Children's services showing signs of 'improvement'

Bobby Bennett, a county councillor who is the cabinet member for children's services, said the authority was "moving in the right direction"

A government watchdog that raised concerns about a county's children's services has said there are "early signs of improvement".

Suffolk County Council's children's services were rated as "requires improvement" by Ofsted in August 2024.

But, after a follow-up visit this September, inspectors said changes were "beginning to emerge".

Bobby Bennett, a Conservative councillor and the cabinet member for children's services, said: "We are where we would expect to be at this stage of our journey, and I am confident that we are moving in the right direction."

The county council's children's services had been rated as "outstanding" after an evaluation in 2019

The council said improvements were found around investment and support for the services.

It said work had begun on a so-called "integrated front door service" which aimed to provide a central point of contact for all children's social care and early help support.

A letter from Ofsted's summarising inspectors' findings after last month's visit said: "Children who are referred to front door services and identified as at risk of harm receive a prompt and appropriate response."

But it also highlighted areas where work was still needed, including how:

• monitoring systems need to reliably flag delays and support effective management decision-making more often

• consistency in professional curiosity and threshold decisions is needed

• better recognition and response is needed towards patterns of concern when multiple or repeated requests are made for the same families

Bennett added: "We know our strengths and where we are making good progress, but we also know where we need to improve.

"As with any significant transformation, we know this will take time," she said.

Green councillor Ash Lever said he hoped "clear progress" would be made in improving services

Ash Lever, Green councillor and the party's spokesperson for education and child protection, said: "Whilst it is encouraging that there are signs of improvement, more needs to be done to regain quality social care for Suffolk children."

Mr Lever said it was "great to read positive feedback" about frontline officers but said it was "particularly worrying that requests for help sometimes sit awaiting action for up to five days".