Herefordshire Council has repeated its promise to the residents of the County that when things go wrong, the council will be open about the fact, and take action to make things better.

This assurance came after an extraordinary public meeting on Friday, January 18th at the Shirehall, Hereford, in relation to recent court judgments regarding fostering and adoption services provided by the council. This meeting follows specific briefing sessions prior to the judgments and follow-on full briefings for all members held in the Shirehall on Thursday, December 20th, 2018 and Thursday, January 10th, 2019.

The purpose of the meeting was to receive a report on the actions taken and planned, to deliver improvements. The report reflects on the two judgments of Mr Justice Keehan, which were published on December 7th, 2018.

Following this meeting the council will share the actions with Ofsted and with the scrutiny task group as part of the overall improvement plan. This will provide assurance that the council had taken action to address the issues prior to the publication of the judgments, and plans had been put in place to ensure the ongoing improvement in the council’s children’s safeguarding services.

The Council said that there has been a lot of good work carried out by Herefordshire Council’s children’s services. An Ofsted inspection in June 2018, highlighted a number of areas of work where this is the case, as well as areas for improvement.

Herefordshire Council regularly invites challenge from peers through the Local Government Association, and the 2018 corporate peer challenge found that, as a council, they had an appetite to learn, a desire to improve, and an awareness of key areas for change. It also noted that a range of externally supported arrangements have been put in place to assist their improvement journey, including externally-led reviews.

Herefordshire Council said: “The council remains committed to providing high standards of service to children and young people and their families and will continue to strive for excellence and to be publically open, transparent and accountable. Where things go wrong, the council will be open about the fact, and take action to understand the causes of any problem or failure, as well as the immediate action we need to take.”