Setting

Beate Wagner Director of Children’s Services Council House Solihull West Midlands B91 3QB

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Monitoring visit to Solihull children’s services

This letter summarises the findings of the monitoring visit to Solihull children’s services on 29 and 30 April 2025. This was the sixth monitoring visit since the local authority was judged inadequate in November 2022. His Majesty’s Inspectors for this visit were Rebecca Quested and Alison Smale.

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Areas covered by the visit

Inspectors reviewed the progress made in the following areas:

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Areas covered by the visit

◼ Contacts and referrals including no further action/signposting.

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Areas covered by the visit

◼ Strategy discussions or section 47 enquiries.

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Areas covered by the visit

◼ Step up from and step down to early help.

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Areas covered by the visit

◼ Response to concerns outside of normal office hours.

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Areas covered by the visit

◼ Response to referrals to the designated officer.

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Areas covered by the visit

This visit was carried out in line with the inspection of local authority children's services (ILACS) framework.

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Headline findings

Senior leaders have made significant progress to improve the operation of the Integrated Front Door (IFD) in Solihull since the last inspection in November 2022. Some of these changes are part of the strategic improvements within children’s services, which have included an organisational restructuring and the introduction of a new restorative social work practice model. Partnership working has been considerably strengthened with more partners co-located within the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH). Within the IFD, there is greater stability within the Ofsted

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Headline findings

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 Textphone 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.gov.uk/ofsted workforce, stronger leadership and management support and lower workloads, which is enabling social work practice to improve. This means that the response to children who need help and support is now timely and child focused and that children and families’ experiences have improved considerably.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

New arrangements to support families through early help are leading to families and children receiving the right support at the earliest opportunity. Early help workers are based in the Family Hubs alongside multi-agency partners. Families benefit from a wide range of community-based support from workers who are skilled at identifying parents or children who may need more support. A recently launched Family Helpline is providing a point of contact for those who need early help. Those children who are referred to the MASH that do not meet the threshold for children’s social care are now contacted by the co-located Family Helpline staff to discuss what support they may need. This proactive approach leads to families receiving effective early help assessments and support plans, which is making a positive difference for many children. When children's needs escalate, this is appropriately identified and

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Findings and evaluation of progress

intervention with the family transitions to children's social care.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Contacts and referrals are managed effectively and efficiently in the MASH. This represents considerable progress since the inspection in November 2022. Contacts are responded to promptly by confident and experienced social workers. Social workers complete timely MASH assessments that consider historic information. They speak with parents, and children when this is appropriate, to understand and explore issues in a sensitive way. Parental consent is explored, and social workers ensure that parents understand any concerns and what will happen next. There is consideration of the children and adults within family networks so that they develop a comprehensive understanding of children's circumstances.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

A daily triage takes place in the MASH of concerns about children who are victims of domestic abuse by the police, children’s social care and an independent domestic violence advocate. This ensures that there is effective and timely decision-making that results in these vulnerable children receiving the right support.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Management oversight is now consistently recorded at the point of contact and at relevant points through the process, including evaluation of the social worker’s analysis. Thresholds are well understood and clear rationales recorded, including when the threshold for children's social care is not met and how children and families’ needs will be met going forward.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Concerns that children have experienced significant harm are recognised and responded to with effective and timely multi-agency strategy meetings. Partners share key information and formulate a strong understanding of risks as well as protective factors for children. Threshold is well understood by partners, which enables sound decision-making about the need for child protection enquiries and next steps in terms of safety planning.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Child protection enquiries are thorough and responsive to children's specific needs. There is a strong emphasis on capturing the voice of children in terms of their experiences, which is a real strength. Social workers include parents and wider family members and professionals who know the children and family in the assessment. Decision-making is based on clear analysis, with management oversight consistently present.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Social workers complete comprehensive, timely and child-focused assessments of children’s needs to a high standard. Social workers in the assessment teams now have lower workloads, which enables them to get to know families well and build up trusting relationships in a short period of time. They are skilled at engaging with children and their families in a restorative way, which enables them to understand children's experiences. Social workers consider how children's ethnicity and cultural background impact on their experiences.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Social workers capture the voices of children and their experiences well, which brings them to life in the assessments. Social workers ensure that they record a clear child- centred overview of the intervention, which will help a child to understand how decisions have been made should they read their records now or in the future.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Social workers ensure that they speak with the range of agencies involved with children and families to understand their needs and experiences. Both parents and the extended family are involved in the assessment. This ensures that the resulting plan and safety planning are developed with everyone around the child.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

There are appropriate applications of threshold within assessments, which means that children receive the right help and support. For some families, work is completed during the assessment that results in them no longer needing social care intervention. Some assessments lead to specialist services being provided when needs are identified, such as from the exploitation team and domestic abuse services.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Management oversight in the assessment teams is strong. There is clear direction provided for social workers at the point of allocation and then at key points during the assessment. Detailed rationale is provided to support the recommendations for next steps.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Assessments of children who are young carers provide very clear accounts from children of their feelings and their daily lived experience at home. The impact of their caring responsibilities on their home life, relationships with family and friends, school and leisure is evident. However, the assessments do not capture children and families’ wider needs, and most do not reference or include information from wider agencies. Senior leaders acknowledged during the visit that they need to further develop the coordination of services for young carers and have a plan in place to do this.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

The emergency duty team (EDT) is working effectively as part of the IFD. This has improved considerably since the first monitoring visit in August 2023. The service is now fully staffed with experienced children's social workers who are more involved with the IFD. EDT is responsive to calls, and there is consistency provided by senior managers being available on call. The interaction between EDT and children's services is seamless. The daily handovers and the involvement of the EDT team manager in senior managers’ meetings have improved the effectiveness of the service in responding to children's needs out of office hours.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

The local authority designated officer service is well established in Solihull. Referrals are dealt with in a timely way, and appropriate advice is given. Position of trust meetings are arranged when required and oversight is maintained, ensuring that actions are followed through. Records could be strengthened to reflect when referrals are made to the MASH in relation to adults in a position of trust who are subject to allegations and who have children.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

The leadership of the council prioritises the needs of children. The effectiveness of the strategic quartet – the chief executive, the leader of the council, the lead member for children and the director of children’s services – has driven forward the improvement plans through continued political and financial commitment to children in Solihull. The support of the commissioner has strengthened the response, and the regional improvement partner has added strategic and operational capacity. Senior leaders have a strong understanding and grip on the development of practice. The self-evaluation was accurate in demonstrating the significant progress that has been made in improving experiences of children and families who need help and support within the IFD.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

There is a culture of the needs of children being everyone’s business across the council and partners. The improved involvement of partners is demonstrated by the multi-agency commitment to the effective MASH steering group, the development of the early help strategy and offer and the co-location of partners in the MASH.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

An organisational restructuring took place six months ago following consultation with the workforce. This is making a positive difference to the effectiveness of the IFD, with stable teams, less agency staff, stronger management support and guidance and lower workloads enabling social work practice to be strengthened.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Quality assurance processes are well embedded in children's social care and with partners. Audit activity is showing greater consistency in compliance and in quality, reflecting improving confidence and accuracy of auditors. The judgement profile of those audits that the local authority has judged good has increased in the last reporting period, showing leaders that practice is improving. Audit activity is usually undertaken alongside social workers who told us that this supports their learning and development. The learning from audit activity is now being seen for workers and more strategically through quarterly briefings, regular meetings and specific training provided to improve practice.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Social workers and managers have access to a strong training offer that supports their practice well. They value the support from their team and managers, who they describe as always available.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Social workers and managers like working in Solihull. They are energised and excited by the changes that have been made to support children and families, including the introduction of a restorative practice model. Their workloads are manageable, which supports their well-being.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

I am copying this letter to the Department for Education.

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