Agenda item

The Chairman introduced the report, which had also been presented to the Children and Young People Board and which summarised and proposed a response to the Prime Minister’s announcement of new measures to formalise the process for removing failing children’s services from local authority control.

Members thought that providing support to authorities facing children’s services inspections should have a high priority within the LGA’s sector-led improvement offer and that authorities should be strongly encouraged to take up the LGA’s support offer whilst recognising that at the same time there needed to be some targeting of the support to make sure it reached the councils that need it most.

Members were critical of the methodology that Ofsted use to assess children’s services. They thought it unacceptable that in one of best child protection systems in world, two thirds of local authorities are categorised as inadequate or requiring improvement, and noted that, although inspections are a crucial component of a well-functioning system, Ofsted’s inspection regime appears to hinder, rather than help, councils who receive an inadequate rating.

Decision

The Board agreed to propose to the LGA Executive that:

·         Support for children’s services should have a high priority within the LGA’s sector-led improvement offer, given the number of councils currently in intervention and at risk of being judged inadequate by Ofsted.

·         The children’s services support offer should prioritise councils that have not yet been inspected under the Ofsted Single Inspection Framework and are at potential risk of an inadequate judgement.

·         The LGA’s political and professional networks should be used to encourage these councils to have a full Safeguarding Peer Review or Safeguarding Practice/Care Practice Diagnostic.

·         An enhanced support offer to councils should be developed to deal with any issues identified following a peer review or diagnostic that put a council at risk of an inadequate judgement at their next inspection.

·         For councils judged inadequate, the existing support offer should be retained and enhanced, with a focus on supporting them to produce a credible improvement plan and maintain sufficient progress to avoid full-scale Department for Education (DfE) intervention in line with the new proposals

Action

Officers to report the Board’s views to the LGA Executive meeting on Thursday 21 January.