Issue - meetings

To receive a verbal update from the Director of Children’s Services.

Lorraine Butcher, Director of Children’s Services, attended to provide an oral brief on the outcomes of the Announced Inspection of the Contact, Referral and Assessment arrangements. In providing some key headlines, it was reported that the service had received positive feedback in a number of areas, outlined as follows:

·         Quality of case work

·         Partnership working

·         Significant improvement in educational outcomes for Cared for Children

Ofsted were particularly impressed at the progress that had been made considering the level that services were at when inherited from Cheshire County Council. Lorraine Butcher noted that Cheshire East had not been rated as ‘good’ due to the fact that an authority needed to show improvement for more than two years to be rated as such; something which was impossible for the newly formed authority. Despite this, the service was confident that a solid base line had been set for further improvements to be made. These were outlined as follows:

·         Improving safe care assessments

·         The extent to which children and their family’s views were taken into account when shaping services.

·         Equality and Diversity issues

·         Increased availability of care placements in the local area.

The full report would be published on 12 August 2011 and it was suggested that a formal report could be brought to the Committee on 20 September 2011 outlining the findings and subsequent action plan.

RESOLVED – That the Director of Children’s Services be requested to submit a report at the next meeting of the Committee outlining the findings of the Announced Inspection and the resulting action plan.