Our assessments:

1. Our assessments: • Outcomes of the 2011 Announced Inspection of Safeguarding and Children in Care across the Medway Partnership: Ofsted & CQC • Annual Children’s Services rating for 2011

2. what is the announced? • part of a wider system of inspection of Children’s Services • deep look at safeguarding and support for LAC across the partnership • two groups of inspectors: Ofsted and CQC • implemented on a 3 yearly cycle unless concerns raised by other inspections • results in 2 reports – CQC and Ofsted

3. approach of the announced • reviewing our own self evaluations • discussions, interviews and focus groups with key staff and stakeholders • analysing and evaluating reports and data • reviewing a sample of case files • following up findings of previous inspections

4. safeguarding judgements on our partnership • children and young people in Medway are safe and feel safe • overall effectiveness is adequate, with good ambition and prioritisation and good partnership working

5. our safeguarding headlinesworking well: • children and young people in Medway are safe in schools and feel safer in the wider community. • cross party, there is political support to ensure children are safe • partners across Medway know our vulnerable children and joint working and commissioning is effective between health, police, children’s social care and education to keep children safe and cared for

6. our safeguarding headlinesworking well: • preventative services are wide ranging and make a real difference for children • schools and early years provision support vulnerable children to achieve good educational outcomes • the views of all children, young people and parents contribute well to service design and delivery

7. our safeguarding headlinesworking well: • regulated care services are consistently good or better, eg. fostering, adoption, respite care • senior leadership is effective in driving improvement and managers are clear about the quality of standards they aim to achieve • the Medway Safeguarding Children’s Board and the Medway Children’s Trust have clear and ambitious targets to improve life for all children, especially the most vulnerable

8. our safeguarding headlinesworking well: • plans are clear, effective and influenced by children’s views • resources are adequate across the partnership • staff feel well supported across the partnership • thresholds are clear and generally understood • good and effective approaches to support community cohesion and counteract discrimination

9. our safeguarding headlinesmore to do on: • practice • quality and consistency of social care practice • communicating well with people making referrals • making sure families understand all aspects of child protection planning • involving children in their child protection conferences • systems • checking qualifications • improving IT recording systems

10. our safeguarding headlinesmore to do on: • health • security at A&E • mental health place of safety, advice and assessments • children always seen separately from adults • equality of access to forensic facility • capacity to do CAFs • safeguarding training • partnership • access to CAMHS for practitioners • timely information from partners to each other about domestic violence

11. looked after children judgements on our partnership • services for children in care are improving • overall effectiveness is adequate, with good outcomes for children and young people on enjoy and achieve and making a positive contribution

12. our children in care headlinesworking well: • children and young people in care have good opportunities to contribute to key decisions in their life • children and young people feel valued and listened to by senior managers, their views are taken seriously and contribute to service improvements • the Old Vicarage, the council’s own children’s home is outstanding and the standards of care and support are highly valued by the young people who live there

13. our children in care headlinesworking well: • the Children in Care Council makes a real difference, for example, establishing a laptop library, securing better housing choices for care leavers and increasing the leaving care grant and contributing to social work training • the Pledge to Children in Care is well understood and supported by councillors, who are proactive in representing looked after children’s interests and lobbying for improvements to provision

14. our children in care headlinesworking well: • partnerships are productive with effective joint working, to make sure children in care are safe, happy, healthy and with a bright future • children and young people have good access to positive activities, they value Challengers, appreciate leisure passes, youth service activities, summer schools and involvement in the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme • children and young people are in stable, settled placements, which meet their needs well with minimal use of external placements

15. our children in care headlinesworking well: • there is a committed workforce across the partnership working well together and making effective use of resources for children and young people in care • there are good permanency outcomes for looked after children, with high numbers of children placed in adoptive families and in special guardianship arrangements • schools are inclusive, avoid exclusion and work well to achieve good educational outcomes for LAC; young people rate school based support highly

16. our children in care headlinesworking well: • care leavers are well supported to continue in education or training and those who wish to go to University are given every encouragement and financial support. • energetic and skilled leadership by senior managers has improved the quality of services

17. our children in care headlinesmore to do on: • health • providing children with their health histories • improving health assessments • reducing ‘do not attend’ rates • practice • everyone committed to importance of ‘life story work’ • system • making sure all foster carers know about training and development and recompense arrangements for children with complex needs • external placements that provide maximum value

18. our next stepsagree a joint action plan to cover key improvements: • improving the quality of practice in social care – Medway Model of Practice • improved facilities at A&E for children and young people • provide a clear place of safety for young people who may have mental ill health out of hours • procure a new ICT system to support social care

19. our next steps: • better partnership working on SPA for CAMHS and domestic violence • improve health assessments of LAC • improve commissioning of external placements • improve information to foster carers on children with complex needs

20. the vital social care signs: • delay and drift in responding to needs of children • poor quality partnership working • lack of shared understanding of systems, processes and thresholds • performance management, development & oversight of social workers • LSB challenge

21. children’s services assessment rating • performing well • informed by data and judgement

22. working well • sustaining improvements between 2010/11 • EYFS achievements of young children • KS4 standards and L2/3 attainment • narrowing gaps for: • Black and Asian young people; • students from families on low incomes • educational outcomes for LAC and opportunities for them to contribute to key decisions

23. children’s services assessment rating • more to do: • improve the quality of childminders • accelerate improvements in KS2 • - enable 19 years olds from families with lower income to achieve well at L3

24. the vital school signs • Schools that succeed and, many in Medway • do, are characterised by: • high expectations, no excuses – both for academic success and behaviour that supports learning • clear, shared values and moral purpose that every member of the school community endorses and puts into practice • every lesson counts: teaching time is maximised

25. the vital school signs • focus on the fundamentals. Children need a firm foundation in literacy and numeracy in order to be able to access the wider curriculum • ‘this is the way we do things here’ evident in consistent approaches to teaching and learning, school and classroom routines and behaviour policies, supported by monitoring, performance management and staff development • feedback to children and staff that is constructive and developmental • cultivating aspiration, achievement and ambition for all children.