Agenda item

To receive a report from Helen Woolgar, Deputy Director, Children’s Services on the Outcome of Ofsted Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS)

The commission received a presentation from Helen Woolgar, Deputy Director of Children’s Social Care, and Oyeyinka Olaniran, Head of Quality Assurance and Workforce Development for Children’s Services.

Ofsted had undertaken a week-long inspection in March 2026 and published its report in May 2026. Children’s services had retained a judgement of “good” across the inspected areas.

Strengths

The commission heard that the inspection identified the following strengths:

• strong political and corporate leadership;
• stable leadership within children’s services;
• a skilled, stable and motivated workforce;
• strong support for children in care and care leavers;
• effective family early-help services;
• parent advocates and supporting families through child-protection processes;
• family group conferencing and family-based decision-making;
• the contribution of Speaker Box;
• strong corporate parenting arrangements; and
• innovation and a clear understanding of the service’s strengths and development needs.

The commission was informed that care leavers were supported up to the age of 25. Parent advocates with direct experience of children’s social care supported parents involved in areas of child-protection. Speaker Box and care-experienced young people contributed to the design and development of services.

Areas for improvement

The three principal areas identified for improvement were:

• oversight of children subject to police-protection powers;
• responses to children in care who went missing; and
• the quality and consistency of recorded management oversight and supervision.

Further areas for development included embedding life-story work, improving consideration of early-permanence arrangements and refreshing the published care-leaver offer.

Police protection

Practice guidance had been amended to require review strategy meetings and closer monitoring of child safety arrangements.

Six-weekly joint meetings between the local authority and the police had been introduced to review police-protection cases. The performance dashboard had also been updated to include specific reporting on police protection.

Missing Children in Care

A cross-service missing improvement steering group and a weekly missing children panel had been established. Training for key workers and carers was planned, alongside an evaluation of return-home interviews and the resources available to undertake them. Officers identified children going missing as the area currently presenting the greatest challenge.

The commission heard that some young people continued to return to locations or relationships where they were at risk of exploitation. The service had considered national research, worked with specialist organisations and provided mentors to some children who had experienced exploitation. Speaker Box had also highlighted the importance of distinguishing between children who were genuinely missing and older teenagers whose whereabouts were known but were late returning home or staying with friends.

Care-experienced young inspectors had been trained to visit children’s homes and supported accommodation. Consideration was also being given to training care leavers to undertake return-home interviews. The weekly panel, training, return-home interviews and improved performance information were expected to support a more consistent response. Progress would be reviewed in September 2026 and March 2027.

Management oversight and quality assurance

Monthly reporting arrangements were being strengthened to improve oversight of supervision and practice quality. The audit framework had been redesigned and the number of audit cycles increased from two to four each year. The service would continue to hold practice-learning weeks focused on priority themes affecting children and families.

Members asked how the impact of the improvement programme on staff would be monitored. Officers explained that implementation would be phased and that staff feedback had already informed proposed changes to the audit tool.

Feedback would continue to be gathered through heads of service, service managers, team managers and audit and learning officers based within service areas.

Life-story work

The council had initially established a dedicated life-story worker post. Although this produced effective work with individual children, it had not provided sufficient coverage across the service.

The approach had therefore been expanded to include:

• a revised life-story work policy;
• materials and training for the wider workforce;
• a network of life-story champions;
• weekly support sessions;
• involvement of social workers and personal advisers;
• a workflow to monitor completion; and
• consideration of life-story work during case audits and performance meetings.

Early help and the service front door

Members asked about delays experienced by a small cohort of families in accessing early-help services.

The commission heard that the council was combining two previous routes into services to establish one front door. Housing officers were expected to form part of the new arrangements, alongside a multidisciplinary rapid-response team which would provide quicker support to families. The changes were being implemented and their impact could not yet be reported. It was noted that the new front-door arrangements did not appear in the current improvement plan because consultation on the structural changes had only recently concluded. Officers agreed to consider how the changes could be incorporated into the improvement plan and linked more explicitly to the inspection findings.

Reform, workforce and financial pressures

Members asked how the council would protect the strengths identified by Ofsted during a period of financial pressure and service reform.

The commission heard that frontline practitioners, parents and young people had participated in the design of the reforms. Pilot work had tested social workers working alongside practitioners with different professional qualifications. The model was intended to reduce the number of changes of worker experienced by families. Officers also reported progress towards an almost fully permanent social-work workforce.

Children and young people’s participation

The commission heard that children and young people contributed to:

• recruitment interviews;
• Speaker Box;
• corporate parenting;
• service design;
• direct-work tools;
• feedback gathered through audits; and
• the design and development of the council’s children’s home.

The council’s children’s home had been inspected in December 2025 and  was judged outstanding.

Older children entering care

Members enquired about the proportion of older children entering care and the preventative work available.

The commission heard about Adolescent Sure Start, the adolescent hub, the Turnaround project and the Keeping Families Together team. Family group conferences, parenting programmes, a fathers’ programme and clinical support were also available.

Officers explained that adolescence could bring additional challenges, including exploitation, extra-familial harm, a breakdown in family relationships and difficulties associated with additional needs. Although the overall number of children in care had declined, adolescents continued to represent a significant proportion of children entering care. Similar patterns had been identified by other London boroughs.

The commission also heard about lifelong-links work intended to preserve children’s connections with family members, siblings and other important people where they could no longer live at home.

Future Ofsted framework

The commission discussed anticipated changes to the Ofsted framework.

Officers explained that there would no longer be an overarching effectiveness judgement, although individual areas would continue to be assessed using different terminology. The experience and progress of care leavers would remain central.

The commission also heard that an authority with children placed in unregulated provision would be restricted in the judgement it could achieve. At the time of the meeting, Southwark had no children in unregulated provision.

Corporate Parenting Committee

Members expressed concern about the cancellation of a recent Corporate Parenting Committee meeting and the length of time before the next scheduled meeting.

Officers understood that the meeting had been postponed, with a meeting expected in October and an additional meeting anticipated in December. The Chair requested that the position be checked, as members understood that a replacement meeting might take place before October.

Actions

• Officers to consider incorporating the redesigned early-help front door and rapid-response arrangements into the children’s services improvement plan.
• The arrangements for a replacement Corporate Parenting Committee meeting to be checked.
• The commission to consider progress against the children’s services improvement plan following the September 2026 review and again in relation to the March 2027 review.

The commission thanked the officers for their presentation and noted the clear opportunities for scrutiny to monitor progress during the year.