“Local authority children’s services departments play a critical role in supporting and protecting from harm and neglect, vulnerable children and young people. It is worrying that, of the 59 children’s services inspections carried out by Ofsted this year under the new single inspections framewwork, 76% have been judged as either ‘inadequate’ or ‘requiring improvement’ and none as ‘outstanding’. I am also concerned that overall, the quality of children’s homes has declined.
“Fourteen areas were judged to be ‘good’ by putting children’s outcomes at the heart of their decision-making. In the coming months, I will be undertaking further work to highlight children and young people’s experiences of the care system and their priorities for improvement, and meeting with local authorities and Government to examine how they can be achieved.”
