Surrey County Council’s Children’s Services have shown “significant improvement”, according to Ofsted.

The watchdog has praised a “stable senior leadership team” and swift responses to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic in a letter following an inspection in March. The service was previously rated inadequate in May 2018.

Council leader Tim Oliver said the authority will continue to build on the positive improvements.

The visit from Ofsted looked at how the council’s Children’s Services have delivered child-centred practice during the pandemic. Improvements in multi-agency work were highlighted, along with the redeployment of additional staff to provide support out of hours.
The letter also praised work by the council and school leaders to oversee and monitor children who are missing education.

Cllr Oliver said: “This latest publication from Ofsted recognises the continuous improvement of Surrey’s children’s services, which is particularly encouraging given the additional challenges of the last year during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is always more to do, but I am confident that we will continue to build on this positive improvement journey across our services for our children, young people and families.”

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