DUDLEY Council is making "positive progress" to improve services for children and young people but there is still room for improvement, according to a latest update from Ofsted.

The comments by the regulatory body follow the second monitoring visit by government inspectors since the authority's children's services department was rated "inadequate" in April 2016.

In a letter to Dudley's strategic director for people Tony Oakman, government inspector Jenny Turnross says "some qualitative and sustainable improvements" were noted during the latest visit on February 21 and 22.

She goes on to say: "Staff morale is good, staff retention has improved and implementation of the early help strategy is beginning to reduce the number of children who, previously, would have received statutory services.

"Management oversight of social work practice has improved, and this is starting to benefit children’s lives. The local authority knows there is still much to do to ensure all children receive effective services. "Senior leaders continue to drive an ambitious programme of improvement work to support positive change."

She adds that caseloads have reduced significantly, social workers have more time to see children, communication between senior leaders and the workforce has improved and mandatory back to basics training and team manager training programmes have resulted in an improved understanding of roles and responsibilities and "as a result children are starting to receive the right response at the right time".

Councillor Ian Cooper, Dudley's cabinet member for children’s services, said: “The positive comments in the report from inspectors are very welcome. We appreciate their vote of confidence that we are continuing to move in the right direction."

The letter goes on to say all senior management roles have now been filled permanently but "some children do not benefit from stable relationships with their social workers" as there is still a high number of temporary social work staff and the "authority does not always have an accurate overview of practice, as access to reliable electronic performance information is still underdeveloped".

The inspector acknowledged the redesign of early help services after Ofsted noted previously that "the early help offer to children in Dudley was ineffective" and she said social workers were now completing more timely assessments but the quality needs to improve as they "continue to be overly descriptive and lack analysis".

Tony Oakman, Dudley's strategic director for people, said: “We are not complacent and we agree with the inspectors that there is still a lot to do. There are robust plans in place and we are determined to keep striving to ensure that our children have access to the very best help they can get.”

The council will continue to receive visits from Ofsted inspectors at regular intervals over the coming months as it continues to implement improvements.

To read the letter in full click here.