Setting

Chris Sivers Executive Director, Department for People South Gloucestershire Council Council Offices Badminton Road Yate BS37 5AF

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Focused visit to South Gloucestershire children’s services

This letter summarises the findings of the focused visit to South Gloucestershire children’s services on 13 and 14 January 2026. His Majesty’s Inspectors for this visit were Nick Bennison and Penny Ademuyiwa.

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Focused visit to South Gloucestershire children’s services

Inspectors looked at the local authority’s arrangements for care leavers aged 21 and above, and transitional support into adulthood for care leavers.

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Focused visit to South Gloucestershire children’s services

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 political and corporate leaders are ambitious for young people who are care leavers. They are committed to understanding the needs of young people and in developing quality services that meet their needs. Since the last inspection in 2024, the council has widened and strengthened the local offer to include all care leavers up to the age of 25, and has recently invested in the workforce to increase personal advisers’ (PAs) capacity and so enable PAs to develop their important early relationships with children before they leave care.

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Headline findings

Care leavers benefit from being supported by a workforce that is committed to and experienced in meeting their needs. This is borne out by the wide range of young people’s needs that are being met well by the leaving care service in South Gloucestershire. Senior leaders are aware that a small, but important number of practice areas around managing risk, the quality of pathway plans and supervision need further improvement and have plans in place to address these. 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

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What needs to improve in this area of social work practice? 1

◼ The effectiveness of planning to reduce the risk of harm to care leavers. (outcome 3, national framework)

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What needs to improve in this area of social work practice? 1

◼ The consistency of how well care leavers are helped to understand their pathway plans and have access to written plans that are created with them and involve other key people. (enabler 1, national framework)

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What needs to improve in this area of social work practice? 1

◼ The quality of management supervision and how effectively it is used to improve decision-making and provision of help to care leavers. (enabler 2, national framework)

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Main findings

Care leavers are well supported by PAs who know them well and are tenacious in gaining and maintaining relationships with them. PAs ensure that they understand the young person’s wishes and feelings and are involved in their plans. This means that most young people receive a responsive service that offers them strong support into adulthood. Young people are helped by their PAs to maintain contact with family members. This supports their identity, and to maintain important family links and a network of support that can give added assistance to them when they need it.

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Main findings

Most children in care do not benefit early enough from having a relationship with their PA before they begin to transition to adulthood. Although PAs are allocated to young people well before they leave care, PAs are not meaningfully involved in the child’s life until they are close to leaving care. This impacts on the PA being able to establish a trusted relationship with the young person before they experience significant change in their lives. When young people are transitioning to adulthood, PAs focus on ensuring that they have the necessary identification documents. When documents are lost or missing, PAs support the young person in gaining duplicate copies, so they are well prepared for independence.

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Main findings

The local offer for care leavers in South Gloucestershire provides a wide range of appropriate support to help them achieve their goals and prepare for the future. The local authority has carefully considered how the offer can best support young people, consulting with care leavers to ensure that the offer is right for them. The offer has been extended to include all care leavers until they are 25 years old, and young people are regularly informed and supported by their PA to access the entitlements and support provided. PAs involve young people in planning for their next steps and

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Main findings

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. how the local offer can be best used to support their aspirations. This increases the effectiveness of the local offer in supporting care leavers’ current and future plans.

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Main findings

Young people are supported with both their physical and mental health needs. They are practically supported by their PAs to attend appointments for their physical and mental health needs. Those who are experiencing emotional wellbeing or mental health difficulties have timely access to a range of services that offer helpful support. This means that most young people receive a responsive service to their changing physical and mental health needs.

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Main findings

Care leavers benefit from creative and innovative initiatives, provided through the virtual school, to help them learn and achieve their career aspirations. Individualised packages of support help young people to engage, and where needed to re-engage, in education, employment and training which supports them in adulthood. An increasing number of care leavers in South Gloucestershire are engaging in education, employment and training.

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Main findings

Care leavers who are in custody have regular and meaningful contact, both direct and indirect, with their PA and their pathway plans are regularly updated. PAs understand the young person’s wishes and needs and coordinate services to meet these needs. This ensures that young people are well prepared as they return to the community.

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Main findings

Care leavers who are parents receive strong support from the local authority. PAs coordinate services to ensure that young people are well prepared both practically and emotionally for parenthood. A thoughtful approach is taken to supporting care leavers with their emotional wellbeing and mental health issues, and they receive a sensitive service that reflects their changing needs as young parents.

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Main findings

Most young people have their risks and vulnerabilities identified by their PA. PAs use appropriate assessment tools to accurately indicate the potential levels of concern and assess risks. The resulting plans, although identifying areas of vulnerability, have actions that are too general and lack the multi-agency involvement to both manage and reduce the risk. This means that young people remain at risk for too long.

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Main findings

Most former unaccompanied asylum-seeking care leavers are supported by PAs who understand their cultural needs well. Most are settled and living in suitable accommodation. Interpreters are used appropriately to ensure that young people understand key documents, and they are supported to be actively involved in decision-making meetings. PAs recognise the trauma that young people may have experienced and quickly gain support from agencies to ensure that their mental health needs are met. PAs help them to establish positive links within their local community and engage with services that help them to locate family members who they have become separated from. This helps them in maintaining contact with people who are important to them.

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Main findings

Most young people are living in suitable and stable accommodation. There is an increasing number of young people being supported to live with their foster carers by the local authority. Most young people who are living in semi-independent accommodation have packages of support that reflect their level of independence skills. There is efficient communication between PAs and housing officers that helps young people to gain the accommodation that they need and services respond quickly when young people experience tenancy difficulties. This means that most young people are living in accommodation that meets their needs.

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Main findings

The quality of young people’s pathway plans is variable. PAs gain the young person’s views and wishes and these are recorded within plans. These plans are regularly reviewed with the young person to reflect their changing views and circumstances. Although PAs create support that meets young people needs, for most young people, this is not reflected in their written pathway plans. Many pathway plans do not detail the number of agencies involved or actions being undertaken to support the young person.

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Main findings

Most care leavers over 21 years old receive continuing and consistent practical and emotional support from their PA until they are 25 years old. Young people are aware that if they choose to end their support from the leaving care service, they can re- engage if they need further support. When care leavers return to the service, many receive timely and effective support from their PA. A few young people, however, experience delay in receiving a service, which leaves them in difficulty for too long.

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Main findings

There is strong cross-party political and corporate support for care leavers in South Gloucestershire. The support of vulnerable young people is a priority within the council plan. The lead member for children’s services and the chief executive ensure that they meet with care leavers regularly to gain their views about their service. Additional financial investment by the council into widening and strengthening the care leaver offer has led to more care leavers benefiting from services and support from the service. The local authority has also financially committed to increasing the PA establishment in the care leaver service.

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Main findings

Robust governance arrangements ensure political and corporate leaders have regular and effective oversight of the quality and impact of care leaver services. There is a clear framework of support and challenge that enables political and corporate leaders to scrutinise the quality of service to young people. The corporate parenting board is active in both ensuring that the care leavers’ agenda is highlighted across the council and that there is strong corporate and partnership support in ensuring that young people’s needs are recognised and work is undertaken to meet them.

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Main findings

The local authority’s accurate self-reflection framework report demonstrates that leaders know their service well. Leaders have access to a comprehensive suite of performance data and a diligent quality and assurance framework, which supports them in their understanding and oversight of the quality and impact of practice and services for care leavers. While regular audit activity is used to evaluate the quality of practice and inform organisational learning, young people, parents and practitioners are not consistently involved to contribute their views to help inform and support practice development.

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Main findings

Young people who attend the care leavers participation group, EPIC, feel listened to. They engage in projects that make a purposeful difference to children in care and care leavers. Some young people attend the corporate parenting board to provide updates on the work of EPIC. The lack of regular involvement of these young people in the corporate parenting board is a missed opportunity to have care leavers at the centre of this decision-making forum.

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Main findings

Workers and managers in the care leaving service are well supported in their learning and development They have access to a comprehensive range of training that supports them in their roles within the service. While supervision by managers with PAs is mostly timely, the quality of supervision is variable, with most workers experiencing supervision that lacks reflection, is process driven and is unable to support the PA with any practice difficulties that they may be experiencing.

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Main findings

The workforce within the leaving care service is stable, with a number working for the local authority for a considerable time. Senior leaders are aware that most PAs within the leaving care service are experiencing workload pressure and have responded by increasing the numbers of PAs in the service. There is confidence in the workforce that when significant operational or practice difficulties are raised, such as caseload levels, leaders will take action to support frontline workers. PAs enjoy working for the local authority and the leaving care service. They are committed to their young people.

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Main findings

Ofsted will take the findings from this focused visit into account when planning the next inspection or visit.

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