Inspectors confirm improvements continue in Rotherham

An inspection team which carried out an intensive two week review of all Safeguarding and Looked After Children's Services in Rotherham has reported that they "did not find any children or young people who were at risk of significant harm" and graded the services as "adequate".

In August last year following an earlier unannounced inspection, Ofsted rated the borough's Contact, Referral and Assessment services as "inadequate". Subsequently, the government issued Rotherham with a 'Notice to Improve'.

However, the inspection team say the "pace of change" since that time has been "significant with a number of key performance indicators showing improvements."

In the report the inspectors praised:

- "Sound" partnership working between agencies
- The effective operation and leadership of the Rotherham Local Safeguarding Children Board
- The strong work around making service improvements which involves the Council and NHS Rotherham Chief Executives, Council Leader and Safeguarding Cabinet Member as well as all senior officers within Children and Young People's Services.
- The Council's decision to invest £3.1 million to improve frontline services for the most vulnerable
- Improvements in the time taken to carry out assessments of vulnerable children and in holding case conference meetings with workers from relevant agencies
- Reduction in vacancy rates among social workers
- High quality safeguarding training
- The good range of services to help keep vulnerable children safe
- The increase in usage of the Common Assessment Framework and training of staff in how to make effective use of the process
- Significant improvements in performance management and quality assurance
- Good work to involve children, young people, parents and carers in reviewing services and 'having their voice heard' in issues that affect them
- The good care and monitoring of the health of Looked After Children.
- The effective work of the Get Real Team in co-ordinating education and services and leisure opportunities for Looked After Children
- The good work to support disabled children and their families.

Councillor Paul Lakin, Cabinet Member for Safeguarding and Developing Learning Opportunities for Children, said: "This report reflects the hard work and investment which has gone in to improving how we care for our children and young people across the borough.

"Quite rightly, it also reflects that those improvements are at an early stage and we need to build on them to ensure that every child or young person is as safe and well as they possibly can be.

"There is still a lot of work to do but the inspectors say we are moving in the right direction and we are committed to making sure we continue on that road to make our services outstanding."

The report outlines some actions for agencies to take to continue improvements and an action plan has already been drawn up to tackle those issues. These include improving the auditing of cases, developing staff training and the appointment of a 'headteacher' who will develop the good work which is already carried out to help Looked After Children with their education.

Kath Atkinson, Director of Strategic Planning at NHS Rotherham, said: "The improvements in this report really demonstrate the hard work of staff and the strong local partnerships across all organisations within Rotherham to ensure that we are providing good quality services and support for vulnerable young people."