Thurrock Council has received positive feedback on its Children’s Social Services following a review by Ofsted.

The Focused Visit inspected the council’s services for children in need and those subject to a child protection plan to evaluate the quality of practice

Following publication of Ofsted’s Inspection of Children’s Social Care in March 2016, many areas of the service were praised during the Ofsted Focused Visit in September 2018 such as the recruitment of a culturally diverse, permanent workforce and it was noted that social workers liked working in Thurrock. The report noted that social workers have a clear understanding of practice standards and complete comprehensive assessments.

Ofsted recognised senior leaders for introducing a strengths-based model of practice and having a clear understanding of what needs to be done to further improve the service. Social Workers stated that they like working in Thurrock and value the support provided by their managers. While strengths of the service were acknowledged, areas such as workload pressures and children’s access to advocacy services were identified as areas for further development.

Sue Little, councillor for social services, said “It’s great to see that our work on improvements has been acknowledged and that Ofsted have seen how our children’s social services have continued to improve since they last visited the borough two years ago.

“From the Ofsted inspection 2016 report it’s clear that improvements have been seen across many key areas, with early signs that learning from auditing and performance monitoring is having a positive impact on work and improving practice.

“We continue to work hard to ensure our social workers feel supported in their role and are provided with a strong array of training, personal development opportunities and monthly supervision to enable them to support vulnerable children. We welcome the feedback from the inspection and will continue to build on progress in the coming months.

“I would like to thank all the staff in our social work teams for their hard work and dedication to supporting vulnerable families in Thurrock.”

It took place on September 11 and 12.