1. Safeguarding and looked after children inspection
Inspection took place from 23 January – 3 February – Although two weeks prior information, timetable, focus groups, performance data etc was required. Therefore a four week process in all
Inspection is multi agency and looks at a number of areas including overall effectiveness, capacity to improve, children and young people are safe and feel safe and ECM outcomes for CLA.. There is a clear inspection framework which is followed
Ofsted and Care Quality Commission are the inspectorates involved
There was a group of 8 inspectors – 6 HMI and 2 CQC

2. Inspection
Discussions with children and young people and parents receiving services
Meetings with frontline staff and managers
Meetings with senior officers
Analysis of reports and performance data, including CYPP, Inspection reports, SCR’s
Reviewed 84 case files
Discussion with 87 CYP and 32 parents
Frontline staff and senior managers from all agencies – CSC, Police, Health Schools VCFS, CYPT, LSCB

3. Judgements Good with Outstanding Features 22 Gradings 16 Judged Good
4 Judged Outstanding
2 Judged Adequate
So what was judged outstanding…
Safeguarding: Overall effectiveness and Capacity to improve good. Children and young people are safe and feel safe Good
Looked after children: Overall effectiveness good; Capacity to improve outstanding

4. Safeguarding aspects judged outstanding
Ambition and Prioritisation
Equality and Diversity
Ambition and Prioritisation:
Strategic and political leadership give safeguarding children the highest priority
Increased spending at a time of budget restraint
Robust scrutiny of safeguarding arrangements
Robust action to tackle areas for development identified
Excellent engagement and participation with young people
Elected members are strong and effective champions
Equality and Diversity:
Good attention is given to address the range of children’s diverse needs such as ethnicity, religion and disability
There is strong focus on E&D across strategic and operationla policies and plans which support effective assessment and services to families from minority groups
Excellent engagement and participation with children and young people
Strong partnership working with voluntary community and faith sector
The safeguarding and child protection needs are identified and responded to effectively

5. Looked after children judged outstanding
Ambition and Prioritisation
Capacity to Improve
Ambition and Prioritisation:
Highly effective early intervention strategies to identify those on the edge of care
Looked after children services are based on a very accurate understanding of what is working and what needs to improve further
Good track record of continuous improvement
Performance consistently better than comparators in most key areas
The commissioning strategy for CLA is strong and ambitious
CLA are given a high priority across theb partnership
Outcomes for CLA are good and all are improving
Corporate parenting arrangements are outstanding
Capacity for Improvement:
High aspirations for CLA
Improvements since JAR in 2007
Continued improvement in performance
Good high quality training available to social workers and managers
Advocacy and Independent Visiting service good
Lessons learned from complaints and services improved
IRO service offers good quality services
Virtual headteacher providing strong strategic direction
Good progress for CYP with SEN re attainment
The num,ber of cla know to YOT has reduced and reoffending rates of CLA low

6. Areas for improvement Safeguarding
Immediately
urgently and comprehensively review the governance and safeguarding arrangements for children and young people within University Hospital Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Lancaster Infirmary to ensure children are effectively safeguarded
urgently and comprehensively review the safeguarding arrangements across out of hours, walk-in and accident and emergency health services across Lancashire to ensure children are effectively safeguarded.
Within 6 months
No immediate actions for CLA
A range of other actions for addressing within 3 and 6 months
An action plan has been drawn up and will be monitored via a multi-agency group chaired by the PCT

7. Areas for improvement Safeguarding
Within 3 months
improve the arrangements for recording strategy discussions so that there is a single record of discussions and actions required by the agencies involved
ensure that the views of the child are represented in child protection case conferences
ensure all health trusts have robust systems for capturing data to report on compliance with the required safeguarding training standard, and that full compliance is achieved

8. Areas for improvement Safeguarding
ensure that there is sufficient capacity in designated and named health professional roles across the county, and that roles and responsibilities are specified in job descriptions or service level agreements
ensure assessment and plans include the wishes and feelings of children, including the behaviours of pre-school age children and reports for conferences, child protection plans and core groups are outcome focused
ensure the LADO arrangements are disseminated across the diverse communities of Lancashire so all sectors are aware of their responsibilities to make notifications.

9. Areas for improvement Safeguarding
Within 6 Months
review the existing domestic violence service provision to determine future needs and requirements including a commitment to fund early intervention programmes for perpetrators of domestic violence before they enter the criminal justice system and counselling support for children who experience domestic violence before they reach the threshold for access to child protection services

10. Areas for improvement Safeguarding
ensure there is sufficient management capacity to support the out of hours service to consolidate the improvements made in child protection and safeguarding responses
ensure systems for completing pre-CAF assessments and CAF assessments are consistent and of good quality to provide a sound basis for early intervention work with families and where appropriate to assist social workers when cases escalate into the child protection system
accelerate plans to improve the electronic integrated recording system to improve the efficiency of case recording, supervision and recording the rationale for management decisions

11. Areas for improvement CLA
Within 3 months
improve the timeliness of initial health assessments
improve the rate of children who receive a routine dental health examination
improve the arrangements and quality of looked after children’s health records and ensure there is an audit trail to demonstrate all health issues are acted on promptly.

12. Areas for improvement CLA
Within 6 months
ensure looked after children independent reviewing officers‘ caseloads are manageable
ensure the capacity of family group conference service provision is sufficient to meet demand
ensure that all PEPs effectively support looked after children to achieve the best educational outcomes
ensure that reports of looked after children’s reviews are completed and distributed within a timely fashion

13. Areas for improvement CLA
ensure appropriate training in independent living skills is consistently available for young people in preparation for them leaving care
ensure all care leavers aged 18 who remain in education are adequately supported financially
ensure the clinical psychologist service has sufficient capacity to meet the needs of looked after children.

14. and finally... “Child protection service is managed very well”
“Child protection cases are well managed”
“ A high rate of children and young people report they are safe and feel safe”
“The quality of provision, which includes services responsiveness, the quality of assessment and direct work and case planning, reviews and recording is good”
“Excellent engagement and participation opportunities for young people….”
“LCYPT give the highest priority to safeguarding children”
Above are some quotes from the report which again highlight good practice observed. There are many more, but we would take up the whole presentation going through them all.
Well done you should be proud of your achievements and this is one important method of feedback and recognition for all your hard work.
We are not complacent and will continue to improve our services to ensure the children and young people across Lancashire are safe and fulfil their potential.