West Midlands Children's Services Member summit

Lorna Fitzjohn HMIRegional Director, West Midlands27 January 2016

West Midlands management team

Regional DirectorLorna Fitzjohn

HMIRegional Director

Jane Millward, Senior HMI for Schools and Senior Operational

Lead

Claire Turner-Jones, Regional Business

Manager

Ian Hodgkinson, Senior HMI for

Schools

Angela Westington, Senior HMI for

Schools

James McNeillie, Senior HMI for

Schools

Ian Smith,Senior HMI for

Further Education and Skills

Russell Jordan, Senior HMI for

Further Education and Skills

Sarah Urding, Senior HMI for Social

Care

Lynn Radley, Senior HMI for Social

Care

What does inspection of schools tell us?

Stability means that southern regions continue to dominate, although the gap between the best and worst has narrowed

Good or better providers in the West Midlands by remit

The proportion of good or better early years by local authority, August 2015

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The proportion of good or better primary schools by local authority, December 2015

The proportion of good or better secondary schools by local authority, December 2015

What do results tell us?

Progress KS2 to KS4

% of pupils making expected progress

In the West Midlands, GCSE results were varied and generally below the England level (2015)

% achieving 5+ GCSEs A*-C or equivalent including English and mathematics

England level, 2015

FSM attainment by local authority (5+ GCSEs including English and maths) 2015

Some local authorities in the West Midlands saw an improvement from 2014 to 2015, but the majority saw a decline

%pt change in proportion achieving 5+ A*-C GCSEs including English and maths, 2014 to 2015

% pupils attaining 5+ GCSEs at A*-C including English and maths in the West Midlands (2014)

Academy chains in the West Midlands| 17

Local Authority schools LLEs/NLEsTeaching

school NLE/LLETeaching

schoolBirmingham 447 75 14 6 32Coventry 120 20 4 6 30Dudley 108 12 3 9 36Herefordshire 99 10 2 10 50Sandwell 119 16 8 7 15Shropshire 153 19 3 8 51Solihull 82 4 1 21 82Staffordshire 398 32 3 12 133Stoke-on-Trent 99 18 5 6 20Telford and Wrekin 75 10 1 8 75Walsall 121 10 4 12 30Warwickshire 244 30 3 8 81Wolverhampton 112 12 1 9 112Worcestershire 243 22 9 11 27

England 21976 2686 562 8 39

Number of… Number of schools per…

Teaching schools/NLE/LLE

What should you do?

Know your schools (including academies) well

Have high aspirations for your children Challenge those who don’t Question and challenge school leadership Celebrate success No excuses

Update and future of inspection

Lessons learnt so far on the new framework

Key principles are being met:Inspect the right things in the right way through a standardised inspection framework.

Provide comparable and accurate information for parents, carers, learners and employers to inform their choices.

Deliver timely inspections where there are signs of decline or improvement.

Have a proportionate approach to inspections.

Ensure rigorous quality of all inspections.

Lessons learnt so far on the new framework

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We have received positive feedback from providers in the education remits who have now had a short inspection, with senior leaders commenting that they have found the inspections to be rigorous, challenging and helpful.

Additionally, in schools, our recent YouGov poll of teachers’ views supported the new arrangements, with 69% of respondents agreeing that short inspections are a ‘positive change’ in the way we inspect.

We are evaluating this term’s inspections and the lessons learned have been discussed with inspectors at inspector conferences.

Lessons learnt so far on the new framework

Further positivesNew Ofsted Inspectors (OI) have been well received by schools and are performing wellSchools have valued new notification arrangements and sharing of lines of enquiry between Headteachers and lead inspectorsNew short inspection reports are succinct but detailed, with a strong focus on leadership, ethos and safeguardingMethodology tests so far confirm that inspectors apply the framework consistently and come to the same judgements about conversion.

Future of inspection

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We have recently moved to inspecting new schools in their third year

Academy converters that were previously good qualify for a short inspection

We await the outcome of the Education and Adoption Bill which is seeking to enable earlier intervention on failing schools in terms of academisation. This Bill also includes the new powers for intervention in coasting schools.

West Midlands Region

Good Children’s Services:The elected member’s roleLynn Radley Senior HMISarah Urding Senior HMI

January 2016

SIF Ratings (first 76 published)

O G RI I % GoodOverall effectiveness 17 39 20 22.3Help and protection 15 44 17 19.7Looked after children 23 43 10 30.3Adoption 3 36 31 6 51.3Care leavers 1 24 40 11 32.9Leadership, management and governance 3 18 38 17 27.6LSCB 23 38 15 30.3

Good Children’s Services:

• The elected member’s role

West Midlands

O G RI I % GoodOverall effectiveness 1 2 3 16.7Help and protection 1 2 3 16.7Looked after children 1 4 1 16.7Adoption 3 2 1 50Care leavers 1 4 1 16.7Leadership, management and governance 1 2 3 16.7LSCB 1 2 3 16.7

Common weaknesses

• Management oversight• Changes in social worker, managers and leaders• Performance management and data• Drift and delay, mainly in children’s case work• Recognising potential cases of child sexual

exploitation• Managing children who go missing.

Lead member for children’s services

Corporate parents Scrutiny and challenge

Elected member duties

Slide 2 of 17

The single inspection framework

Framework and evaluation schedule for the inspections of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers

6 October 2015

Key judgement: Leadership, management and governance

• The Director of Children’s Services (DCS), the lead elected member and the senior management team have a comprehensive knowledge about what is happening at the ‘front line’ to enable them to discharge their responsibilities effectively. • They know and understand the difference that

help, care and protection are making. • They oversee systematic performance

management and monitoring that demonstrate rigorous and timely action in response to service deficiencies or new demands.

Key judgement: Leadership, management and governance

• The local authority works with partners to deliver early help, protect children and young people, improve educational attainment and narrow the gap for children looked after and care leavers. • It acts as a strong and effective corporate parent

for children looked after and those leaving or who have left care. • Leaders, both professional and political, drive

continuous improvement so that the local authority is consistently effective as the lead agency for the protection and care of children and young people and as a corporate parent.

Inspection reports• Elected members are passionate and ambitious and

have high aspirations for children and young people• Political leaders create meaningful opportunities for

young people to join them in strategic thinking and planning. They engage well with young people and take their views seriously

• Elected members are regularly provided with accurate data and management information to enable them to track and monitor performance and challenge any lack of progress.

• Elected members provide robust challenge through cross-party scrutiny arrangements

• Members have been well briefed about key issues such as child sexual exploitation and radicalisation

Inspection reports• The lead member understands the challenges facing

children’s social care at both strategic and operational levels

• This is achieved through activities such as meeting regularly with teams, shadowing social workers on home visits, meeting children and families and being an active member of the LSCB, corporate parenting board and adoption panel

• The Leader of the Council and elected members take an active interest in frontline practice and regularly visit services. They ensure that children’s services are financially prioritised by the council

• All 44 councillors signed the declaration of corporate parenting

Inspection reports• Political leaders and chief officers state that children’s

social care is not in the top two priorities for the Council. This limits the effectiveness of those with lead responsibility for Children’s Social Care to drive up standards and sustain longer-term change

• Progress has been hampered by the persistently poor quality of performance management information available within the children’s services, from electronic case file and data systems which are still being developed

• The local authority struggled to provide inspectors with accurate performance management information that was outcome focused. This… limits the ability of senior leaders and elected members to analyse and challenge performance

Inspection reports

• Members of the corporate parenting panel do not have sufficient knowledge and understanding of their roles and responsibilities to make critical enquiries about the quality of services for looked after children

• They do not ask the right questions or undertake the right activities to have a good enough understanding of frontline practice

• As a corporate parent, the local authority has not analysed, prioritised and planned sufficiently to improve outcomes for children looked after and care leavers. Corporate parenting board members cannot give clear evidence of how or where they have made a positive difference for children

Good lead members•Champions for children •Closely involved in strategic policy•Know about performance, quality assurance and efficiency•Able to judge the overall effectiveness of commissioning•Visible to service users and staff, listening to children, young people, parents and carers in order to identify gaps in service or service improvements.•Regional networks and buddy arrangements•Statutory guidance•LGA guidance: Lead member role and key relationships

Good corporate parents

Members of the corporate parenting panel demonstrate a sound understanding of the key issues facing looked after children and care leavers. The panel is well attended by looked after children and care leavers, council members from all parties, foster carers, the virtual school and the clinical commissioning group. It is focusing on the right things, considering key issues such as education and health systematically and in detail, while also ensuring that looked after children can bring the issues that are most important to them (such as pocket money).

Good scrutiny and challenge• Cross-party collaboration• Relates to strategic priorities• Based on first hand knowledge• Monitors external trends • High quality performance information• Outcomes – What difference has this made

for children?• Briefing for Children’s Services Lead

members and Scrutiny Chairs: How well do you know your children’s services?

Getting to good | 39

• Do I understand the strengths and weaknesses in our children’s services• Do I know about the needs and

achievements of children we look after• Are our care leavers given the best

possible support with moving into independence• Would it be good enough for my child• How do we know whether our services

improve vulnerable children’s lives?

Questions for councillors

https://www.gov.uk/ofstedhttp://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/

And many of our presentations are at:

Ofsted on the web and on social media

https://uk.linkedin.com/company/ofsted

@Ofstednews

http://www.slideshare.net/Ofstednews