Children's Services retain 'Good' rating

We're delighted that our Children's Services has retained its Good' status following the latest inspection from Ofsted.

Inspectors spent a week with our Children and Family Service in March and found its overall experience to be good. Building on the progress made during the last inspection, we achieved 'Good' across all four inspection areas:

• The impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families
• The experiences and progress of children who need help and protection
• The experiences and progress of children in care and care leavers
• Overall effectiveness

The report praised the effectiveness of our "strong, stable and child-focused leadership team" andrecognises the experience that West Berkshire has in supporting asylum-seeking children, noting that unaccompanied children are met with kindness when they arrive here.

In particular, the report noted the introduction of an early response hub through which highly effective working relationships have been developed with universal, voluntary and community services. It means that children and families benefit from intervention and help at the earliest opportunity.

Councillor Dominic Boeck, our Executive Member for Education, Children and Young People says,

"It's important to us that our children and young people are protected, cared for and supported to reach their full potential. Our Children's Services teams are pivotal to this and work hard every day to ensure young people across the district flourish. I'm delighted that this commitment has been recognised in the latest inspection."