Setting

Sue Ross Interim Director of Children’s Services Council of the Isles of Scilly Carn Gwaval St Mary’s Isles of Scilly TR21 0NA

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Monitoring visit to Isles of Scilly children’s services

This letter summarises the findings of the monitoring visit to Isles of Scilly children’s services on 8 and 9 October 2025. This was the fourth monitoring visit since the local authority was judged inadequate in July 2023. His Majesty’s Inspectors for this visit were Sarah Canto and Steve Lowe.

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Areas covered by the visit

Inspectors reviewed the progress made in the following areas of concern identified at the last inspection:

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Areas covered by the visit

◼ The effectiveness with which information shared with the local authority about children in need, or children in need of protection, is recorded, assessed and responded to.

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Areas covered by the visit

◼ The quality of social work practice to assess, support and protect children.

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Areas covered by the visit

◼ The quality of strategy discussions and subsequent child protection enquiries.

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Areas covered by the visit

◼ The effectiveness of multi-agency working, including child protection strategy discussions, in identifying risk and providing support and protection to children.

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Areas covered by the visit

◼ Management and leadership oversight of the service at both a practice and a strategic level.

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Areas covered by the visit

◼ The accuracy of children’s records, including how well they capture children’s wishes and feelings and record their histories in up-to-date chronologies, to allow full consideration of the child’s journey.

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Areas covered by the visit

◼ How consistently and effectively the services that children receive meet statutory requirements. Ofsted

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Areas covered by the visit

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 Textphone 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.gov.uk/ofsted This visit was carried out in line with the inspection of local authority children’s services (ILACS) framework.

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Headline findings

Children receive improving support and protection from the Isles of Scilly children’s services. Key relationships with statutory partners both on the Isles of Scilly, and on the mainland, are maturing. Partners work together well when children are potentially at risk of significant harm. This effective joint working results in better quality information-sharing, child protection strategy discussions and enquiries so that children get the help when they need it.

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Headline findings

Children’s services continue to have full corporate and political support, including additional financial investment to strengthen governance arrangements. Changes in key personnel at all levels, including the director of children’s services, have not led to any discernible detriment to children. In part, this is due to more effective systems, oversight and quality assurance. Equally, this stability is due to the council’s investment in sustainable services and resources linked to the needs of the community.

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Headline findings

Senior leaders are fully aware that there is more to do to ensure that practice improvement continues and is embedded. A permanent senior leadership structure has been agreed to enable a full focus on maintaining statutory duties, and recruitment is now underway. Reviews of commissioning arrangements have been undertaken to inform future service delivery. These reviews are being considered alongside recommendations from an independent report that focused on the complex issues of culture and confidentiality. As a council and as a community, the Isles of Scilly are working towards creating a children and young people’s plan for spring 2026, consulting with children and partners to create a cohesive vision for the future.

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Headline findings

Those children who have to live away from home on the mainland to access their preferred post-16 education, including those with additional needs, often live in homes where the council has limited assurance of their safety and well-being. Senior leaders agree that a more thorough process for assessment and oversight of these arrangements is an urgent priority.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Children on the Isles of Scilly now receive an appropriate response when there are concerns that they are at risk of harm. Timely, multi-agency strategy meetings and reviews are convened to plan next steps. Professionals that are best placed to evaluate the risks to individual children contribute effectively to decision-making. Child protection enquiries and subsequent planning involve parents and children and identify the most appropriate support for the family. However, when child protection planning ends, the reasons for this are not always recorded well enough to help families understand why and to explain what future support may be available.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Children in need and their families receive support and intervention that make a positive difference to their lives. Social workers ensure that children are visited and spoken to alone to ensure their views are heard. Strong, child-centred direct work with children stems from social workers’ understanding of how best to engage children so that they feel at ease. Children’s views are captured in assessments and plans that reflect their personality, what is important to them and their worries. Services are provided to address their emotional as well as their physical needs. The quality and accuracy of children’s records are improving with increasing use of chronologies and family history to inform planning and support.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Supervision is mostly regular and supports practitioners to reflect on their practice. Overall, management oversight and monitoring of practice is effective, but the recently implemented electronic recording system is being developed further to resolve some anomalies and to enable better analysis of performance data.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Leaders have an effective quality assurance system that enables them to have a confident understanding of strengths, weaknesses and the impact of practice on the progress and experiences of children. One area for improvement which was identified at the previous monitoring visit remains, which is seeking the views of children, parents and family when auditing the quality of practice. Multi-agency auditing work has been done with partners under the auspices of the Our Children Safeguarding Partnership work and has produced some helpful learning. The local authority has now ensured appropriate focus on the needs of Isles of Scilly children within the safeguarding partnership, supporting multi-agency working and training to share and achieve best practice.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Relationships with safeguarding and corporate partners continue to grow both at a strategic and practice level. The appointment of a public health director, although very recent, offers additional capacity to understand and respond to the needs of the community. Partners speak very positively about multi-agency working and effective communication. They appreciate the quality of recent safeguarding training and the positive impact this has had on their work. Parents have also spoken positively about the support and intervention they now receive.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Senior leaders have made progress in their implementation of their improvement plan. Leaders have recognised the need for an accessible complaints and whistle- blowing procedure so that concerns are recognised, acknowledged and tackled safely, and such policies are in the process of being ratified. Despite changes in the workforce and within the full council, a focus remains on making sure that children and families who need help and support are a key priority. The impact of this work is evident in practice and families are now receiving stronger services, support and protection that mostly meets their needs. Those children who may be young carers are largely recognised and identified as such, but a clear system of assessment for this group of children is not in place and more work is needed to ensure that resources are available to meet their needs.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

Oversight and assurance of the arrangements for children who live on the mainland to access post-16 education is an area for improvement. The recent appointment of a transitions worker on the mainland is a positive move towards ensuring that these often more vulnerable children have greater day-to-day support and oversight. This help has started to make a difference to these families. However, policy and procedures in relation to assessment and support have not yet been developed. Senior leaders acknowledge that this is an area for urgent attention.

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Findings and evaluation of progress

We are copying this letter to the Department for Education.

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