Watchdog finds children’s services have improved since last inspection

Children’s services in Rochdale have taken important strides in the right direction since they were last inspected, according to a government watchdog.

Officials from Ofsted said areas of the service needed to improve after running the rule over them early in January 2018.

Ofsted inspectors returned to conduct a focused visit of the council’s response to referrals to children’s social care services between 9 and 10 January 2019.

Ofsted found that significant progress is now being made, with inspectors noting that ‘consideration of children’s needs’ was ‘at the centre of all work seen during the visit’.

However, despite the welcome news, some concerns remain over the quality of some assessments and social workers’ potentially overwhelming workloads.

Gail Hopper, director of children’s services at Rochdale Council said: “I’m really proud of the progress made and this gives us a great basis to continue to improve. All of our practitioners work extremely hard in what are challenging roles. ”

She added: “Our teams are really committed to getting the best outcomes for children, young people and families across the borough.

“We are not complacent having received such positive feedback, because we are continuing to build on this to develop the strongest possible service, but we’re really pleased that Ofsted have recognised this.”

An overview of inspectors’ findings states there is a ‘prompt and effective response’ when concerns arise for children in Rochdale.

The report also says that children ‘build effective and trusting relationships with social workers who ‘take the time to get to know children and seek their wishes and feelings, either through direct work with them or from listening to what other professionals know about the children through their direct work’.

And there is praise for the ‘skilled and knowledgeable’ Emergency Duty Team (EDT) which inspectors say ‘works effectively with those who provide day-time services to ensure children’s needs are responded to appropriately’.

This, in turn, was said to enable the Early Help and Safeguarding Hub (EHASH) to quickly act on concerns and provide an immediate follow-up where necessary. 

The report adds: “Since the last inspection in 2018, the work of the EHASH has strengthened and now provides a timely and effective service for children and families.”

Partnership working is also highlighted as a particular strength, with the report noting that ‘the police, the EDT and the EHASH provide a cohesive and prompt service to ensure that children are safeguarded.’

The report says: “Clear and effective systems and processes are in place to ensure that allegations of abuse by professionals and volunteers working with children are reported and investigated.”

And it adds that good relationships within the community and ‘proactive work with families’ mean that this issue is at the forefront of safeguarding children in Rochdale.

However, Ofsted officials say there are still areas where the service needs to improve.

Inspectors said a weakness in many assessments was a lack of consideration given to a child’s unique identity.

It adds that in some cases crucial details were left out of the case record, meaning that ‘important issues of culture and diversity relevant to that child were not taken into consideration’.

It was also found that caseloads were too high for some social workers.

And while inspectors did not see any negative impact on children during the visit, the report said ‘there is the potential that high caseloads place additional pressures on social workers’ capacity to consistently carry out and record good-quality social work’.

Leaders have now put in place a plan to reduce caseloads.

Councillor Kieran Heakin, cabinet member for Children’s Services has welcomed the report.

He said: “It is great that Ofsted has recognised the significant progress we have made. We know we still have some work to do and we will continue to work hard to make improvements. I’d like to thank staff for their hard work.”

Nick Statham, Local Democracy Reporter