Hampshire children's services praised in Ofsted report

Hampshire County Council’s child and family social workers are “knowledgeable, confident and child-centred” and ensure that children have a “meaningful voice” in decisions about their care.

This was one of Ofsted’s findings following a focused visit to Hampshire Children’s Services that took place on January 31 and February 1.

The visit also found that children’s educational needs were well considered, exploitation risks are identified well and disabled children “benefit from appropriate provision which meets their often complex needs”.

The county council’s executive lead member for children’s services councillor Edward Heron said: “Hampshire Children’s Services consistently strive to improve where possible and deliver sector-leading transformational programmes to further build on our highly effective practice.

“The continued high performance of the service simply wouldn’t be possible without the skill and professionalism of our exceptional social workers.

“It is rewarding to see their excellence recognised by Ofsted and, in particular, the strengths of their child-centred approach, which ensures that children are rightly placed at the heart of decision making.”

The report also highlighted some areas the service needs to improve upon, such as children having to wait too long for health assessments and social workers often having heavy workloads.

However, on the whole the report was positive, with inspectors stating that “children [are] carefully nurtured to move from residential care, with an intensive support network, to living in foster families” and “children who are traumatised and isolated benefit from the tenacity and relentlessness of their social workers, who are persistent in their efforts to engage and support them”.