Issue - meetings

Cllr Stephen Davies sought Cabinet approval for the Improvement Plan developed in response to the inspection of GCC Children’s Services (published 1st April 2022), prior to its submission to Ofsted.

Having considered all of the information, cabinet noted the report and

RESOLVED to:

• Notes the Ofsted Inspection report (1st April 2022), attached at Appendix 1.
• Approves the Children’s Services Improvement Plan at Appendix 2,

and;

• Delegates authority to the Director of Children’s Services to make any final changes to the Improvement Plan, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Children’s Safeguarding and Early Years, prior to its submission to Ofsted.

Cllr Stephen Davies sought Cabinet approval for the Improvement Plan developed in response to the inspection of GCC Children’s Services (published 1st April 2022), prior to its submission to Ofsted.

Gloucestershire’s Children’s Services were subject to inspection by Ofsted between 7^th and 18^th February 2022. Ofsted judged the overall effectiveness of services as ‘Requires improvement to be good’ with the judgements on key aspects of performance set out within the body of the report. All elements were judged as ‘Requires improvement to be good’ – acknowledging that considerable improvement had been achieved but that more was required to deliver consistently good services.

The next stage of the improvement journey would be to consolidate the progress to date as the basis for progressing from an overall position of ‘Requires Improvement’ to that of being consistently good. The Council was  required to submit an improvement plan to Ofsted by 15^th July, a copy of which was attached at Appendix 2 to the report.

The improvement plan would seek to address the 5 recommendations made by Ofsted, along with the wider range of issues necessary to deliver consistently good services for children and families. Progress against the plan would continue to be monitored by an Improvement Board, comprising of key partner and stakeholder representatives.

The Leader commented that significant progress had been made over the previous four years and the report demonstrated improvement but there was some way to go. He thanked the staff and senior leaders and the Cabinet Member for their dedication and commitment. He thanked former councillors Cllr Boyles and Cllr L Williams for their work at a difficult time.

Having considered all of the information, cabinet noted the report and

RESOLVED to:

• Note the Ofsted Inspection report (1st April 2022), attached at Appendix 1.
• Approve the Children’s Services Improvement Plan at Appendix 2,

and;

• Delegate authority to the Director of Children’s Services to make any final changes to the Improvement Plan, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Children’s Safeguarding and Early Years, prior to its submission to Ofsted.