The Ofsted Interview

Jacqui McShannon, director of children’s safeguarding and specialist services at Hounslow council, and Councillor Tom Bruce, the council’s cabinet member for education, children and youth services talk to Community Care about the ‘good’ judgment that Hounslow council’s children’s services recently received from Ofsted.
The council was praised by Ofsted for its “timely and effective” front door service and the “highly aspirational” social work for children in care and care leavers. Senior leaders were cited as having a “a comprehensive understanding of the strengths and areas for further development, underpinned by regular performance monitoring, quality assurance audits and a thorough and accurate self-assessment”. McShannon and Bruce discuss with Community Care how the council remains transparent and encourages challenge and scrutiny of its service.
The full list of questions, posed by Community Care associate editor Sarah Dennis, is:
1)How does the senior leadership team maintain contact with the frontline and their knowledge of how the service is being run?

2)What do you think have been the core strengths of Hounslow children’s services since the previous inspection and do you feel these were reflected in Ofsted’s reporting?

3)How was the inspection process managed within the senior leadership teams and indeed wider teams?

4)What has been the effect of the strong political and corporate support that children’s services receive from the wider council, and how has this benefitted?

5)What ‘further capacity’ is being built to cope with the unprecedented demand referred to in the report?

6)How has the partnership approach been strengthened and what are the next steps that senior leaders want to take to continue that journey?

7)Ofsted were particularly complimentary about the quality of services for children in care – how have social workers been enabled to be ‘aspirational’ for this group of children, and how have senior leaders embedded an effective monitoring process?

8)What is what Ofsted termed as the ‘well-established’ system for permanence options, and how has the adoption service been improved since the last inspection?

9)Can you describe some of the performance monitoring and auditing methods the service operates and how these are utilised and analysed?

10)Given the improvements in performance monitoring, how will the service look to improve supervision recording, particularly in light of Ofsted stating that social workers are speaking positively about the supervision they receive?

11)What methods have been used to help stabilise the workforce and what are the training and management support offers that Ofsted refers to?

12)And finally what are the next stages in Hounslow’s journey?

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Dr Jacqui Jensen, executive director of adults, children, education and public health at Bristol council, talks to Community Care about the ‘requires improvement’ judgment the service recently received from Ofsted.
The council was praised by Ofsted for the “considerable” progress senior leaders have made in “developing an environment where good social work can flourish”. Ofsted saw that “practice improvements were most evident” in a number of areas identified as weak in the council’s previous inspection, but some “pockets of weaker practice” remain. Jensen discusses with Community Care how the council is working to continue its journey, highlighting that the council is aiming for ‘outstanding’.
The full list of questions, posed by Community Care associate editor Sarah Dennis, is:
1)What would you say were some core turning points for the council over the past few years and do you think these were borne out of the inspection findings?

2)How would you say that Ofsted’s findings compared with the service’s self-assessment – do you think Ofsted was broadly in agreement?

3)How were staff communicated to about the report – and how does the senior leadership team maintain contact with the frontline overall?

4)How were services ‘changed’ in the way they were delivered, and how were workloads significantly reduced?

5)How were the teams restructured and how was this managed? In particular, the children with disabilities team appears to have u-turned from a weakness to a strength according to Ofsted – what has been put in place to achieve that?

6)What work has been done by senior leaders on recruitment, retention and workforce development – what has been the shift in vacancy rates and turnover in terms of figures over the past year?

7)What are the next steps for continuing the improvement of case recording and the capturing of management oversight in supervision records?

8)Finally, what’s next for Bristol children’s services?

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Yvette Stanley discusses Ofsted's annual report by Community Care

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Alison Jeffery, director of children and families’ services at Portsmouth council, talks to Community Care about the ‘good’ judgment the service recently received from Ofsted.

The council was praised by Ofsted particularly for its “impressive” quality assurance and its learning and development environment. Jeffery explains how the service implemented these measures, including how it ensures a strong supportive learning environment for its staff, its commitment to restorative practice, bow it has embedded performance management and how it plans to broaden the ranges and approaches social workers can apply.

The full list of questions, posed by Community Care associate editor Sarah Dennis, is:

1)What do you think Portsmouth council has done particularly well since the previous inspection in 2014. Was this reflected in Ofsted’s findings?

2)How was the outcome of the inspection communicated to staff, and how does the senior leadership team keep in touch with frontline staff in general?

3)Reflecting on the inspection process itself, how was this managed by the teams, and what were your perceptions of it?

4)How important has the political and financial support of children’s services from the local authority been and what has this enabled?

5)Turning on to the observations in the report itself, how has the leadership team stabilised the workforce, and how does it manage the recruitment and deployment of agency staff in terms of managing caseloads and continuity?

6)Can we get an example of the direct work that is identified as a strength by inspectors - in terms of how a social worker(s)’ practice has directly helped a family?

7)How does the council apply quality assurance. What is the ‘impressive’ performance framework that has been put in place and where do you think have been the various areas of practice that have improved that Ofsted refers to?

8)Ofsted highlighted the training and development opportunities for staff. How has Portsmouth incorporated and invested in this and what have been the benefits?

9)The way the council approaches permanence has been identified as a strength. How has this been developed?

10)What’s next for Portsmouth and what steps is the service taking to continue performance?

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Stuart Carlton, director of children and young people's services at North Yorkshire, discusses the services' 'outstanding' Ofsted judgment.

The council is the first to receive an across-the-board 'outstanding' rating under the new Ofsted inspection framework. Carlton explains some of the keys to this success, including no longer using agency staff, having a clear practice model and making sure social workers have reasonable caseloads.

The full list of questions, asked by Community Care associate editor Sarah Dennis, is as follows:

1. North Yorkshire saw a great result in its latest Ofsted inspection, the first council to be judged outstanding across the board, and the leadership team were strongly credited for their ambitious, forward thinking approach. How has North Yorkshire’s senior leadership team been able to achieve such oversight and knowledge of the services, and how does it communicate with the frontline teams and their service users?

2. Given Ofsted’s note regarding your move away from ‘auditing’, we’d be interested to hear about the approach to performance monitoring and management within the council – how has this been implemented and maintained such consistency?

3. How has North Yorkshire’s stable workforce been maintained and what has it taken to get to this point?

4. In terms of the environment for social work teams to work effectively, what would you say are the core requirements, based on the experience at North Yorkshire?

5. Ofsted were particularly complimentary about the council’s No Wrong Door initiative – can you offer some background to this and how it has been so successfully implemented?

6. Similarly with making psychologists available to all fieldwork teams under the PIPA service – what was the rationale behind this and the core benefits – and how is this being further developed?

7. What challenges did the council encounter in incorporating such services – were there risks to compliance and ‘the basics’ in performance in being creative?

8. Finally, what’s next for North Yorkshire – what are you looking at to further develop and maintain performance?

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