A RIGOROUS inspection of child protection services at Warrington, carried out by a multi-agency team, has found continuous improvement over the last three years since the shock judgement in 2009 that local provision was “inadequate.”
Eight inspectors have spent two weeks in Warrington assessing the effectiveness of the work being undertaken to protect children, young people and their families.
Overall, they found services to be “good” – although they did find some areas of concern.
The inspection team – who arrived in town unannounced – included officers from Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and HM Inspectorate of Probation.
Warrington was one of five areas chosen to pilot a new, more rigorous inspection procedure.
Inspectors spoke to a range of social workers, mental health practitioners, teachers, doctors, nurses, police, probation officers and youth offending workers.
They found the overall effectiveness of the multi-agency work to protect children and young people to be good, the effectiveness of the help and protection provided is good, the quality of practice is good and the leadership, governance and partnership working is also good. 
Vulnerable children, young people and families often get help from a range of agencies and inspectors found that in Warrington all of these agencies understand how important the protection of children is and work well together to make this happen.
Their report noted: “Well established partnership working at an early stage helps to consistently identify children at risk of harm and provide targeted support through a wide range of help services which are becoming increasingly coordinated.”
Encouragingly, families also told inspectors that they feel supported by local agencies as they move from one service to another as their needs change.
Audrey Williamson, chairman of the Warrington Safeguarding Children’s Board (WSCB) said: “Though this was a pilot inspection we are very pleased with the outcome as this new regime is incredibly rigorous.
“The WSCB board has a clear focus on multi-agency practices and standards and all partners who work with vulnerable children, young people and their families in Warrington are committed to providing the best standards of service. We carry out regular audits and the results of this exercise will assist in establishing priority areas of investment and action to help us improve and move towards outstanding provision.”
The report does highlight some areas for improvement.
People who suffer from domestic abuse do not always have early access to the support they need.
There is not enough help provided for people to stop them hurting others through domestic abuse.
Family doctors are not taking a full role in meetings across the borough to ensure children are helped and protected.
Midwives do not have planned opportunities to talk to their superiors about how to protect children. Social workers do have these opportunities – but some meetings do not take place as often as they should.
Not enough young people know about advocates who would help them to attend and contribute to meetings.
Dr Sarah Baker, chief clinical officer at Warrington Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “We’re delighted that Warrington’s effective partnership approach to keeping children safe has been highlighted in the report. Working together across our organisations to improve health outcomes for local people is the way forward and a big priority for the future.
“The feedback from parents and carers that the help and support they receive makes a positive difference to their families shows that our work is having an impact and improving lives.
“We accept that there is always room for improvement and will be working with our member GP practices to enable them to further integrate with some elements of the review conference process.”
Kath O’Dwyer, executive director of children’s services at Warrington Borough Council, said: “We do so many things differently these days and this report confirms that we provide a good service and are well on the way to becoming an outstanding service in the future.
“I can’t thank my staff and managers enough for all the hard work they have put in to date to bring about meaningful change, their great efforts have enabled the council and wider local safeguarding partnership to totally transform services so they are now consistently performing well.”
Cllr Colin Froggatt, executive member for children’s services added: “Following the inadequate judgment in 2009 the council made a substantial commitment to bring about improvements and change which has been successful judging by this excellent inspection result.
“I can’t convey the scale of the transformation Kath, her teams and the partnership have brought about since 2009 and I would like to thank them now for all their hard work.”
Pictured (from the top): Kath O’Dwyer, Dr Sarah Baker, Cllr Colin Froggatt.
