Brighton & Hove’s children’s services have been rated as ‘Outstanding’ by an Ofsted Inspection of Local Authority Children Services (ILACS).
The inspection in March 2024 saw Brighton & Hove City Council’s children’s services improve from 2020’s ‘Good’ rating to an ‘overall effectiveness of Outstanding’.
An ILACS focuses on the effectiveness of a council’s services across 4 main areas:
- the impact of leaders on social work practice
- the experience and progress of children who need help and protection
- the experiences and progress of children in care
- the experiences and progress of care leavers
The council was graded as 'Outstanding' across 3 of these 4 areas leading to the top grade for overall effectiveness.
Incredible support
Councillor Jacob Taylor, co-chair of the council’s Children, Families and School’s Committee, said: “This ‘Outstanding’ rating is well-deserved. I’d like to thank all our children’s services staff for the incredible job they do in supporting children and their families in the city.
“Set against a background of increasing demand, stretched resources and huge budget pressures, the positive feedback on the level of support offered by our children’s services is all the more impressive.
“Our priority is to make sure that all children and young people in the city get the right help at the right time. While there are challenges ahead and areas to improve, it’s fantastic to see our children’s services in such a strong place.”
Making a positive difference
Key feedback from the Brighton & Hove children’s services inspection report published today (Thursday 17 May), noted that:
- The quality of work is strong throughout children’s social care services and is making a positive difference to the progress and experiences of children and families in Brighton & Hove.
- Social workers know their children very well and talk about them with great affection, warmth and care.
- Children subject to child-in-need or child protection plans are helped by skilled and knowledgeable social workers.
- Most children experience continuous, long-standing and trusting relationships with their social workers, enabling them to make progress and to feel safe at home.
- Social workers consciously choose to work in Brighton & Hove. As a result, there are exceptionally low levels of temporary or short-term staff.
- Staff are drawn by the strong commitment to anti-discriminatory practice and the relationship-based practice model. They value the highly supportive, child-centred environment in which they practise and feel that the responsibility for children is shared.
- Management oversight is thorough at all levels and social workers value the individual and group supervision, within each of the small discrete teams.
- Social workers have manageable, mixed caseloads, reflecting the complexity of needs faced by the children, young people and families they support.
Areas to improve
The inspection noted 2 specific areas for improvement around the sufficiency of placements for children with complex needs; and ensuring consent was consistently gained and recorded when referrals are received at the Front Door for Families.
More information