Setting

Rachel Farnham Corporate Director of Children and Young People’s Services Durham County Council County Hall Durham DH1 5UJ

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Focused visit to Durham County Council children’s services

This letter summarises the findings of the focused visit to Durham children’s services on 15 and 16 July 2026. His Majesty’s Inspectors for this visit were Rachel Fairhurst and Mark Scanlon.

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Focused visit to Durham County Council children’s services

Inspectors looked at the local authority’s arrangements for children in care, specifically the experiences and progress of children living in unregistered provision.

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Focused visit to Durham County Council children’s services

This visit was carried out in line with the inspection of local authority children’s services (ILACS) framework. Inspectors looked at a range of evidence, including case discussions with social workers and managers. They also looked at the local authority’s performance management and quality assurance information and children’s case records.

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Headline findings

The local authority maintains a clear and uncompromising stance that the use of unregistered placements for children is illegal and unacceptable. Such arrangements are used only in the most exceptional circumstances, when every alternative has been fully explored and exhausted. Where unregistered placements have been unavoidable for some children, the level of organisational scrutiny and senior leader and manager oversight is intense to exhaust searches for registered and lawful placements, always with the child in mind.

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Headline findings

Leaders recognise that children’s multi-layered needs, most often related to trauma, make sourcing appropriate local placements extremely difficult, particularly where wider health and therapeutic support are limited. This complexity has directly shaped the local authority’s sufficiency and commissioning strategy, which is explicitly targeted at this group of children. Political and corporate support, significant financial investment and targeted strategic planning activity to develop more appropriate specialist provisions are well underway and apparent. The early intervention focus is Ofsted

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Headline findings

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 1231 Textphone 0161 618 8524 enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk www.gov.uk/ofsted reducing the need for the use of unregistered providers and ultimately building sufficiency to ensure the use of unregistered providers is not required in the future.

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Main findings

During this visit, inspectors reviewed the experience and progress of almost all children currently residing in unregistered provision. Without exception, every child’s case reviewed during this visit showed children had experienced some form of trauma. Some children presented highly complex emotional and mental health needs, for which the necessary health and therapeutic provision was simply not available. Some of the children required urgent homes due to placement breakdown.

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Main findings

Inspectors found a consistent child-centered understanding among social workers and managers that unregistered provision is used only as an absolute last resort for their children, with ongoing searches in place to ensure that this is for the shortest time possible. In every child’s case reviewed and discussed with social workers, there was clear and documented evidence of active ongoing efforts to secure safe, lawful and appropriate placements for children at pace. Social workers demonstrated a strong grasp of the risks, and team managers applied close oversight of placement searches, ensuring that each child’s situation is considered with urgency and care.

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Main findings

The level of scrutiny of children’s plans and progress applied by senior leaders is intense. Risk analysis is detailed and dynamic. The frequency of visits by social workers is exceptionally high and includes visits by team managers to the provisions. Safeguarding oversight is stringent. Inspectors saw consistent evidence of exhaustive placement searches, extensive checks on providers and proactive work with some providers to encourage registration with Ofsted to avoid the need for unregistered placements. It is evident throughout the organisation, from increased social work visits to chief executive officer briefings, that ensuring children’s safety and care is the priority.

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Main findings

Through the ‘Durham Cares’ approach, there are strong joined-up responses between corporate resources and children’s services. This is ensuring that financial planning, commissioning and service design are all aligned to secure safe, legal and appropriate homes for children. Senior governance through the ‘Durham Cares’ board provides clear oversight and grip, with targeted programmes of work. These are intelligent and evidence led, underpinned by research to understand their child population, helping to anticipate demand and shape the development of specialist provision. This is ensuring that the needs of the most vulnerable children, those at greatest risk of ending up in unregistered placements, are at the forefront of planning, investment and decision-making.

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Main findings

There is effective oversight and challenge of the placements market by senior leaders. They use strong market intelligence, targeted early help, disciplined use of resources and investment in support to try to keep families together to prevent placement breakdown. Use of priority planning permission and monitoring the oversight of the ‘Durham first’ offer is increasing local placement capacity at pace and increasing placement choice for Durham children.

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Main findings

When there is no alternative, every decision to place a child in an unregistered setting begins with a clear understanding of each child’s needs, identity and lived experience. The provision and provider are carefully considered to meet a child’s short-term needs. Where children require specialist assessments and support, wraparound therapeutic interventions are commissioned by the local authority to fill gaps in the system. This adds an additional layer of support and safeguarding to children while in these arrangements.

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Main findings

Children remain the focus of social work practice because social workers hold a precise and continually updated understanding of each child’s needs and strengths. This increased oversight ensures that practitioners see children more frequently. This is helping to build trusting relationships with children and enabling swift, well- informed decision-making. This enhanced visibility allows social workers to monitor children’s safety, wellbeing and progress closely, while maintaining persistent searches for suitable registered provision. Throughout, practice remains deliberately child centered, and every action is anchored in what matters most to the child and the quality of care the child is receiving.

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Main findings

Detailed records reflect the extent of activity, direct work undertaken with the child and management oversight of each child’s progress. Independent reviewing officers robustly review children’s plans and monitor the child’s progress. Weekly care team meetings, and more regular child in care reviews, occur throughout the child’s placement, which are reported on weekly to the director of children’s social care.

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Main findings

The child’s voice remains central to planning wherever possible. Social workers use meaningful visits and observations of children’s behaviours, in addition to listening to the views of those who know children well, to inform planning and assessments. Assessments successfully reflect the child’s experience, their views and their progress. Children’s care plans are detailed and consistently written from the child’s point of view, outlining their wishes and feelings effectively.

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Main findings

During the visit, inspectors considered the experiences of children who had moved on from unregistered provision. Social workers’ persistent searches for suitable options, combined with their precise understanding of each child’s needs, ensured that transitions were timely, purposeful and firmly child centered and children did not remain in an unregistered setting for longer than necessary.

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Main findings

Inspectors found when social workers and commissioners search for appropriate homes for children, due consideration is given to children’s educational needs. Consideration is also given to the proximity to family and the child’s networks, minimising the impact of any moves for the child wherever possible and maintaining enduring relationships. Children’s health needs are well met. Their physical and emotional health needs are supported from in-house specialist support, and where more specialised support is required, bespoke commissioning identifies wraparound care.

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Main findings

Risks are identified early and with precision, triggering well-coordinated multi-agency planning and targeted interventions that strengthen children’s safety. The use of multi-agency safeguarding enquiries, and the timely consideration of legal interventions, is a significant strength. This is ensuring that escalating risk is met with proportionate and decisive action. These responses are dynamically reviewed by social workers and managers. This enables social workers to adapt quickly and maintain a strong protective grip to better safeguard children.

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Main findings

Social workers speak about their children with undisguised pride and care. This is matched by an unstinting organisation-wide determination to secure the most appropriate placement at the earliest opportunity. This shared commitment was palpable in every conversation, record and document inspectors reviewed. Practitioners are strongly supported by managers through reflective supervision and targeted professional development. Managers model a clear culture of eradicating unregistered placements and securing provision that is closer to home and aligned with each child’s needs. This collective focus ensures that children experience care that is both deeply relational and strategically driven towards stability, safety and the right long-term, or permanent, home.

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Main findings

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

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