North Somerset children's services still 'requires improvement'

Weston-super-Mare town hall, where North Somerset Council meets

Children's services at North Somerset Council has received a third "disappointing" rating in a row.

Ofsted inspectors warned that in many areas the standard of the understaffed service was inconsistent.

A report following an inspection in March stated that children and their families do not experience a consistently good service.

The council has now received the "requires improvement to be good" rating three times in a row.

Despite this, no children were identified as at risk of immediate harm.

The report stated: "Since the last inspection in March 2020, when North Somerset children's services were judged to be 'requires improvement' overall, the local authority has not made sufficient progress and children and their families do not currently experience a consistently good service."

Stretch capacity

Sheila Smith, director of children's services at the council, told North Somerset Council's children and young people's services policy and scrutiny panel on 29 June that the grade had been expected, but work was ongoing to address the issues identified previously.

She told the scrutiny panel: "We know what we need to do. We just need to have the workflow that can deliver it."

The report also found that almost a third of posts were vacant at the time of the inspection, and said: "This has impacted on children's experiences and wider improvement due to having to stretch capacity across services."

The scrutiny panel was told there were issues with recruitment and retention of social workers.

Ten are due to start soon in North Somerset but assistant director of children's social care Becky Hopkins said: "We need about 20 more than that."

Ofsted found that, for a minority of children, there was only a "superficial" assessment of risk in child protection enquiries.

Improvement to services

But Ofsted acknowledged: "An appropriate service-wide plan is in place, aimed at securing the improvements needed."

Yatton councillor Wendy Griggs said "inspiring" work is being done to improve the services.

"It's disappointing that despite all the positives the "howevers" have outweighed the positives in the judgement," she said.

Children's services received the "requires improvement to be good" grade in three areas: the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families, the experiences and progress of children who need help and protection, and the experience and progress of children in care.

Just one area was judged as "good": the experiences and progress of care leavers.