An unannounced inspection by Ofsted in August 2009 suggests that Reading’s Children’s Services is improving at last. Although a positive report, there is still criticism that core and initial assessments are not completed on time; too many lack adequate analysis and service plans for children and young people are insufficiently detailed and outcome focused.

This is a particular problem for those needing concise information from the Council’s database to assess remedial action for a problem. Clearly, if the information is not up to date, the subsequent action may well be flawed.

Another criticism was that while social work assistants receive regular and effective supervision and do not carry cases that meet the thresholds for child protection, some of the cases they are carrying are too complex to ensure confident service provision. This would suggest that cases are being handed to less qualified staff in order to meet targets. Targets may well be met but if the expected quality of the work is compromised by the lack of expertise this is an unacceptable betrayal of trust and lets down those children that have the most need of our support.

Both these factors may be relevant elsewhere in the report where it states that a lack of clarity in the initial referral and assessment teams on thresholds for service underpinning the work of multi-agency children’s action teams results in some delays in the transfer of cases. As a result, some children and families have to wait for services.

Whilst we all welcome the positive changes in the Children’s Services in Reading which will hopefully raise the moral of the staff working in this very demanding, often under staffed and high profile service, it is equally important to ensure that the quality of the service is not compromised with the means to simply meet the Government’s performance targets.

Conservatives would like to see focused actions around these key objectives:

• Stability and continuity
• Better provision and support for parents and carers
• The re-introduction of School Nurses with a greater emphasis on the avoidance of teenage pregnancies
• Tackling discipline and preventing failure
 

Stability and continuity is vital to increase the well-being of a minority of looked after children whose care is often adversely affected by too frequent changes of social workers. 75 children in care in Reading have had 3 or more carers within the last year! This lack of continuity is disruptive for the children and jeopardises their attainment in school and later life.
Better provision and support for parents and carers who often have to work hard to secure the help they need. A number of parents and care workers site this as an area of concern.

The re-introduction of School Nurses with a greater emphasis on the avoidance of teenage pregnancies by providing, in addition to the general health and wellbeing of pupils, one-to-one sex education and advice for teenage girls at risk of under age pregnancy. The negative impact on all subsequent resources following a teenage pregnancy can be immense - housing, welfare, care, medical, loss of earnings, reduced taxation/contribution to public services to name but a few. This in turn should be accompanied by an intensive communications programme.

To tackle discipline and prevent failure the Conservatives believe that education begins at home and should be a partnership between parents, local authorities and schools. Early support for young families to assimilate the skills of speech vocabulary and early literacy will prove invaluable to children’s progress and attainment in primary school. In parallel, good discipline in the home supported by strong leadership and class management in our primary schools will improve the performance of all. Poor pupil behaviour is the most serious problem preventing teachers doing the job they love. Classrooms in which students are disruptive are environments in which no-one can learn. Pupils who feel they can defy teachers with impunity subvert the calm order which is needed for schools to function effectively. But in many of Britain’s classrooms students are not learning, nor allowing others to learn. Instead they are openly transgressing the boundaries which define good behaviour. It demonstrates not just a lack of respect for learning itself, but for others within the school community, and teachers have to be given the tools to tackle this issue at root. The balance has to shift back in the classroom, in favour of the

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