Walsall local authority children’s services

Inspection of Walsall local authority children’s services

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Lead inspector: Nick Bennison, His Majesty’s Inspector

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Judgement Grade

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

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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 Outstanding

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Judgement Grade

The experiences and progress of care leavers Good

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Judgement Grade

Children are at the heart of Walsall local authority. They receive support, help and services that reduce risks for them and meet their needs. The political, corporate and senior leadership are determined in ensuring that they prioritise children’s views and wishes. The voice of the child is heard and influences the design of services across the council. Leaders have created a learning organisation that has effective and accountable relationships with each other and with partners. This, coupled with strong practice and financial investment, has led to a service that is making a positive difference to children’s lives. Staff are proud to work for Walsall, and the stability of the workforce supports effective relational practice.

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Judgement Grade

Ambitious senior leaders, including political and corporate leaders, have worked relentlessly to understand the needs of the communities they serve and children’s services, which have been significantly strengthened since the last ILACS inspection in 2021. All the areas for development identified at the previous inspection have been addressed and improved. There has also been an improvement in practice across all areas of children’s services. Leaders have worked with partners to ensure that they are both engaged and active in the significant changes that have taken place, and continue to take place, in Walsall. Inspection of Walsall local authority children’s services 12 to 16 May 2025

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What needs to improve?

◼ The effectiveness of practice with every child who is experiencing harm from neglect [Outcome 3, national framework].

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What needs to improve?

◼ The effectiveness of the emotional, health and well-being support to all care leavers [ Outcome 4, national framework].

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protection: good

1. Children and their families receive the help and support they require at the right time, through a wide variety of early help and statutory services. Children who need help and protection benefit from improved experiences due to receiving effective and targeted services. The development of multi-agency hubs in early help and teams for those children needing statutory support has meant that children and their families receive a wider service provision that caters for most of their needs.

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protection: good

2. Children who need early help receive a responsive and well-coordinated multi- agency service. There are early conversations with families to ensure that children’s needs are quickly responded to. The ‘Our family’ assessments are detailed and provide a strong understanding of both the children’s and their family’s needs. These needs are then clearly articulated in plans. In most plans, actions are relevant, clear, timebound and regularly reviewed with the family and the professional group supporting them. When children’s needs escalate, there is seamless access to social work advice, guidance and, when needed, intervention. The focus by workers on meeting the needs of the child, rather than a threshold being reached for a service, has led to a greater responsiveness to the child’s changing circumstances. Children and their families receive the same response if there are concerns during the evening or

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protection: good

at the weekend. Staff routinely visit children out of office hours to follow up on concerns and consider their best interests.

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protection: good

3. When children need help or protection, they receive a timely and effective response. Multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) social workers are thorough in gaining information that informs them of children’s circumstances. This ensures that there is a clear analysis of need and risk. Social workers in the MASH understand the importance of gaining parental consent and the circumstances in which consent can be overridden. Workers engage parents sensitively, so they understand the concerns about their children and the role of children’s social care. There is robust management oversight of the work, ensuring that work is timely and thresholds are appropriate.

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protection: good

4. When children are at risk of immediate harm, the local authority convenes timely multi-agency strategy meetings. The review of risk and threshold in these meetings is thorough and results in clear actions to assess and reduce risk. Child protection enquiries work is thorough, detailed and clearly gains the Inspection of Walsall local authority children’s services 12 to 16 May 2025 voice of the child as well as of family members and partner agencies. This results in an appropriate plan that supports the child and their family and helps to reduce worries and risks.

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protection: good

5. The quality of social work assessments of children’s needs is a particular strength. The voice of the child is evidenced through direct work, cultural genograms and an exploration with children and parents of the family’s history. This leads to a clear understanding of the child, their world and the areas of strength, weakness and risk within the family network. A small number of children experience neglect for too long because assessments do not identify all the areas of concern or children do not receive timely and effective support. This means that for these children their circumstances are not improving or not improving quickly enough.

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protection: good

6. Children’s plans are child focused and have actions that accurately reflect the child’s needs. There are regular multi-agency meetings that ensure children’s plans are being progressed and that they are responsive to the child’s and their family’s changing needs. With family network discussions or family group conferences, the wider family network is proactively involved by social workers in either supporting or protecting the child. For a small number of children, their plans are not explicit in defining the contingency plans for them if risks increase in their household. This means that, for these children, neither the children nor their families are clear about what the alternative arrangements are to keep them safe if the risks at home escalate.

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protection: good

7. Children benefit from positive, trusting relationships with their social workers. Social workers enable children, through direct work, to share their lived experiences, hopes and aspirations. Where appropriate, they are also supported in reflecting on their past experiences. This means that workers have a deep understanding of the child’s world. There are a range of effective specialist services to support families to address domestic abuse, substance misuse and poor child and adult mental health. These services are well coordinated by workers to support families to make progress.

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protection: good

8. Children who are harmed through experiencing domestic abuse receive sensitive and timely support. When referrals are made to the MASH, skilled practitioners create accurate assessments of the levels of risk within the home. There are effective multi-agency plans that offer a range of interventions to children, adult victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse. The strong and positively challenging relationships workers establish with parents is a key feature of reducing the impact of domestic abuse on children.

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protection: good

9. Disabled children and their families benefit from social workers who know them well. Social workers are skilled in engaging and gaining the views of children with a range of communication needs. The assessments and plans accurately reflect children’s situations as they explore and consider the child’s needs and vulnerabilities. Inspection of Walsall local authority children’s services 12 to 16 May 2025 10. When risks increase or do not reduce for children, the local authority appropriately uses the pre-proceedings stage of the Public Law Outline (PLO). Leaders have robust oversight of the risks experienced by the child and the impact of the PLO work in reducing these risks. This means that, for most children, this work is effective in either reducing risks to them or in the local authority making timely decisions to protect them.

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protection: good

11. There is effective and robust multi-agency oversight of children who are at risk of exploitation. Children are spoken to quickly following an episode of being missing from care to explore their experiences. This helps social workers to understand the risks and push and pull factors. When risks escalate, dedicated specialist workers establish positive relationships with children to support the child’s understanding of the concerns and to support the reduction of risk. Children’s risk management plans are reviewed in multi-agency meetings, leading to a clear set of actions to reduce risk. This results in actions to manage effectively risks both to individual children and to the wider community.

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protection: good

12. There is effective oversight and management of allegations against adults who work with children. There is a rapid and appropriate response to allegations. Risks are identified and explored in multi-agency meetings. This leads to robust action plans that, through regular review, are progressed.

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protection: good

13. Children who are also young carers receive a responsive service from sensitive and nurturing practitioners. Assessments completed with children recognise their unique needs. A range of services are provided for children who have caring responsibilities to ensure that they can play, make friends and contribute to the development of the local authority’s young carers service. They are helped to develop social networks, which supports their confidence and sense of identity.

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protection: good

14. Children who are 16 or 17 years old and find themselves homeless receive effective support. The joint assessment with housing is comprehensive and well considered, taking into account the child’s views. The assessment sets out clearly whether the child meets the threshold to be looked after by the local authority. Children are offered advocacy to help them navigate this tricky time in their lives. Most children receive timely decisions either to be placed in accommodation that is suitable and meets their needs or to be supported in returning home to their parents when appropriate.

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protection: good

15. Children living in private fostering arrangements are well supported. Social workers, through their assessment work, gain an understanding of children’s experiences and histories and how these may impact on their current needs. The child and their carers receive regular, separate visits. These visits involve purposeful work to address any concerns with the placement and develop contingency plans should the arrangement end.

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protection: good

16. The local authority has a clear process for identifying children who are home educated. This process includes holding meetings with families to help inform Inspection of Walsall local authority children’s services 12 to 16 May 2025 their decision to educate their children at home. When parents choose elective home education, the authority conducts checks to assess that children’s welfare is safeguarded.

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protection: good

17. The local authority has a robust process in place to identify and support children who are missing education. These procedures are well considered and ensure that these children return to education as quickly as possible. The arrangements are managed through a well-established approach that includes information-sharing among various local authority teams. The local authority monitors the availability of school places on a weekly basis and takes swift action to ensure that these places are allocated. Additionally, the local authority addresses non-attendance once school places are offered to families. This includes following formal processes and challenging families when necessary to ensure that children return to school.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

18. Children who are looked after by the local authority receive outstanding support and services. Decision-making for children to come into care is appropriate and made at the right time. This means that children’s entry into care is well planned and ensures that the vast majority of children are placed immediately in homes that meet their needs. Most children in care are living in or close to Walsall. The local authority has increased the number of in-house foster placements and the level of residential provision for children with more complex needs. This means that most children are living within their own community and maintaining relationships with those who are important to them.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

19. Children’s needs are well understood, and social workers focus on achieving permanence and stability at an early stage so children feel secure and settled. Appropriate permanence options are explored for children, which include plans for children to return home or to live with family members wherever possible and safe to do so. Work to secure permanent homes for children through adoption and special guardianship is also strong. Adoptive parents and special guardianship carers receive bespoke support to ensure that children receive the support and help they need.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

20. Children in care benefit from living in stable and long-lasting homes. They experience positive nurturing relationships with their carers, and children spoken to by inspectors talked of feeling loved by their carers. Children are supported to maintain contact with important family members, including living with their brothers and sisters and seeing people who are important to them in line with their needs, wishes and feelings. This helps children to have a sense of belonging.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

21. Children in care have social workers who know them very well. The stability of the relationship between the child and their worker adds depth to workers’ understanding of the child’s world. Children in care are visited by their social worker at a frequency that is responsive to their needs. The recording of visits Inspection of Walsall local authority children’s services 12 to 16 May 2025 is individual to the child, and this creates a deep understanding of the child’s personal situation as well as their wishes and feelings. Social workers undertake sensitive direct and life-journey work with children to support children’s understanding of their history. They and the child’s independent reviewing officer (IRO) are tenacious advocates for children and ensure that children are involved and understand their plans. IROs offer robust oversight of children’s plans and are effective in preventing delay and applying effective challenge

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

when needed to prevent drift for children.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

22. Children in care have access to a wide range of health and therapeutic services that positively support their physical and emotional well-being. Children in care can access support from child and adolescent mental health services quickly when there are concerns about their mental health. Equally, there is a wide range of other therapeutic services that children access. Children in care also receive carefully planned direct work that promotes their attachments and strengthens their relationships with both their carers and their family. This is positively supported by therapeutic support workers, who undertake work with the child and carers and the child’s family to promote and support placement stability. Children who are placed out of area are quickly supported to access local physical and emotional health services. This means that, wherever children are living, their physical and emotional health needs are well supported

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

23. The importance of educational stability for children in care is understood and a priority. Social workers recognise that a stable school placement gives children the continuity of social and educational development they need. Social workers ensure that when children come into care, they retain their school placement whenever possible. The virtual school is equally ambitious for children in care and is ensuring that children gain access to the best possible education. The timeliness and quality of children’s personal education plans have significantly improved and support better educational outcomes for children. The virtual school has supported designated school leaders with this. For a small number of children, the virtual school is supporting school leaders with targeted and bespoke strategies to ensure that these children can access learning and remain in school. This means that children are making positive educational and

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

social progress within stable, well-supported educational settings.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

24. Children in care are involved in a wide range of social and leisure activities. These are viewed as important by both the children’s carers and their social workers. This allows children to gain social confidence and enjoyment.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

25. A very small number of children live in unregistered children’s homes. Most of these children are subject to a deprivation of liberty order due to their complex needs. Leaders view these placements as a last resort, and they are only used in the short term and when agreed by the court or when all other options have been exhausted by the local authority. There is significant and robust scrutiny of these placements by senior leaders that ensures that these arrangements meet children’s needs, and they are appropriately safeguarded. The local Inspection of Walsall local authority children’s services 12 to 16 May 2025 authority works effectively with providers to ensure timely registration when appropriate. Children living in these arrangements have a higher level of visiting from their social worker, team manager and their IRO. The search for alternative provision continues, to ensure that children can move quickly to

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

more appropriate accommodation. This ensures that children’s experience of living in these placements is very time limited and that while living in them their needs are met.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

26. Disabled children flourish in their care and educational settings because these are chosen carefully by workers to ensure that they meet the child’s needs. The vulnerabilities and needs of disabled children are well understood by their social workers. There are regular multi-agency meetings that ensure all professionals have a full understanding of the child’s needs and complexities. This ensures that these children’s needs are being well met. For a very small number of disabled children who are approaching adulthood and require ongoing support from adult services, planning has not been timely enough to achieve a smooth and seamless transition.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

27. Separated migrant children who are looked after by the local authority receive effective and sensitive support. The impact of their traumatic lived experiences and the associated vulnerabilities is very well understood by workers. Children receive additional targeted support from commissioned services to support their emotional well-being and to strengthen their life skills as they move towards adulthood. Consideration is given by workers to their cultural, religious and ethnic needs. This ensures that all their needs are met.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

28. The local authority works to ensure that, wherever possible, children can return safely to their family home. When this happens, both the child and parents are comprehensively supported. Workers undertake separate, detailed work with the child and their parents before the child returns home, and this work continues after the child returns. This ensures that parents are well supported to maintain any changes in the quality of their parenting and to provide appropriate and safe care to their child on a longer-term basis. As a result, children return home to their parents and remain living with them safely.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

29. Children in care who go missing and those at risk of exploitation receive an effective service that reduces risk to them. When children have been missing, workers undertake timely return home conversations with children so they can better understand the reasons why children are going missing and the push and pull factors. When risks escalate, dedicated specialist workers manage to build strong relationships with children. This supports the reduction of risks for children at high risk of exploitation. Equally, daily multi-agency meetings take place to consider children at risk of going missing and being exploited. These meetings are effective in both triangulating risks and coordinating multi-agency responses to reduce risks for individual children and to communitiesin Walsall.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

30. Children in care live with foster carers who are thoroughly assessed and well supported by the local authority. Careful consideration is given by workers to Inspection of Walsall local authority children’s services 12 to 16 May 2025 align the needs of children with the skills and experience of foster carers, to make sure children receive the right care. Fostering social workers and the in- house therapeutic services work closely with foster carers to establish positive relationships with children and support the stability of their home.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

31. The strong partnership working between the Regional Adoption Agency (Adoption@heart) and the local authority leads to careful matching considerations for children and adopters. Children who are adopted are thoughtfully placed with people who can offer a forever home. Potential adopters are thoroughly assessed, which ensures a strong understanding of their strengths and areas for support. Once placed, there is well-focused support for children and their adopters, ensuring the stability of the child’s home.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

32. Care leavers in Walsall benefit from an effective and responsive service delivered by dedicated, caring and persistent personal advisers (PAs), with whom they develop longstanding and trusting relationships. PAs provide responsive practical help, advice and support to care leavers when they need it, which helps them through the ups and downs of life. PAs have honest and, at times, tricky discussions with care leavers about potential risks, which helps them to better understand and reflect on their vulnerabilities and the challenges they face. Some children are not introduced to their PA early enough for them to have time to build a relationship with them before they leave care.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

33. Care leavers are helped to keep in touch with and supported to maintain relationships which are important to them. PAs are tenacious in supporting young people’s relationships with family members and other significant people in their lives. This means that young people are supported in maintaining lifelong links with people who can help them understand their identity and life history. The care leaver offer provides a wide range of practical and financial support to care leavers. Most care leavers understand the offer and their entitlements and access the support. Some young people have not been informed of the range of the offer, which means that, although they are accessing some of their entitlements, they are not accessing all.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

34. Most care leavers’ physical and emotional healthcare needs are met. Young people have access to a plethora of health services. They are encouraged and supported by their PAs to have good physical and emotional healthcare. When they need additional support, PAs are on hand to offer guidance and help them to access a service that is right for them.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

35. Care leavers of all ages benefit from support provided at the transition and leaving care hub. The hub provides a safe space where young people can go and gain practical help, advice and support. They can access co-located specialists, such as a nurse, Department of Work and Pensions staff and the virtual school. The hub is also a place where care leavers can get food and use Inspection of Walsall local authority children’s services 12 to 16 May 2025 laundry facilities, receive essentials in an emergency and take part in leisure activities and regular social events. Those who are parents and separated migrant young people have access to a variety of activities, services and opportunities which help them develop new skills and meet their needs.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

36. Care leavers’ PAs actively encourage them to share their views, aspirations and hopes about what they wish to achieve in the future. PAs involve young people in meetings which affect them. They are well supported to share their views about the things that matter most to them. PAs are also strong advocates for their care leavers.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

37. Separated migrant young people who are care leavers are well supported by the local authority and their PAs. They live in suitable accommodation which meets their cultural and ethnic needs. They receive effective help and support to manage the complexities of their individual needs. PAs have purposeful conversations with them about their futures, aspirations and goals. This ensures that these young people’s needs are being well met.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

38. Young people in custody are seen regularly. Robust and effective plans ensure that they have the right support once they are back in their communities. PAs are fierce advocates for them. They ensure that the voices of care leavers are heard and that they can access services, support and entitlements to benefit them. They support young people to maintain their relationships with families and friends while in custody. Most young people in custody are regularly involved in the review of their pathway plans.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

39. Care leavers who are parents or pregnant access a wide variety of practical help, activities and services that support them. They are encouraged to use the early help offer, the ‘Tots’ sessions and to access financial support and grants. Of significant note are the arrangements for parents to be provided with their own tenancy, if and when they are ready, prior to the birth of their baby. Their PAs make sure they have the skills and support to succeed. PAs support them to access additional funds to ensure that they are prepared and equipped for the arrival of their child. PAs attend meetings for children of care leavers; this ensures that there is a collective understanding about the plans to meet children’s needs. Care leavers described having very positive and trusting relationships with their PA, which they feel benefits them and their children. This means that care leavers are receiving comprehensive, multi-agency

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

support for themselves and their family.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

40. Most pathway plans are of good quality, and they are completed and reviewed with young people. They reflect young people’s current needs and contain up- to-date detailed information about their needs and, in most cases, the support and services available to meet these needs. Some care leavers’ plans do not detail the full extent of the care leaver offer or the complete healthcare services available. This is mitigated by the level and quality of support given by PAs to young people. Inspection of Walsall local authority children’s services 12 to 16 May 2025 41. Care leavers are encouraged and supported to be in education, training or employment. Strong oversight by senior leaders and clear structures have led to an improving picture of the number of young people who are in education, employment or training. The regular support offered by the virtual school, job coaches and employability activities help support most care leavers to seek

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

appropriate employment. Care leavers share very positive opinions about the quality of this support and the impact on their individual lives. For those young people who are not in education, training or employment due to the impact of their emotional and mental health, PAs persistently encourage them to engage in education or training.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

42. There is a wide range of accommodation for care leavers. The cohesion between the leaving care service, housing and commissioning means that timely and effective arrangements are in place to ensure most young people live in suitable accommodation which meets their needs. Supported accommodation and the training flat enable care leavers to gain the required skills, independence and confidence they need before they transition into their own homes and have their own tenancies at the earliest opportunity. This graduated support means care leavers do not face a cliff edge of support and workers make sure they are coping well during the transition phase before moving to independent living. This means that young people are very well supported into a home of their choice.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

43. Care leavers’ PAs are appropriately focused on equipping and preparing them with the essential life skills they need to enable them to flourish and achieve at each step of their journey to adulthood. PAs provide person-centred support to individuals through their contact and direct work, which helps young people develop essential life skills to manage their relationships and finances, do their own laundry and cooking and be more resilient to cope with the ups and downs of life.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

44. Care leavers have easy access to the service and any help and support they need for as long as they wish up to the age of 25. The local authority is in regular touch with care leavers, reminding them of their entitlements and that they can access support when they wish or need to.

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families: outstanding

45. The senior leadership team in Walsall has a wealth of experience and formidable ambition for the service and all children who live in the authority’s area. They are rightly proud of what they have improved on and achieved since their last inspection. There has been an unrelenting focus on strengthening areas for improvement set at the previous ILACS inspection. Leaders know the service very well. Where areas for development were identified during the inspection, plans were already in place or work had already begun, both within the service and across the partnership to strengthen those areas. The members Inspection of Walsall local authority children’s services 12 to 16 May 2025 of the senior leadership team are exceptionally strong role models for the workforce.

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families: outstanding

46. Political leaders and children’s services leaders are relentless in their drive to ensure that children are being listened to, and they are committed to improving services for them and their families. There is a robust political and strategic focus on ensuring that children, their voices and attainment are at the heart of decision-making and service delivery across the whole local authority. This has dovetailed with children’s services focusing on establishing a relational approach to working with children and families. The chief executive is ensuring that children’s voices and children’s services are visible and influential in setting the agenda for the council. Alongside this, due to her deep understanding of children’s services, the chief executive brings positive challenge to sustain and further develop services for children.

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families: outstanding

47. The political and corporate support has allowed the senior leaders to imaginatively develop services that will have a national, regional and local impact on the shaping of services for vulnerable children. Children’s services are a national pathfinder for the development of support for children. Through this, they are creating a regional approach to supporting vulnerable children. Within Walsall, this has meant a significant widening of the early help offer to ensure that children access services quickly. It means for children in need of statutory help and support, the development of a range of multi-agency services that can quickly support children and parents with a range of needs. This has been underpinned by significant financial investment by the local authority to both support and develop new ways of working. Senior leaders have adopted a balanced approach to change. This has happened at pace, but

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families: outstanding

there is a determination to incrementally build on service and partnership strengths and ensure that the cultural and process changes are fully embedded.

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families: outstanding

48. Leaders have forged mature relationships with partner agencies. There has been significant work to gain the commitment of all partners in actively engaging with the support agenda for vulnerable children. This has enabled the ambitious development of services to create a seamless, multi-agency service for all children who live in Walsall. Partners are involved in multi-agency quality assurance. This, and the joint development of services, has led to a partnership with a clear sense of purpose, vision and direction in meeting children’s needs.

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families: outstanding

49. There is a mature understanding by the political, corporate and senior leaders of the sufficiency needs of children in Walsall. There has been development of specialist services to support children and families in crisis and the creation of teams that focus on creating change for families where there is significant risk. This work has led to a reduction in the numbers of children being placed in care and an increase in reunification. Equally for children in care, the use and expansion of the peer support scheme in fostering has led to an increase in the number of in-house foster carers. In addition, the investment in increasing the number of children’s homes has led to an increased number of children, with higher level needs, living in or near their communities. There is an impressive Inspection of Walsall local authority children’s services 12 to 16 May 2025 housing offer for care leavers that includes the opportunity to stay in a training

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families: outstanding

flat, and a wide range of accommodation offers. This choice will be expanded further through the housing project.

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families: outstanding

50. Leaders and managers ensure that children, young people and their parents are significantly involved in the shaping of services in Walsall. Children’s groups engage in the development of corporate services. There is a strong political focus on developing this involvement further. Within children’s services, there are active participation groups that meet regularly with councillors and get involved in decision-making meetings about their service and contribute to the recruitment and training of staff. Leaders have a succession strategy for each of the groups to ensure that they are reviewed and reflect the changing children’s service population.

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families: outstanding

51. There is a robust understanding of practice and performance and strong oversight by managers at all levels of the local authority. There is a wealth of management and performance information and reporting mechanisms. The information is detailed and provides a narrative as well as data to monitor key aspects of performance. Audit work gives leaders and managers a strong understanding of practice. The involvement of children, parents and their workers in the audit process adds depth to the understanding of the impact of children’s services on children’s lives. There is strong management oversight, which is ensuring that the learning from audits is implemented in practice.

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families: outstanding

52. A standout strength is the impact of multi-agency group supervision, which is embedded across the service. The multi-agency sharing of information and analysis leads to a cohesive and comprehensive multi-agency plan that is actioned for children. There is also robust oversight by IROs of the progress children are making. The quality of supervision for a small number of social workers is variable. Leaders are aware that there is more work to be done to strengthen the quality of supervision, and a plan is in place to progress this.

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families: outstanding

53. There is a comprehensive training offer for workers in Walsall. There is an impressive offer to workers in gaining a social work qualification and for newly qualified social workers developing their knowledge of frontline practice. The general training offer is wide ranging and gives workers the opportunity to learn incrementally about their role. The workforce strategy has helped to create a stable and mostly permanent workforce. This has meant that children are able to build trusting relationships with their social worker.

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families: outstanding

54. Workers, many of whom are long-serving, are very positive about working for children’s services in Walsall. They view the relational approach as a strength. Leaders are seen by workers as being visible, knowledgeable and supportive. Most workers have manageable workloads, although there is workload pressure in leaving care. There is regular senior leadership oversight of workloads and there has been investment by the local authority in staffing to ensure workers are well supported. Inspection of Walsall local authority children’s services 12 to 16 May 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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families: outstanding

and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked-after children, 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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families: outstanding

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

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