Wirral children’s services receives glowing report from Ofsted

WIRRAL Council has received a glowing report from Ofsted following an inspection into its ‘safeguarding and looked after’ children’s services.

The findings show that Wirral excelled in many areas of its services including Ambition and Prioritisation as well as Leadership and Management.

Ofsted inspectors spoke to children, managers, officers and looked into 20 case files as well as reviewing performance data and statistics.

The council was praised for its ‘healthy culture’ of investment in its social work teams and management support.

Councillor Sheila Clarke, Cabinet Member for Childrens Services and Lifelong Learning stressed that protecting vulnerable children is one of the most important jobs the council can do.

She said: “To be told we are already good at it by two trusted independent organisations is welcome news.”

The service was set up to provide care for the 660 children and young people who are in council care. There are 303 foster homes currently registered in Wirral and it was revealed that the council will be increasing the allowance given to people who foster to encourage more to take it up.

However, not all of the report was glowing. ‘Economic well-being’ and ‘Equality and Diversity’ were both graded ‘Adequate’, which indicates only the minimum standard was met.

The inspection revealed that Wirral ‘lags behind’ other Merseyside areas in the prosperity of young people who leave care. Only 19 out of 62 care leavers who are aged 19 are in employment the report finds.