As the Cabinet Member for Childrens Services I was so pleased that our services to our children and young people in Croydon has been rated as Good by Ofsted. My thanks to our fantastic staff who work with passion and dedication for our children and families in Croydon. Ofsted in its report took the unusual step of highlighting the significant challenges that Childrens Services
Faced since the last inspection in 2020 that included the bankruptcy of the former Labour Administration that led to financial difficulties, high turnover of staff , high case loads, cuts to services and yet despite these challenges the service was rated Good and had significantly improved since the last Inspection. I am so proud of our staff and young people.
Our social workers the lifeblood of our service were rightly praised throughout the report and it was great to read how much they like working in Croydon . We now have an impressive 80 per cent permanent workforce
Since becoming Cabinet Member one of my priorities has been an absolute focus on our services to our Looked After Children and Care Leavers. Changes have been made to the Corporate Parenting Board and Croydons first strategy for Care Experienced young people and Care Leavers underpinning the work. Crucially joint protocols with Housing has helped with housing for our Care Leavers. Our model of Ambassadors our team of Care Leavers that have internal posts in the Council and play a part in strategies right across the Council has been highlighted by Ofsted as a particularly strong area of practice. Our Independent Visitors and Early Permanence Work were also highlighted in the report as strong areas of practice
Of course there are areas to improve most of these areas we were already working on but it was too early for Ofsted to judge these improvements. We are all committed in CYPE to continue our progress improving our services to children and families here in Croydon.
