Why was the Council inspected by Ofsted?

All Council’s Children’s Services are inspected by Ofsted under the Inspection of Local Authority Children Services (ILACs) framework with inspections usually occurring every 3 years. We were last inspected in January 2020, where we were judged to be Outstanding. As a result of this judgement, under the ILACs framework, our most recent inspection was a short inspection.

What does the Ofsted inspection cover?

The impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families - judged outstanding.

The experiences and progress of children in need of help and protection - judged good.

The experiences and progress of child in care - judged outstanding.

The experiences and progress of care leavers - judged outstanding (this is the first time that our services for care leavers have been inspected as a standalone service receiving its own Ofsted grading.)

Overall effectiveness - judged outstanding.

This means that Telford and Wrekin Council has retained its Outstanding judgement.

How have you retained your Outstanding judgement?

We have had an relentless focus on the quality of social work practice and have continued to look at ways that we can innovate in order to provide the best possible services to children and families.

We have listened to children, young people and their families, gaining valuable feedback on the services that we provide so that we can work to make them better. We have strengthened participation of children and families so that this is see throughout our service developments.

We have a committed and stable workforce and have continued to invest in them through a high quality training offer, we have strong practice framework underpinned by systemic practice and through effective partnerships and multi-disciplinary practice, we are able to effectively support children and their families.

Through the ongoing feedback we receive and through our quality assurance activity, we are clear about our strengths and areas for further development. We are ambitious for children and young people in Telford and Wrekin and our plans ensure that their needs are prioritised. We care about the children we look after and are proud of their achievements.

We will not rest on what we have achieved and will strive to make our services even better.

Does this mean your schools are outstanding?

Schools will each undergo their own inspection by Ofsted and are rated separately to the Council. Visit the Ofsted website to view all the schools latest Ofsted inspection results, alternatively, visit the school’s website directly.

What does the inspection say about your work to tackle sexual exploitation?

The report says “Children benefit from an experienced team of specialist exploitation workers in the CATE team who provide an exceptional service for children when they are exploited or at risk of exploitation. They skilfully build relationships with children and their families, which supports the reduction of risk and improvement in children’s experiences. This includes disruption activity and referral to the National Referral Mechanism. An innovative and effective multi-agency transition panel plans services and interventions for children into adulthood”.

“When concerns about children involve risk of exploitation, they are screened promptly. Consultation offered by the Children Abused Through Exploitation (CATE) team provides additional advice to inform analysis”.

“When children go missing from home or from care, they are offered timely return home interviews. There is effective engagement of children by the specialist CATE team in this process, which enables them to explore the push-and-pull factors for children. Through detailed direct work, social workers explore children’s feelings about where they want to live. For some children, this has resulted in them moving and incidents of going missing have stopped”.

“The impressive response to the child exploitation enquiry has made sure that services for children at risk of exploitation in Telford and Wrekin are now coherent and effective.”