Social Services: Tameside

(asked on 13th November 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of her Department's interventions to improve Tameside Children's Services.


Answered by
David Johnston Portrait
David Johnston
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This question was answered on 22nd November 2023

The adequacy of a local authorities children’s social care is officially assessed by Ofsted’s inspecting local authority children’s services (ILACS) framework. Children’s social care services in Tameside were judged as Requires Improvement in the 2019 ILACS inspection, which was an improvement from the inspection in 2016 where services were found to be Inadequate. Focused Visits were carried out by Ofsted in May 2021 and April 2022 to monitor services, as per Ofsted’s inspection framework. The Focused Visit in April 2022 identified two Areas of Priority Action (APAs).

Following this, in line with the department’s early intervention policy, the department placed Tameside into intervention and issued an Improvement Notice. The department has continued to work closely with Tameside, carrying out formal 6 monthly reviews and tailoring effective support to target the APAs. An Improvement Adviser is in place to provide ongoing support and challenge to the service including early support to the Council in establishing an Improvement Board to provide the mechanism for corporate and political leadership to scrutinise and challenge the improvement journey.

In addition, the department has provided Tameside with targeted improvement funding and brokered support from Sector Led Improvement Partners as well as co-ordinating the Local Government Association to provide a package of leadership support for the senior leadership team and wider Council, including politicians.

The priority for the department’s intervention has been to oversee progress of the two APAs identified in Ofsted’s 2022 Focused Visit. Progress of improvement has relied on stability of senior leadership and capacity within the Council. The imminent Ofsted ILACS inspection will result in a graded judgement for Tameside’s children’s services and will clearly set out what is working well and where further improvements can be made, including what further steps are needed to achieve Good or Outstanding, if appropriate. The inspection will also determine the effectiveness of the Council’s response to the department’s intervention and support.

The department continues to monitor progress and provide support via the intervention policy and regular interactions with the Council. Should assessments indicate the Council is making insufficient progress, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, may choose to invoke her statutory powers of intervention (under s497A of the Education Act 1996) by issuing a Statutory Direction.

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