Setting

Summary report for children and young people

The purpose of the inspection is to look at how well the council and other organisations help and protect children and young people to be safe from harm and to be well cared for.

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Summary report for children and young people

Overall we rated Kingston-upon-Thames as inadequate for how effective child protection services are. All of our grades are explained in the table below:

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Summary report for children and young people

Outstanding A service that is significantly better than required at keeping children and young people safe Good A service that is better than required at keeping children and young people safe Adequate A service that is doing what is required to keep children and young people safe Inadequate A service that is not doing what is required to keep children and young people safe

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Summary report for children and young people

Here is a summary of the things we found at the inspection that were generally adequate or good and the things we told the Director:

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Summary report for children and young people

When the council get clear information about a child that needs protection they do something straight away and this is much better than before.

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Summary report for children and young people

Professionals that work with children have a better understanding of when and how they should report their concerns to the council.

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Summary report for children and young people

Recently social workers are making sure the work they do with the families is recorded quickly and that their notes are up to date.

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Summary report for children and young people

There is some good direct work being done by social workers, family support workers and key workers with children and families.

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Summary report for children and young people

The work done by social workers to understand children’s needs and make sure they are protected is improving overall. They are making sure they get all the information they can from other professionals that know the children.

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Summary report for children and young people

Social workers are positive about their jobs and can talk to senior managers easily.

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Summary report for children and young people

There is a wide range of early help services available and these are now working together to ensure families get a better service than before.

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Summary report for children and young people

Good work ensures that children attend school, exclusions are rare and very few children are missing from school. When children are missing from school or educated at home the council does all they can to make sure they are safe.

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Summary report for children and young people

Here is a summary of the things we found at the inspection that needed improving and the things we told the Director:

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Summary report for children and young people

Inspectors found that some information that comes into the council about children who may need help and protection is not always clear. When this happens it is not always passed to the right people quickly, which means some children are left at risk. The council has put plans in place to improve this straight away and make sure that families move in and out of the right services at the right time.

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Summary report for children and young people

Children and young people’s views are often not heard at important meetings about their future because very few children attend and they are not always offered the support they need to attend.

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Summary report for children and young people

The council are making sure they often check the quality of the work of social workers by looking at children’s case files. But, they do not always make sure that the social workers use what the council has learnt from the cases to improve their work in the future.

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Summary report for children and young people

Social workers do not always have good chances to think about their work with their managers and make sure that what they are doing is really improving things for the children and young people.

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Summary report for children and young people

The council does not have enough permanent social workers and need to make sure they are doing all they can to make sure they do.

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Summary report for children and young people

Not enough children who are living with an adult who is not a close family member are known to the council. This is called private fostering. The council and police in Kingston are not working closely enough to ensure children are protected.

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Summary report for children and young people

The council need to make sure they do the right things when a child goes missing from their home.

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Summary report for children and young people

The children who are not at immediate risk of significant harm, but still need the support of a social worker do not always get one quickly enough. When they do get a social worker there is not always a clear plan to make their situation better.

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Summary report for children and young people

The council do not know whether early help, such as support from family support workers and key workers is really making a difference to the families they are working with yet. They have put in place ways to measure this in the future.

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Summary report for children and young people

The full inspection report was published on 12 July 2013. The council will now prepare a plan to show how they will improve things. It will also say when they are going to talk to children and young people about what they are going to do and which groups they are going to talk to.

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Summary report for children and young people

If you would like to look at the full inspection report you can find this at http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/local-authorities/kingston-upon-thames

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