Maidenhead & Windsor

Maidenhead Council services for children have been rated as good by a team of inspectors who spent a total of three weeks in the borough last autumn.

The joint area review (JAR) looked at how children benefit from services provided, individually and collectively, by the Maidenhead Royal Borough and its partner organisations and the new report judges the contributions made by the council's services overall, specifically education and children's social services.

The inspectors rate both education and social care services for children as good, with a score of 3, and there is a good rating for the council's children's services overall.

Cllr Pam Proctor, who at the time of the inspection was lead member for Maidenhead social services, said this was a very encouraging outcome of a tough inspection regime.

She said: "Since the horrific death of little Victoria Climbié there has been a justifiable focus on getting services right for children, especially safeguarding the most vulnerable and those looked after by the council. That has been a top priority for social services where we have concentrated our efforts on improving existing services, working closely with partner organisations and developing new ways of ensuring that children's voices are central to everything we do."

Cllr Cynthia Pitteway, lead member for Maidenhead education, said she was delighted with the inspectors' positive conclusions about schools and educational achievement.

She added: "We are recognised nationally as a high achieving local authority area and the JAR underlines that we are maintaining this position and helping our children and young people to achieve to the very best of their ability. It is particularly encouraging to hear from the inspectors that they found children enjoy their education and also to get praise for our services which work with ethnic minority communities and to encourage inclusion in education."

A simultaneous inspection of the borough's youth service also attracted praise. Inspectors rated the service overall as good, with 90% of the fieldwork sessions they saw rated as satisfactory or better.

Cllr Richard Fagence, lead member for Maidenhead leisure and cultural services, thanked all youth service staff, partner organisations and young people themselves for their team effort leading up to and during the inspection. He said: " Although the whole event was over in two weeks, for a small service like ours a huge amount of time went into the preparation. Everyone worked extremely hard and I couldn't be more delighted with the outcome.

"The youth service aims to provide increasing opportunities for young people to be involved and included, challenged and encouraged. We want to broaden their horizons and, through the work of our talented youth work team, give them the opportunity to achieve their own individual goals. Our success is reflected in the inspectors' comments and we are now working hard to ensure that the borough's youth provision continues to develop for the benefit for young people in the future"

The JAR focused on the extent to which Maidenhead children and young people are healthy, safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and are well prepared to secure economic well being. Particular attention is also given to services for children who are looked after by the council and those with learning and/or physical disabilities.

Overall outcomes for children and young people are good, the report concludes.

There are number of recommendations to enable the borough and its partner organisations to develop services ever further and, since the inspection took place last autumn, the council has embarked on further improvement.

Cllr Kathy Newbound, recently appointed lead cabinet member for Maidenhead children's services, congratulated everyone working in the council's children's services and her cabinet colleagues. She said: "The JAR was carried out under a new and must more stringent regime and for the council's services to have achieved a good rating is a tremendous achievement. I am delighted to be the lead member at such an exciting time, when all children's services are being brought together under one umbrella.

"There are challenges ahead and we still have much we want to achieve but the JAR report shows we are making very positive progress in the right direction."

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead