Councillor Adam Ellison speaks about improving children's services in South Tyneside

Shields Gazette

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.

Transcript

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]

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