Ofsted is the body which inspects and regulates services for children and young people.  Ofsted awarded Warrington Borough Council’s Children and Young People’s Services a ‘performs adequately’ judgement in 2010-11.

In January 2011, a full inspection of safeguarding and services for children in care (looked after children) found that the local authority’s performance was adequate. This represents a significant improvement since 2009 when safeguarding services were found to be inadequate. Statutory requirements for safeguarding services have now been met and considerable progress has been made in recruiting qualified and experienced social work staff.

The report noted that: “Considerable resource has been invested by the local authority and improvements across a number of areas have been identified. Importantly, there is now an ambitious yet realistic plan to drive improvement and a substantial increase in workforce capacity.”  

Kath O’Dwyer, executive director of children and young people’s services in Warrington said: “This report has recognised the good progress we have made in our safeguarding provision whilst underlining the great achievements within the wider range of children's services here in Warrington, which has long been our strength.  We know we have the foundations for an outstanding children's service in the future which is what we are aiming for and what our children and young people deserve.”

Ofsted inspects all services for children including fostering, adoption and children’s homes and regular inspections of schools, colleges, nurseries and childminders. Much of this provision for children and young people in Warrington is ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.

Some key highlights include:

• outstanding, as are secondary schools, college and sixth form provision
• More than half of all early years and childcare settings are good or better
• Provision to help children and young people achieve well and to enjoy their education is good or outstanding in nearly all settings
• Last year more young people at the age of 16 achieved five good GCSEs including English and mathematics than ever before, above similar areas and continuing a trend of improvement
• Provision to help children and young people achieve well and to enjoy their education is good or outstanding in nearly all settings
• Behaviour is good or outstanding in nearly all schools and the number of young people with frequent poor attendance is considerably lower than similar areas
• In Warrington, children and young people play an active role in the decisions that affect them.  All schools have a school council and IMPACT, the youth parliament, has developed a local manifesto which highlights the current issues and concerns of young people across the area
• The last three years have seen good improvements in the number of young people achieving high level qualifications by the age of 19
• The percentage of young people not in education, work or training increased during 2009 but has reduced in the last year
• The number of care leavers who continue their learning and gain qualifications is rising.

Reports from Ofsted inspections can be found on the Ofsted website.