A real effort by Swindon Borough Council to recruit more foster carers, and the success already seen,  is just one of the ways Ofsted says the council has made progress in improving its services for children and young people.

Members of the authority’s ruling Labour cabinet will hear from their colleague the member for children’s services Councillor Paul Dixon about improvements and progress since an inadequate rating by Ofsted in 2023.

The report he will give will contain feedback from Ofsted after an inspection in February.

It says: “A fostering recruitment and retention board has been established to improve recruitment practices and galvanise the corporate response to fostering recruitment.

“Links with the communications team leading to more visible and focused advertising generated an upswing in enquiries. All enquiries were followed up within 24 hours.

“The council has received interest from nine foster carers and approved two within the last 12 months.”

Cllr Dixon told the Local Democracy Reporter: “That’s a key part of the improvement plan to have more foster carers which means more children and young people can be looked after in or closer to Swindon, closer to their family and school and friends.”

(Image: SBC)

Other improvements noted by Ofsted include: “Contact Swindon -  a new Integrated ‘front door’  - is beginning to make a positive difference to the management of demand and to ensuring that children receive the right service”.

Ofsted also said: “Thresholds for intervention are now much better understood and applied when children are referred to the multi-agency safeguarding hub When children are at immediate risk of harm, this is identified well by staff in the MASH, and typically responded to in a timely manner.”

“Children referred to Contact Swindon typically receive thorough assessments and most assessments are timely and identify need and risk well. This is an important step forward.”

Cllr Dixon Said: Since the inadequate rating staff have been working relentlessly on the improvement plan and I’m very pleased to see it have making such good progress.

“Ofsted were very positive about the improvements they saw in February.

“We’ve recently had another inspection and we will be getting another detailed report from that, and we have an improvement board every six weeks, and we involve all partners such health and education in that.

“Everyone is working very hard to make the improvements needed.”

Swindon received a ‘Good’ rating in 2019 but it had declined to ‘Inadequate’ in 2023.