Rating Upgrade for Ealing Borough Children's Services
Inspectors rank local provision as 'good' following visit
The service had previously been rated as 'requires improvement'. Picture: Ealing Council
July 24, 2024
Children’s services in the borough of Ealing are now rated as ‘good’ following a recent inspection visit.
Inspectors had said that the service ‘requires improvement’ after a visit in 2019 but this time they praised staff for their determination to continually improve.
The inspection, which took place in April and May this year, assessed the quality of services for children such as social care, fostering and adoption and support for children with additional needs and disabilities.
Inspectors interviewed staff as well as children in care and care leavers to capture their views. They also looked at progress since the last inspection in 2019.
They found that social work caseloads across the organisation are “well managed and enable practitioners to build strong relationships with children and their families.”
Social workers were described as ‘tenacious in their efforts to establish working relationships with parents’ and that records of their visits are skilfully and sensitively written to the child.’
A recruitment drive and support put in place for social workers, including a social worker academy, have increased levels of permanent staff in the service and encouraged them to stay longer. Several staff told inspectors that they had returned to work in Ealing as an authority of choice after experiencing working in other authorities.
Inspectors found that disabled children are “well supported by social workers who have an in-depth understanding about their health needs, methods of communication and how best to support children to be able to voice their views about the care they receive.”
They also said that disabled children in care receive “highly tailored and carefully considered support from practitioners who know them and their families well.”
Foster carers were positive about the support they receive from social workers, even out of hours. Attendance levels at the borough’s schools are rising and persistent absence levels are falling in schools.
The inspectors said in their report, “Corporate leaders, including the leader of the council, the chief executive officer and the director of children’s services, share a determination to continually improve the quality of service provided to children and their families. There has been a concerted effort to drive performance and practice standards across children’s services.”
Leader of Ealing Council, Peter Mason said, “This is a hugely positive achievement for our children’s services and reflects our ongoing determination to ensure that every child and young person in Ealing has a fair start where they lead a happy and healthy life.
“I’m particularly proud that inspectors highlighted the achievements of our care leavers, pointing out the impressive numbers of them who go on to university and further education. We take our responsibility as corporate parents to children and young people in care very seriously. It’s really heartening that so many of them spoke so positively with the inspectors about the care and support they’ve received and that unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are warmly welcomed and are quickly made to feel safe and supported.”
Josh Blacker, Ealing Council’s cabinet member for a fairer start added, “I would like to thank everyone involved in our children’s services for their hard work and determination to give the best start to children and young people. We know there is more work to be done and have plans in place to ensure every child gets the best possible support.”
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We've always done that and won't be changing, in fact we'd like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we'd be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you'd like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |