Ofsted report finds LBH lacking in a number of areas
An Ofsted report into the London Borough of Hounslow (LBH) services for children who are 'looked after' has said the council "requires improvement" in a number of areas in order to get a "good" rating.
The effectiveness of the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) requires improvement and the report said; "The LSCB is not yet demonstrating the characteristics of good."
However it did also find that children and young people in Hounslow are being kept safe, and the council’s safeguarding services have no serious or widespread failures.
The Ofsted report, which was made under the new tougher inspection framework earlier this year, made criticisms on areas ranging from adoption to management.
"Oversight by the authority’s Scrutiny Committee and the Corporate Parenting Panel of safeguarding children and the needs of children looked after is not sufficiently strong. Links between children’s services, the Children’s Trust and the Health and Wellbeing Board, which bring together all the key agencies in the area, are not sufficiently established to make sure that issues affecting children are prioritised", said the report.
At 31 March 2013, 1,758 children had been identified through assessment as being formally in need of a specialist children’s service. This is a reduction from 2,200 at 31 March 2012. The number of children identified between March 2013 and this inspection was 1,617.
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Among the areas Ofsted wanted the council to improve was the time it takes for 'looked after' children to be adopted.
The inspectors found a number of key strengths of the service, including:
• Children and young people identified as at risk of immediate harm are kept safe through effective child protection arrangements
• Strong partnership working has been established in almost all areas between children’s services and other agencies so children and their families benefit from joined up services that work well together
• Children, young people and their families value the support they get from the council and partners
• Staff in the children in care and fostering teams provide high quality support to foster carers and their children, helping form strong relationships with their carers
• The stability and sustainability of the children’s social care workforce has been highly successful leading to better relationships with children and young people
Among the areas where the council needs to improve to receive a good rating, are:
• Improving access to services for older children to prevent them coming into care
• Early assessments need to be carried out more quickly and thoroughly
• Child protection plans need to be completed quicker, and should clearly set out what is required from parents and agencies
• Making sure the out-of-hours service has access to children’s records
• Helping children avoid experiencing too many changes of where they live
• Improving analysis of looked after children’s educational attainment, so they can close the gap with their peers
• Develop new approaches to ensure a ready supply of adopters is available
• Ensuring there is effective oversight, support and challenge of services through the scrutiny committee and corporate parenting panel to drive improvement
• Making sure performance management and monitoring is underpinned by robust evaluation and analysis and leads to service improvement.
Cllr Lily Bath, cabinet member for children’s services at the council, said: “It’s reassuring that Ofsted found children and young people are being kept safe - that is the most important job we have.
“They also found no widespread or serious failures in any of our services, which is reassuring under the new tougher regime.
“We know what areas we need to work on to reach the good rating, and already have strong plans in place to address the issues the inspectors have raised. I know that our staff, who work so hard to keep children safe and improve their lives, will rise to that challenge.”
March 24, 2014