Council’s child safeguarding service criticised after peer review

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has pledged to carry out a raft of children’s services improvements after inviting experts in to audit its service.

The five-strong inspection team, from the Local Government Association and Children’s Improvement Board (CIB), was invited in by Windsor and Maidenhead to carry out a three-day health check on the service in January.

The inspection was free for the council and part of the CIB’s aims to improve children’s services and reduce the number of authorities that need ministerial intervention.

Among the areas identified as needing improvement are the “pace of change” and making sure that service improvement is the responsibility of all children’s services staff.

The council also needs to be more effective in using performance data to measure the impact of its work on improving outcomes for children.

‘At no point was it threatening’: Find out why the Royal Borough invited peers to inspect its child safeguarding services

The inspection team looked at case records, contact, referral and assessment processes and observed social workers.

The aim of the peer review was to mirror Ofsted’s ten-day inspection process of children’s social care services.

In her response to the teams findings, the council’s interim director of social services Angela Wellings said she accepted all the recommendations and has already set up a group to address each concern. The group, chaired by Wellings, meets weekly.

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