Surrey's child services are improving - Ofsted

Surrey County Council's children's service are improving, according to Ofsted

Ofsted inspectors said Surrey County Council's services for children are improving after the watchdog's latest visit.

The county council is working to improve on the overall "requires improvement" rating it was given in 2022. It follows "inadequate" ratings in 2015 and 2018.

Ofsted said: "A comprehensive improvement programme has continued to strengthen the quality of support to children in need of help and protection since the last inspection in January 2022."

Clare Curran, Surrey's lead cabinet member for children, said Ofsted's finding was "positive progress".

Inspectors published their findings on Friday after visiting the council on 16-17 April.

The inspectors focused on the services provided for children in need or children who are the subject of a child protection plan.

"Progress for children is evident in the improved quality and timeliness of assessments, the increased timeliness of visits to children and a more consistent application of thresholds," they said.

Ms Curran said: “There is always more to be done and we will continue our improvement journey.

"We are already working on areas for improvement.

"But this report shows that we’re taking the right steps and going from strength to strength in Surrey.”

Ofsted's inspectors said the quality of support to children in need of help and protection had strengthened due to the council's "comprehensive improvement programme".

The report said staff turnover had reduced since the last inspection, and that the workforce was more stable despite there being "more vacancies and reliance on agency staff than leaders would like" in some parts of the service.

They said a recruitment, retention and culture programme was helping leaders focus on attracting and growing their own staff.

A BBC report showed Surrey's rate for getting education, health and care plans issued on time had dropped from 72% in 2020-21 to less than 17% in the latest data.