Portsmouth City local authority children’s services

Inspection of Portsmouth City local authority children’s services

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Lead inspector: Steve Bailey, His Majesty’s Inspector

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Judgement Grade

The impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families Outstanding

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Judgement Grade

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

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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 care leavers Outstanding

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Judgement Grade

Children, care leavers and families in Portsmouth benefit greatly from outstanding services. Since the last inspection in 2023, leaders have sustained a high quality of help and protection for children, further strengthened the experience and progress of children in care and transformed services for care leavers. In Portsmouth, care leavers prefer to be known as care-experienced young people, and this term is used throughout this report.

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Judgement Grade

Children, care-experienced young people and families receive timely, purposeful and bespoke help from a skilful workforce. Practitioners know them well, and strong relationships support them to make sustained, meaningful progress.

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Judgement Grade

Stable, ambitious and impactful leadership has enabled this progress. Leaders know their services very well and use a highly self-aware and curious approach to continually identify opportunities for improvement and deliver stronger services for children. A ‘one-council’ approach to care-experienced young people has instilled wide-ranging improvements at pace, ensuring this group is prioritised, provided for and very well supported. Inspection of Portsmouth City local authority children’s services 6 to 10 July 2026

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What needs to improve? 1

◼ The consistency of identification and response to the underlying causes of neglect, where parental risk factors are less evident. (outcome 1, national framework)

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protection: outstanding

1. Children in Portsmouth who need help and protection continue to receive consistently strong, well-coordinated and purposeful support. Practice is child centred, relationship based and responsive to children’s changing needs and risks. Across targeted early help, child in need and child protection work, children’s circumstances are understood well and families receive support that reduces risk and supports sustained change.

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protection: outstanding

2. Children referred to the multi-agency safeguarding hub receive prompt and comprehensive triage. Consistent management oversight supports well- informed initial threshold decisions. Practitioners quickly gather and analyse information from partner agencies and families and consider children’s histories and cumulative experiences without delay. As a result, children’s needs and risks are understood quickly, so they receive the right help and protection at the earliest opportunity.

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protection: outstanding

3. Families benefit from a strong, impactful and wide-ranging targeted early help offer. Practice is confident and restorative, helping children and families make sustained progress. Assessments, plans and reviews are highly collaborative, focused and build on strengths. Practitioners provide consistent, high-quality support that is responsive to emerging needs and includes the whole family. As a result, children and families are helped to prevent needs from escalating and are supported to thrive.

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protection: outstanding

4. Leaders responded quickly and robustly to a recent increase in demand and staff sickness that affected access to targeted early help in the 3 months before the inspection. Managers implemented a strong and dynamic triage process and maintained effective oversight. They kept in regular contact with families, undertook home visits, prioritised those with the most pressing need and ensured that parents received help from partner agencies so that needs did not escalate. By the time of the inspection, leaders had successfully appointed 2 additional practitioners, who had started and were being allocated to the remaining families waiting for targeted early help.

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protection: outstanding

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 Portsmouth City local authority children’s services 6 to 10 July 2026 5. When concerns arise about significant harm to children, they receive timely and purposeful child protection responses that identify and address risk effectively. Strategy meetings are convened quickly, well attended and clearly focused on children’s safety. Social workers see children promptly, and with the police when appropriate. Parents are sensitively engaged and helped to understand risks to their children. Child protection enquiries are detailed, with careful management oversight and well-evidenced recommendations. Risks to children are understood early and addressed quickly.

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protection: outstanding

6. When children cannot remain safely at home, social workers take assertive action. Emergency legal steps are swift and decisive, followed by detailed and diligent planning that secures children’s longer-term safety and care.

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protection: outstanding

7. Initial child protection conferences, core groups and review meetings are well attended and provide strong analysis of risk and need. Most risks and concerns are considered through a firmly child-focused lens, and professionals contribute effectively to children’s welfare and safety. Support remains coordinated, responsive to changing risks and focused on what needs to change for children throughout their journey.

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protection: outstanding

8. Children benefit from timely, child-centred assessments of their needs and plans that place their lived experiences at the heart of analysis. Assessments are written in strengths-based, non-blaming language that promotes understanding and opportunities for change. Children’s plans are developed collaboratively with children, families and professionals. They provide a clear framework for coordinated support and intervention, focused on reducing risk, building on strengths and achieving sustainable change. Regular reviews keep plans relevant to children’s and their families’ changing needs. As a result, families receive highly effective, tailored help that remains focused on improving children’s day-to-day experiences.

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protection: outstanding

9. Relationship-based practice is an embedded, significant strength. Social workers know children and families well, show genuine interest in their lives and build trusting relationships that help children and families talk about what matters to them, understand concerns and contribute to plans. Children’s views are actively sought, taken seriously and acted on. Most visits to children and families are purposeful, and records show respectful and difficult conversations taking place with families with honesty and integrity. Strident efforts are made by social workers to involve the important adults in children’s lives, including through the early and systematic use of family group decision-making. Consequently, parents, carers and other important adults are helped to work together on the changes needed to improve children’s experiences and safety.

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protection: outstanding

10. Most children who experience neglect benefit from well-targeted and effective help. Embedded, specialist, multi-disciplinary workers provide sophisticated and highly impactful support to parents experiencing domestic abuse, poor mental health and substance misuse. Social workers provide help that reduces the impact of neglect on children. For a very small number of children, where these Inspection of Portsmouth City local authority children’s services 6 to 10 July 2026 adult factors are not present, analysis and intervention are less well targeted and progress is slower. Leaders recognised this during the inspection and are strengthening oversight so that this very small group of children receive the same high-quality response as most children who experience neglect.

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protection: outstanding

11. Work with children and families in the pre-proceedings stage of the Public Law Outline is highly effective. Senior leaders maintain robust oversight, avoiding unnecessary delay, and ensure that decisions are purposeful and in children’s best interests. Letters before proceedings are written in plain language, making them accessible to parents. Specialist assessments and interventions are well targeted, meaning many families are successfully diverted from care proceedings, while timely decisions are made about children’s futures when they cannot remain safely at home.

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protection: outstanding

12. Disabled children are very well supported by dedicated and experienced social workers who understand their strengths, needs, communication systems and lived experiences. Plans are child centred and impactful, and interventions are well tailored to promote wellbeing and independence. The pressures of additional caring responsibilities on carers are understood well, with most supported effectively.

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protection: outstanding

13. Children at risk of exploitation are swiftly identified and supported through a highly effective multi-agency response. Well-embedded risk tools, regular panel oversight and purposeful relationships help practitioners understand children’s experiences, respond to changing risk and take action to make children safer.

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protection: outstanding

14. Children who go missing from home or care receive an appropriate, timely and proportionate response. Return home conversations (RHCs) are offered quickly by the practitioner who knows the child best, resulting in the majority of children choosing to accept the offer. Practitioners use RHCs well to understand why children go missing, inform wider planning and coordinate support to reduce risk.

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protection: outstanding

15. The out-of-hours service provides timely advice, support and intervention outside of office hours, helping families and practitioners respond to worries about children when daytime services are closed. Effective communication with daytime teams ensures that families receive consistent support.

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protection: outstanding

16. Children aged 16 and 17 who present as homeless receive routine offers of advocacy, clear explanations of their rights and options to come into care, as well as support to reintegrate with their families. Holistic assessment and support are underpinned by a consistent presumption that children will need and receive a wide range of support above and beyond their accommodation needs.

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protection: outstanding

17. Children who are privately fostered benefit from specialist oversight, child- focused practice, thorough assessments and safeguarding checks that support safe and well-monitored arrangements. A very small number of children are Inspection of Portsmouth City local authority children’s services 6 to 10 July 2026 identified as being privately fostered in Portsmouth, with leaders ensuring continual awareness-raising across the partnership.

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protection: outstanding

18. Young carers benefit from a well-crafted and layered offer, with universal, targeted and specialist support that is regularly reviewed and tailored to need. Children are provided with practical help, enjoyable activities and space to share difficult feelings.

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protection: outstanding

19. The local authority designated officer comprehensively manages allegations against people who work with children, ensuring risks to children are clearly understood and well managed.

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protection: outstanding

20. Oversight of electively home-educated children and children missing education is robust and effective, with timely action taken to ensure that children receive suitable education and support where risks emerge.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

21. Since the last inspection, the experiences and progress of children in care have strengthened further. Children receive consistently strong support that helps them make sustained progress. Most children live in stable homes, close to the people and places that matter to them. Their permanence, sense of identity and important relationships are considered early and promoted very well throughout their time in care.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

22. Children in Portsmouth, including disabled children, live in homes that are very well matched to their needs. Local, long-term foster carers provide consistent, nurturing care and are supported effectively by supervising social workers. Children living with connected and kinship carers receive careful support that helps them remain safely within their family networks and maintain essential relationships. A small number of younger children are making good progress in children’s homes, where specialist, therapeutic care meets their specific needs well. Their levels of need and quality of support are kept under regular review, with a persistent focus on planning for them to return to live in family-based settings wherever possible. Careful decision-making, consistent support to carers and regular review help children remain settled and supported, as they receive flexible and tailored care that responds to their changing needs.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

23. Moves outside of children’s care plans are the exception. Leaders have a detailed and strategic understanding of children’s needs and use this well to secure a wide range of homes. When arrangements become fragile, social workers, carers and specialist services respond quickly to strengthen support around children to prevent or delay unplanned moves. When children do need to move, alternative homes are identified promptly and practitioners ensure that children have sufficient time to move in a planned and sensitive way. Reflective placement-ending meetings place children’s voice, experiences and needs at the centre of learning, helping to strengthen future decision-making and stability. Inspection of Portsmouth City local authority children’s services 6 to 10 July 2026 24. A very small number of children live in unregistered children’s homes. Leaders take this very seriously, and decisions are made only when registered options

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

have been comprehensively exhausted. Commissioners undertake a substantial and diligent range of checks before children move, and children are visited more frequently by social workers, independent reviewing officers and the virtual school. Senior managers maintain close oversight, helping to ensure that the quality of children’s care is closely scrutinised. Providers are encouraged to register with Ofsted. Children’s transitions to registered homes are carefully planned without unnecessary delay.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

25. Decisions about children in care are timely, purposeful and well considered. Children come into care only when this is necessary and in their best interests. These decisions are based on thorough risk assessments, careful consideration of children’s needs and robust senior management oversight. Care plans are collaborative, purposeful and include children’s voices. Independent reviewing officers are inquisitive and review meetings are comprehensive, resulting in a clear understanding of children’s complex needs, their progress and whether their plans remain right for them. Independent advocates and independent visitors provide an important external lens for many children, ensuring that children’s wishes and rights are presented in important care planning decisions. Children’s plans and the support provided to their families are kept under regular review, with reunification actively considered and progressed whenever

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

it is assessed as safe and in children’s best interests. Revocation of care orders is led by children’s progress and their parents’ ability to meet their needs, and most are undertaken in children’s timescales. Together, these arrangements ensure that decisions remain focused on children’s day-to-day progress and their long-term needs.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

26. Social workers place a strong emphasis on children’s family networks and important relationships from the start of children’s time in care. When children need to come into care, family networks are prioritised, informed by social workers’ comprehensive understanding of family strengths, often building on earlier, well-embedded family group-based decision-making meetings. This helps children live with, or remain closely connected to, adults who know them and understand their histories well.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

27. Careful attention to children’s relationships continues throughout their time in care. Birth families are routinely invited to reviews, and social workers help parents and wider family members share their views about how children should be cared for. Children are helped to spend time with people who are important to them, and brothers and sisters live together when possible. The lifelong links service provides exceptional help to children in identifying and helping them to build long-term relationships with people who are important to them, including relatives, former carers, teachers and other trusted adults. This supports children to maintain vital relationships and a sense of identity and belonging throughout their time in care and beyond. Inspection of Portsmouth City local authority children’s services 6 to 10 July 2026 28. Purposeful permanence planning for children starts early. Regular reviews track

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

and drive progress toward securing children’s permanent homes. Decisions about long-term permanence are clearly recorded in children’s plans and reviews, helping children understand where they will live and why. Plans for adoption are identified early, with children and adopters benefiting from a responsive, ambitious and child-centred adoption service, with very few children waiting and very few disruptions.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

29. Social workers know children well and build strong, trusting relationships with them. Visits and direct work are meaningful, lively and engaging, often taking place where children feel most comfortable. Creative tools help children share their views, wishes and feelings. Sensitive life-story work and life-story books help many children understand their histories and earlier experiences. Fun and enriching activities with carers and social workers build children’s confidence, help them develop hobbies and encourage them to try new things.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

30. Children’s education, physical health and emotional wellbeing are prioritised well. The virtual school provides skilled and determined advocacy, with a clear, inclusive ambition for every child to achieve their full potential. This helps ensure that children’s education is prioritised, barriers are identified and addressed and children make good progress from their starting points. Children’s physical health needs are comprehensively met through regular health assessments and specialist provision. Emotional and mental health needs are holistically and carefully addressed through therapeutic support, including the bespoke child and adolescent mental health service specialist team. This helps children’s learning, health and emotional wellbeing needs to be understood and supported effectively in the context of their experiences.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

31. Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are very well supported from the point they arrive in Portsmouth. The children seeking safety and asylum team responds promptly when children are identified in the city, including at the port, assessing children’s immediate needs and taking action to secure their rights. Social workers help children to begin to understand their experiences and the impact that these have had on their lives. Children live in suitable homes, with support that meets their cultural, religious and identity needs. They receive ongoing help to navigate legal and immigration processes and have year-round access to English language courses continuing into adulthood.

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The experiences and progress of children in care: outstanding

32. Children in care are helped to prepare for adulthood from an early stage. Personal advisers (PAs) are allocated in good time before children turn 18 and work alongside social workers, developing plans and providing continuity at this critical stage of their lives. This is particularly well coordinated for disabled children. Transition plans are robust, support needs are defined early and future living arrangements and care are tailored to disabled children’s unique needs upon leaving care. This results in children moving toward adulthood with well-planned support around them. Inspection of Portsmouth City local authority children’s services 6 to 10 July 2026

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

33. Care-experienced young people in Portsmouth are very well supported by an emotionally responsive and nurturing service that is reassuringly consistent and available. PAs know young people exceptionally well and are persistent, flexible and creative in helping them overcome difficulties and make progress. The palpable sense of care, attention to detail about young people’s lives and ambition for them is a distinctive, significant strength.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

34. This strong support begins before young people leave care and continues until they are 25, unless they choose to opt out after the age of 21. Young people have established relationships with their PAs before adulthood, with clear, detailed and co-created pathway plans that help them understand where they will live, how they will be helped to realise their ambitions and who will help them with practical and emotional steps in adult life. When young people choose to opt out of the service, staff maintain annual contact, offering advice, guidance and practical assistance. This gives young people a consistent safety net, ensuring that they know how to access support when circumstances change or difficulties arise.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

35. Pathway planning is effective, ambitious and centred on young people. Plans are continually reviewed alongside young people and reflect their wishes, feelings and aspirations. Actions are specific, clear and measurable. This helps young people understand the support available to them and how it will help them move forward to independence.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

36. Young people are encouraged and helped to maintain relationships with people who are important to them, which helps young people develop wider support networks in their communities. PAs also provide sensitive support to help young people re-establish and repair relationships that have previously been difficult or disrupted. PAs persistently offer a broad range of social, recreational and community-based opportunities to reduce isolation and help young people feel connected and valued.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

37. Young people’s physical and emotional health needs are well understood and supported effectively. PAs work proactively with health professionals so that young people access the services they need, including specialist mental health provision and support with drug and alcohol misuse. Practical support is provided when young people feel anxious or uncertain about attending appointments. This helps them build confidence and take more independent steps at a pace that is right for them.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

38. The extensive local offer makes a tangible difference to young people’s lives. Young people benefit from practical help and financial assistance, including council tax exemption until the age of 25. PAs consistently inform young people of their rights and entitlements and ensure that they take them up. Inspection of Portsmouth City local authority children’s services 6 to 10 July 2026 39. Most young people live in suitable accommodation that meets their needs and supports their progression toward independence. This is strengthened by a council-wide, life-long commitment that care-experienced young people from Portsmouth will not be found intentionally homeless, regardless of their age, and will be prioritised for housing. Vulnerable young people benefit from the Staying Close offer, including training flats and intensive support that help them develop independence skills at a pace that is right for them. When

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

accommodation becomes unsuitable, PAs are relentless in pursuing alternative solutions, alongside young people, their networks and professionals across the council.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

40. Practitioners have high aspirations for care-experienced young people. Young people’s achievements are recognised and celebrated, helping to build confidence and self-esteem. Persistent, confident support from a network of PAs, drug and alcohol services and the youth justice service helps young people access pathways to education, employment and training that reflect their ambitions and interests. This includes ring-fenced apprenticeship opportunities in the council, alongside some opportunities developed with local businesses, tailored help from the employability hub and a dedicated Department of Work and Pensions work coach. Young people at university receive meaningful ongoing PA support.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

41. Care-experienced young parents receive ambitious and tailored support. Detailed planning, childcare assistance and consistent PA guidance help them build confidence and promote nurturing relationships with their own children.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

42. Young people in custody continue to receive consistent support through regular PA visits, practical assistance and help to maintain important relationships and planning for life after release. Pathway planning for this group is of the same high standard as for other young people.

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The experiences and progress of care leavers: outstanding

43. PAs are alert and responsive when risks to young people increase. They recognise changes in young people’s circumstances quickly and take purposeful action, including through effective multi-agency working, to help make young people safer. Their persistence, advocacy and practical support ensure that emerging risks are followed up and young people continue to receive help when they need it most.

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families: outstanding

44. Since the last inspection, leadership has remained stable, ambitious and impactful. The chief executive, elected members, director of children’s services and senior leaders clearly understand their responsibilities to children and have backed their ambition with investment and sustained support. This has helped leaders to strengthen services, respond quickly to emerging pressures and maintain a clear and determined focus on improving children’s lives. Inspection of Portsmouth City local authority children’s services 6 to 10 July 2026 45. Leaders have consolidated strong wider council commitment to children’s services, making a tangible difference for children and care-experienced young people. The strong role of the virtual school, clear housing commitments for care-experienced young people and ring-fenced apprenticeship opportunities are examples of whole-council commitment that gives children and young

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families: outstanding

people practical support, opportunity and advocacy beyond children’s social care.

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families: outstanding

46. Leaders’ self-evaluation is highly self-aware. They use performance information, audit, feedback and learning well to shape priorities and continually refine their approach. This is typified by the consistent question in reflective practice discussions: ‘What would make this even better for children and families?’ This ambition and curiosity help leaders respond quickly to emerging issues, including the recent rise in early help demand.

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families: outstanding

47. Practice models are effective, embedded and continuously refreshed through regular training across the service. Leaders’ quality assurance framework is mature and comprehensive, with accountability for continual improvement threaded throughout the roles of heads of service, service leaders and team managers. Supervision and management oversight is effective and focused on improving the lives of children and young people. Frontline managers confidently use a range of reflective tools, which helps bring focus and clarity to most children’s planning.

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families: outstanding

48. Leaders take their roles as corporate parents very seriously. Children in care and care-experienced young people are actively supported to help shape strategic priorities. Care-experienced apprentices regularly provide strong lived- experience insight to the corporate parenting board. This co-production is genuine and routine, with children’s voices carrying significant weight in helping leaders set strategic priorities. Senior leaders and elected members recognise children and young people’s achievements at regular celebration events, reinforcing the ambition they have for children in their care.

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families: outstanding

49. Leaders understand the local context very well, including the challenge for care- experienced young people in a competitive job market in a city with a large university student population. They use their influence, partnerships and resources purposefully to widen opportunities, build confidence and improve young people’s access to employment. This remains an active and continued priority for them as corporate parents.

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families: outstanding

50. Leaders are relentless in securing a wide range of homes, with illegal children’s homes used only in very exceptional circumstances. Their own children’s homes continue to have strong inspection outcomes, supported lodgings have expanded and foster carers provide consistent care, receiving tailored support to undertake their roles well. Leaders have mature relationships with the regional adoption agency (Adopt South) and hold it appropriately to account, ensuring that adoption services meet the needs of Portsmouth children and adopters. Inspection of Portsmouth City local authority children’s services 6 to 10 July 2026 51. Leaders and managers are confident, ambitious and influential in changing the lives of children. Portsmouth City Council is supporting the coordination of regional planning for local government reorganisation, with a clear focus on securing the best outcomes for children. Work to transform services in line with

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families: outstanding

the family first reforms is being carefully sequenced and thoughtfully implemented, with the workforce and partners being meaningfully engaged in the change process. Family help structures are due to be implemented imminently.

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families: outstanding

52. Workforce morale, organisational culture, leadership visibility and values are consistent strengths. Caseloads are manageable, and staff feel valued. Improvements in recruitment and retention, market supplement payments, an effective and valued ‘grow your own’ pathway and a comprehensive, specialist continuing professional development offer equip the workforce well. Low workforce turnover strengthens consistency for children and families in Portsmouth. Inspection of Portsmouth City local authority children’s services 6 to 10 July 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: outstanding

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: outstanding

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

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