Lincolnshire Latest News

Lincolnshire’s Children’s Services has been praised by Ofsted inspectors in the latest Annual Performance Assessment, as young people in the county continue to get the best start in life.

The report says that Lincolnshire delivers good performance in most areas of its work and outstanding performance in staying safe, economic wellbeing and service management and leadership.

What do these improvements and successes mean to children and young people? Student comperes Ellie George and Luke Robson from Priory LSST School will introduce high achieving children and young people, as part of a Children’s Services celebration event, at the Terry O’Toole Theatre, Moor Lane, North Hykeham on Monday, 9 February, 10.30am- 12 noon.

The event will showcase the rich talent in the county and will include Luisa Filby, the top performing GCSE student in the country from Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ School; Debbie Foote, top national ambassador for sport from the Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ School; poetry with Jack Taylor from Nettleham Primary School; music from Freya Franklin from North Hykeham North Kesteven School; students from St Clements School, Skegness; Liarna Burgin from the Care Leavers Apprenticeship Scheme; Jay Harrison from St Bernard’s School in Louth; Parent Support Adviser Dawn Petch; storytelling from primary pupils at The Priory Witham Academy; adoptive parent Angela Lawson; Laura Crust from the Lincolnshire Youth symphony Orchestra; and music from Jazz Vehicle and young musician and teacher Elliott Morris.

Councillor Mrs Patricia Bradwell, Executive Councillor for Children’s Services, said: “The Ofsted report is another testament to the quality of Children’s Services in the county as we are committed to improving opportunities and achievements for young people. We welcome this inspection – it is important that services for children are assessed regularly to ensure they are working well and I am delighted that Ofsted have recognized the good work in Lincolnshire. Integrated Children’s Services has meant better partnership working between all agencies for the benefit of all involved. I am looking forward to meeting and celebrating with a small selection of children and young people who represent high achievement in the county.”

Peter Duxbury, Director of Children’s Services, added: “The purpose of Children’s Services is to ensure that all children and young people in the county are helped to realize their ambitions and achieve their best. We have made good progress, but we are not at all complacent and still have a lot to do. I would like to thank all staff – youth workers, teachers, social workers, other partner agencies and many others for delivering improvements.”

Ofsted’s judgements of the six key outcome areas are:

* Being Healthy: Good
* Staying safe: Outstanding
* Enjoying and achieving (including academic): Good
* Making a positive contribution: Good
* Achieving economic well-being (moving onto higher education, training or employment: Outstanding
* Capacity to improve including management of services for children and young people: Outstanding
* All of which gives an overall score for effectiveness of Children’s Services as Good.

It’s been a great year for examination results which have highlighted the strength of the county’s schools and the dedication of students, teachers, governors and parents. Lincolnshire schools excelled at GCSE with the best results ever in 2008.  On the traditional indicator, 71.1% of all Lincolnshire children gained 5A*-C, a percentage increase of 5.6% compared to an increase of 2% nationally and 5.8% above the national average.

Further details on Ofsted’s findings are as follows:

Being healthy – Good

* The rate of mothers initiating breast-feeding is now above the national average.
* Integrated services through children’s centres have improved the health of vulnerable children and young people.
* Very good progress in providing an integrated child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS).

Staying safe – Good

* The Local Safeguarding Children Board is very effective and provides strong leadership.
* Referrals and assessments, supported by very efficient use of the common assessment framework, are effective and timely and performance exceeds that found nationally.
* Services for children in public care are very good.

Enjoy and achieve – Good

* The standards achieved by young people at the end of Key Stage 4 are outstanding.
* The council takes prompt and effective action to improve schools, including the use of federations, interim and executive headteachers.
* Attendance rates are above those nationally and in line with those in similar councils.
* Fixed term exclusions in secondary schools are lower than those in similar councils.
* The council’s data shows a marked improvement in the provision of at least 20 hours of education to young people who are excluded from school.

Making a positive contribution – Good

* Council promotes the involvement of children and young people in consultation and decision-making.
* A high proportion of children and young people say that they have given their views to school councils and had them heard.
* Well-targeted action by numbers of young people coming into the youth justice system and those re-offending.

Achieving economic well-being – Outstanding

* Attainment of 16 to 19 year-olds is outstanding.
* Very effective partnership working has enabled the development of a broad an flexible 14-19 curriculum.
* Participation in employment, education and training (EET) by young people is improving as a result of very effective advice and guidance.
* The proportion of young people aged 16 to 19 who are not in EET has fallen over the last three years.

Service management – Good

* Leadership of the council and partnership is active and strong.
* There is a strong understanding on behalf of all partners of the vision for children’s services and proven commitment to joint working and commissioning which is delivering increasingly effective, integrated local provision.
* Systems for review of services, reallocation of funding to priorities and performance management are very effective.
* A clear focus on improving outcomes and reducing inequalities has resulted in improvement in a majority of performance indicators over the last year.