Services For Young People In Norfolk Looking Good

Services for Norfolk’s 170,000 children and young people are on the up, according to a glowing report by government inspectors. Children’s services and social care for young people were both given the three-point rating “good” – up from the “adequate” two-point assessment last year. The potential to improve is also “good”, as it was in 2005. The performance assessments by the school inspectorate Ofsted and the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) are graded from one to four – inadequate, adequate, good and excellent/outstanding.

The latest figures mean all services for children and young people in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire are given the same “good” rating.

In Suffolk, the three-point rating of its capacity to improve is down from four points last year, while the other marks are the same. In Cambridgeshire, social care services for children and young people have improved from two to three points, with the others remaining at three.

Lisa Christensen, Norfolk County Council’s director of children’s services, said: “I feel very pleased and proud. It’s been a difficult year because of all the changes the staff have been going through. They’ve kept their eye on the ball.” She added: “This means something to the children of Norfolk. Everything is looked at from the point of view of what difference it’s made to the children and young people in the county. Of course we will now be targeting the top mark of four.”

The letter outlining Norfolk’s overall performance gave particular praise to a number of areas. It lauded Mrs Christensen for her “very good leadership” and said the department gave “excellent support” to schools in special measures. It added that the youth offending team, youth service, adoption and fostering service and residential services were “very good”, and praised the progress made in developing services to reduce teenage pregnancies and substance misuse and to manage children in care.

The letter said: “Special mention should be made of the 50pc significant reduction in deaths and serious injuries to young people, for which the authority received beacon status.”

But the bodies highlighted a number of areas where improvement was needed, including:
– Reducing the number of children in care, which remains over 800.
– Reducing the number of children on the child protection register.
– Improving standards for key stage two and four (ages 11 and 16).
– Increasing attendance, particul-arly at secondary schools.
– Developing the role of school councils in all schools.
– Increasing the attainment of post-16 students.

Mrs Christensen said: “We assess ourselves throughout the years and we know how we are doing. I agree with the areas for improvement.”

To read the report in full, go to www.ofsted.gov.uk