1. Inspection of Safeguarding and Looked After Children 23 March 2012

2. 2Security marking 2 The inspection ●Barnet was inspected by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission in January 2012 to: ‒ evaluate services to ensure that children and young people are properly safeguarded ‒ determine the quality of service provision for looked after children and care leavers ●The evidence evaluated by inspectors included: ‒ discussions with children and young people receiving services, front line staff and managers, senior officers, elected members and community representatives ‒ analysis and evaluation of reports and data ‒ review of case files for children and young people ‒ discussions with front line professionals, managers and senior staff from Barnet’s health organisations including NHS Barnet and North Central London NHS

3. 3Security marking 3 Inspection findings ●The Ofsted and Care Quality Commission report on our Safeguarding functions and the outcomes for looked after children has now been published Key findings: ●Overall effectiveness of our safeguarding and looked after children services is good ●Capacity to improve also good ●We are helping our children in care to achieve good outcomes ●This is a huge accolade for the work of staff within the Council, partners and for our children

4. 4Security marking 4 Our successes Areas that Ofsted picked out for particular praise include: ●overall vision and direction ●leadership shown by the Children’s Trust ●Corporate Parenting role of the Council ●participation of young people and involvement in service planning ●early intervention work – ‘is beginning to demonstrate discernable, improved outcomes’ Voluntary sector ●good attention is paid to the diverse needs of local communities ●good examples of partnership working, including with voluntary sector organisations ●highlighted supplementary schools and support for young carers

5. 5Security marking 5 Continual improvement ●The inspection highlighted that capacity across the partnership to continually improve services and outcomes is good ●We will take on board the areas within the report where the inspectors felt we could improve ●These include: ‒ Review services provided through housing for victims of domestic abuse ‒ Continue to work with schools to provide safeguarding advice and ensure safeguarding procedures are clear and understood ‒ Strengthen our case audit and complaints systems and reporting mechanisms and use this to continually improve the quality of our practice ‒ Ensure that all looked after children and young people are made aware of the existence of the Pledge for Children in Care and use this to continue to provide good quality care and support

6. 6Security marking 6 What next? ●Barnet has continually provided a high level of service to our children, young people and their families, but we recognise the need for constant improvement and changes to the way we deliver our services ●A range of sessions with staff teams and partners are being arranged to explore these areas in detail