External Feedback

Children and Young People

Annual rating of council children’s services 2009

Gateshead Council’s children’s services received a rating from the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted).

Ofsted has given the council a rating of ‘performs well’. The assessment highlighted that performance against a majority of the national measures is at least in line with similar areas and broadly in line with national levels.

Strengths

Every school in Gateshead has been rated to be at least satisfactory with a higher than average number of primary and secondary schools rated as good or outstanding
Achievement at age 16 matches the national figure and minority ethnic groups do better than in similar areas. High numbers of young people achieve level 2 qualifications by the age of 19
A high proportion of nurseries are good or better
The pupil referral unit is good
Performance of the fostering agency is good
The difference in the performance of children and young people whose circumstances make them vulnerable and others of the same age is narrowing and the gap is closing more rapidly than in similar areas and nationally.

Areas for improvement

Childminder and childcare settings are satisfactory overall. They do not do as well as similar areas or as seen nationally in being healthy and staying safe
The proportion of children’s homes that are good is smaller than in similar areas
Proportion of 16-19 year-olds not in education, employment or training

The Annual Rating is closely linked to the local authority ‘performance profile’. The profile draws together findings from across Ofsted inspections and the national performance indicators for children and young people. Both the annual rating and the performance profile are available on the Ofsted website|.

Our Response

The council is not required to send a formal response to the findings of this review. However, the recommendations are included in our service plans to improve service delivery.

Annual Unannounced Safeguarding Inspection

The annual Ofsted unannounced safeguarding inspection took place in March 2010. The inspection focused on the quality and effectiveness of the council’s procedures in relation to child protection arrangements, and their impact on reducing and preventing child abuse and neglect.
The inspection found that arrangements were satisfactory and delivered in accordance with national guidance. There were no areas that needed urgent action but some areas were identified for development.

Strengths

Procedures to ensure balanced workloads across the team
Good management arrangements resulting in teams sharing responsibility and knowledge of difficult cases
Social workers using different methods to involve children and young people in their assessments and plans
The wide range of family support services reduces the need for more intensive work in some cases
Recording of culture, religion, language needs and disability in every case so that they are taken into account in developing individual plans
Improve use of available audit systems to monitor consistency and record management decisions
Ensuring assessments by social workers are typed up quickly for recording purposes
Quality of assessments is not always consistent

The inspection will contribute to Ofsted’s annual review of the performance of the Authority’s Children’s Services for 2010.
A letter setting out the findings of the inspection is available on the Ofsted |website.

Our Response

The Council is preparing an action plan in response to these findings and a copy will appear on this page once it has been finalised