'Outstanding' children's services in Telford and Wrekin

The report, which was released on Friday, follows an inspection by His Majesty’s OFSTED inspectors at the end of April this year.

The inspection team judged Telford & Wrekin Council’s Children’s Services overall effectiveness as ‘outstanding’, having received ‘outstanding’ judgements for the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families, the experiences and progress of children in care and the experiences and progress of care leavers. The report also judged the experiences and progress of children who need help and protection to be ‘good’.

In the report, OFSTED lead inspector Rebecca Quested commented: “Children and families in Telford and Wrekin continue to experience exceptional social work practice when they are in care and as care leavers.”

Participation and co-production, through having children and families involved in the development of services, was also highlighted as a real strength of the service and the report went on to praise senior leaders for implementing ambitious plans which prioritise the needs of children and young people.

Councillor Shaun Davies MP, Leader of Telford & Wrekin Council, said: “We welcome this OFSTED inspection of our Children’s Services and the feedback it contains and are proud that the overall assessment means we have retained our ‘outstanding’ judgement.

“We were one of the first local authorities in the country to move from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘outstanding’ in our last OFSTED inspection in 2020, are one of only a handful of councils across the country to retain this ‘outstanding’ rating and are the only ‘outstanding’ authority in the region. This latest judgement shows that we have continued to put young people in the borough at the heart of everything we do, and follows the excellent OFSTED CQC inspection report that our support for children and young people with special needs or disabilities, SEND, received last year.”

Councillor Shirley Reynolds, Telford & Wrekin Council’s Cabinet Member for Early Years, Children and Young People and Education, added: “We are proud that the overall judgement of our Children’s Services continues to recognise exceptional and innovative social work practice in Telford and Wrekin.

“Whilst we have retained our outstanding judgement, we are unwavering in knowing that there is always more we can do and more ways in which we can adapt our service offer by listening to the voice of children and families within our borough. We do know our children well, but we also know ourselves well - I think that this is what makes our services unique! We are continually looking to challenge ourselves to be even better in order to achieve positive outcomes for children and families that we work alongside.”

You can read the full OFSTED report here: https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50252260