Ofsted Praises Improvement To West Sussex Children's Services

West Sussex County Council’s ‘relentless approach’ to improving its children’s services has been praised by Ofsted inspectors.

The service was rated ‘inadequate’ in May 2019, with the secretary of state for education later deciding control should be placed with an independent trust.

But the efforts of Lucy Butler, director of children’s services, and her team brought such strong improvements and that threat was removed last year.

Ofsted’s latest report was published on Thursday (May 11) following a two-week on-site inspection in March.

It recognised that the services had ‘substantially improved’, adding: “Corporate and political systemic weaknesses have been addressed and there is now a strong, determined and cohesive leadership team.”

The service was rated ‘requires improvement’ overall, with two areas – children in care and leadership and management – rated ‘good’.

Jacquie Russell, cabinet member for children & young people, said:

“I am delighted that Ofsted has recognised the huge progress we have made over the past four years.

“The outcome of this inspection is testament to the determination and hard work of all our staff across children’s services and the county council.

“We have been relentless in our approach to put children first and drive sustained improvement within our services.

“We know we have more work to do so all our children and young people receive a good level of service.

“Ofsted have recognised our commitment to make further improvements and these areas are being addressed as part of our new continuous improvement plan and the West Sussex County Council priority to keep people safe from vulnerable situations.”

Among the key points picked up for praise were the fact that most youngsters going into the care of children’s services made good progress, with Early Help support ‘making a positive difference to children’s lives’.

The report said the voice of children and young people was ‘strong and well-considered in decision-making’, while staff felt valued and benefited from a wide range of support, training and development opportunities.

Seven points for more improvement were highlighted in Ofsted’s report, including child protection investigations, placement choices for children coming into care, how the council responded to 16 and 17-year-olds who presented as homeless, and initial health assessments.

Regarding the latter, the report said:

“While there have been improvements since the last inspection, there continue to be significant shortfalls in the timeliness of assessing children’s initial health needs, despite senior management oversight in children’s services and health.

“This means that, when children first come into care, their health needs are not fully understood.

“Most children benefit from comprehensive annual health assessments of their needs and their physical health needs are well met.

“An increasing number of children have access to a dentist, but this remains an ongoing area of focus.”

Council leader Paul Marshall said:

“This council has been resolute in its commitment to improving our children’s services.

“Over the past four years, we have made significant investment in our services and ensured the political and corporate weaknesses reported in 2019 have been fully addressed.

“I am pleased Ofsted can see the positive changes both corporately and politically which is acknowledged in their report.

“I would like to thank our members, staff, partners and our commissioner John Coughlan for their unwavering support and scrutiny which has supported us to get to this position and will enable our ongoing improvement journey.”