Four years after it was found to be inadequate a vital council department has been rated Good.

Ofsted inspectors found Medway’s children’s services has dramatically improved its performance.

This is the first time the overall service has been rated as “good”, only ever previously achieving grades of “inadequate” in 2019 and 2011 and “requires improvement” in 2015.

Children’s services looks after the Towns’ most vulnerable children, including those with disabilities and in care.

The inspection took place July 17-28 and examined all aspects of the department, judging its overall effectiveness as “good”.

This included the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families, the experiences and progress of children in care, and the experiences and progress of care leavers.

However, the experiences and progress of children who need help and protection was deemed to still ‘require improvement’ to attain the rating of “good”.

The report said the majority of children live in stable, caring homes, and their needs are well met and they make good progress.

It also said the assessment and decision-making about the various needs of children are well considered and informed, and the child’s voice is heard, understood and respected.

For those leaving the care service, Ofsted said personal advisers are strong advocates and dedicated to improving the lives of those they are responsible for.

It added the steps necessary for leavers to attain their goals were clear and personal advisers help them to develop skills which enable them to live independently with confidence.

For children who need help and protection, the section of the service deemed to require improvement, the inspector reported while the service was good when provided, and had improved since 2019, it was not consistent for all children.

Particularly, the report highlighted some initial delays in support for 16 and 17-year-olds who are at risk of homelessness, and an inconsistent use of tools by social workers for assessing risk which weakens planning and affects outcomes.

At the last full inspection in July 2019, the service as a whole was deemed “inadequate”, saying vulnerable children were living in situations where they were at-risk of harm for too long.

It also said there were widespread serious concerns which were unrecognised by senior leaders, and attempted remedies were ineffective and too slow.

Subsequent monitoring visits of specific areas did note some improvements in response to the 2019 inspection but this report covers the service in its entirety.

Council leader Cllr Vince Maple (Lab) said he was delighted with the report and paid tribute to the hard work of staff, council officers, councillors and external partners in achieving the result.

He said: “Today is a good day for Medway, it’s something which has been four years hard work.

“The report four years ago was disgraceful. We should never have got to that position.

Both Labour and Conservatives welcomed the positive evaluation, though there was some dispute over who can claim the credit with councillors from both groups posting on social media that their side had been the key players in today’s result.

The Chatham Labour Twitter account tweeted a comparison of the Ofsted assessments from Monday and 2019, saying: “Compare and contrast, @Medwaylabour LEFT @Medwayconservatives RIGHT”.

Cllr George Perfect (Con), shadow lead member for children’s services, called the tweet “offensive” and said he did not believe it reflected the views of the wider Labour group.

Cllr Maple, however, was more willing to credit the previous administration’s efforts to improve the service.

He said: “It would be churlish to say that all the improvements have happened since May 4. I pay tribute to everyone who has played their role, whether it’s Josie Iles or Clive Johnson, two individuals who were in relevant roles at the start of this process.

“I’m proud of the role our current administration going forward, particularly around the assurances of not taking our foot off the pedal. With the budget pressures we’re under, it would be easy to say this isn’t a priority - we will never say that.

“Today is a good day for Medway, but we’re not complacent, there’s more to be done. We know the areas where Ofsted have highlighted there needs to be improvement. I am ambitious for us to be an outstanding authority, but that will be a challenge.”

Cllr Maple cited nation-wide issues such as council funding and recruitment and retention difficulties as potential stumbling blocks for the service, but said the council and staff knew the areas in need of improvement.

He said senior leaders within the service and the council had learned the lessons of the 2019 report, had improved communication, and were committed to delivering the best quality care possible for vulnerable children in Medway.

He added: “The report four years ago was disgraceful. We should never have got to that position.

“It’s taken all the best possible steps to move forward so I pay tribute to everyone who’s got us to this place today, importantly those frontline social workers who, day in and day out, are delivering for Medway families. They don’t want to deliver an inadequate service, they want to deliver an outstanding service.

“As the report says: in Medway, children matter. That’s true, and having someone like Ofsted, an external voice, confirming that is very positive.”

Cllr Perfect (Con) said in a statement: “We are delighted the positive report means children’s services is now good.

“Over the past four years, under a Conservative administration, our former leader, Alan Jarrett, and cabinet, were steadfast in their commitment to improving the service, and we are pleased this has been recognised by Ofsted.

“We pay tribute to the improvement journey that is being led by the deputy chief executive, along with a talented and exceptionally hard-working team of senior executives, middle leaders, and officers who are equally committed to delivering the necessary improvements to the service.

“We have always been clear that journeys such as the one Medway has been on take time, and that improvements are having a sustained impact.

“We publicly acknowledge the work of former portfolio holders Josie Iles and Martin Potter, who worked tirelessly over the past four years at member level to drive these improvements.”