Lord Warner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2016-05-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what Ofsted inspections of Birmingham City Council’s children’s social care services have been made since April 2014; whether Ofsted have indicated since then any major concerns about those services; and what information is available to the Department for Education Ministers to suggest that the City Council is not adhering to the three-year improvement plan approved by the City Council and the Department’s previous Commissioner in April 2015.

Lord Nash

The most recent Ofsted inspection of Birmingham City Council’s children’s services took place in March 2014. This inspection found services to be inadequate. Since then, Birmingham City Council has made some progress against its improvement plan, which ends in 2017. However, the current Commissioner for children’s services in Birmingham, Andrew Christie, and the council itself recognise that much more needs to be done. The Council is coming to the end of its current improvement plan and is exploring models for further improvement in future.