Ofsted rate East Riding children's services as 'good' less than three years after inadequate rating

A full inspection of East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s children’s services took place earlier this year.

Ofsted inspectors rated the overall effectiveness of the services as good, following “significant and sustained changes in all the practice and leadership areas identified for improvement” in the previous inspection which took place in December 2019.

A judgement from inadequate to good is not common but inspectors acknowledged the work carried out by officers and “through the extensive engagement with external partners and scrutineers, the improvements in the service mean that children and young people in the East Riding receive a timely and effective response and intervention when they need it”.

Eoin Rush, executive director of children, families and schools at East Riding Council said: “This good overall judgement is a great achievement, good news for our children, parents and carers in the East Riding and a huge credit to our workforce and partners.

“The poor inspection outcome in 2019, gave us all cause to reflect and think about how we were doing and what we were doing but it also garnered a real determination across the whole of the service area to make sure we do better for our children and young people.

“The key principles that underpinned this journey were that we would not look for quick fixes, we would reflect on the culture within our organisation and also make use of all the help we could get from partners, external agencies and of course, work with Ofsted.

“Many children come into our services through our front door. The front door was a point of real weakness in 2019 and Ofsted have confirmed it’s now a point of real strength.

“Workers know their children well and critically, the help and support offered is provided through the really good relationships that our front-line practitioners and managers build with children and their families.

“So overall, the outcome from this major inspection is very good news.

“We are in a great place to continue to build on these successes while working in the areas identified that need development.”

A full copy of the report can be found at https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/44/80466