Somerset Council local authority children’s services

Inspection of Somerset Council local authority children’s services

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Inspection dates: 27 April to 1 May 2026

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Lead inspector: Alison Smale, His Majesty’s Inspector

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Judgement Grade

The impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families Requires improvement to be good

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Judgement Grade

The experiences and progress of children who need help and protection Requires improvement to be good

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Judgement Grade

The experiences and progress of children in care Requires improvement to be good

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Judgement Grade

The experiences and progress of care leavers Good

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Judgement Grade

Since the last inspection of Somerset’s local authority children’s services (ILACS) in 2022, when services were judged to be good, the quality of some services for very vulnerable children has deteriorated. Many children continue to benefit from strong practice, and care leavers benefit from good services. Leaders have made significant efforts to be an active and committed corporate parent. Some children’s experiences and progress, however, are inconsistent. Thresholds are not sufficiently well understood by managers, and multi-agency child protection strategy discussions do not always take place when children are at risk of, or have experienced, significant harm. Most child and family assessments take too long due to workload pressures, meaning that the needs of vulnerable children and their families are not always understood soon enough.

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Judgement Grade

Inconsistent management oversight and direction mean that, for some children, actions are delayed or not sufficiently matched to their needs and risks. There continues to be a lack of sufficient children’s homes and foster homes to meet the needs of looked-after children in Somerset. This has resulted in children in care who live in unlawful unregistered provision and who experience too many changes in their placement. Some younger children are placed in children’s homes due to insufficient foster homes in Somerset. Inspection of Somerset local authority children’s services 17 April to 1 May 2026

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What needs to improve? 1

◼ The arrangements to identify, track and respond to children missing education. (National Framework, Outcome 1) ◼ Understanding of thresholds, identification and timely multi-agency decision- making through a strategy discussion when the threshold for the risk of significant harm about a child is met. (National Framework, Outcome 2) ◼ How consistently staff receive timely management oversight, including guidance and direction to support timely and well-matched actions and support that matches their needs and risks. (National Framework, Outcome 1) ◼ The commissioning, sufficiency and variety of homes to enable children to live in stable, loving homes and prevent the placement of children in care in inappropriate and/or unlawful unregistered children’s homes. (National Framework, Outcome 4) ◼ The effectiveness of the response to children who experience neglectful parenting and the public law outline (PLO), to ensure that decision-making is timely and

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What needs to improve? 1

based on full information. (National Framework, Outcome 2) ◼ The assessment of children who are aged 16 or 17 years old who are being considered for supported accommodation to ensure that their needs will be met. (National Framework, Outcome 2) ◼ Workloads that enable practitioners to work effectively with children and families. (Enabler 2: Leaders drive conditions for effective practice) ◼ Support to care leavers over 21 years old in custody. (National Framework, Outcome 2)

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protection: requires improvement to be good

1. Children and families in Somerset receive helpful guidance and support from experienced child-centred social workers in the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH). Most receive intervention that is at the right level for their needs. Consideration for children with lower levels of need is not always timely. They can experience delay of several days, due to workload pressures within the MASH. This means that children’s needs are not always understood and responded to at the earliest opportunity. Experienced managers support staff with their work, but their recording of management oversight at key decision- making points is not always evident on children’s records.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

2. An experienced emergency duty team provides a timely and effective service to the vast majority of children who need social work support outside of core

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protection: requires improvement to be good

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. Inspection of Somerset local authority children’s services 17 April to 1 May 2026 hours. The team’s decision-making is supported by robust manager oversight. Children and families benefit from the Family Intervention Service (FIS), which is responsive and supportive to families at times of crisis.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

3. Children and families in Somerset are well supported by the Early Help Service. They receive a prompt response with the completion of holistic assessments and plans that meet children and families’ needs. This enables needs to be met at an early stage before they escalate. Families are supported to step back into universal services in a planned way.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

4. Children who are young carers benefit from a highly effective, multi-agency approach which identifies, understands and supports their needs. Staff in schools and colleges access awareness-raising training, which supports the identification of these children’s needs. Careful consideration is given to enable schools to be aware of the links between school attendance and caring responsibilities. Young carers receive bespoke support. They access a range of groups and activities to reduce their isolation and ensure that their wider needs as children are met.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

5. Many social work assessments of children’s needs are not completed in a timely way. Management oversight to explain the reason for delays is not consistently clear on children’s records. This means that the local authority cannot be assured that children’s needs are being assessed and met at the earliest opportunity. Once completed, most assessments are well written and present a holistic analysis of children’s needs and capture their voices and those of important adults.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

6. Family network meetings are routinely offered at an early stage to families in need. Children are supported by advocates to participate in decision-making. This enables families to gain helpful support from their wider family and friends’ network.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

7. Multi-agency strategy discussions do not always take place when there is a risk of, or children suffer, significant harm. The threshold for significant harm is not consistently understood and applied. For a small number of children, opportunities are missed for multi-agency safeguarding partners to share, understand and analyse risks for children. This means that risk assessments are not completed for these children, including disabled children, despite there being a risk of significant harm.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

8. When multi-agency strategy meetings take place, they are well attended by professionals and child focused. They consider together a child’s history, their lived experience and analyse the safeguarding concerns for them with shared actions to address the identified risks, including progression to child protection enquiries.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

9. Children on child protection plans and those in need, including disabled children, benefit from skilled and thoughtful social workers. These workers build Inspection of Somerset local authority children’s services 17 April to 1 May 2026 effective and positive relationships to understand children’s lived experiences, views and worries. Child protection plans are clear and regularly reviewed. Child protection chairs communicate effectively with children and maintain oversight of their plans, escalating if progress for children is not being made.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

10. Some children have experienced neglect in their families for too long. For these children, for whom insufficient progress is made, escalation into the pre- proceedings phase of the PLO is delayed. Furthermore, PLO intervention sometimes ends before professionals are sufficiently assured that positive changes have been made or sustained. This means that children continue to experience neglectful parenting that does not meet some of their basic needs. For other children, such as unborn children, when there are significant concerns there is early identification with clear and timely decision-making.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

11. The local authority, alongside its partners, has promoted the awareness of private fostering effectively. As a result, children in these arrangements receive a strong service from dedicated, skilled workers who assess and support them well.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

12. Children and young people, including children in care, who are at risk of going missing and exploitation, benefit from the specialist, extensive support and interventions from the ‘working against violence and exploitation’ (WAVE) service. This makes a positive difference for parents in their awareness of grooming and county lines activities, and for some children the risks associated with exploitation have reduced.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

13. An effective, child-centred response is in place for children aged 16 to 17 who present as homeless. Preventative mediation work is undertaken by a social worker, and the FIS service has a positive impact to support children to safely return home or to family where possible. Strong relationships with housing providers are supported by an effective joint housing protocol and panel arrangements.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

14. Work has been undertaken to strengthen the arrangements to oversee, identify, track and respond to children missing education and those who are electively home educated. However, this has not led to a precise understanding of the numbers of children missing education. Consequently, the local authority cannot assure itself that timely and effective action is being taken to secure children’s engagement in education and safeguard their wellbeing. Elective home education is appropriately explored and challenged when risk factors and concerns for children are identified.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

15. The response to children at the edge of care is swift and responsive, which enables some children to remain safely at home. The FIS practitioners are experienced, persistent and creative in providing child-centred, solution-focused support that is collaboratively agreed with families. Inspection of Somerset local authority children’s services 17 April to 1 May 2026

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improvement to be good

16. Children only come into care when it is appropriate and necessary to safeguard their welfare. When children cannot remain safely with their parents, the option to remain with their extended family network is fully explored at an early stage. Positively, increasing numbers of children who require care are successfully achieving permanence through the greater use of kinship care arrangements. However, too many children in care experience a number of moves before the most suitable home is found for them. This is emotionally unsettling and challenging for children.

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improvement to be good

17. Older children, aged 16 and 17, who come into care usually move into supported accommodation. For some children, this is without a thorough assessment of their needs and vulnerabilities. There is a lack of consideration about the right level of support and care that they need. For some children, this has resulted in them living in accommodation that does not meet their needs.

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improvement to be good

18. The importance of children achieving permanence is recognised, with strong arrangements in place for senior managers to maintain oversight of this. Social workers consider permanence options well and progress parallel plans to help identify the best permanence plan for children. Many children achieve permanence via long-term fostering. They live with carers who meet their needs well, and who provide them with opportunities to thrive. Some children with more complex needs experience disruption. They do not experience the stability, certainty and security that they need and deserve.

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improvement to be good

19. For some children living in children’s homes, this is the right plan for them, and they are offered the opportunity to thrive, achieve and belong the same as those children living in foster care. However, a significant number of younger children live in children’s homes because the local authority does not have enough foster families to meet their needs. Some children have experienced several moves, and so do not have the security they need to make progress and address their past traumatic experiences.

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improvement to be good

20. Sufficiency of homes for children in care is negatively impacted both by the number of carers leaving the service for different reasons and the limited effectiveness of the local authority to secure local foster placements. Foster carer recruitment efforts, including schemes to respond to different children’s needs, have been successful, but have not kept pace with increased and changing needs of children in care. The local authority has introduced several actions to respond to these challenges, including the ‘room to grow’ scheme, increasing when possible current foster carer capacity, increasing foster carer fees, securing council tax discounts, and developing additional support for foster carers. Carers feel well supported, but training does not meet the needs of all. Inspection of Somerset local authority children’s services 17 April to 1 May 2026 21. Children are frequently placed to live in unlawful, unregistered children’s

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improvement to be good

homes. Senior managers have oversight of most of these vulnerable children, to monitor their welfare while they seek to find more suitable registered homes. These unregistered providers are encouraged to register. These temporary arrangements fail to provide children with the stability and security they need, and result in many changes of placement for some children over a short period.

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improvement to be good

22. Children for whom the plan is adoption benefit from strong adoption work that achieves permanence, including via early permanence, at the right time for them. The commissioning of the regional adoption agency (Adopt Southwest) is effective in providing a pool of adopters for the children whose plan is adoption.

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improvement to be good

23. Most children in care are visited regularly by their social workers, who know children well and provide them with opportunities to share their worries and aspirations. A very small number of the most vulnerable children who live outside of Somerset do not have the sufficient frequency of visits to meet their needs and monitor their welfare.

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improvement to be good

24. Some children have beautifully presented life-story books, which help them understand their journey into care and how special and unique they are. For other children, there is a delay in them receiving their life-story books, and thus a delay in their full understanding of their life experiences and the decisions made on their behalf.

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improvement to be good

25. The strengthened virtual school has increased its capacity and responsiveness for children in care. Purposeful collaboration with schools, inclusion services and youth justice has reduced exclusions and has led to improvements in engagement. This work has had a positive impact and children benefit from greater stability and improved educational experiences.

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improvement to be good

26. Most children’s health needs are well supported via routine check-ups and bespoke provision. Children’s identity needs, in relation to adverse childhood trauma, are understood and support is integrated into care planning.

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improvement to be good

27. Children are provided with opportunities to spend time with family members and friends who are important to them. Social workers listen to children’s views and incorporate these into regular reviews of family time so that the arrangements remain in children’s best interests.

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improvement to be good

28. Independent reviewing officers (IRO) have positive relationships with children, including those who are disabled. Care plans, updated after reviews, are very detailed, outlining what children need and how they are to be supported. Sensitively written letters, given to children after their reviews, help them understand their plans. IROs advocate and escalate concerns effectively on behalf of children, to help ensure their needs are being met. Many children benefit from the help and support of independent advocates and independent visitors. This provides children with additional adults who they can trust and who will support them to have their views heard. Inspection of Somerset local authority children’s services 17 April to 1 May 2026 29. Unaccompanied children are well supported by their social workers who have built trusting relationships with them. Social workers work sensitively and with compassion given some of the difficult circumstances children have

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improvement to be good

experienced, particularly the loss of family and their unstable immigration status.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

30. Transition into adulthood is well planned and most leaving care workers are allocated in good time to build meaningful relationships with young people. Care leavers, including unaccompanied young people, benefit from positive relationships with their committed and skilled leaving care workers, who know them well. These professionals are proud of their young people’s achievements.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

31. Many young people actively co-produce their pathway plans. These plans are comprehensive and written to young people. Birthdays and achievements are celebrated. Leaving care workers are sensitive to significant events in young people’s lives and support them thoughtfully during difficult personal moments, such as bereavements and key anniversaries. Workers sensitively support care leavers with their emotional and physical health needs. Feedback received from young people is positive, and they clearly value their relationships with their workers and the support they provide.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

32. Care leavers are well supported into education, employment and training, with support from employment coaches. However, some young people are having to wait for this support due to a lack of capacity. Senior managers are aware of this and are recruiting additional staff. Unaccompanied care leavers have access to programmes that support their education and integration.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

33. Most care leavers live in suitable accommodation that meets their needs. Workers support them effectively to find the right place for them, working with housing providers to identify appropriate homes. Care leavers are supported to ‘stay put’ with their foster carers when it is in their best interests to do so. Care leavers are provided with their important documents. Care leavers are helped to develop important life skills through the ‘Building a Home’ programme, enabling them to successfully manage their own tenancy. This is leading to more care leavers living in stable and secure homes of their choosing.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

34. When care leavers reach 21 years old, they do not always benefit from continuity of their care leaver worker. Unless there is felt to be a good reason not to do so, they will be allocated a specialist over-21 leaving care worker. When care leavers choose to meaningfully engage with this support, they are supported effectively. Most of the small group of care leavers over 21 years old and in custody are closed to the service without sufficient consideration of their vulnerability and needs.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

35. The offer for care leavers is comprehensive, and workers ensure that young people receive their entitlements. The impressive Somerset in Care Council Inspection of Somerset local authority children’s services 17 April to 1 May 2026 (SiCC) and Somerset Leaving Care Council (SLCC) have been actively involved in the development of the offer and the accessible website to enable young people to easily navigate and understand their rights and entitlements.

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families: requires improvement to be good

36. Leaders have started to prepare for the children’s social care reforms with the pilot of a multi-agency child protection team, the rollout of family network meetings at an earlier stage and increased use of kinship care when children come into care. The learning offer is being adapted to prepare for changed practice expectations. Improvements have been achieved for certain cohorts of children such as children in private foster care and young carers. Despite this, local authority leaders have not sustained the conditions for consistently effective practice and quality of services since the last inspection.

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families: requires improvement to be good

37. Efforts to create sufficient homes for children have not been effective. The partnership arrangement established to deliver children’s homes for children with complex needs has experienced many issues that have undermined its quality and availability. Endeavours to increase in-house foster carer capacity and support to carers have not delivered more than a marginal increase in homes. Commissioning arrangements are not robust, which has resulted in reliance on the use of unregistered children’s homes. Many children, including those with complex needs and younger children, have experienced too many placement moves and disruptions, when placed with carers who are unable to meet their needs. A lack of placement sufficiency negatively impacts on vulnerable children who cannot be provided with the right homes to meet their needs, including the small number of children who require specialist placements.

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families: requires improvement to be good

38. Leaders know that staff workloads, particularly in the assessment and safeguarding teams, undermine their workers’ ability to ensure that some children receive the right timely help and support. Although it has been agreed by senior managers that these pressures have to be resolved and there are plans to address workforce pressures, these are not yet funded.

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families: requires improvement to be good

39. Reporting systems and forums to hold senior managers to account are in place to keep leaders informed, but these are not sufficiently effective. Senior and political leaders are aware of some of the key issues particularly relating to staff workloads and sufficiency. While their understanding is further supported by quality assurance information, limitations in the local authority’s self-evaluation and issues about the accuracy of performance data undermine the extent of their understanding of these challenges. Consequently, the gravity of these concerns is not sufficiently well understood.

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families: requires improvement to be good

40. The quality assurance framework contains the right elements based on objectives that focus on children, but its application limits its effectiveness. A broad range of activities are undertaken, which include feedback from families, Inspection of Somerset local authority children’s services 17 April to 1 May 2026 single and multi-agency practice evaluations, team diagnostics and thematic dip reviews, the learning from which feeds into team action plans. Lessons learned are disseminated, using various methods. The incorporation of the views of children and their families into practice evaluations is not fully embedded. The quality of practice evaluations is further limited by evaluators not consistently providing the rationale for their evaluations.

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families: requires improvement to be good

41. Strengthening partnership arrangements has been a key area of focus for leaders since the Joint Thematic Area Inspection (JTAI) in 2024, which found ineffective partnership working between agencies in relation to the criminal exploitation of children in Somerset. Leaders have made some progress in improving relationships with strategic safeguarding partners. They rightly recognise that there is much more to do and that there continue to be issues that continue to impact the quality of work with vulnerable children and families.

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families: requires improvement to be good

42. Hearing children’s voices to inform key strategic developments and policies is a strength in Somerset. Leaders have made significant efforts to be an active and committed corporate parent. They enable children who are looked after and care leavers to achieve impressive groups that represent the voices of Somerset’s care-experienced children and young people. Children and young people participate in a wide range of fun activities. Participation is a strength and achievements are celebrated. Children participate in the recruitment and training of staff. Children are active attendees at the corporate parenting board sub-groups, and they provide challenge to leaders. Leaders seek, hear and act on the views of children and young people to further improve and develop services for children in care. Leaders have listened to children and implemented into practice the use of more inclusive language when referring to children.

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families: requires improvement to be good

Leaders have achieved a strong corporate sense of responsibility for children in care and care leavers. Children and young people shared with inspectors how they feel respected and valued by leaders and senior managers.

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families: requires improvement to be good

43. Most front-line staff like working in Somerset. While they feel well supported by their teams and managers, gaps in front-line management oversight mean that supervision and decision-making are not sufficiently consistent. Some staff told inspectors that their workloads were too high. The training offer is felt by staff to support the work that they do. Practice tools have been provided to support practitioners improve practice in work with families. Inspection of Somerset local authority children’s services 17 April to 1 May 2026 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: requires improvement to be good

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: requires improvement to be good

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

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