Inspectors recognise child protection improvements

Ofsted has carried out its inspection under the new framework for child protection services and has graded Rotherham as 'adequate', saying that many positive improvements have been introduced, although it's too early to judge their full impact on care and support for young people and their families/carers.

The report published today (August 10) says "significant improvements have been made since 2009" and "these improvements have been driven by clear and resilient leadership and informed by sound and realistic understanding of the needs of the local community."

The inspectors also highlighted:

• the "good range" of family support and early intervention services
• the improvements in dealing with new contacts and referrals since the introduction in January of the new Contact and Referral Team
• the "robust response" from workers to ensure the safety of children at immediate risk
• good collaborative working between the Council and the police to tackle sexual exploitation
• the successful efforts to reduce social worker vacancies and the good support available to social workers
• the "strong commitment" of social workers to the children they work with
• good identification of concerns about children and young people by professionals across agencies
• positive feedback from parents and carers about early intervention work with them and their children
• significant improvements" in the timeliness of assessments
• good child protection conferences and interactions with parents
• positive use of performance information to help make service improvements

Councillor Paul Lakin, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families Services, said: "The inspectors have made it clear that we are heading in the right direction and that the changes we have made are starting to have an impact.

"We accept their comments and agree that the full effect of those changes is still to be felt. We are committed to making sure that despite the challenging conditions public sector agencies face we will continue to improve and give the highest standards of support for families and protection for our vulnerable children and young people."

Councillor Roger Stone, Leader of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council also welcomed the report and added: "We are pleased that OfSTED recognised the tremendous improvements and achievements in the way we are tackling child sexual exploitation in the town.

"The creation of a joint team between the local authority and the police is a clear message to all in the borough that we will not tolerate the disgusting exploitation of our young people. There are no lengths we will not go to find those responsible and punish them in the hardest way possible. We have had excellent results to date with a number of men being sentenced to prison."

"This investment not only increases our ability to do that, it also creates a new team which will ensure that those who find themselves as victims of these crimes will get all the help and support they need. 

"It is also my determination that awareness of this sort of activity and the possible risk to young people is raised in the borough's schools and other venues frequented by children, young people and families."

Among the areas highlighted for continuing improvements by the inspectors were:

• undertake a multi-agency review of serious neglect cases which have been on-going for "a significant period of time"
• improve the quality of referrals from partner agencies
• improve the the quality and consistency of child protection and children in need plans
• look to reduce the caseloads of the busiest teams and workers
• improve how children and young people and families views are collected and used by services to improve care

Councillor Lakin concluded: "Many of the recommendations made were already part of our planning for the future of our services and we will make sure that all their suggestions are fully implemented within the timescales the inspectors have suggested."