Update following a focused visit to Wirral’s children’s services by OFSTED

OFSTED have published its findings of a focused visit to Wirral children’s services that took place on 17 and 18 September 2024. 

During the visit, inspectors specifically looked at the local authority’s arrangements for care leavers – which are described by Wirral Council as care-experienced young people.

This was the first focused visit since the full inspection of children’s services in September 2023. Since that inspection, senior leaders commissioned independent reviews of children’s services and the quality assurance framework in order to generate further service improvement.

The report for this most recent visit states that progress has been made since the inspection in relation to the transition arrangements for 16- and 17-year-olds, the provision of suitable accommodation, the complaints process and the accessibility of the local offer.

The OFSTED inspectors, Rebekah Tucker and Lisa Walsh, identified a number of areas where the service was performing well. It said:-

• Most 16- and 17-year-olds have the opportunity to get to know their personal advisor before they are 18 – giving advisors the chance to build a relationship and understand their circumstances better.
• For most 16- and 17-year-olds, social workers have a good understanding of the risks that young people can be exposed to, and they take effective action to safeguard them and promote their safety.
• When young disabled people transition into adult social care services, personal advisers act as conscientious parents and provide appropriate guidance and support.
• Most personal advisers make frequent visits to care-experienced young people, in line with their changing needs.
• Most 16- and 17-year-olds, and care-experienced young people over 18, are engaged in education, employment and training. The strong and effective links between employability coaches, the virtual school and personal advisers, ensure that employment, education and training are prioritised
• Most care-experienced young people live in suitable accommodation that is safe and supports their needs.

The report also identified areas where there is still room to improve - specifically around standardising the quality of support for young people. It says that for some young people their needs are well met, risk is recognised and responded to appropriately and they make good progress. For other young people, there is limited management oversight, and their plans are not routinely updated.

Director for Children, Families and Education at Wirral Council, Elizabeth Hartley, said: “We acknowledged these areas and took immediate action during the visit to ensure that care-experienced young people now receive a more effective level of support.

In other areas, work is already underway to ensure improvements such as in the quality of support arrangements to keep in touch with care-experienced young people aged 21 to 25 and the quality and frequency of supervision of personal advisers and management oversight. We are also taking steps to improve quality assurance activity, including the impact of the audit function on practice improvement.

“Continuing to hone our services and improve the quality of support that care experienced young people in Wirral remains a priority for us in children’s services. As I have advised OFSTED’s inspectors, I am committed to ensuring that the service receives the appropriate level of strategic oversight to support young people to thrive.”