Wakefield Council complained to Ofsted over children’s services inspection
Wakefield Council complained to Ofsted over the way an inspection of its children’s services was carried out, according to a report.
The local authority made the complaint despite inspectors giving services an overall rating of good and judging provision for children in care as outstanding.
However, following the assessment in March this year, inspectors said services for care leavers required improvement.
A report to the council’s children and young people scrutiny committee said Ofsted did not uphold the complaint.
The document said: “Though the outcome is good and the narrative reflects very positively on the range of local authority services to children and families, the local authority was concerned with a number of elements of the inspection process and conduct.
“Unfortunately, following a lengthy complaint process, having reviewed its own practice, Ofsted did not uphold the complaint.
“This process led to some delay in the publication of the report.”
The report said the council was required to submit an improvement plan to Osted.
It added: “The only areas identified as requiring any improvement are in relation to care leavers and largely relate to the extent to which personal advisors (PAs) are ‘allocated’ or help young people in other ways – by ‘keeping in touch’ and providing services as needed or requested by young people.
“We continue to be confident in the outcomes for all of our children in care and leaving care, which compare very favourably to those of other local authorities.”
Members of the scrutiny committee are due to consider the report at a meeting on Thursday (September 4).
Commending the service, the Ofsted report said children in care in Wakefield were “receiving the right level of help and protection through robust and well-organised services.”
It said: “Senior leaders have significantly improved the experiences of children in care who now receive outstanding services.
“An innovative approach to sufficiency has resulted in increased placement stability, halving the number of children who are placed outside of Wakefield.
“Strong political support is enabling senior leaders to continue to drive positive change and improvement.
“Leaders have an accurate understanding of their challenges and their strengths in most areas of the service.
“Their collaborative approach with partners and staff encourages them to do their best to improve outcomes for children and families in Wakefield.”
But the report said more needed to be done to ensure the the service maintained contact with care leavers aged 18 to 21, and to offer further support to those aged 21 to 25.
It added: “During the inspection, senior leaders fully accepted these shortfalls and commissioned an immediate review of contact with all care leavers aged 21 years and over who have been closed to the service.
“In addition, they commissioned a review of all care leavers aged 18 to 21 years closed to the service, and intended to allocate a named PA as well as rolling out training for PAs and reviewing frontline management arrangements.”
Services were last inspected in 2021, when they were rated as good with outstanding leadership.
It came three years after services were rated as inadequate and placed in special measures when inspectors said vulnerable children had been placed at risk.
At the time, the improvements were thought to represent one of the fastest turnarounds by any local authority in the country.