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Report to:
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Corporate Parenting Panel
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Date of meeting:
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24 April 2024
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By:
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Director of Children’s
Services
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Title:
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Inspection of East Sussex Local
Authority Children’s Services
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Purpose:
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This report sets out the outcome of
the Council’s Inspection of
Local Authority Children’s
Services in December 2023
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RECOMMENDATIONS:
The Corporate Parenting Panel is
recommended to comment on and note the findings of the inspection
and the draft action plan.
1
Background
1.1 East
Sussex County Council was inspected by the Office for Standards in
Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) under the
framework and evaluation schedule for Inspections of Local
Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) from 11 – 15
December 2023.
2
Supporting information
2.1 The
outcome of the inspection was published 6 February and is attached
at Appendix 1. The Council’s Children’s Services
has been judged to be good overall and outstanding for the
experiences and progress of children in care. This is a good
outcome for the service and for the Council which has made keeping
vulnerable people safe, a priority outcome. It is a very
welcome recognition of all the hard, determined, and high-quality
work the service has done since the last inspection, through a time
of pandemic, its continuing effects, and cost of living pressures.
The judgement for each area of the inspection is set out
below.
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Judgement
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Grade 2018 inspection
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Grade 2023 inspection
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The impact of
leaders on social work practice with children and
families
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Outstanding
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Good
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The experiences
and progress of children who need help and protection
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Good
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Good
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The experiences
and progress of children in care (and care leavers 2018)
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Outstanding
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Outstanding
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The experiences
and progress of care leavers (introduced in January
2023)
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N/A
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Good
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Overall
effectiveness
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Outstanding
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Good
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2.2 The
inspectors spend most of their time with frontline staff and the
inspection outcome is a reflection of the difference staff make to
the lives of children and young people in East Sussex.
2.3 The
report notes:
‘Children in East Sussex continue to
receive consistently strong and effective support that helps them
to improve their lives. Since the last ILACS inspection in 2018,
the authority has responded well to the impact of COVID-19
pandemic, the increasing numbers of families experiencing financial
hardship and the growing number children with complex needs who
require help.’
2.4 The report picks up the
leadership of the Corporate Parenting Panel:
‘Support for vulnerable children is a
priority for leaders and cross-party leadership of the Corporate
Parenting Board demonstrates the collective will to do the right
things for children and their families.’
2.5
Key strengths highlighted in the report include:
- Most children
and families move quickly into the multi-agency safeguarding hub
(MASH) when necessary. For the majority of children, proportionate
decision making reflects children’s needs and is responsive
to the level of risks that they face.
- Social workers
are confident and experienced at identifying the range of risk
factors impacting on children.
- Children’s identity and heritage are
considered well in terms of planning for the right support,
including their gender, sexuality and faith.
- Strategy
meetings are well attended and are held in line with the level of
perceived risk to children.
- Child-in-need
and child protection plans focus on what matters most to children.
They are reviewed in a timely way at multi-agency review meetings
that are well attended.
- Disabled
children with complex needs, supported by practitioners from the
disabled children’s service, receive strong support.
Well-managed caseloads allow workers to respond to children’s
needs and to work with multi-agency partners
effectively.
- The
multidisciplinary specialist family service (SWIFT) works alongside
social care services to provide highly valued expertise in
assessment and intervention across a wide range of need, including
parental substance misuse, domestic abuse, mental health, and
assessment work for families before or during court
proceedings.
- Well-established systems, underpinned by strong
relationships with partner agencies, enable an effective response
to out-of-hours concerns.
- The oversight
of elective home education is an area of strength. There is an
effective system for the tracking of high numbers of pupils who are
educated at home and staff seek to identify and support children
who may be at increased risk of harm.
- Children in
care, including disabled children, are well cared for and live in
homes that meet their needs. Social workers consider
children’s diversity needs very carefully so that they can
support them to settle well with their careers and make progress in
their education.
- Social workers
know the children (in care) they support exceptionally well.
They are insightful and attuned to children’s needs, helping
them to express their views using individualised and bespoke
communication methods.
- The health
needs of children in care are considered well. Health assessments,
dental and optician checks are arranged for children, and strengths
and difficulties questionnaires (SDQs) are completed as part of the
health assessments.
- Governance of
the virtual school is effective, and the virtual school makes a
positive difference to children’s academic and personal
development.
- (Care leavers)
benefit from enduring and trusted relationships with workers who
support them well. The support provided to care leavers makes a
positive difference as they move into adulthood.
- Care leavers
are supported to maintain links with family members and other
adults to ensure that they have access to a network of people who
can offer them long-lasting support into adulthood.
- The local
offer, co-created with care leavers, contains helpful information
about the wide range of financial and practical support, specialist
advice and services that are available to them. A small number of
aspects of the offer are not sufficiently explicit, including
access to the dedicated mental health practitioner and
prescriptions.
- Leaders are
taking appropriate action to expand the range of opportunities for
care leavers, for example through access to council-led mentoring
schemes, apprenticeships or work experience, or links to local
businesses and the culture sector.
- Investment in
early help services, and current work to establish a new
multidisciplinary model for locality teams, as well as plans to
enable the specialist SWIFT services to deliver support at an
earlier point, demonstrate the corporate commitment to delivering
sustainable and impactful support for children.
- The
long-standing stability of the workforce enables well-rooted
relationships to develop with children and care leavers in East
Sussex. Leaders make no secret of the fact that the workforce is
their most valuable asset.
- Workers stay
in East Sussex because they feel valued and supported to do
well.
- Inspectors had
the pleasure of meeting a group of articulate, caring and kind
young people, all of whom said that they felt safe and had someone
to turn to as a trusted adult.
2.6 Ofsted
provided a child friendly summary to inform children and young
people about the inspection outcomes. This is attached at Appendix
2.
2.7 The
report identifies three areas for improvement:
- The quality of
plans for children and care leavers so that they are all specific,
measurable and timebound.
- The recording
of management oversight, supervision and direction.
- The oversight,
timeliness and rigour of the response to children:
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experiencing neglect, including
children in Public Law Outline pre-proceedings, and
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in private fostering
arrangement
2.8 The draft post-inspection
action plan in response to the report is attached at Appendix 3.
The final action plan will be shared with Ofsted by 17 May
2024.
3.
Conclusion and reasons for recommendations
3.1 East
Sussex has maintained a focus on the key priority outcome of
keeping vulnerable people safe and responded well to the impact of
the pandemic, increased demand and the challenging financial
context for both families and the Council. The Corporate Parenting
Panelis asked to note the
contents of the inspection report and the draft action
plan.
ALISON JEFFERY
Director of Children’s Services
Contact Officer: Amanda Watson
Tel. No: 07701 024270
Email: amanda.watson@eastsussex.gov.uk
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BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS
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