Wolverhampton local authority children’s services

Inspection of Wolverhampton local authority children’s services

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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 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 Outstanding

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Judgement Grade

The experiences and progress of children care leavers Outstanding

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Judgement Grade

In Wolverhampton, the lives of most vulnerable children and families are improved by strong social work practice, within multi-agency teams, that meets their needs at the earliest opportunity. As a first wave pathfinder local authority, it is at the forefront of national reforms of children’s social care, implementing and testing the Families First for Children model. Leaders have made significant achievements in placement stability for children in care, co-production of services with children and workforce stability, which has enabled them to achieve outstanding services for children in care and care leavers. Leaders have a detailed understanding of their services for children. However, they are not sufficiently sighted on the risk when multi-agency information-sharing and joint planning are not in place to protect some children at risk of significant harm. Inspection of Wolverhampton local authority children’s services

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What needs to improve? 1

◼ 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 (outcome 3, national framework)

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What needs to improve? 1

◼ The quality of the recording by managers of management oversight and threshold decision-making in the multi-agency safeguarding hub (outcome 1, national framework)

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What needs to improve? 1

◼ The quality of pre-proceedings letters to parents (outcome 1, national framework)

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protection: requires improvement to be good

1. In Wolverhampton, children benefit from a 24-hour multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) staffed by social workers. The majority of children referred to the service, who need help and protection, experience timely and effective identification of their needs and risks.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

2. Managers have oversight and make threshold and next-step decisions at key points within the MASH. Management decisions reference the threshold guidance, but their recording is not sufficiently tailored and articulated clearly to individual children's needs. For some children, the record of decisions could be clearer in terms of the rationale, due to managers repeating what the social worker has already written.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

3. The family help service supports both children who need targeted early help and children in need effectively. Most children and their families who need this service are assisted at the earliest opportunity, including young carers.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

4. When children should be identified as at risk or have experienced significant harm, guidance contained in ‘Working together to safeguard children’ to hold a multi-agency strategy meeting is not consistently followed, despite the threshold being met. Immediate safety measures to mitigate risk for a small number of children were not robust enough, and the quality of safety planning did not lead to effective action to reduce risk. When strategy meetings occur, they are well managed, with appropriate professional attendance, and effective decision-making is made to safeguard children.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

5. Once allocated to a social worker, either for family help discussion or assessment or for child protection enquiries, children and families receive effective support. To understand need, social workers hold discussions with

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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 Wolverhampton local authority children’s services 26 to 30 January 2026 families, including parents, children and relevant professionals who are involved with the family. These discussions result in an understanding of need and risks, which are comprehensive and written in a language that is clear for families to understand. Helpful support is offered during these family help discussions to best support families at the earliest opportunity. Social workers carefully consider risks alongside strengths, which supports the rationale for their recommendations.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

6. Social workers support families to access appropriate services through timely identification of needs. Across the service, alternatively qualified workers bring different knowledge and competencies that ensure that helpful specialist support is provided to children and families. This means that specific needs are met as soon as possible.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

7. Effective child protection planning through core groups ensures that children are seen and risks are well monitored. Timely child protection conferences provide effective risk analysis and planning. Many children and their families make meaningful progress, with help that is proportionate to their need. When children’s needs escalate, a smooth transfer takes place from family help to multi-agency child protection teams. It is positive that the family help worker remains involved. This supports families to have consistency of relationships and reduces the need for them to retell their story to different professionals.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

8. The local authority designated officer service responds to allegations against adults working with children effectively. Vulnerable children are safeguarded by the measures implemented.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

9. Children’s voices are sought through creative direct work undertaken by their social workers, who gain an understanding of children’s lived experiences and what they want to happen. Children are offered an advocate who can represent their needs. Children’s wishes are used well by social workers to influence and shape their plans.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

10. Disabled children benefit from effective assessment and plans. These support them and their families. A range of partners, alongside social workers, lead on actions in their area of specialism so that children’s needs are well met.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

11. Children who present as homeless are well supported through comprehensive joint housing and social work assessments. This means that children are well informed to determine what is in their best interests.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

12. When children are at risk from child exploitation or go missing, the Power2 team provides an impressive array of support and specialist multi-agency interventions with children that reduce the risks of exploitation effectively. Committed staff engage and build trust with children and young people up to the age of 25 years old, consistent with a restorative and trauma- Inspection of Wolverhampton local authority children’s services 26 to 30 January 2026 informed approach. This has achieved a positive impact for many children, both in terms of reducing exploitation risks but also raising their aspirations. When children go missing, they are swiftly seen, with a timely response from experienced and insightful missing response officers. They engage creatively with children to build relationships and better understand the reason for children going missing and to minimise further episodes.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

13. Systems for checking children who are in elective home education are robust. Children missing education are tracked effectively, and safeguarding is prioritised. When needed, the virtual school secures prompt access to good-quality alternative provision.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

14. Children living in private fostering arrangements are identified and well supported to ensure that their needs are met. As a result of increased awareness raising over the last year, private fostering notifications have increased in Wolverhampton. This demonstrates partner understanding of what constitutes a private fostering arrangement. Children living in private fostering arrangements receive timely visits, and their carers are appropriately assessed, monitored and supported to ensure that the child's needs are being met.

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protection: requires improvement to be good

15. When children do not make sufficient progress and concerns continue, the Public Law Outline is well considered with strong oversight by senior managers. The decision to move to pre-proceedings is based on clear analysis of risks and rationale for next steps. Pre-proceedings letters set out the concerns to parents but are of variable quality in terms of clarity. Despite this, pre-proceedings positively result in a significant number of children being appropriately diverted away from care.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

16. Children come into care at the right time and after significant efforts are made to support parents. Extensive support enables children to remain in kinship arrangements with their extended family members when safe. This helps children to have continuity and consistency of care and nurtures their family and cultural identity. Most children are placed close to Wolverhampton. These arrangements support children to maintain their social and community ties. Social workers visit disabled children more frequently when they are placed in residential homes at a distance as they recognise the level of vulnerability. This promotes children’s wellbeing as social workers take time to have meaningful and purposeful interactions.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

17. Family time is well managed and arranged in the best interests of children. When it does not work well for the child, it is reviewed and adapted sensitively. Family group decision-making meetings support families where reunification is being considered. When children in care live with their parents, these placements are well planned and supported with regular visits, reviews and senior management oversight. Inspection of Wolverhampton local authority children’s services 26 to 30 January 2026 18. Children in care benefit from well-matched placements with carers who provide the love and support they need. Effective matching of children with their foster carers helps children to develop a sense of security, certainty and stability. Thorough consideration is given for siblings to remain together with careful assessment of their needs, risks and carers’ capacity.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

19. Caring social workers build strong and trusted relationships with children in care. They visit them and facilitate meaningful conversations to understand their lived experience. Creative direct work engages children so that they can participate in planning. Care plans and pathway plans are sensitively written to children so they can understand and make sense of decisions about their care.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

20. Children feel valued and listened to by their independent reviewing officers, who stay connected with children and review their plans regularly as well as in response to changes. Most children engage in their reviews along with family, professionals and carers. Reviews consider children’s holistic needs and ensure that timely and specific actions are in place. Review summaries are written creatively to children, so that in the future they may be able to understand decisions that have been made on their behalf.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

21. Early permanency plans are well thought out and confirmed by the second statutory review. Life-journey work is carefully undertaken when children are ready to participate. The unique approach of collaborative journalling is child focused, age appropriate and leading to comprehensive books that continue to develop as children progress.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

22. Safeguarding concerns and disruption to care arrangements are promptly managed to enable children to remain safe in care. Children are supported sensitively to move into placements that meet their needs when there is a breakdown in their care arrangements. Effective stability meetings and enhanced support are provided to foster carers to continue care of the child where possible. This gives children an opportunity to build stronger relationships and have stability of care.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

23. Children benefit from effective return home interviews when they go missing. Social workers and carers have meaningful discussions with children to understand their experiences while they have been missing. Exploitation risks are promptly addressed to reduce these risks.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

24. Effective partnership work ensures that children’s health, education and additional needs are well supported with timely assessments and interventions. Education outcomes for many children in care are positive, with access to a wide range of educational and social opportunities. The virtual school matches children’s interests to suitable educational courses, work experience and apprenticeships, with the child's voice and views influencing these decisions. When needed, the virtual school secures good-quality alternative provision. Inspection of Wolverhampton local authority children’s services 26 to 30 January 2026 25. Children who are separated from their families and seeking asylum are made to feel welcome in Wolverhampton and provided with a welcome pack, which includes clothing, details and a tour of the city. They are visited regularly by their social workers and supported with their education, health

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

and immigration plans. Family and cultural needs are well met.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

26. Permanence through adoption is well used and considered early as part of parallel planning. Children’s best interests are at the centre of the adopter matching process that is approved by the adoption panel. Adopters are provided with enhanced support along with regular visits by social workers. Child permanence reports are completed to a good quality. Family time is considered carefully, and children are supported to maintain ties with important people in their life. Children’s cultural, identity and additional needs are considered and supported. Quality and suitability of care as well as children’s emerging needs are continuously assessed before and after children move into adoptive placements. Children thrive in the care of their adoptive parents.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

27. Some older children aged 16 to 17 move appropriately into supported accommodation. Coordinated and continued support helps these young people to maintain and build on the progress that they have achieved while in care. Many children develop strong and loving relationships with their foster parents over a long period of stability. An increasing number of children remain within their foster families post-18 years old through ‘staying put’ arrangements. This has been possible with the help of a stable fostering workforce, joined-up work between the supervising social worker and the child’s social worker and a helpful retention and training offer for foster carers. Good-quality fostering assessments are completed swiftly with robust scrutiny from the foster panel.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

28. Children in care feel supported and listened to. They are involved in shaping policies and influencing forums that make decisions for them. As part of the children in care council, children are actively involved in scrutinising performance, training key stakeholders and co-producing policies and strategies.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

29. Care leavers have positive, enduring and reliable relationships with young people’s advisers (YPAs), who care about and know them well. Care leavers receive regular visits that are tailored to support their needs and wishes. Care leavers see their YPAs as trusted adults who they are confident to turn to when needed. YPAs are powerful advocates who enable care leavers to be ambitious and support them to achieve their dreams, whether in employment, education or wider interests. Care leavers’ success and achievements are recognised and celebrated. Inspection of Wolverhampton local authority children’s services 26 to 30 January 2026 30. The Care Leavers Independence Collective has a powerful voice. Its ideas and feedback are sought and acted on by senior leaders to improve services. Care leavers know who senior leaders and members are, and they influence and challenge them directly to make a positive difference for all

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

care leavers. Initiatives they have co-produced include transport cards for free travel in the city and the digital offer, which includes free internet dongles, the care leavers’ strategy and pledge.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

31. The local offer for care leavers is comprehensive and meets their needs. Young people over 21 years old have to request not to be contacted by YPAs through an opt-out system. This minimises the risk of older care leavers not receiving the support they need. Care leavers are encouraged to remain in contact when they request not to receive support. They are clearly made aware that the door is always open for them to receive support at any time before they are 25 years old. YPAs are persistent in keeping in touch with care leavers and use a variety of ways to engage with the young people like any good parent would.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

32. Care leavers value the Oasis hub, which is a successful and positive place where they can come together for a range of fun and informative activities. Professionals from a range of services are available to support with advice. Care leavers benefit from a dedicated nurse who offers support and guidance to promote health and wellbeing needs. Care leavers who have health needs are well supported to move from child to adult health services, and this ensures that the transition is seamless.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

33. Care leavers who are separated from family and seeking asylum benefit from a range of additional helpful specialist support and services. A specialist YPA provides advice and guidance to the care leaver service and child in care teams about their needs and the resources available to support them. The approach is trauma informed and tailored to the individual experiences of these young people. They are well supported by ambassadors who are care leavers. The ambassadors offer helpful support and guidance, as well as the development of a specialist care leaver offer. A valued specific group is available for them to meet regularly to socialise and celebrate occasions that are important to their identity.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

34. When care leavers express concerns or worries around their safety, effective risk assessments are completed and collaborative safety plans are put in place to promote their safety and wellbeing. Care leavers can continue to access the Power2 team support and multi-agency interventions up to the age of 25 years old when there are concerns about exploitation.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

35. Pathway plans are co-produced with care leavers in a way that makes them meaningful to young people. Pathway plans include what aspects of the local offer the care leaver is accessing. They are well written and reflect young people’s goals and aspirations with clear actions set for professionals, who help them achieve these. Inspection of Wolverhampton local authority children’s services 26 to 30 January 2026 36. Effective partnership working with housing services means that most care leavers live in suitable accommodation, which includes a variety of tailored options, for example training flats. Young people are supported to be safe in their communities. Some care leavers told inspectors that, despite safety awareness support, they feel unsafe within the city due to the levels of criminality and violence.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

37. Care leavers make individual progress and achievements in employment, education and training. The high number of care leavers in higher education is a significant achievement and a reflection of the commitment and work to support care leavers to aspire and achieve high. Care leavers have benefited from the multi-agency support that is ambitious and promotes education.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

38. A small number of care leavers are in custody. They are visited regularly and supported to understand their rights and the support that they can access through the local offer. They are encouraged to access education and employment while in prison. Family meetings are supported so care leavers can maintain family ties. Rehabilitation and reintegration back into the community is carefully considered with partners.

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families: good

39. Leaders in Wolverhampton have a clear vision and drive to improve the lives of children and deliver services that meet need at the earliest opportunity. As a first wave pathfinder local authority, it is at the forefront of national reforms of children’s social care, implementing and testing the Families First for Children model. Leaders have made significant achievements in placement stability for children in care, co-production of services with children and workforce stability, which has enabled them to achieve outstanding services for children in care and care leavers.

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families: good

40. The chief executive, leader and lead member hold the director of children’s services and senior managers to account through robust performance structures that enable them to scrutinise, understand and challenge performance and information about the quality of practice. Significant and sustained investment in children’s services has led to many positive changes, which shows success in meeting children’s emerging needs at an earlier stage and thereby prevents escalation to statutory services. This is further supported by the attention of the local authority to the impact of poverty and the cost of living in its communities and action, including in children’s services, to support families with these challenges.

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families: good

41. A comprehensive performance management and quality assurance framework is in place, which continues to be updated to promote a strong line of sight. While leaders mainly understand the performance of the service, during this inspection, inspectors identified that multi-agency strategy discussions are not consistently held at the point significant harm Inspection of Wolverhampton local authority children’s services 26 to 30 January 2026 should be identified. As a consequence, the opportunity to share, seek and analyse available information to enable a decision alongside other agencies, as to whether child protection enquiries should be initiated, is missed or delayed.

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families: good

42. The local authority’s improvement plan, Aiming for Excellence Plan, has focused on many areas where practice can be inconsistent and includes performance measures and information to inform quality assurance activity. It is positive that the local authority’s restorative approach, based on engaging with children and families, weaves through the quality assurance approach. Children and families give powerful feedback through audits. Lessons are learned with staff in many ways, and action is taken to improve areas of practice that need to develop or improve.

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families: good

43. The approach to corporate parenting and involving children and young people to co-produce is effective. It is really positive that the corporate parenting strategy has been co-produced with children in care and care leavers. The authority has implemented its family business model, which represents a shift from corporate parenting to what it calls community parenting, which is expanding opportunities for care leavers.

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families: good

44. Senior managers have successfully engaged with partners who are integral to the multi-agency model. This has enabled effective support to families with access to the right help more quickly, which is preventing escalation of their needs. The lives of children in care and care leavers are enriched by strong child-focused multi-agency services.

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families: good

45. Leaders understand the needs of vulnerable children in Wolverhampton, including children in care and care leavers. Children benefit from a well- developed strategy to ensure sufficiency of placements, using in-house and regional fostering provisions as well as effective prevention and use of kinship care. As a result, the use of placements far away from Wolverhampton is much lower than the national and regional averages, and the use of unregistered placements is minimal. To meet the needs of children with higher levels of need, the local authority is close to opening its own children’s home to enable children for whom foster care is not the best option to live locally. It works closely with other local authorities in the region and has agreed partnership arrangements to help to extend its access to provisions and reduce costs.

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families: good

46. Staff working with children and families like working in Wolverhampton. They feel well supported and well trained. Supervision has improved since the last inspection, reflecting the restorative and reflective approach, which enables social workers to reflect and improve their practice effectively. Social work retention is stable. The workforce strategy responds to the needs of the current workforce and has brought in a new career development pathway and opportunities for social work practitioners to support their development. Inspection of Wolverhampton local authority children’s services 26 to 30 January 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

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families: good

training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, 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

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families: good

information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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families: good

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

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