Setting

Mr David Taylor Corporate Director of Children and Young People Somerset County Council County Hall Taunton Somerset TA1 4DY

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Children’s services annual rating

Ofsted guidance published in May 2009 explained that the annual rating would derive from a new performance profile of the quality of services and outcomes for children and young people in each local area. This profile includes findings from across Ofsted’s inspection and regulation of services and settings for which the council has strategic or operational responsibilities, either alone or in partnership with others, together with data from the relevant Every Child Matters indicators in the new National Indicator Set (NIS).

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Children’s services annual rating

In considering the evidence in the profile to determine the children’s services rating for 2009 it has become clear that the continuing gaps in the data are significant, particularly those relating to aspects of social care and services for Looked After Children. Ofsted has decided therefore to use 2009 as a transitional year easing into the full application of the new system in 2010. As a consequence, although the performance profile remains central to Ofsted’s rating, we have interpreted the performance bands with flexibility and exercised professional judgement with caution.

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Children’s services annual rating

The annual rating derives from a four point scale:

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Children’s services annual rating

4 Performs excellently An organisation that significantly exceeds minimum requirements 3 Performs well An organisation that exceeds minimum requirements 2 Performs adequately An organisation that meets only minimum requirements 1 Performs poorly An organisation that does not meet minimum requirements

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Children’s services annual rating

Within each level there will be differing standards of provision. For example, a rating of ‘performs excellently’ does not mean all aspects of provision are perfect. Similarly, a rating of ‘performs poorly’ does not mean there are no adequate or even good aspects. Aviation House 125 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 08456 40 40 40 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.ofsted.gov.uk Direct T 020-7421-6716 Direct F 020-7421-5715 juliet.winstanley@ofsted.gov.uk

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Children’s services rating Performs well (3)

Children’s services in Somerset County Council perform well.

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Children’s services rating Performs well (3)

The overall effectiveness of close to a very large majority of inspected services and settings are good or better. Within this, the quality of early years education and day- care provision outside schools is broadly in line with the national average, as is the quality of nursery and primary schools. The standard of special school provision is, however, well below the national average; of the eight special schools inspected, two were judged adequate and one inadequate. The standard of secondary school provision is also below the national average, albeit to a lesser extent. However, the opposite applies for school sixth forms and further education colleges, where the quality of provision is well above average. The local authority’s fostering service, its adoption agency and the measures taken to identify and monitor private fostering arrangements are all good. Also, the overall quality of the local authority’s children’s

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Children’s services rating Performs well (3)

homes is somewhat above the national average. The very large majority of inspected services and settings are judged to make a good or better contribution to keeping children and young people safe and helping them to achieve educationally.

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Children’s services rating Performs well (3)

In terms of performance indicators, the very large majority of the local authority’s figures are at least in line with the statistical neighbour and national averages. The same applies to those indicators in the staying safe and enjoying and achieving groupings. Also, for all six of the indicators which measure the gap in outcomes for children and young people whose circumstances make them vulnerable, the gap narrowed between the current year and the last.

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Children’s services rating Performs well (3)

The children’s services rating is provided for the purpose of section 138 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006. The rating of local authority children’s services will contribute significantly to the managing performance theme of each local authority’s Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) organisational assessment and therefore to the score for each local authority overall.

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Children’s services rating Performs well (3)

Juliet Winstanley Divisional Manager, CAA

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