whole
council commitment. The Chief Executive outlined that they thought they had a
set of outcomes which they thougth were correct for children and young people,
however young people need to be the leaders on this and there was a plan for
consultation in place, so that they were written in a child/young person
friendly way.
This was due to be considered by the Executive
in October 2021 for political sign off and it was outlined that this would be
brought to the Board in the next meeting for input.
AGREED-
That the information be noted.
That the Chief Executive provide a presentation
to the Board at the next meeting.