Councillor Adam Ellison has given an update on work being carried out to improve children's services in South Tyneside following an "inadequate" Ofsted rating last year.
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00:00 So I'm here with Adam, Councillor Adam Ellison from South Tyneside Council. Adam, how have
00:06 you thought the council's improvement journey in children's services has gone today following
00:12 the inadequate Ofsted rating?
00:14 I think we've got off to a really positive start in South Tyneside, so we've got a children's
00:18 services improvement board in place and we've taken a number of steps around fostering,
00:23 recruitment of foster carers, how we engage with kinship carers and how we really look
00:27 at the services that we offer in South Tyneside internally and externally with partners to
00:31 really improve things for children and young people in the borough. So I think it's a really
00:35 positive start, we've got some real solid foundations for building upon and I look forward
00:39 to continuing leading that journey with officers and other elected members for the benefit
00:44 of everybody in South Tyneside.
00:46 And do you have any message to residents as to what the council's doing and to help reassure
00:51 them of the work going on behind the scenes from the local authority?
00:54 Yes, so I think we've done a real significant amount of work to try and get a really solid
00:59 foundation in South Tyneside. I think to reassure everybody in the borough, we've invested a
01:05 lot of time, we've got a lot of externalised looking at South Tyneside and how we can improve,
01:09 so that's the local government association, Ofsted, Department for Education and we're
01:13 really engaging with those to try and really get the best outcomes for children and young
01:17 people and families in South Tyneside. So I want to provide the reassurance that we're
01:22 doing a lot of work and we're trying to really improve things and I'm sure that families
01:27 will see that impact across the borough.
01:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]