Blackburn with Darwen local authority children’s services

Inspection of Blackburn with Darwen local authority children’s services

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Lead inspector: Gareth Dakin, His Majesty’s Inspector

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Judgement Grade

The impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families Good

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Judgement Grade

The experiences and progress of children who need help and protection Good

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Judgement Grade

The experiences and progress of children in care Good

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Judgement Grade

The experiences and progress of care leavers Requires improvement to be good

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Judgement Grade

Since the last inspection, in 2022, when Blackburn with Darwen children’s services were judged as requires improvement to be good in all areas, services to children and care leavers have significantly improved.

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Judgement Grade

A new senior leadership team has injected energy and pace to facilitate improvements and ensure that children and care leavers benefit from effective social work. Leaders know their service well. They understand their strengths and most areas for development. Political and corporate commitment has translated into significant investment and innovation that have strengthened services and increased workforce capacity. Strong agency partnerships are enabling children, care leavers and their families to be well supported and make progress.

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Judgement Grade

Senior leaders are highly credible, openly accountable and trusted by staff. They have created a supportive workforce culture where staff are actively encouraged to do better for children, care leavers and families. Frontline managers provide effective supervision and guidance to staff, but this is not always reflected in children and care leavers’ records. Inspection of Blackburn with Darwen local authority children’s services 3 to 14 March 2025

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What needs to improve?

◼ The support to care leavers who are closed to the service and those who are not in education, employment or training. (Outcome 1, National Framework) ◼ The assessment and support of older children in care who are placed with their parents. (Outcome 3, National Framework) ◼ The response to children aged 16 and 17 years who present as homeless. ( Outcome 4, National Framework) ◼ The quality and impact of recorded supervision and management oversight of decisions. (Enabler 3, National Framework)

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protection: good

1. Children and families in Blackburn with Darwen benefit from a wide range of early help services. Families are enabled to access the right support at the right time. Accessible, well-established family hubs and children’s centres ensure that community-based multi-agency help is offered in a timely way. Children and families who need more intensive support are allocated to specialist family help workers and teams, who provide targeted and timely interventions.

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protection: good

2. The redesigned multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) is effective in delivering a consistent multi-agency response to children and families in need of help and protection. While there has been a significant increase in contacts and referrals, decisions to step up to statutory services or step down to early help are made based on clear assessment of need and risk. Systems in the MASH ensure that contacts and referrals are responded to swiftly by experienced and knowledgeable social workers and managers. Thresholds and parental consent are well understood and there is timely management oversight from managers. This provides a clear rationale for decisions and direction to staff and underpins appropriate decision-making for children.

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protection: good

3. MASH checks are progressed promptly with the right partners to develop a further understanding of children’s circumstances. Social workers routinely utilise assistance from schools and other agencies in considering the voice of the child, and this informs decision-making. This promotes a better understanding of what life is like for the child. When children’s contacts require a social care response, swift transfers between MASH and duty and assessment teams support prompt oversight and allocation to skilled assessment team social workers. This results in children receiving a service without unnecessary delay.

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protection: good

1 The areas for improvement have been cross-referenced with the outcomes, enablers or principles in the Children’s Social Care: National Framework . This statutory guidance sets out the purpose, principles for practice and expected outcomes of children’s social care. Inspection of Blackburn with Darwen local authority children’s services 3 to 14 March 2025 4. Decisions in the MASH to progress to strategy meetings are appropriate. Most strategy meetings are held promptly in the duty and assessment service, with good multi-agency involvement. This is promoting informed decision-making and clear safety planning for children. When section 47 enquires are agreed, children are seen quickly and have their needs and risks robustly assessed. Coordinated joint visits with other agencies support the management of risk to children effectively and identify appropriate next steps to enhance children’s safety.

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protection: good

5. There are some delays in children’s needs and risks being considered at initial child protection conference (ICPC). This is due to an appropriate increase in ICPC requests that has impacted on capacity in the business support team, which arranges these meetings, and capacity across partner agencies to attend. Positively, inspectors saw that children’s safety is prioritised during delays using thorough safety planning and strong management oversight. Leaders have firm plans in place to address the internal capacity issue and are in ongoing dialogue with partner agencies to resolve and reduce delay in children’s needs and risks being considered.

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protection: good

6. The emergency duty team (EDT) responds appropriately to urgent issues out of hours and is focused on ensuring that children are protected until the next working day. Written handovers are shared with daytime services in a timely way but the rationale for EDT decision-making is not aways clear at the recorded conclusion of interventions.

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protection: good

7. There is a robust and effective response to children who go missing from home and care. Detailed return home interviews explore push-and-pull factors, and intelligence is used well to develop high-quality trigger plans, but not all are timely. Leaders are actively reviewing the timeliness of return home interviews for all children. The response to children when there are risks linked to exploitation is robust. Children at the highest level of risk are allocated workers from the specialist Engage team alongside their social workers. Interventions support the complex needs of these most vulnerable children. Persistence and high levels of involvement, working at the family’s pace, underpin this work. A trauma-informed approach is also managing and reducing risk effectively.

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protection: good

8. When domestic abuse is a factor, the safeguarding response is swift and proportionate. Decision-making is supported and informed by strong multi- agency partnership working. Workers understand the complexities and show professional curiosity about the nature of the family relationships. They recognise the myriad risks posed to children from domestic abuse. Social workers diligently review children and families’ histories, and make prompt contact with victims, and with perpetrators when it is safe to do so. This provides a clear analysis of the risks faced by children. Inspection of Blackburn with Darwen local authority children’s services 3 to 14 March 2025 9. When neglect is present, plans improve children’s experiences effectively. Social workers and family help workers in the Family Help team are trained to use an assessment model to understand the impact of neglect for children. A professionally curious and relational approach to assessment of children’s needs

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protection: good

is taken that supports the recognition of vulnerability and disadvantage well.

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protection: good

10. Most assessments of children’s needs are comprehensive, child focused and timely. Assessments explicitly consider the lived experience of children and the situations they live in. The voice of children in assessments is particularly strong. For most children, their uniqueness, identities and family networks are actively considered. Social workers utilise this information well to develop their understanding of children’s lived experiences and their support networks. This leads to effective child-focused plans and holistic contingency planning.

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protection: good

11. When children’s needs have been assessed by a suitably qualified worker, in some low-risk circumstances family support workers with the appropriate skills, knowledge and competence hold case responsibility. Family support workers work effectively with the child and their family, providing focused and intensive help and support when they most need it. This area of practice is providing the opportunity to work collaboratively with families at the lowest level of statutory intervention and to effect purposeful change for children. For all child-in-need cases held by family help workers, there is robust and effective management oversight. All assessments and reviews of children’s plans are undertaken by qualified social workers or managers.

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protection: good

12. Child-in-need and child protection plans are timely and are focused on the assessed needs of children. However, some early help plans can be too adult focused. Most actions are clear and specific and contain contingency plans. Risks are mostly well understood by workers and managers, and interventions are tailored to address individual children’s needs.

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protection: good

13. Children’s plans are regularly reviewed through well-attended child-in-need meetings, core groups and child protection conferences. Children’s voices are well represented as part of these meetings. Meetings are attended by an appropriate range of professionals, who provide respectful challenge and professional curiosity, and a commitment to progressing children’s plans. When children are stepped up or down between family support, child in need or child protection, this is done with appropriate risk analysis and appropriate management oversight.

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protection: good

14. Children are seen regularly by social workers and, where appropriate, they are seen alone. Social workers take time to develop meaningful rapport and trust with children, using a relational model of practice. Children benefit from purposeful direct work. Workers use a range of methods to engage children Inspection of Blackburn with Darwen local authority children’s services 3 to 14 March 2025 and support an understanding of their experiences. This approach is supporting meaningful work to understand family dynamics and experiences. Some children allocated to the family help team are not consistently seen alone by their worker during home visits.

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protection: good

15. Disabled children receive effective services from social workers who understand the additional vulnerabilities for these children and their families. Assessments clearly identify when there are risks for children in addition to those associated with their ongoing health and development needs.

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protection: good

16. The local authority designated officer responds promptly to allegations made against adults working with children. Allegations are swiftly and robustly managed.

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protection: good

17. When it is recognised that children are not being safeguarded effectively by a child protection plan and concerns are escalating, the pre-proceedings stage of the Public Law Outline (PLO) is appropriately considered at legal gateway meetings. The oversight by senior managers for children in, or on the cusp of, the PLO is robust and credible. This is keeping children safer. Timely and effective help is put in place, including the effective use of family group conferencing, to mitigate and reduce risk for children. This results in some children successfully stepping back down from this process when positive progress is achieved. For other children where the PLO is not as effective, they are appropriately escalated into care proceedings.

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protection: good

18. Children who live in private fostering arrangements and are known to the local authority have their needs assessed and benefit from robust child-in-need planning. Children are visited regularly to ensure that they feel safe and that their wishes are heard.

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protection: good

19. Some 16- and 17-year-olds who present as homeless are not being provided with a consistent service that assesses their needs swiftly and makes them aware of their rights and entitlements. The protocol for these children between housing services and children’s services is not consistently applied.

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protection: good

20. A commissioned service undertakes the assessment of and provides support for young carers. Leaders have an action plan to further develop the awareness of this service and to strengthen their oversight for these children. For young carers subject to child-in-need or child protection plans, there is some variability in the quality of social work recording in their files as to the impact of these services for them.

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protection: good

21. There are robust systems in place to check the welfare needs of those children who are educated at home and those who do not attend school on a full-time basis. There is effective challenge and scrutiny around how long pupils are on Inspection of Blackburn with Darwen local authority children’s services 3 to 14 March 2025 the children missing education (CME) register. The aim is to locate these pupils as quickly as possible. The strengthening of agency partnerships has supported a reduction in the number of children who are missing education.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

22. Children come into care when it is in their best interests to do so. When children enter care, social workers take time to understand their needs and their lived experiences. Assessments are comprehensive and every effort is made to include children. This provides a valuable insight into the children’s lives, what is important to them and their histories. Children’s identities are very well explored in assessments, and this helps social workers to develop plans, with the child’s input, that are individualised and unique to the child. The consideration of lifelong links is also well embedded in assessment practice and social workers’ thinking.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

23. Care proceedings are progressed promptly and effectively when needed. Both the family judiciary and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) speak positively about improvements in the quality of social work practice and performance in the court arena.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

24. There is a strong focus on providing a secure family life for children in kinship arrangements. Social workers carefully explore, both prior to and when children are in care, whether children can move to live safely and securely with their family or within their wider network. As a result, many children move to live with people they already know and trust, via kinship arrangements or special guardianship orders.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

25. Significant attention is paid to supporting kinship carers to become special guardians at the earliest opportunity. Carers’ assessments are thorough, timely and comprehensive. Special guardians are given the same high-quality training and practical and financial support as foster carers.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

26. Most children in care live in stable homes that meet their needs. Children receive good-quality care, whether they live in or out of borough. Children’s needs are carefully assessed to ensure that homes meet their needs. Social workers consider the full range of permanence options, with a strong emphasis on enabling children to have a sense of belonging. Whenever possible, social workers consider continued and safe connectedness to children’s family networks.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

27. There are effective senior management arrangements in place to track most children’s progress towards permanence. However, when children are subject to section 20 voluntary care and enter care in an emergency, management oversight is less strong. For a small number of children, timely decision-making Inspection of Blackburn with Darwen local authority children’s services 3 to 14 March 2025 to secure permanence is not always evidenced. For these children, there is delay in them having some certainty about where their home is.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

28. The fostering service provides effective recruitment, assessment, training and support for fostering and kinship carers, helping to ensure that children have stable homes and are well cared for. Despite recent challenges and changes in the service, foster carers appreciate and benefit from the support, training and opportunities for development provided to them. Foster carer reviews are thorough and timely. The fostering panel meets regularly, providing quality assurance and constructive feedback for carers.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

29. There is a shortage of adopters, which is impacting on adoption timescales for children. Despite this, children’s experiences of moving in with their adoptive parents once identified are well planned and supported. Senior leaders are focused on strengths and areas for development in the adoption service, with consistently open lines of communication.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

30. When appropriate, families are involved in care planning for their children and family-time arrangements. Dynamic arrangements for children to see people who are important to them, including their brothers and sisters who live elsewhere, are informed by the child’s wishes and feelings and thorough risk assessment. This enables children to maintain and develop relationships with their families, understand their identity and origins and maintain important connections.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

31. Care planning is timely and effective for most children. Plans address children’s changing needs, capture their wishes and feelings well and identify appropriate next steps. For disabled children, there is some variability in the quality of their plans. Some are overly adult focused, overshadowing the needs of some children.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

32. Independent reviewing officers (IROs) are strong advocates for children and have regular oversight of children’s plans, through robust tracking activity and timely reviews. Their oversight is evident on children’s records, and IROs make effective use of the local authority escalation process to formally raise concerns about practice and progress. The response from social work managers is swift and matters are mostly resolved quickly. The demands on IROs are increasing and caseloads are high, which makes it difficult for IROs to sustain the high- quality service they provide to children over time.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

33. There is palpable evidence of a well-embedded relational model that underpins social work practice with children in care. Social workers take time to build good-quality relationships with children, visiting them in line with their needs. Social workers spoke with pride about ‘their’ children, listening to their voices and advocating well for them. Inspection of Blackburn with Darwen local authority children’s services 3 to 14 March 2025 34. Social workers help children to understand their life histories and identities using a wide range of direct work and later-life letters. Rich life-story work was seen for children in care. This was meticulously detailed and sensitively crafted to share children’s life stories with them, using words and pictures to capture experiences that they may not know or remember. These beautiful chronologies of events should provide children with the foundations to safely understand

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

their beginnings and support them to move forward with informed strength.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

35. Risks to children are recognised and responded to effectively. Safeguarding responses to children in care have significantly improved since the last inspection. Social workers and managers know their children very well. They use effective interventions and purposeful joint working with carers, families and partner agencies to better safeguard children and reduce risk.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

36. The health and well-being of children in care are prioritised. A strong emphasis is placed on understanding childhood trauma and helping staff and carers to understand and respond to children’s emotional and mental health needs. In addition to children having access to a range of universal and specialist services, senior leaders have developed an in-house psychology service called ‘Revive’. Revive provides therapeutic interventions to children and support for carers to maintain placements and stick with the child whenever possible, reducing placement instability and breakdown.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

37. The virtual school, led by a skilled headteacher, is ambitious for children in care. Children are supported to attend and make progress in education. The virtual school holds high aspirations for all children in care, which is seen through improving attendance and academic outcomes. The virtual school is taking action to address trends in attendance decline post-Year 8. The virtual school’s detailed oversight and children’s individualised personal education plan targets contribute to this success.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

38. There are a very small number of children living in unregistered children’s homes and unregistered supported accommodation. These placements are made as a last resort and at times of crisis, while appropriate placement searches are ongoing. Senior leadership oversight and social work visiting for these children are robust and regular. Should there be a need to deprive a child of their liberty to keep them safe, for most children this is appropriately assessed and presented to the family court for judicial oversight. The ongoing need for restrictions is considered in care planning and review meetings, although mechanisms to return to court in a timely way when these orders lapse are inconsistent.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

39. Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are very well supported by committed social workers, who are sensitive to the children’s cultural needs and to their Inspection of Blackburn with Darwen local authority children’s services 3 to 14 March 2025 experiences. Placements are appropriate and social workers strive to match children with carers who are culturally aware and able to support them to access the appropriate resources, education and training within their community.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

40. When there is an opportunity for children to safely leave care in a planned way, assessments are thorough and detailed, leading to support plans which are carefully crafted. These arrangements are well planned and supported by family network meetings to provide every chance of success. Contingency plans are agreed within the wider family network should children’s circumstances change. For a small number of older children who return home to parents in unplanned situations, the quality of assessment, planning and visits required under placement with parents’ regulations is inconsistent.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

41. Children in care frequently attend the corporate parenting board and some are members of the children in care group. Children are offered independent advocacy by their social workers and IROs. Inspectors were privileged to meet with some children in care during the inspection who were not only engaging, but truly invested in the meeting and sharing their experiences.

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improvement to be good

42. Since the last inspection, there has been significant progress in the service offered to care leavers, from what was a very low starting point. Most care leavers now have positive and meaningful relationships with their personal advisers (PAs). The early and purposeful allocation of PAs enables them to develop trusting relationships with care leavers. PAs work alongside social workers and are actively involved in care planning. PAs are persistent and committed to the care leavers they support and provide them with the practical and emotional guidance they need. They visit care leavers regularly and know them well. This is significant progress from the previous inspection, when care leavers said they felt detached from the service. During this inspection, care leavers spoke with passion about the value of these relationships to them. One young person said, ‘They understand the lives that we have lived. We feel the

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improvement to be good

43. Positively, many care leavers benefit from the continuity of their IROs remaining involved in their lives. For some care leavers, their relationships with their PAs and IROs continue into adulthood, through Lifelong Links.

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improvement to be good

44. While PAs are now more proactive in creating opportunities to engage with their care leavers and stay connected with them, not all care leavers who have left the service, which the local authority refers to as ‘stepping away’, have experienced good practice. For some care leavers, the local authority step away Inspection of Blackburn with Darwen local authority children’s services 3 to 14 March 2025 processes have not been followed. The analysis and rationale for not contacting some care leavers who are over 21 is unclear in their records. In addition, some younger care leavers have been closed to the service prematurely. As a result, some care leavers have not received the support to which they are entitled. This area of practice was raised as an area for improvement at the last inspection. Sufficient progress has not been made to ensure the needs of all care leavers are understood and the appropriate level of support offered.

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improvement to be good

During the inspection, senior leaders commissioned a review of contact with all care leavers aged 21 and over who have been closed to the service.

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improvement to be good

45. Most care leavers receive the support they need from their PAs and, when appropriate, from their carers, to develop the skills they need to live independently. This provides most care leavers with the foundations they need to move successfully into adulthood. Most care leavers live in stable and suitable homes that meet their needs. This includes staying with former foster carers, in supported accommodation or obtaining their own tenancies. Care leavers receive the help they need to continue to develop their independence skills.

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improvement to be good

46. Care leavers are well supported to develop and maintain links with their family and friends’ networks. PAs consider the level of support offered by families, and family group meetings are used routinely. This demonstrates how the importance of these relationships is an active consideration for PAs.

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improvement to be good

47. Some care leavers are encouraged to have high aspirations and have successfully secured places at college, university and on apprenticeships. However, not enough care leavers are in education, training or employment (EET). For some care leavers, there is an absence of ambition in their pathway plans to sufficiently support them back into learning or employment. There is a strong strategic focus, with multiple EET targets being developed and achieved, but too many care leavers are not yet benefiting from this offer. This was an area of practice that was noted at the last inspection as needing strengthening. The overall quality of pathway plans has improved since the last inspection, but records are not consistently clear on how the views of care leavers shape their plans.

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improvement to be good

48. A strong local offer is available to care leavers. They are made aware of this through discussion and direction to QR codes, online information and leaflets. Care leavers are supported to access funding for help with purchasing the essential things they need in life. This includes funding for transport, assistance with job interviews and setting-up-home finance. Senior leaders have improved the offer for care leavers with the introduction of council tax exemption for care leavers under 21. This supports care leavers to establish themselves in their own tenancies. Inspection of Blackburn with Darwen local authority children’s services 3 to 14 March 2025 49. PAs help care leavers to understand their rights to access their care histories. PAs understand the potential impact of this information on care leavers and provide emotional and practical assistance throughout this process to support their well-being. PAs ensure that care leavers have all the personal information

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improvement to be good

they need to move into adulthood. Care leavers know how to access their health records, and they have the documentation they need to move towards independence. PAs support care leavers to ensure that their health needs are prioritised, through accessing both universal and specialist health services. PAs use the strong and trusting relationships they have developed to encourage care leavers to seek the support they need, with PAs making referrals to appropriate services and, on occasions, accompanying care leavers to appointments. Care leavers can also access the in-house Revive service. The weekly nurse drop-in clinics are valued by care leavers, who say this is an accessible and welcoming service which helps them to share concerns about their health and worries in a safer environment.

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improvement to be good

50. The needs of care leavers with complex and additional needs are well understood by social workers and PAs. Transition to adult services is well considered when needed. The individual needs and worries of care leavers are well understood by their PAs, who have a clear understanding of the impact of early childhood experiences and trauma. Some care leavers have been supported to understand their experiences with life-story books, if they choose to do so. These are dynamic and updated when changes occur. Regular transition planning and operational meetings between children’s and adult services provide an overview of children’s progress and tracking of their transition to adult services.

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improvement to be good

51. Adult services work collaboratively with children’s services, enabling a seamless transition for those children with complex health needs. For these children and care leavers, social workers and PAs are active advocates in assisting them to live in communities where they have established connections, most of which are outside of the borough.

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improvement to be good

52. Support offered to vulnerable care leavers is strong. Care leavers who are in custody, those who are parents, former unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and those at risk of exploitation have their needs well met. Multi- agency working with these young people is a strength, and there are established mechanisms in place to provide operational and senior leadership oversight of the most vulnerable care leavers.

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improvement to be good

53. Care leavers who were unaccompanied asylum seekers are supported to live with or close to others from their communities. Their pathway plans place an emphasis on the importance of their access to education and the development of language skills. These care leavers are supported to access education and training opportunities that support their future careers and aspirations. They Inspection of Blackburn with Darwen local authority children’s services 3 to 14 March 2025 receive a good level of practical and emotional well-being support. PAs are knowledgeable and proactive in helping care leavers to access legal advocacy during leave to remain applications.

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improvement to be good

54. Care leavers have opportunities to shape services through involvement in the corporate parenting board. Some care leavers engage in the recruitment of staff and contribute to training for foster carers. Their experiences and opinions are valued.

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families: good

55. Since the last inspection in 2022, changes have been made to the senior leadership team, starting with the appointment of a new statutory director of children’s social care (DCS). This was followed by a range of new appointments to senior leadership roles. The new senior leadership team has taken decisive action, has set out a clear strategic vision for service development and has influenced significant practice improvements across children’s services.

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families: good

56. There is strong corporate and political support, together with significant financial investment, that demonstrate how political leaders and members understand the importance of providing good local children’s social care services. They invest time and energy challenging and holding the DCS and senior leadership team to account, and in understanding what life is like for children and their families in the borough.

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families: good

57. Through committed and determined leadership, senior leaders have created a shared accountability for improvement across the wider partnership and the social care workforce. They have driven a relentless focus on understanding children and care leavers’ lived experiences. There is palpable pride and a collaborative culture across the borough and within the social care workforce, who are responding positively and owning the changes needed.

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families: good

58. Senior leaders understand how services are meeting the needs of children and families and, importantly, where they are not. Senior leaders know most of the individual children and care leavers’ circumstances very well. The self- evaluation of practice and performance mostly reflects what this inspection has found, except for some aspects of care leavers’ experiences. Practice shortfalls identified in this service area during the last inspection have mostly been addressed. The improvements to care leavers’ experiences, which can be seen currently, have started from a very low base. Senior leaders recognise where further improvements are needed. They fully acknowledge some continued practice deficits found by inspectors, a small number of which their current quality assurance systems had not identified. Inspection of Blackburn with Darwen local authority children’s services 3 to 14 March 2025 59. Since the last inspection, senior leaders have strengthened systems to

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families: good

scrutinise data and performance information to better understand children’s experience and progress, social care practice and performance. Overall, they have a strong grip on frontline practice. Oversight of the most vulnerable children has been strengthened through the development of effective quality assurance processes and panels. In particular, this includes the enhanced tracking of children’s progress during PLO and of those children and care leavers who are deemed high risk and missing from home and care.

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families: good

60. Senior leaders use this knowledge strategically to understand and shape operationally how services are being used and by whom. Leaders seek out innovations and opportunities. Strong examples can be seen in the development of family hubs, the new but now embedded model of family help for some children in need, the focused approach to kinship care and family group conferencing.

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families: good

61. The practice of engaging families and listening to children has been completely transformed. A relational practice model is in evidence across children’s social care. The voice of children and care leavers is hugely influential in shaping most children’s plans and informing service development. Relational practice is a strength across children’s services. This approach is permeating through the workforce and is embraced by staff to the significant benefit of children, care leavers and their family networks.

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families: good

62. Corporate parenting has been strengthened since the last inspection. There is strong participation and engagement from children in care and care leavers to influence the quality and delivery of services. Co-production of services with children and care leavers is a strategic priority. Active and meaningful participation of children in care and care leavers on the corporate parenting partnership board ensures that their voice is reflected and heard. This, alongside the children’s improvement board, which is independently chaired, is promoting an ethos of high support and high challenge towards senior leaders and politicians.

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families: good

63. The relational practice model and engagement ethos can be seen in the day-to- day work between social care staff, children, care leavers and their family networks. Workers advocate for children and care leavers with vigour. They put effective energy into building purposeful relationships with children and families. The positive impact of creating lifelong links with children in care and care leavers is strengthening relationships with staff, who know children well.

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families: good

64. Overwhelmingly, staff told inspectors that the senior leadership team is highly visible and supportive. They reported that senior leaders understand the work they do and the challenges they face, and that staff trust their leaders. This leadership style is, without doubt, a critical feature which engages staff and Inspection of Blackburn with Darwen local authority children’s services 3 to 14 March 2025 partner agencies. This is successfully driving better practice, which is improving the lives of children, care leavers and families.

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families: good

65. Social workers, PAs and family help workers reported how they feel valued and listened to. They told inspectors about an open, warm and honest culture and said they feel well supported. There is an accessible and wide training and development offer for workers. Training opportunities for social workers, PAs and family help workers enable them to develop and be more responsive to children’s ever-changing needs and risk.

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families: good

66. Social workers and staff reported receiving regular management oversight, direction and support from their line managers. While inspectors could see how social workers were managing their caseloads effectively and making appropriate decisions, this was not always reflected in their written supervision records or, importantly, in children and care leavers’ records.

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families: good

67. The overarching workforce strategy is supporting leaders to have an acute focus on recruitment and retention, and this is resulting in a more stable and permanent workforce. There are an increasing number of permanent workers across the service, but caseloads remain higher than senior leaders want, especially in the IRO service. They fully recognise that caseloads need to be manageable and safe, to enable good social work practice to be sustained. Inspection of Blackburn with Darwen local authority children’s services 3 to 14 March 2025 regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education

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and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk . This report is available at https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/ . Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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