To review the council’s plans, and work to date, to achieve Outstanding (Ofsted), including its self-assessment processes, ensuring that the voice of the child is embedded in Children’s Services’ work, and best practice identified (from authorities having achieved Outstanding for example). (Report to follow)
Minutes:
Martin Davis, Director of Families and Children’s Services, provided a verbal update about key performance indicators and changes to the way that their performance was being assessed.
The director explained that the Ofsted definition of outstanding was an authority that is consistently good. He then outlined a four-pronged strategy of how to reach that goal:
• Self-assessment.
• Service development.
• Roadmap to excellence.
• Line-of-sight.
It was clarified that the Ofsted assessment framework had changed from 1 September to introduce additional requirements, so the council was adapting its self-assessment to reflect these changes.
Service development plans were being reviewed to ensure that they aligned with the council’s business plan. It was explained that the majority of the council’s key performance indicators were being met and compared favourably to national averages. Some areas of work were already approaching outstanding. Areas of focus included support provided to care leavers, to ensure that consistently good outcomes were achieved. Work was also being undertaken with the Families and Children’s Transformation (FACT) Partnership to deliver better early health outcomes.
A document called Roadmap to Excellence would be written to outline the key findings from the self-assessment, as well as the changes being implemented as a result. The document would highlight key points in a child’s life and use a quality assurance framework to ensure that senior members of the council would have a clearer overview of front-line services. A Line-of-Sight framework document would be developed on the back of this to combine the different ways of monitoring performance and make information more easily accessible for Ofsted.
The director used the findings of a peer review, which found that audits of certain issues were being undertaken too frequently, to illustrate why the four-pronged approach was being adopted. Rather than trusting that a good quality service was being delivered, too many audits were being undertaken in high performing areas when resources would be better directed at auditing areas in greater need. The director stated that he hoped that the Line-of-Sight framework would help to reduce the level of unnecessary scrutiny activity. He then concluded that having the confidence to reduce audit activity in certain areas was actually a strength, rather than a development that should cause concern. The director then offered to bring the full report to a future meeting of the Committee.
The input that Overview and Scrutiny could have in helping the authority to get to outstanding and how it could demonstrate the benefits of this to Ofsted were discussed. The director emphasised that Overview and Scrutiny would benefit from the transparency created by the new Line-of-Sight document. Scrutiny would be best targeted at specific areas where it was harder to produce consistently good results, such as providing secure accommodation for care leavers. If the more difficult areas could be targeted consistently well, then they would reach their goal of becoming outstanding.
Resolved:
1) To thank the director for the update.
2) For the 4 November meeting of the Children’s Select Committee, to receive a full report on plans (including the four strands of work) and progress to date on aiming for outstanding at the next Ofsted inspection.
3) At that time, to consider how Overview and Scrutiny can best add value to that process.