Praise for social services improvements in Northumberland

In 2017, Judge Rachel Hudson, the family court judge at Newcastle’s combined courts centre, raised “serious concerns” about council’s practices when it came to public law cases – where a local authority makes an application for an order to safeguard the welfare of a child.

However, at a meeting of the council’s family and children’s services overview and scrutiny committee, councillors heard that improvements had been made in the last five years and the service had even been praised by Ofsted.

The watchdog published a focused inspection in August that looked at the authority’s arrangements for “planning and achieving permanence”. It said social workers knew their children well and used “personalised and sensitive tools to communicate effectively with children”.

While Ofsted did identify two areas for improvement – relating to the quality of recordings of supervision and the impact of challenge and escalation by independent reviewing officers, the improvements were recognised by a former cabinet member.

Coun Wayne Daley, who chaired the meeting and was previously the portfolio holder for children’s services, said: “I go back to when I was a cabinet member and first thing, in the first few days, I was given a very confidential briefing about Judge Hudson’s view of this authority, which was not good.

“A huge amount of detail was left out of reports and that has been transformed. These reports back in 2017 where seriously lacking in detail and had a serious impact on the long-term life chances of young people and their families.

“A huge amount of work has gone in. This is a great story and that’s down to the hard work of staff.”

A report presented to members stated that the council would continue to work with the courts, Cafcass (children and family court advisory and support service) and other local authorities on the issue.