Praise from Ofsted for Calderdale Council's "consistent and robust" children and young people's services
Calderdale Council is delivering services to protect children from risks outside the family – including sexual or criminal exploitation – consistently and robustly, says a national watchdog.
Ofsted inspectors spent time with the council’s Children and Young People’s Services team to run the rule over threats children might face outside the home and how they are protected from these.
They found that in Calderdale: “There are effective arrangements in place to identify and comprehensively assess their needs.
“When exploitation is an identified risk, children’s cases are swiftly allocated to the child exploitation team.
“The delivery of consistent and robust services to children and care leavers at risk of extra-familial harm is enhanced by close working relationships across the multi-agency safeguarding partnership.
“Partnership working is a strength in Calderdale and the range of support and interventions available are contributing to a reduction in risk for many children and care leavers.”
The council’s director of Children and Young People’s Services, Julie Jenkins, said the inspectors homed in on the importance of partnership working including with the police, where a specialist team of officers worked alongside social workers.
And the partnership is much wider, drawing intelligence about young people in vulnerable situations from extra eyes and ears in the community.
This comes from people who might encounter them, especially if they are missing from home – for example the night time economy including taxi drivers, hotel staff and more.
The inspectors said there was a “robust and effective” response when children go missing from home and care.
Cabinet member for Children and Young People’s Services, Coun Adam Wilkinson (Lab, Sowerby Bridge) said Ofsted had picked up on specialised teams drawn from an established multi-agency approach.
“It is something we are really proud of,” he said.
Keeping young people safe was an issue nationally and in Calderdale close partnership working, hard work by experienced staff and cross-party political support for the work all played a part in effective response, said Coun Wilkinson.
“We’re not complacent though, and are already taking on board Ofsted’s feedback on what we could do better, to make sure we can continue to help improve young people’s lives across Calderdale,” said Coun Wilkinson.