Agenda item

Report from the Executive Director of Children and Young People’s Services.

Recommendation:

That Cabinet note the outcome of the inspection regarding the effectiveness of children’s services in Rotherham and endorse the priorities identified for continued focus.

Consideration was given to the report which detailed the outcome of the Inspection of Children’s Services (ILACS) by Ofsted in November 2025. This was a judgement Short Inspection, and the Local Authority received an Overall Effectiveness grade of Outstanding. All sub-categories also received a grade of Outstanding with the exception of ‘the experiences and progress of Care Leavers’, which received a Good rating. There were two improvement actions, both related to Care Leavers.

The ILACS had been anticipated for some time and was announced on 27 October 2025. Significant offsite work took place in that first week, including interviews with the Lead Member, the Chief Executive and the Independent Chair of the Rotherham Safeguarding Children’s Partnership. Fieldwork took place in the second week with 10 Inspectors interviewing staff from all parts of the Service (Family Help, Front Door, Duty and Assessment, Locality, Children in Care, Care Leavers, Fostering, Adoption, Education services, and Commissioning) and reviewing significant numbers of children’s files. Children and young people were also interviewed by the Inspectors and gave their views about services provided by the Council.

A final report was published by Ofsted on 16 December 2025. It was extremely pleasing for the Council to be judged Outstanding across 3 of the 4 categories, with an Overall Effectiveness Judgement of Outstanding. The impact of leaders on social work practice, the experiences and progress of children who needed help and protection and the experiences and progress of children in care were all rated Outstanding. The experiences and progress of care leavers was rated Good.

Inspectors found that the Council placed children’s experiences and voices at the heart of decision-making and practice, recognising a strong culture of learning, continuous improvement and cross-organisational commitment to children and families. This outcome reflected years of dedicated work by social workers, practitioners, leaders and partners across Rotherham to improve services, rebuild trust and keep children safe and supported. While this recognition was significant for the Council and the borough, it was important to emphasise that improvement was a continuing journey and that there was still work to do, as evidenced in the actions required in relation to Care Leavers.

Although services to Care Leavers were judged Good, there were also two improvement actions in relation to this area of practice:

·       The quality of pathway plans for care leavers.

·       The quality of health history information provided to care leavers.

These areas of practice would form part of the Care Leaver Service Delivery

Plan, and updates would be reported to the Corporate Parenting Partnership

Board at regular intervals. The improvement actions would also be scrutinised

formally by the Improving Lives Select Commission.

This achievement placed Rotherham among an elite group of just nine local authorities in England to hold both an Outstanding ILACS rating – the highest possible judgement under Ofsted’s Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services framework – and the top Area SEND outcome, which assessed how effectively councils supported children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. It was the only council in the Yorkshire and Humber region to achieve this combination.

Cabinet members applauded the incredible achievement and noted their thanks to the Leader and Councillor Cusworth for their hard work. The efforts of the children’s services team and the financial investment that had been provided were also celebrated.

Resolved:

1.    That Cabinet note the outcome of the inspection regarding the effectiveness of children’s services in Rotherham and endorse the priorities identified for continued focus.