1. Ofsted Inspection of Children’s Services
Jo Negrini, Chief Executive Barbara Peacock, Executive Director People

2. Context
Heading
Children’s Social Care services in Croydon were inspected by Ofsted between 20th June 2017 – 13th July 2017
Inspectors looked at a range of evidence including case files, observations of practice, and spoke directly to children and families
The inspection looked at:
The experiences of children and young people who need help and protection
Children and young people who are looked including fostering, adoption and those who are leaving care
Leadership, management and governance
Local Safeguarding Children Board

3. Findings
Heading
Overall, the judgment of Ofsted is that children’s social care services in Croydon are inadequate
The judgements contributing to this overall judgement are:
The Ofsted report includes 21 recommendations, 18 are practice related
The report also identified significant issues in relation to data quality and quality assurance.
The Croydon Safeguarding Children Board was also judged to be inadequate
1. Children who need help and protection
Inadequate
2. Children looked after and achieving permanence
2.1 Adoption
Requires Improvement
2.2 Experiences and progress of care leavers
3. Leadership, management and governance

4. Improvement Strategy Heading
Initial strategy and plan agreed while Ofsted was on site
Developed a transitional action plan to address areas which required immediate action
Set up an improvement board consisting of senior managers, elected members and partners and chaired independently by Edwina Grant OBE, an experienced children’s services professional
Engaged Achieving for Children, to be our improvement partner
Appointed a new interim Director of Early help and Children’s Social Care, Philip Segurola, who starts this month
A Shadow Children’s Improvement Board meeting took place in August
The first formal Children’s Improvement Board meeting took place on the 5th September and will meet on a monthly basis
The DfE has appointed Eleanor Brazil as the Children’s Commissioner for Croydon

5. Achievements since July
Heading
Leadership & Governance
Reduced span of control for the Executive Director from September in order to allow greater focus on children’s improvement
Corporate Improvement Team established led by the CEO, which meets weekly to drive the improvement programme
Change of personnel and appointments as outlined in previous slide
Engagement with partners and learning from other LA’s
Plans to relaunch the Children in Care Council in October
Workforce
An additional interim social work team has been created in order to reduce caseloads in care planning
Two new permanent Heads of Service have been appointed
An interim Chair of the LSCB has been appointed
Action has been taken to better support newly qualified social workers and caseloads have been reduced where needed
The development of a strong workforce strategy and recruitment campaign has started, which includes a £1500 retention payment to front-line social workers

6. Achievements since July (2)He
ading
Workforce (cont)
A learning and development programme has been commissioned for first line managers and delivery managers, which will commence in September
Social work practice
All cases referred by Ofsted have been reviewed and appropriate action taken
The post of principal social worker has been established
The recruitment of two additional auditor roles to provide additional assurance on individual casework practice. An audit programme is underway
Work is underway to develop a new social work practice model in collaboration with staff
Work has started to relaunch the process for return home interviews for children missing from home or care
Senior managers have met with the judiciary to support improvements in court work
Systems and support
Smartphones are being given to all social workers so that they can work flexibly and stay in contact with children and families
A project has started to look at ways of improving business support provided to social workers

7. Improvement plan Heading
The local authority must produce an action plan of how it intends to respond to the inspection recommendations within 70 days of receiving the final report (11th December)
Work has already started on developing a Children’s Improvement Plan. This will focus on improving the lived experiences of children, young people and families through high quality social work
A series of engagement sessions have already taken place with staff to inform our approach to improvement planning
An action planning session will be held with Ofsted in October which will refine the improvement plan
A comprehensive engagement programme with children and young people and partners will also be undertaken

8. Next steps
Heading
Continue to deliver the immediate actions from the transitional action plan
Develop the Children’s Improvement Plan in readiness for the Ofsted action planning session in October
Finalise the improvement plan following feedback from Ofsted, staff and partners and receive sign off from Ofsted and the Department for Education
Continue delivering the improvement plan ahead of the:
First Ofsted monitoring visit November 17 and which will be quarterly thereafter
Commissioners report in December