Ofsted rates children's services 'inadequate' at Peterborough City Council

Children’s services at Peterborough City Council have been graded ‘Inadequate’ by Ofsted, the lowest possible rating.

The wide-ranging service is responsible for supporting children in the city who require safeguarding, social work and social care placements.

It was judged ‘Good’ at its last inspection in 2018, but “there has been a deterioration in the quality of practice and in the experience and progress of children and young people” since, regulators say.

“The significance of this decline was only identified relatively recently,” Ofsted adds in its report.

The council’s director for children’s services, John Gregg, said he is “sorry that children’s services in Peterborough are not currently at the standard they should be”.

Ofsted will now monitor the service. PCC also has 70 days to submit an improvement plan.

Service given ‘insufficient priority’

The report, published today, says that “insufficient priority has been given to the resourcing of essential services” in the sector, leading to “significant capacity shortfalls”.

This was because of a lack of leadership focus, it suggests, complicated by PCC’s joint service arrangement with Cambridgeshire County Council (PCC), which came to an end last year.

The most critical part of the report focuses on the experiences of young people who have grown up in care after they leave the system.

A “small but significant” number are not in suitable accommodation, it says, with some sofa surfing for short periods or living in bed and breakfasts.

Some care leavers also experience a “deterioration in mental health”, particularly if they are not encouraged to meet with a personal advisor, the report says.

“Homeless 16- and 17-year-olds have not, until recently, received a response in line with the local authority’s responsibilities,” it continues, meaning “some children with care needs have not had them met”.

Ofsted’s report also raises concerns over who is responding to situations in which children require support.

The service’s commissioned emergency duty service is “too limited” out of hours, Ofsted says and, as a result, “partner agencies, such as the police, are managing situations without social work support”.

Practitioners are, moreover, “unclear” about the threshold disabled children must meet to access support from its dedicated ‘0–25’ service, the report says, and the way it works means that “unqualified workers sometimes respond to situations which may become child protection concerns”.

This “creates potential delay in these concerns being fully assessed”, it adds.

New leadership has ‘quickly grasped’ issues

Ofsted’s report does, however, say that PCC’s new leadership team has “quickly grasped” the scale and nature of improvements needed.

Mr Gregg has “brought stability and renewed focus” since he joined PCC in summer last year, it says, and the council has a “promising foundation” for improvement.

In a statement, Mr Gregg said that “improving children’s services is a top priority for our council” and that PCC is “investing in our social work teams and working with our partners in health, education, other agencies and most importantly children and young people and families to ensure they are getting the right support at the right time to meet their needs.”

“Improving our service is about more than just improving the Ofsted rating – it’s about making sure children benefit from the best services possible,” he said, “and making sure they remain safe, protected and inspired to reach their full potential.”

The service was judged to ‘require improvement’ in most areas and ‘inadequate’ overall.