Another step forward for Children’s Services
Support for children and young people in Kirklees has taken another step forward after being assessed by officials from central government.
Have any improvements been made?
The Department for Education (DfE) has highlighted “significant improvements” in Children’s Services and has given us more responsibility for continuing its progress.
Back in 2016, Ofsted judged Children’s Services to be inadequate and the DfE issued a formal ‘direction to improve’, which meant it was closely monitoring the steps being taken.
However, a re-inspection took place last year and services were deemed as requiring improvement in order to be good. As a result of the positive changes that continue to be made, the DfE has now withdrawn its ‘direction to improve’.
Cllr Viv Kendrick, our Cabinet member for Children, said:
“This is an important milestone and we are pleased to have recognition for all the hard work that has taken place. There has been a vast range of improvements in the way we support children, young people and families and help them to achieve better outcomes.
The DfE are confident that we have the capacity and ability to take more control of our improvement journey, while the recent Ofsted report praised many aspects of our work. The progress we’ve made has been achieved with an excellent workforce and committed partners.
Giving children the best start in life is one of our biggest priorities and we remain hugely committed to making further progress. We will continue to welcome scrutiny and we will challenge ourselves every day.
There is still a lot more work ahead of us and our ambition is to move all the way to outstanding. Our aim at all times is to support, protect and change children’s lives for the better.”