New improvement partnership for children's services launched

A new long term improvement partnership between Herefordshire Council and one of the country's leading children's services improvement partnerships  has been formally launched at special events for frontline children's social care staff this week.

Earlier this month the council announced it was forming a partnership with Leeds City Council, where Children's Services are rated as 'Outstanding', to drive forward improvements to services for children and families in Herefordshire.

And this week front-line children's services social care staff from the county met with colleagues from Leeds to launch the long term partnership and to hear directly from them about their experience, their ways of working and how this will benefit Herefordshire.

The events took place yesterday at the Shell Store in Hereford and were facilitated by the council's Corporate Director for Children and Young People, Darryl Freeman, and the Director of the Leeds Relational Practice Centre, Saleem Tariq OBE.

The events were attended by social workers, social worker managers, family support workers, early help practitioners and managers, team administration officers. The DfE Improvement Adviser and independent chair of the Improvement Board, Gladys Rhodes White OBE, also attended to support the launch events. 

Darry Freeman, Herefordshire Council's Corporate Director for Children and Young People, said: "This is such an important partnership as we look to accelerate improvements in our services. The launch events this week allowed our front line staff to hear directly from our colleagues from Leeds and their direct experience of turning around children's services while also hearing more about the new ways working which will be at the heart of our ongoing improvements."

Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Councillor Ivan Powell, added: "We are so pleased to now formally launch this partnership and bring our front line staff together with the team from Leeds. This is a team which has been praised for their services and their practice and we look forward to working them to increase the pace of improvements here in Herefordshire."

Saleem Tariq OBE, Director of the Leeds Relational Practice Centre, said: "We are very pleased to formally launch our improvement partnership with Herefordshire Children's Services. We have worked with senior leaders and front-line staff as part of an initial shared review and this week we met over 150 front-line staff and discussed the proposed work with the service and partners. Staff and leaders have been hugely enthusiastic and determined about the prospects for working with Leeds colleagues to improve services and outcomes for children and families in Herefordshire."