Telford & Wrekin children's service rated adequate
An Ofsted report published today into services for children and young people in Telford & Wrekin Council showed its services as adequate.
The inspection last month highlighted the progress that the Council and its partners have made and continue to make in transforming safeguarding services and the way these are delivered.
Inspectors say that the Council’s ongoing review of safeguarding “provide a strong focus ensuring that children and families get the right help at the right time” and that there is “focused leadership and a good understanding of the journey ahead.”
The inspection focused on 20 different ratings for how the service is performing. Telford and Wrekin was found to be good in six, adequate in 12 while two ratings were found to be inadequate.
The two inadequate areas were quality of provision for looked after children and quality of provision for safeguarding.
In these two areas, since receiving the report earlier this month, the Council says it has made immediate improvements required by inspectors.
The Council and partners are also developing an action plan to address all other issues raised and progress on these will be monitored by the Safeguarding Board.
Councillor Paul Watling, cabinet member for Children, Young People and Families, said: “The report endorses our approach and is very positive about the direction in which we are heading.
“It says our decision to appoint a Director of Children’s Services was key to this, helping provide us with ambitious vision and focused leadership to further improve our services
“The inspection was thorough and challenging and Ofsted has raised the bar in their approach to ensure that vulnerable children and young people are safe.
“The report fairly recognises the positive progress we are making while highlighting areas where we must improve in to ensure that we are doing all we can to protect vulnerable children and young people in the borough.
“We are all clear on what we must do to continue improving these services and how we will do this.
Chris Brannan, chairman of the Telford and Wrekin Children’s Safeguarding Board, said: “The report is clear that the Safeguarding Board is acting effectively, setting the right priorities and challenging services to work together to safeguard children.
“On behalf of children in Telford and Wrekin, we will continue to hold the Council and its partners to account to ensure that the good work identified is sustained and improvements required by the report are swiftly acted on.”
The services were last inspected by Ofsted in 2008 and were then found to be adequate.
