Report of the Deputy Strategic Director (Children’s Services)

This report reflects on the recent Ofsted Inspection of Local Authorities Children’s Services (ILACS) of Manchester's children's services.  The report advises of the overall judgement and provides an action plan in response to the findings from Ofsted on what needs to improve.

The Committee received a report of the Deputy Strategic Director (Children’s Services) which reflected on the recent Ofsted Inspection of Local Authorities Children’s Services (ILACS) of Manchester's Children's Services. The report advised of the overall judgement and provided an action plan in response to the findings from Ofsted on what needed to improve.

The main points and themes within the report included:

• The Ofsted inspection and the judgement of the inspectors;
• Background information; and
• The Council’s action plan in response to the findings of the inspection.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• The effects of domestic abuse on children, including the importance of raising awareness of this impact and ensuring that children were supported;
• Regarding the point on the action plan about the diverse needs to children, that different protected characteristics needed to be considered separately; and
• The importance of training, including in ensuring that staff were kept up to date with the latest Ofsted standards.

The Deputy Strategic Director (Children’s Services) assured Members that Children’s Services was actively involved in work on the Domestic Abuse Strategy and advised that consideration was being given to how partners could better work together to support children with the trauma they experienced due to domestic abuse in the family.  He acknowledged the Member’s comments about different protected characteristics and advised that, while it was difficult to convey the breadth of this in an action plan, the individual needs and identity issues of each individual child were prioritised.  In response to a Member’s comments about working with parents, he advised that the Council had an excellent co-production model and highlighted that Lyndene had been developed through co-production with parents and in consultation with children.  He reported that almost 60% of the Council’s social work staff had qualified within the last two years and outlined some of the plans to further develop the training for social workers as well as drawing Members’ attention to the service’s Workforce Development Strategy, which had been positively commented on by the Ofsted inspectors and by staff who had received training.

In response to a question from the Chair about Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), the Director of Education explained that item 4 on the action plan was an action from the local area Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) inspection in November 2021 which officers had decided to include in this action plan because it related to social workers’ role in EHCPs and training needed to improve this.  In response to a Member’s comments about the difficulties experienced by some parents whose children needed EHCPs but who did not understand the process or who had English as an Additional Language, the Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People suggested that this could be looked at in more detail at a future date.

The Chair congratulated everyone involved in this work, recognised that there was more work to be done and suggested that the Ofsted Subgroup could look at this in future.

Decision

To note the report.

[Councillor Abdullatif declared a personal interest as a former employee of Women’s Aid Federation England.]