A monitoring inspection of children's services in Trafford in the wake of an "inadequate" judgement three years ago has found that assessments of young people "continue to be of variable quality". Ofsted visited the services on July 12 and 13 - the fourth monitoring visit since the local authority was said to be falling short in June 2019.
Inspectors Lorna Schlechte and Amanda Maxwell examined the quality of social work assessments and plans for children in need; the way in which all staff and managers "listened to the voices of children in need"; management oversight of social work practice and senior leaders' understanding of the quality of that practice.
Their main findings were that "there is too much variability in practice for children in need in Trafford, compared to other cohorts of children". They said: "Senior leaders have recognised this from audits completed in the last few months. This increased awareness has led to a recently commissioned review of the quality and effectiveness of service for those children."
Their report said a service redesign, launched in October 2021, had led to the establishment of a "Families First" service, which aims to support children in need "more robustly". It went on: "Sometimes, plans for children are not updated regularly or in line with children's circumstances. Management oversight does not always have sufficient impact on the quality of planning to avoid drift.
"A stable senior leadership team continues to maintain focus on appropriate improvement priorities." The inspectors said the service still had a high rate of agency social workers, "although some have been working in Trafford for a considerable period of time".
"Assessments for children continue to be of variable quality, as inspectors found during the previous monitoring visit," they said. "Some are very detailed and clearly analyse the impact of historical risks, strengths and protective factors on children's experiences.
"Children's views and cultural factors are mostly taken into account appropriately when understanding family circumstances in the context of domestic abuse or neglect. This informs a broader understanding of children's lived experience."
But the report went on: "Despite this, some assessments lack a thorough exploration of the capacity of parents to meet children's needs. Impact chronologies are not consistently used or kept up to date. Assessments are not always completed in timescale or updated, when children's circumstances change, which reduces their impact on future planning.
"Although senior leaders use performance data well to monitor assessment timelines, there is still more work to do to strengthen this area of practice and built on recent improvement."
A spokesperson for Trafford Council said: “We remain absolutely committed to improving the services that we deliver for children and families in our borough.
“The inspectors have noted the quality time our social workers spend with children and families, developing good relationships. We will continue to work closely with children, young people and their families to make sure they are at the centre of all we do.
“We have also worked hard with our partners to provide the right help and support to our children and families, and strengthen the quality of our services and interventions. Our progress during this period has been recognised by Ofsted.
“The importance of our strong and stable senior leadership team has also been noted by Ofsted, along with the fact that there is a more stable workforce who enjoy working in Trafford.
“However we are not complacent and we recognise there are still areas where we need to improve and we will focus our efforts on ensuring we offer the best services possible to our children and families.”
READ NEXT:-
- The best new restaurants opening in August in Manchester
- The sunflower meadow to visit now with sunflower ice creams to buy too
- Michael Owen hosts homecoming party for daughter Gemma after Love Island and jaws drop at mansion
- Manchester Pride 2022 - everything you need to know
- The stunning Peak District waterfall ideal for a day trip from Manchester
