Setting

Harmesh Bhogal Director of Children’s Services Bedford Borough Council Borough Hall, Cauldwell Street Bedford MK 42 9AP

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Focused visit to Bedford children’s services

This letter summarises the findings of the focused visit to Bedford children’s services on 28 and 29 April 2026. His Majesty’s Inspectors for this visit were Steve Bailey and Margaret Burke.

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Focused visit to Bedford children’s services

Inspectors looked at the local authority’s arrangements for planning and achieving permanence for children in care, including long-term foster and kinship care, special guardianship, aspects of adoption and helping children return to their birth family.

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Focused visit to Bedford 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

For children in Bedford, permanence is achieved through mostly well-considered decision-making that takes into account a wide range of available options to enable them to live in stable, lasting homes.

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Headline findings

While this decision-making is largely effective, children and their carers experience variability in the quality of planning and help across permanence pathways. Support for children in long-term foster care, planning for children who require adoption and helping children to move to family-based care from residential homes are strengths. Help for connected carers and special guardians is not sufficiently proactive or consistent, and direct work with children, including life-story work, is not widespread.

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Headline findings

Leaders have a mostly accurate understanding of strengths and areas for development in this area of practice. Since the last inspection, they have strengthened their focus on achieving permanence within families and increased the availability of suitable alternatives. This progress has contributed to more children living in, or close to, Bedford and significantly reduced the number of children who are placed in unregistered homes during their journey towards stable, secure homes. 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 consistency and quality of help for connected carers and special guardians. (outcome 3, national framework)

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

◼ The availability and quality of direct work with children, including life-story work. (outcome 4, national framework)

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

◼ The consistent application and oversight of permanence planning. (outcome 4, national framework)

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Main findings

Children experience timely and effective permanence planning when they enter care. Planning starts early, with parallel planning and contingencies in place by children’s second looked-after review. This gives children, their families and professionals clear early direction about the future.

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Main findings

While this early planning is consistent, the systems that support the ongoing review of permanence are not as robust. Tracking and systematic oversight are not sufficiently strong. There is not a shared understanding across the workforce about the purpose, frequency and chairing of permanence planning meetings. This variation in practice leads to inconsistency in how well some children’s plans are reviewed and progressed. Leaders had identified these issues prior to this visit and have recently started work to address them. This work is at an early stage, and it is too soon to see the impact.

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Main findings

The quality of assessment for kinship carers is improving. More recent assessments are completed without delay and provide clearer analysis, with appropriate recommendations for temporary approval and further assessment identified. Social workers complete statutory safeguarding checks promptly, and experienced senior managers oversee decisions. However, some offers of help and support at this early stage are not sufficiently proactive or coordinated, particularly where carers begin caring in unplanned circumstances. This can make the start of children’s care journeys more challenging than it needs to be for their carers.

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Main findings

Many children go on to experience stability in kinship arrangements as children in care. Regular review and social work visits enable carers to understand children’s needs and develop confidence in their role. Social workers recognise the emotional and relational complexities experienced by kinship carers and revisit these over time. This supports many carers to progress to special guardianship, allowing children to leave care and remain in homes where they feel secure.

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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. Support following the granting of special guardianship orders does not match the level of children’s needs. Capacity constraints limit the ongoing understanding of need, and the consistency and amount of help provided, and some plans end prematurely. As a result, children and special guardians do not receive sustained support within their unique circumstances to prevent these arrangements from becoming fragile.

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Main findings

Most children in long-term foster care live in stable and well-matched homes. Most decisions to confirm long-term arrangements are timely and celebrated with children and carers, reinforcing children’s sense of belonging. Social workers maintain collaborative relationships with foster carers and adjust their support in response to children’s needs, helping carers build important connections with children in their care.

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Main findings

Relationships between brothers, sisters and other people important to children are prioritised. Siblings often live together, and, when this is not in their best interests, careful planning ensures that they spend meaningful time together. Social workers work persistently with birth families so that children maintain these important relationships, even when family circumstances are complex. This helps children to sustain key attachments and a sense of continuity in their lives.

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Main findings

Children who require adoption benefit from persistent family finding. Planning is thoughtful and, when necessary, creative. Child permanence reports are thorough and sensitively written, supporting effective matching, including enabling some children to live with their previously adopted brothers and sisters. Life-story work for adopted children is a strength. Materials are thoughtfully presented and help children understand their experiences. Life-story work is not consistently provided for children in other permanence arrangements, limiting opportunities for these children to understand their histories and sense of self.

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Main findings

Social workers place a strong emphasis on helping children feel a sense of belonging. Children are supported to build friendships and take part in activities that contribute to their identity and sense of achievement. Practitioners know the children well and speak about them with warmth. Case recording increasingly reflects this, with records written to children that capture their personalities and what matters to them.

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Main findings

Social workers consistently consider children’s cultural identity, including recognising religious beliefs and significant events. However, direct work to help children explore and understand their heritage is underdeveloped. This limits some children’s ability to develop a deeper understanding of who they are, particularly for the small number who live with carers from a different ethnic and cultural background.

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Main findings

There is a clear strategic and practice focus on supporting children to return home to live within families, as well as moving from residential care to family-based care. The new Reconnect project provides successful targeted interventions to help children to move from children’s homes into foster care. Decisions for children in care to be placed with their parents are made at a senior level following careful assessment, with these transitions underpinned with intensive help.

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Main findings

Children benefit from independent reviewing officers (IROs) providing effective oversight and challenge in relation to children’s individual permanence planning. IROs build trusting relationships with children through regular visiting and support children’s meaningful participation in reviews. Letters written directly to children are of an exceptionally high quality and produced in accessible child-centred formats. IROs provide appropriate and persistent challenge, using escalation when necessary to ensure prompt resolution.

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Main findings

A small number of children live in unregistered children’s homes for short periods while more stable homes are identified. Increased commissioning capacity and stronger governance have contributed to a sustained and significant reduction in the use of unregistered provision since the last inspection. These arrangements are subject to increased senior management oversight and social work visiting. Work to encourage providers to register has been successful. Commissioning teams complete initial due diligence prior to children moving in; however, this level of scrutiny is not sustained after children move in. As a result, monitoring of the quality of care in these settings is not consistently assured alongside social care visits to children.

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Main findings

Supervision is regular and valued by staff, although its quality is variable. Greater consistency is needed to ensure that reflective discussion leads to improved practice. Leaders had already identified this and have introduced training and coaching to front line managers as a result. Workloads in the children in care teams are generally manageable, but remain high in family support teams, which can affect the quality of permanence planning for some children.

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Main findings

Leaders have a mostly accurate understanding of the quality of permanence planning and the factors influencing practice. Their scrutiny of performance data, alongside a substantial programme of audit activity and moderation, informs this understanding. They have proactively secured external challenge, including peer review, to strengthen and test their improvement work.

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Main findings

Improvement plans are coherent and address the identified areas, including the need to reduce workloads in specific teams and increase capacity to meet children’s needs. However, many changes are at an early stage and have either yet to be delivered or not secured consistent impact. Corporate investment in increased capacity has been secured, and a service-wide restructure is soon to be implemented.

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Main findings

Workers who met with inspectors are positive about working in Bedford. Many are longstanding or have chosen to remain following their assessed and supported year in employment, contributing to workforce stability and continuity for children.

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Main findings

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

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