By Ashley Young-
Children’s services in the East Riding of Yorkshire has been condemned as‘inadequate’ after Ofsted discovered a decline in the quality of child protection, which leaders had failed to fully recognise
Inspectors also found that weaknesses identified in the front-door Early Help and Safeguarding Hub (EHaSH) and around private fostering arrangements had not been effectively addressed.
“While some core social work practice in locality safeguarding teams is strong and effective, the quality and impact of practice and management oversight has deteriorated since the last inspection for specific groups of children,” Ofsted’s inspection report said.
The “marked deterioration” in support for children in need of help and protection came in contrast to inspectors’ appraisal of services for children in care and care leavers, which held their ‘good’ grading. Within those teams, “robust management arrangements and lower caseloads have resulted in workers being supported to work tenaciously to improve children’s experiences and progress,” inspectors found, with care leavers receiving “exceptional” support.
The findings of the visit which occurred in late 2019 and was one of Ofsted’s new ‘short’ inspections were disputed by East Riding bosses. Chief executive Caroline Lacey said she was “very disappointed” and that Ofsted’s work had amounted to taking a “snapshot of a relatively few sample cases”.The performance of East Riding council’s front door was a particular concern for inspectors.
“Thresholds for access to children’s social care services are not fully understood or applied by agency partners or by some staff in the EHaSH,” Ofsted’s report said. “Some children remain in early help services when the risks are too high.”Strong management helping children’s services trust turn a corner, Ofsted said.Similarly, the approach to quality assurance was also ruled to be inconsistent.
”In some areas,such as spot checks in the MASH, supporting the completion of early help
assessments and commissioning preferred providers, quality assurance is effective and maintains good standards of practice. In too many other elements, especially case auditing, observations of practice and annual appraisals, there is a lack of clarity about what good practice looks like, and
weak practice is insufficiently challenged.
INEFFECTIVE
Ofsted also exposed ineffective monitoring of contacts and referrals due to staffing difficulties and weak management oversight. The implication was that the system was not working properly with some children’s cases not being looked into for days.
”Partners sending in referrals, including the police, were also often omitting basic information that would aid in safeguarding decision making, inspectors said.“Senior leaders identified that there were weaknesses in EHaSH since the Ofsted focused visit [in 2018],” their report said. But actions identified had not been effectively addressed, with inspectors finding that many flaws remained, leading to delays in children and families receiving effective help and protection, including where social work support was needed”.
Ofsted exposed claims by leaders’ that a practice model was well-embedded and was not being used consistently with some staff failing to identify key concerns as well as strengths.Some children’s cases were referred back to the council because of concerns about practice and oversight.
A similar disconnect was discovered relating to pre-proceedings work, which Ofsted said was not effective in improving children’s lives. “Despite senior leaders considering this work to be strong and effective, management oversight of the quality of work, planning and decision-making for children subject to [the public law outline] is weak,” inspectors said.
“It does not ensure that the escalation into court proceedings is timely or effective, and does not prevent PLO work ending before any effective change is achieved for children in all cases,” they added.Senior managers would now carry out an urgent review of the last six months’ PLO work, inspectors added.
A statement from East Riding Council read: ”We will now be working with Ofsted, the Department for Education (DfE) and other partners to make sure this transitional process is as effective as possible and that any improvements are made in a timely manner,” the statement said.