North Northamptonshire local authority children’s services

Inspection of North Northamptonshire local authority children’s services

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Lead inspector: David Cohen, His Majesty’s Inspector

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Judgement Grade

The impact of leaders on practice with children and families Outstanding

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Judgement Grade

The experiences and progress of children who need help and protection Good

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Judgement Grade

The experiences and progress of children in care Good

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Judgement Grade

The experiences and progress of care leavers Good

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Judgement Grade

The experiences of children, young people and families in North Northamptonshire have significantly improved since the previous inspection in 2022.

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Judgement Grade

North Northamptonshire local authority children’s services have been delivered by Northamptonshire Children’s Trust (NCT) since its incorporation as a unitary authority on 1 April 2021. NCT also delivers these functions for West Northamptonshire County Council, with the result that some services are delivered on a countywide basis across both local authority areas.

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Judgement Grade

Senior leaders across North Northamptonshire Council and NCT have committed financial investment and driven and embedded substantial improvements in services for children and families. Outstanding leadership has had a transformational impact on workforce stability and has developed a relational culture that has resulted in significantly improved circumstances for children and families. Mature and highly effective relationships across both councils, NCT and safeguarding partners are keeping children safer and helping them make positive progress. Inspection of North Northamptonshire local authority children’s services 11 to 22 May 2026

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What needs to improve? 1

◼ The quality of the support and plans for children in need, including disabled children. (outcome 1, national framework)

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What needs to improve? 1

◼ Communication of the local offer for care-experienced young adults, including clarity on support for those aged over 21. (outcome 4, national framework)

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protection: good

1. Children and families benefit from a range of early help services, including a number of family hubs. The new Family Help Approach supports partners in the identification of who can best help meet children’s needs.

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protection: good

2. When initial requests for help are made, children receive timely, effective responses from social workers and managers in the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH). Thresholds are understood and applied appropriately, and information-sharing and partnership working within the MASH are effective. Social workers demonstrate curiosity, their enquiries are thorough, and most consider children’s ethnicity and communication needs. Issues such as domestic abuse and neglect are well understood, and proportionate recommendations are made as to the next appropriate steps.

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protection: good

3. When children require help and protection out of office hours, they receive an effective and responsive service from the emergency duty team. Visits are undertaken to children when needed to ensure that they are safe and well, and the necessary steps are taken to safeguard their welfare. This service has been strengthened since its separation from adult services.

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protection: good

4. When there are concerns about a child’s welfare, multi-agency strategy discussions and child protection enquiries are undertaken promptly. They are informed by visits to children and their carers to explore the concerns and understand the child’s experiences. Safety planning is routinely well considered with parents and children while these enquiries are ongoing.

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protection: good

5. Social work assessments clearly outline children’s needs. Practitioners use a wide range of tools that inform their understanding and assessment of children’s experiences. These lead to a clear analysis of the presenting issues and to the detailed identification of appropriate actions and services that could make a positive difference to children. Past, present and potential risks are understood and set out alongside an appreciation of the family’s key strengths.

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protection: 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 North Northamptonshire local authority children’s services 11 to 22 May 2026 Assessments are informed by multiple visits and incorporate the views of children and families.

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protection: good

6. Most children subject to child protection and child in need plans benefit from effective multidisciplinary interventions to address underlying issues that are affecting children’s experiences. Interventions are purposeful, non-punitive and include robust safety planning to help families to achieve sustainable change. For a very small number of children who no longer need child protection planning and become subject to child in need plans, they do not remain on these plans long enough to evaluate whether change has been sustained.

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protection: good

7. Extended family networks are considered early on to ensure that children receive as much support as possible from people they know and love. These family members are invited to attend key meetings, enabling their involvement to be purposeful, and supporting effective family plans. Positive outcomes were evident for families who engaged in the Family Drug and Alcohol Court programme.

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protection: good

8. Practitioners’ relational practice with children and families is a strength. They build positive relationships with children and their carers through persistence, honesty and continuity. Children are seen regularly, in line with individual need and statutory timescales. Children’s records are clear and sensitively written and include children’s wishes and feelings. Practitioners make concrete efforts to understand children’s diverse and unique needs, as well as those of their parents, and show understanding of how these affect their day-to-day lives.

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protection: good

9. Some disabled children benefit from creative direct work with social workers, though this is not consistent. Assessments and plans for disabled children do not consistently consider the wider family context or the roles of other household members. This omission impacts on the quality of help for some children. Children with caring responsibilities are identified as young carers and receive a range of support to meet their needs. Children say that the support maximises their social time, helps them make friends, builds resilience and promotes their emotional wellbeing.

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protection: good

10. When children’s experiences do not improve or when risks escalate, most children appropriately become subject to the pre-proceedings phase of the Public Law Outline in a timely way to give parents a final chance to achieve change. Some pre-proceedings letters are not clear enough for parents about what the concerns were, and what needed to change, although these messages are clearly conveyed to parents throughout the pre-proceedings process. Pre- proceedings have had a positive impact on many families because children’s experiences and safety have improved. This has led to the avoidance of court proceedings, enabling children to remain at home. Creative approaches used by practitioners from the edge of care specialist team are also effective, enabling many children to continue to live safely and successfully with their families. Inspection of North Northamptonshire local authority children’s services

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protection: good

11 to 22 May 2026 11. There has been a significant improvement since the last inspection in the response to children who go missing or who are at risk of exploitation. The new Child Exploitation Hub provides an effective multi-agency response that reduces risks to children and disrupts the activities of perpetrators. This is achieved through comprehensive intelligence-sharing and coordinated actions across agencies. The Missing Children Team has also been developed, which has significantly improved the quality of return home interviews and analysis of data, such as the ethnicity of children who are missing.

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protection: good

12. Allegations of harm to children by people in a position of trust are carefully and sensitively overseen by the local authority designated officer service. However, sometimes there is not always a full exploration of potential perpetrators’ own children, meaning that any harm these children may have experienced is not always understood. A robust partnership response enables effective action to safeguard children, with the ongoing monitoring of investigations having improved since the last inspection.

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protection: good

13. There are a small number of children who have been identified as living in private fostering arrangements. Privately fostered children are well supported, and awareness-raising exercises are undertaken to increase the identification of children living in these arrangements.

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protection: good

14. Homeless 16- and 17-year-old children in North Northamptonshire receive a strong and effective service. These children’s care and support needs are jointly assessed by social workers and housing workers, helping to ensure that they receive appropriate accommodation, that they are safe, and that they receive support as they progress into adulthood.

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protection: good

15. The local authority maintains clear oversight of children missing education and those who are electively home educated. Staff carry out appropriate checks to ensure that arrangements for vulnerable children are suitable. However, risk assessments do not always sufficiently focus on children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Most children without a school place are closely monitored and provided with suitable interim education, including tutoring and alternative provision.

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protection: good

16. Regular monthly supervision ensures management oversight of the quality and progress of work across help and protection. Supervision records are more task-oriented than reflective, but they do focus on what works well and what workers still have concerns about, and they provide clear direction. Actions, however, are not always time-bound, to help drive the progression of plans.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

17. Children enter care at the right time, and immediate risks to children reduce because the right decisions are made. Where possible, family networks are explored to ensure that the child lives with someone who already knows them. Inspection of North Northamptonshire local authority children’s services 11 to 22 May 2026 Family time for children in long-term established homes takes place at a time and frequency that meets children’s needs, wishes and feelings.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

18. Visits to children take place within statutory timescales, with these increasing in frequency in response to children’s needs. Social workers speak warmly of their children and know them well, due to improved consistency of workers. Creative direct work helps children to understand their history, identities and family relationships. Life-story work is completed to a high standard and is significantly improved since the last inspection. Children benefit from additional relationships, such as with family support workers and independent visitors. These relationships enhance children’s sense of stability and wellbeing.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

19. The Circle to Success assessment accurately captures children’s needs to support permanence planning. By including the child’s voice, it effectively informs their plans and reviews to promote positive progress. However, plans mostly focus on immediate arrangements, sometimes lacking clear goals regarding when a child can return home.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

20. Child in care review meetings are timely, and most are well attended by partners. When children cannot attend their review meetings, their voices are captured in social workers’ reports and through visits to children by independent reviewing officers (IROs). Children’s plans are purposeful and child focused, and they are used to help children achieve permanence in a timely way. Sensible parallel planning reduces delay, and children are supported to exit care appropriately.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

21. Special guardianship orders are appropriately considered to give children stability and security away from care with comprehensive support plans in place. When children remain with their family members under fostering arrangements, they are appropriately supported. Early permanence is a focus in respect of most children, including through adoption. Careful consideration is given to children maintaining a direct relationship with their birth family.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

22. Most children benefit from longer lasting, stable homes. Children living in foster care are afforded long-term stability with their carers. Effective matching, high- quality life-story work and child-led family time all contribute to children’s stability. Against a backdrop of challenging placement sufficiency, which is increasingly being tackled, a very small number of children with particularly complex needs have a number of moves until they live in homes with carers who can meet their specific and individual needs.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

23. The use of illegal, unregistered children’s homes was highlighted in the last inspection as not having sufficient senior management oversight. There is now comprehensive strategic and operational oversight at every level of management for the very small number of children who are living in unregistered children’s homes, including their voice and experiences. These homes are only used when other options have been fully explored and exhausted. Children receive regular visits from a commissioned independent Inspection of North Northamptonshire local authority children’s services 11 to 22 May 2026 provider to provide additional oversight of the running of the home and monitor the standard of care. Visits from social workers and IROs also take place to mitigate risks and monitor children’s day-to-day experiences while registered homes are being actively searched for. Advocacy is provided, and children are

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

supported to maintain links with family members and education.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

24. Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, known in North Northamptonshire as separated migrant children, are well supported by knowledgeable social workers who care about them and who advocate strongly on their behalf. They are helped to understand their experiences through detailed life-story work, and workers are tenacious in their determination to support these children to identify family members.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

25. Children in care who go missing, or who may be at risk of exploitation, receive effective safeguarding interventions to reduce risks and keep them safer, using comprehensive screening tools. Strong, relationship-based practice supports children to speak about their experiences, and to understand the risks posed to them. Children in care who are at risk are appropriately safeguarded through effective multi-agency planning and intervention.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

26. Disabled children in care and their carers receive tailored and specialist support from their social workers. Their plans and reviews are timely and capture their needs and progress. When adult services become involved, close joint working ensures smooth transitions to adulthood. When disabled children are not able to safely remain with their parents, extended family networks are explored in a timely way, which helps children remain with people who are important to them.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

27. Children who live in residential homes are receiving appropriate care and support, which is helping them to progress in care. For some children, residential homes are used because of a shortage of foster carers and an immediate need for emergency placements. Despite these initial placement challenges, the availability of suitable homes has grown, ensuring most children receive the individualised care they need. When children are placed in care far from home, there is a documented reason for this decision. Additionally, senior managers actively monitor the arrangements to ensure that the child is safe and their needs are being met. When they are ready, older children live in supported accommodation which meets their needs.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

28. Experienced IROs know the children in care well, visiting them regularly to seek their views. They provide appropriate challenge and escalation when needed, such as advocating for more flexible family time, and ensure that these issues receive a timely response from leaders.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

29. While children’s health needs are generally well understood and met, there are delays in completing initial and review health assessments, although children with urgent needs are prioritised. Where children have to be on a waiting list Inspection of North Northamptonshire local authority children’s services 11 to 22 May 2026 for CAMHS, they receive short-term support while they wait and some consultation support for social workers is available to mitigate this delay.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

30. Children in care are well supported with their school attendance and in their educational attainment. The virtual school has continued to strengthen its ambition to ensure that children in care make good progress. The proportion of children in care entering full-time education, employment or training is on an upward trajectory. Children in care access a range of social and recreational activities, including cadets, musical activities and sport. Children enjoy regular family holidays with their carers.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

31. Foster carers receive appropriate support and training, but the quality of assessment and recording is a recognised area for development. The fostering service is led by an experienced registered manager, who provides strong, child-centred leadership, high staff morale and robust oversight, resulting in improved compliance and stability. Relationships between the regional adoption agency, the trust and local authority are strong and well established, supported by effective communication, challenge and clear accountability.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: good

32. Children and young people’s voice is evident within their records, and through groups such as the children in care council, care-experienced young adults’ council, and consultation events such as ‘The Big Conversation’, which helps put young people’s voice at the heart of service development, providing them with more ways to share their views and ensure that they receive updates on how their voice has made a difference.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

33. Care leavers in North Northamptonshire are known as care-experienced young adults and are supported by a countywide leaving care service. Care- experienced young adults benefit from having consistent and trusting relationships with their personal advisers (PAs) and are highly complimentary about the support they receive from them. PAs know young adults well, visit them regularly in their homes and are committed and ambitious for them. Young adults are supported to build and maintain relationships with people who are important to them. Two hubs for care-experienced young adults across North and West Northamptonshire support positive community engagement and peer connections.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

34. Care-experienced young adults are actively helped to access universal health services for support with their physical, emotional and mental health. Young people spoke positively about the in-house mental health offer and value the consistency and responsiveness of support, although access to wider mental health services remains inconsistent.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

35. Most care-experienced young adults are aware of and understand the local offer. However, some aspects of the offer are not as clearly understood or communicated, particularly where there is a perceived difference by young Inspection of North Northamptonshire local authority children’s services 11 to 22 May 2026 adults in the offer between North and West Northamptonshire. The offer is broad, provides practical assistance and has a positive impact. An annual showcase event helps engage local stakeholders to showcase opportunities for care-experienced young adults.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

36. Most transitions for young adults into the leaving care service are well managed. Children are allocated PAs in sufficient time to enable meaningful relationship building as they move into adulthood. Care-experienced young adults are supported and prepared well to live independently and with their transition to adulthood. Those with a disability are mostly allocated PAs and social workers from adult services early on, with strong partnership working evident.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

37. Care-experienced young adults are supported to remain with their former foster carers under ‘staying put’ arrangements that offer them continuity and stability. Shared Lives is used for some young adults to support their needs being met. The Staying Close team supports young people well to develop their independence skills.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

38. Care-experienced young adults over 21 with vulnerabilities, including those with disabilities, those in custody or those who are parents, receive focused and consistent support beyond their 21st birthday. However, lines of communication are not always clear regarding ongoing support for care leavers over 21. This means it is not always clear if care leavers can choose to continue to work with their PAs. Some care leavers over the age of 21 receive effective support through the duty service or previous PAs who are no longer formally allocated. Inconsistencies in how this support takes place causes a lack of clarity for some care-experienced young adults. This inconsistency is recognised and being addressed by leaders.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

39. Pathway Plans vary in quality. Most accurately reflect care-experienced young adults’ strengths and needs and capture their voice. This supports their progression towards independence. A small number of weaker plans contain outdated information and are not always completed collaboratively with care- experienced young adults, leading to limited impact.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

40. The support provided to care-experienced young adults who are parents has improved, and they now receive effective support from a range of relevant professionals. This helps them prepare for parenthood, promotes family networks, and allows them to access practical and emotional support.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

41. Most care-experienced young adults in custody are well supported by the leaving care service during their time in prison and in preparation for their release. Personal advisers support them with compassion and work with partner agencies to promote their resettlement in the community.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

42. Former separated migrant children receive the same quality services provided to all care-experienced young adults, with most of their pathway plans being Inspection of North Northamptonshire local authority children’s services 11 to 22 May 2026 detailed, aspirational and responsive, as well as being sensitively written, to help them understand their lived experiences.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

43. Multi-agency forums are regularly held to identify opportunities and support young people into education, employment or training, with effective management oversight in place. Care-experienced young adults value the support they receive from their PAs and often access support from the leaving care hubs. Pro-active outreach into local businesses and across all parts of North Northamptonshire Council is identifying work experience, apprenticeship and employment opportunities.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

44. Investment from the council and partnership working has helped most young people live in suitable accommodation that they like, and where they feel safe. A refreshed housing protocol has increased the options available to care- experienced young adults since the last inspection. Social housing and Department of Work and Pensions representatives facilitate drop-in sessions at the hubs to help care-experienced young adults secure housing and receive their financial entitlements.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

45. There is clear evidence of management oversight across most young adults’ records. Supervision records are clear and reflect young people’s voices, though actions are not always targeted or purposeful to ensure effective tracking of progress.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: good

46. The relational approach used by PAs develops trust, and supports vulnerable care-experienced young people, who know there is someone they can talk to when there are concerns about exploitation. Leaders have identified strengthening contextual safeguarding arrangements up to the age of 25 as one of their priorities and are working in partnership with adult services and the adult safeguarding partnership board.

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families: outstanding

47. Leaders in North Northamptonshire have had an outstanding impact on practice with children and families. There has been significant and lasting progress since the last inspection, and the areas identified for needing improvement have been addressed.

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families: outstanding

48. After a number of years of instability, leadership changes over the past 18 months have significantly increased the pace of improvement, particularly the appointment of the interim DCS, seconded from NCT. Her appointment has acted as a catalyst for improvement, and she, along with the council chief executive, is engaging the wider council with their corporate parenting responsibilities. The chief executive officer of NCT is a visible and accessible leader who inspires staff to ‘do the best job of their life, every single day’. Staff, care-experienced young adults and children truly value both how he communicates and makes time for them. Leaders have driven values-based Inspection of North Northamptonshire local authority children’s services 11 to 22 May 2026 leadership and a relational practice approach, which have had a significant impact on outcomes for children and helped coalesce the vision for children

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families: outstanding

49. Leaders across NCT and North Northamptonshire Council work seamlessly with colleagues in West Northamptonshire to present as leaders who are united to provide the best possible seamless services to children and young people. This partnership is authentic and mature, and the leadership culture that has developed is directly cited by many staff as why they want to continue to work here. Leaders are reflective and adaptable, and they consistently seek feedback from children, young people, staff and external scrutiny. They have delivered transformational change in workforce development, recruitment and retention. This has significantly enhanced safeguarding services and ensured that families benefit from stable, long-term relationships with their workers .

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families: outstanding

50. Leaders within NCT and the council have developed strong relationships with political leaders, who are committed, responsive and meaningfully engaged with issues relating to children. This engagement has resulted in significant financial investment in recent years to meet children and young people’s needs, particularly in relation to the sufficiency of accommodation for children in care and care leavers. Corporate parenting is championed across NCT, and across all areas of the council.

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families: outstanding

51. Strong relationships with safeguarding partners are driving positive, tangible improvements across multiple areas. These partnerships have directly addressed issues raised in previous inspections, such as the use of police powers of protection and the development of the missing and exploitation hub. Additionally, appropriate escalation is improving the completion of health assessments for children in care, though there is still more work to do.

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families: outstanding

52. Leaders have been successful in increasing more homes for children within their internal children’s home provision, and this increase is set to continue further. The local authority is encouraging and supporting unregistered providers to register with Ofsted, with some success. The significantly reduced number of children in unregistered homes is clear evidence of the impact of the comprehensive sufficiency strategy.

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families: outstanding

53. Leaders have a strong understanding of performance through clear and detailed performance dashboards and a wide-ranging programme of quality assurance. Their comprehensive system identifies and supports improvement of areas of practice that require further development. Leaders recognise that auditing of children’s files could be improved to maximise the benefit that quality assurance can bring and have developed plans to improve these.

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families: outstanding

54. Management oversight has been strengthened across all areas of practice since the previous inspection. Supervision is valued by practitioners, and while it could be more reflective, it provides a rationale for decision-making and sets out clear actions to progress children and young adults’ plans. Inspection of North Northamptonshire local authority children’s services 11 to 22 May 2026 55. Partners across North Northamptonshire have commenced preparation for the implementation of the Families First Partnership Programme, with a partnership governance structure in place, alongside specific staff recruited to support implementation of the reforms. Development of a family help strategy and a locality-based family hub network provide a clear direction of travel.

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families: outstanding

56. The voice of children is a priority in North Northamptonshire, with children attending themed scrutiny boards, contributing to the corporate parenting board and leading the new ‘reverse corporate parenting board’.

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families: outstanding

57. Social workers receive an extensive package of support and training, which is contributing to the recruitment and retention of workers. Systemic practice training is highly valued by the workforce, and this is making a real difference in their work with children and families. Significant investment has been made in the Circle to Success team to provide more intensive support to children and families, promoting stability and reunification where possible.

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families: outstanding

58. Workers across the trust described it as being ‘like a family’. They were unanimously positive about leaders and the motivating and empowering environment created, supporting them to deliver their best work for children. A culture of trust has been developed, with staff feeling they are valued, listened to and able to influence service development. This has resulted in them having a real commitment to continuous improvement. The diverse workforce is supported and celebrated, and this strengthens the engagement of children, young people and families from across North Northamptonshire. Inspection of North Northamptonshire local authority children’s services 11 to 22 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

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families: outstanding

Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher 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 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/ .

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families: outstanding

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families: outstanding

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