Government funding to help improve ‘inadequate’ children’s services in Nottingham

Loxley House in Station Street, Nottingham
Loxley House in Station Street, Nottingham
By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter

More than £342,000 of Government funding will be spent on improving Nottingham City Council’s children’s services.

The department was rated ‘inadequate’ following an Ofsted inspection in July 2022.

A number of improvements have since been made, however the latest monitoring visit from the service’s watchdog noted some children were still being impacted by high staff workloads.

According to a new report, the council has now been successful in securing a grant from the Department for Education totalling £342,752.

Of this, £86,000 will be spent on an improvement specialist job role, £130,000 on a children’s case management IT system, £92,000 on learning for quality assurance and a further £35,000 on training for staff.

The improvement specialist has before been funded by the Government, and the role has helped the council prepare for monitoring visits and embed “consistently good strengths-based social work practice”.

The documents say: “The funding has been allocated to support the service move from inadequate to delivery of good quality services for children and
families.

“The areas identified have been identified as areas of work that will reach the maximum number of the workforce to support wider continuous improvement and support delivery of quality services for children and families, through training, development and practice learning activities; reduction of bureaucracy through a more effective functioning of the case management system; and supporting the continuous improvement of practice and capacity to learn from other local authorities.”

Ofsted’s report, detailing the findings from its fifth monitoring visit, was published on September 2.

Margaret Burke, His Majesty’s Inspector for Ofsted, praised the work environment and said staff enjoy working for the council, but noted some workers still have high workloads.

This has impacted a small number of children either in the care of the authority or those still living with family but are being supported by a social worker.

“Workers and managers attempt to juggle and balance continuing workload pressures,” Ms Burke’s report said.

“At times, this has impacted on a small number of children, affecting the quality and timeliness of work with them.”

Ofsted went on to praise the council’s commitment to improving children’s services despite ongoing financial challenges.

It said the changes made to the council’s senior leadership structure, to create two new service director roles, will help to prioritise adults and children’s services.

Jill Colbert OBE has been appointed as the new Corporate Director for Children and Education Services and will start at the end of September, while Vicky Murphy will take up the role of Corporate Director Adult Social Care and Health in November.

Ofsted says the separation of adults and children’s services has “enabled greater energy to be focused on developing services for children”.