Inspectors will revisit a failing council department to see if improvements have been made.

The quarterly review of Medway Council’s children’s services has been delayed due to Covid-19 but is now scheduled for August 20-21.

An update highlighted several areas of “significant progress” with the authority’s action plan amended for the first time since Ofsted visited last year and a government expert appointed to oversee improvements.

Cllr Josie Iles (Con), portfolio holder for children’s services, told cabinet colleagues the council is now moving to the “next phase of our improvement journey” as it strives to reach a good rating after being ranked inadequate last August.

This includes the 33-point improvement plan agreed last month following discussions between high-level council officers, senior councillors, government officials and Eleanor Brazil, the Department for Education commissioner appointed to steer Medway out of crisis.

It confirms what further action the council plans to take during the next 12 months.

Cllr Iles said there would be a focus on five key areas of the department: quality of practice; capacity and capability of the workforce; strategic leadership, quality assurance and performance management and partnerships.

She added the work would mean the service would “build upon a realigned structure” which it is hoped will “embed and enhance” the improvements for the service for young people and their families.

Cllr Adrian Gulvin (Con), the cabinet member for resources, challenged the council to aim for outstanding.

He said: “We’ve still got a long, long journey to go before we get to good. But let’s try for outstanding as well because our children deserve to have outstanding services.

“The rest of our frontline services are really first class and I think it would be a really good ambition to make children’s services outstanding as well.

“If we keep the momentum going there’s no reason why this authority can’t achieve outstanding.”

Cllr Iles added: “It was recognised this was going to be a long process and rightly so for several reasons.

“We have to build a sustainable improvement and that means they have to be well embedded. It’s not going to be a quick fix and nor should it be.

“We’re aiming for a sustainable high quality service. As we go, tweaks will be made and we look at it and get it right.

“I want good but I do want to get Medway to outstanding.”

Cllr Martin Potter, portfolio holder for education, noted an improving relationship between schools and the council and praised “a lot of good work gone in during the Covid period”.

A report highlighted how additional funding filtered by the council in February had restructured the department and increased capacity allowing care workers’ caseloads to be reduced by two thirds.

Additional resources have also been injected to support an adolescent service, auditing improvements to ensure children are safe and a recruitment process for permanent social workers to remove the reliance on agency staff including a new permanent head of children’s services from May.

Safeguarding visits are taking place every six weeks with weekly performance reviews and a regular programme of checking progress for each case have all been introduce, council papers show.

The council has also increased funding by £7.6 million in the current financial year to ensure the standards are maintained.

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