Reading Council children's service giving 'better services'

Inspectors reviewed progress made in the area of young people leaving care

A children's service branded inadequate in 2016 is now delivering "better services" to young people leaving care.

The Ofsted report follows the seventh visit since "serious" failures were found at Reading Council in 2016.

Inspectors reviewed progress made in the area of young people leaving care.

The lead councillor for children's services in Reading, Liz Terry, said she was "pleased to see the commitment of social workers and leaving care advisers are recognised".

Previous visits have focused on different aspects of the service and found "uneven and slow" progress.

The latest monitoring visit looked at the quality and impact of the support provided by social workers and leaving care advisers (LCAs).

It found that many aspects had improved, with "detailed attention paid to the individual needs and circumstances" of the young people as they prepare to leave care.

• 'Inadequate' children service improving

• Children's service 'cannot get staff'

• 'Serious failures' in children's services

The report also found that no young people are left without dedicated support, even when they are resistant to being helped and are difficult to engage.

However, it found some recommendations from the 2016 inspection have taken "too long to address", including availability of detailed written information for young people on their entitlements and what was on offer from the service.

The high LCA workloads, which had previously been highlighted, were also flagged as having "not reduced".

The service, which had previously said it was "increasingly difficult" to find staff for services with "problems", is now seeing a "positive trend" in recruiting permanent staff, it added.

The council is in the latter stages of a plan to form an independent children's company to run the service, which is expected to begin in the late autumn of 2018.