Agenda item

Ofsted focussed inspection on the front door including MASH

To receive and consider a report reviewing the recent Ofsted inspection.

Minutes:

Carol Cammiss presented the report which was set out in agenda pages 49-51.  She stated that Ofsted inspectors came to Wokingham on 17 and 18 October 2018 to carry out a short focused visit to the Children’s Services Front Door as part of the new Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) framework.

 

Carol Cammiss stated that although the inspectors were on site for only two days, this was a two week process.  The inspectors had looked at data, reports, policies and cases.  They asked to track 25 children, five from each category.  Also, the service was asked to prepare a self-evaluation.  Carol stated that they had been honest in their self-evaluation.

 

Carol Cammiss stated that the Ofsted report pointed out areas for improvement, but had not requested a priority action plan, and this was considered a good result.  She pointed out that the Ofsted report did not reveal anything new, the service was aware of the areas that needed improving.  It was positive that the report pointed out that children were safe and that workers were making a positive impact in children’s lives.

 

Carol Cammiss stated that Ofsted had also looked into Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and they found that this needed improving.

 

Carol Cammiss stated that an improvement plan was already in place to address the issues raised by Ofsted, which were in line with the service’s own self-assessment.

 

Carol Cammiss informed that this Ofsted visit did not give a grading to the service, therefore she expected that a full inspection would probably happen next year.

 

Councillor Helliar-Symons stated that she was pleased with the report, especially in view of the recent challenges, such as leadership instability and increase in demand.  However, Ofsted had recognised that work was being undertaken to address those issues.  She stated that more work was needed to improve MASH, however this was a Police initiative.  She noted the positive comments that children were safe, that staff were making a difference and that the service was self-aware of its challenges.

 

In response to a question Carol Cammiss stated that the most important priorities were caseload and stability. 

 

Members asked what was being done to improve MASH.  Carol Cammiss stated that she had met with the Superintendent and had raised the issues highlighted by Ofsted.

 

The Chairman was concerned about the second paragraph under Child Protection Strategy Discussion and Application of Thresholds on page 50 of the Agenda which read:

 

The inspectorate also found that sometimes thresholds applied to a need for a child protection enquires have been too low, resulting in a “small number of families being drawn into the child protection process when this is not required.”

 

Carol Cammiss explained that this was because sometimes the service, as the statutory responsible authority, was having to make decisions without having access to all the information they should have had.  There was a need for a more robust multi-agency approach.

 

Members asked Carol Cammiss to make the Police aware of the issues raised.

 

RESOLVED That:

 

1)     The report be noted; and

 

2)     The Committee will receive update reports on the improvement plan

Supporting documents: