Ofsted publishes annual report on children’s services
11:04 - 22/12/2010
Ofsted publishes annual report on chi...
Ofsted has recently published the findings of its annual assessment of local authority children’s services in England.
The 2010 assessments reveal some improvements in performance. The number of councils judged to be providing excellent services has doubled since last year, now totaling 20, while 77 councils are rated as performing well and another 37 councils are providing adequate services.
However, 12 authorities were rated as poor and a further 6 require further inspections before their judgments will be finalised. The report reveals that the authorities judged to be performing poorly often have inadequate systems for keeping children safe from harm and have not dealt with their shortcomings in relation to safeguarding.
Many schools, particularly secondary schools, are not performing to the required standard. Ofsted found that provision for young people over the age of 16 was generally weak and that there were difficulties with recruiting and retaining staff.
The assessment focused on the outcomes for children and young people in local areas and was based on a new method, which was first introduced in 2009. The inspections include direct observations of professional practice in childcare, schools, child protection services and safeguarding, children’s social care and the learning and skills sector.
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert, commented: “Once again the majority of councils are providing services for children and young people that are good or better. It is very pleasing to see the increase in the number of local authorities that are providing excellent services overall [...].
“The minority of councils that are performing poorly were put in this category primarily because they are not doing enough to keep children safe. Inadequacies have been identified in their approach to safeguarding children. These authorities know where improvements are needed and have plans in place to improve. There is much they can learn from the examples of those authorities who are performing well and excellently.”
First Response Training works with a number of local authorities across the UK, often delivering training services for their early years and children’s services departments. They are looking to expand their provision for the childcare sector in the new year and already have a number of childcare training courses, which are mapped to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).
Darren Emery, Business Development Director at First Response, says: “We are committed to providing a high quality service which meets the needs of our clients and their delegates. We work with a number of local authorities up and down the country, from Devon County Council to Scottish Borders, and often develop bespoke training programmes specifically for them.
“Its encouraging that many councils are performing well or excellently, and this is just their overall score, so many of the councils judged to be good will have elements of excellence, but obviously there is always more that can be done. Safeguarding has been identified as one issue and we are able to provide training in safeguarding children. We have a number of other courses aimed at the children and young people’s workforce and studies have shown that providing continued opportunities for staff training is key to recruiting and retaining workers, another concern identified in the report.”
For more information, call First Response today on 0800 310 2300.
The 2010 assessments reveal some improvements in performance. The number of councils judged to be providing excellent services has doubled since last year, now totaling 20, while 77 councils are rated as performing well and another 37 councils are providing adequate services.
However, 12 authorities were rated as poor and a further 6 require further inspections before their judgments will be finalised. The report reveals that the authorities judged to be performing poorly often have inadequate systems for keeping children safe from harm and have not dealt with their shortcomings in relation to safeguarding.
Many schools, particularly secondary schools, are not performing to the required standard. Ofsted found that provision for young people over the age of 16 was generally weak and that there were difficulties with recruiting and retaining staff.
The assessment focused on the outcomes for children and young people in local areas and was based on a new method, which was first introduced in 2009. The inspections include direct observations of professional practice in childcare, schools, child protection services and safeguarding, children’s social care and the learning and skills sector.
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert, commented: “Once again the majority of councils are providing services for children and young people that are good or better. It is very pleasing to see the increase in the number of local authorities that are providing excellent services overall [...].
“The minority of councils that are performing poorly were put in this category primarily because they are not doing enough to keep children safe. Inadequacies have been identified in their approach to safeguarding children. These authorities know where improvements are needed and have plans in place to improve. There is much they can learn from the examples of those authorities who are performing well and excellently.”
First Response Training works with a number of local authorities across the UK, often delivering training services for their early years and children’s services departments. They are looking to expand their provision for the childcare sector in the new year and already have a number of childcare training courses, which are mapped to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS).
Darren Emery, Business Development Director at First Response, says: “We are committed to providing a high quality service which meets the needs of our clients and their delegates. We work with a number of local authorities up and down the country, from Devon County Council to Scottish Borders, and often develop bespoke training programmes specifically for them.
“Its encouraging that many councils are performing well or excellently, and this is just their overall score, so many of the councils judged to be good will have elements of excellence, but obviously there is always more that can be done. Safeguarding has been identified as one issue and we are able to provide training in safeguarding children. We have a number of other courses aimed at the children and young people’s workforce and studies have shown that providing continued opportunities for staff training is key to recruiting and retaining workers, another concern identified in the report.”
For more information, call First Response today on 0800 310 2300.
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