Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-05-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which local authorities have had their children’s services transferred into arms-length trusts; whether these transfers cover all such services; what Ofsted reports are available on such transferred services; and what changes in performance these reports show.

Lord Nash

Doncaster Children’s Services Trust took over responsibility for delivering all children’s social care functions, apart from services for disabled children and universal early help services, on behalf of the council under Direction from the Secretary of State for Education and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in September 2014. Ofsted inspected children’s services in Doncaster in September 2015. The judgement was inadequate overall. However, the inspection found improvement since the previous inspection in 2012, when all sub-judgements were inadequate. In 2015, all sub-judgements were requires improvement, save for children in need of help and protection, which was inadequate; and adoption performance, which was good.

Slough Children’s Services Trust took over responsibility for the provision of children’s early help and social care functions along with specific special educational needs services on behalf of the council under direction from the Secretary of State for Education in September 2015. Ofsted inspected children’s social care services in Slough in November 2015, less than 8 weeks after the Trust went live. The judgement was ‘inadequate’ overall. Despite the short amount of time that the trust had been in operation at the time of the inspection, Ofsted commented positively on the impact of the Trust leadership. Their report described how the pace of improvement accelerated since it was established. Encouragingly the inspectors reported that there were clear signs that the Trust understands what needs to change and there is evidence that it can deliver the required improvements.

Achieving for Children is a social enterprise company that delivers all education support and children’s services, as well as integrated health services for children with disabilities, on behalf of Kingston Upon Thames and Richmond Upon Thames councils. Prior to the creation of this voluntary trust in April 2014, safeguarding and looked after children services in Kingston were judged to be inadequate in May 2012, and child protection services were judged to be inadequate in June 2013. Children’s services in Kingston were judged to be good when they were inspected again in May 2015. Children’s services in Richmond were last inspected in March 2012 when they were rated good.