Contribution from Kathy Bundred, Children’s Improvement Adviser for the Local Government Association

The Panel received a presentation from Kathy Bundred, Children’s Improvement Adviser for the Local Government Association, providing members with context on the outcome of the recent Ofsted Single Inspection and LSCB review.

Kathy noted it was a pleasure to read Merton’s Ofsted report and that it is one of a small number of authorities that are doing well in the provision of their children’s services; currently there are more authorities in London that are inadequate or requirement improvement than are good and outstanding.

The deteriorating performance in children’s services in London has been a shock: there has never before been six authorities in London that have been judged inadequate.  There has been a resulting debate about funding.  Certainly it is easier to be successful with more funding.  However, it was noted that in Kensington & Chelsea, which has a similar range of judgements to Merton, social workers only have seven cases to hold whereas Merton social workers will have 15. For Merton to be funded at the same level as Kensington & Chelsea would require an additional £4m per annum.

There are only three outstanding authorities in England: Lincolnshire, Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster and across England only a third are judged good or outstanding.  In London, this is a little better with 47% achieving at this level.  However, there are proportionately more judged inadequate in London compared to England as a whole, showing that the capital is more polarised in the provision of children’s services compared to the rest of the country.

Merton is one of just a handful of authorities that are currently judged outstanding for the quality of its leadership, management and government.  The others are the Triborough, Hampshire, Leeds and Cheshire West.

The shared features of authorities with children’s services judged good or higher were noted:

·         Relentless in their pursuit of the best for their children;

·         Stability in their services and their management;

·         No playing politics with children’s services.  Rather members are interested in services and are keen to learn;

·         Focus on what’s happening for children and drill down into individual cases;

·         Good self knowledge often built on a self audit which is challenging;

·         Workforce strategy in place to lessen the effect of workforce turnover.  This means there is a continual focus on training, performance and support.  Spans of control are not extended and allow managers to have sight of individual cases; and

·         Partner engagement is effective in helping to deliver services.

Merton’s Ofsted judgement has been compared with those of authorities judged outstanding and it’s hard to point out the differences.  It was specifically asked if not receiving an outstanding judgement is linked to the recommendation on health histories.  However, Kathy was able to clarify that this has also been featured in the inspection reports of authorities judged outstanding.

In response to member questions it was clarified that authorities where the Ofsted judgement has been surprising, have often made a key decision that has adversely impacted on services.  For example, removing a whole management layer, negatively impacting on caseloads and undermining spans of control and lines of sight.