Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Portfolio Holder for People – Children, Education, Skills and Early Help.

That the contents of the report and the action plan to address areas for improvement, be noted.

Reason for the decision

This report provided members with an overview of the Ofsted focussed visit and the intended actions to further strengthen the service and experiences for care leavers in Dorset.

The Portfolio Holder for Children, Education, Skills, and Early Help presented a report that set out a summary of the findings from the Ofsted focused visit to Dorset Children’s Services on 17 and 18 May 2023.  Inspectors looked at the local authority’s arrangements for 16- and 17-year-old care leavers.

He advised Cabinet that the Ofsted’s headline findings were that:

‘Leaders have significantly strengthened support and services for care leavers and have made notable improvements in the quality and standard of their accommodation. This was an area for development at the last inspection’.

He further advised that Ofsted identified just one area under what needs to improve in this area of social work practice: “The quality and timeliness of supervision” and the action plan was set out at appendix 2 to the report.

In proposing the recommendation, the Portfolio Holder paid tribute to officers and the previous portfolio holder for all their hard work and effort in this important area of the service.

It was proposed by Cllr B Quayle seconded by Cllr A Parry

Decision

That the contents of the report and the action plan to address areas for improvement, be noted.

Reason for the decision

This report provided members with an overview of the Ofsted focussed visit and the intended actions to further strengthen the service and experiences for care leavers in Dorset.