The team at North Yorkshire Council
North Yorkshire Council have just been rated as ‘outstanding’ in all areas of the latest Ofsted report. This achievement is all the more impressive as this is their second ‘outstanding’ in all areas in a row — the previous being 2018.
The report particularly noted the impact of leaders on social work practice — leaders have built on their well-established culture and service initiatives to further develop and improve services for children since the last inspection. It was noted that leaders “are outward-looking and have a deep understanding of local communities and what good and outstanding services for children look like. Children are placed first and foremost in the ‘Being Young in North Yorkshire’ vision for the safeguarding partnership.”
“Respectful, relational, strengths-based practice underpins everything we do. We do things with families, not to them. All great social work starts with ‘who loves this child?’, and we have built a world-leading practice model around that.”
The corporate director of children and young people’s services, Stuart Carlton, said, “Respectful, relational, strengths-based practice underpins everything we do. We do things with families, not to them. All great social work starts with ‘who loves this child?’, and we have built a world-leading practice model around that.” You can read the full article on the North Yorkshire Council website here.
Jo Miles (second from the left in the above photo) is a principal child and family social worker at North Yorkshire Council and has previously presented at the International Signs of Safety Gathering in Leicester, 2014, demonstrating how the Signs of Safety was used as a consistent approach from the commencement of Children’s Social Care through the life of the agency’s involvement, creating consistency in the work between two teams, even when the level of experience and confidence in using the Signs of Safety approach varied between practitioners. Her presentation with her team Signs of Safety Across Teams can be found on the Signs of Safety Knowledge Bank (subscriber access only) here.
You can download the full Ofsted report here. Many congratulations North Yorkshire on your outstanding achievement!