Growing sense of 'optimism, enthusiasm and belief' within children's services workforce

The news that the running of the services will not be placed in the hands of an independent Trust has been followed by an encouraging monitoring visit report from Ofsted.

This was the fifth such visit and focused on the quality and effectiveness of support received by children and young people and the impact of managers and capacity and caseloads of social workers.

Inspector Tracey Scott reported that the quality of social work and the experiences of the children in the authority’s care had ‘significantly improved’ since the disastrous ‘inadequate’ rating of 2019.

She added: “Inspectors observed a growing sense of optimism, enthusiasm and belief within the workforce.”

The report has certainly placed smiles on many faces at County Hall.

‘Optimism, enthusiasm and belief’ are certainly more welcome descriptions than the ‘widespread and serious weaknesses’ highlighted three years ago.

The change is largely due to the work of Lucy Butler and her team.

The new director of children’s services, arrived in 2020 with a plan to put things right.

That plan then had to be tweaked rather quickly when Covid did its best to throw a spanner in the works, but it has certainly paid off so far.

Working both online and socially distanced when face-to-face meetings were needed, Lucy and her team improved the services so much that the threat of giving them over to the control of a Trust was paused in 2021.

It was finally dropped in April on the recommendation of government-appointed commissioner John Coughlan.

Lucy said: “It has been a hard road to get here and so it was really nice that we could provide the assurance and the evidence that the commissioner needed to say that we were on track to not be a Trust. It was fantastic.

“There was always a bit of worry – particularly for staff on the ground – about what a Trust would mean.

“It felt slightly punitive at the beginning, like we were being punished.

“It was good for the staff that all the work they have done was acknowledged – it was a feeling of euphoria.”

Lucy is the first to admit that there is more work to be done – and the threat of a Trust still lurks in the background.

Another Ofsted monitoring visit is expected in September with a full inspection likely to be carried out any time between November and April 2023.

If children’s services does not achieve a higher rating than the previous ‘inadequate’, the commissioner could easily look again at bringing in a Trust.

Lucy said: “I’ve got everything crossed – we will absolutely do everything in our power.”

Ofsted’s report highlighted many improvements in the way the services are being run and how youngsters are being helped.

These included a ‘tangible shift in culture within the organisation’ – a culture which had been described as ‘weak’ and ‘non-compliant with basic social work standards’.

Lucy said: “In the original report, culture was writ large. Moving that is not an easy task and it doesn’t happen overnight even if you’ve got the most wonderful team.

“It takes hard slog and we’re still in that hard slog. I wouldn’t say we were out of it yet.”