A council whose children's services will be transferred to an independent trust next year has improved its provision for care leavers, Ofsted has found.
In its latest monitoring visit to Bradford council, the inspectorate found that a bigger and more stable workforce of "committed and caring" social workers and personal advisers (PAs) were delivering more consistent practice under the oversight and leadership of "capable" senior managers.
At its 2018 inspection, in which it graded Bradford as inadequate overall though requires improvement for children in care and care leavers, Ofsted found that support for care leavers was inconsistent. Some councils lacked access to key documents to support them in adulthood, such as passports, pathway plans were not user-friendly and the voice of the young person was "minimal" in case records.
However, at the monitoring visit in July, inspectors found that the "voice of the young person is significantly stronger, and this is ensuring young people’s views and goals are incorporated into planning".
Their views were central to pathway plans - which were now "sensitively written in easily understandable language" - and this meant that interventions were based on young people's expressed wishes, goals and aspirations.
