By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter
Inspectors say there are “early signs of tangible improvements” in Nottingham City Council’s children’s services – but inconsistencies and staff shortages remain a significant challenge.
Education watchdog Ofsted rated the Labour-run authority’s services as ‘inadequate’ in 2022, and said the service was so poor that children had been left at risk of harm.
An action plan was put in place and progress is being monitored by an improvement board, while regular visits have been taking place to ensure critical changes are made.
The first of these visits were on February 28 and March 1 this year, and the second visit took place between July 25 and 26.
Ofsted has now published its latest report.
His Majesty’s Inspector Julie Knight says in the report: “Since the previous monitoring visit, a committed and stable leadership team has continued to progress the ‘Changing Lives, Changing Futures’ improvement programme for children’s services.
“Senior leaders have an accurate and realistic understanding of the quality of frontline practice, which is supported by a revised quality assurance and performance framework.
“There are early signs of tangible improvements in field work practice and the environment in which staff work.
“A reduction in case-loads has been supported by investment in additional agency social workers.
“However, this is a temporary arrangement and senior leaders know that
improvements need to be sustainable.
“There continues to be inconsistency in the quality of practice for children in need and those subject to a child protection plan, compounded by challenges in achieving greater workforce stability.”
Significant challenges remain due to staffing stability, according to the report.
Some children have too many changes in social worker, which means children and families can find it difficult to build trusting relationships.
On top of this, some do not receive support quickly enough due to waiting lists for services which support families experiencing domestic abuse or mental health difficulties.
Should the council fail to make necessary changes, a Government commissioner could be sent in.
As part of the work to rapidly improve the services, consultants expected to cost the council roughly £6.5m have been brought in for two years.
Responding to the report Cllr Cheryl Barnard, Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Education at the council, said: “These findings provide an important benchmark in our journey of improvement and, taken together with the first monitoring visit, demonstrate that improvements in our response to children in need of help and protection have been made.
“However, we know there is still much work to be done and we continue to effect the positive change rightly expected by Ofsted to ensure all vulnerable children in Nottingham are well supported.
“I’m pleased that inspectors have noted significant improvement during their two visits following the initial inspection.
“We understand that these changes must be sustainable and agree with Ofsted that this is set against a backdrop of workforce instability and reliance upon agency staffing, which is an issue for all councils.
“Maintaining staffing levels remains challenging, not just locally but nationally, where the recruitment and retention of experienced social workers is difficult, and services rely heavily upon agency staffing.”
