Audits, inspections and assessments
Adult Social Care Local Account
How well we are delivering adult social care in Gloucestershire?
This is a chance for Gloucestershire County Council to let people know about the performance of adult social care services and how we deliver our service ensuring we meet people's needs and improve their lives.
This report outlines our performance, the quality of our services and the challenges that we have faced during the year.
As well as the past performance; our challenges and future plans to address these, it allows us to tell you about our future plans for adult social care and what we will be focusing on in the coming year.
Finally, we end the document with an invitation for your feedback. We want to hear from you about your experiences and ideas
Childcare Sufficiency for Gloucestershire
The Childcare Sufficiency Assessment is a measurement of the supply of and demand for childcare in the local area.
The Childcare Act 2006 gives local authorities a key role in shaping the childcare market in their area to create a strong, sustainable and diverse childcare market to meet the needs of parents.
In order to fulfil the duties placed on them, local authorities have a strategic role to play in assessing need and commissioning services in their area. The Childcare Sufficiency Assessment is a measurement of the supply of and demand for childcare within the local area.
Sufficient childcare, in Section 6 of the 2006 Act, is defined as 'sufficient to meet the requirements of parents who require childcare in order to enable them to take up, or remain in, work, or to undertake education or training which could reasonably be expected to assist them to obtain work.
At its core, the Assessment provides an analysis of supply and demand highlighting potential childcare gaps to enable the local authority to manage the childcare market.
We have used local and national data together with information from local surveys of parents, childcare providers and employers to map the supply of and demand for childcare in Gloucestershire. All of the information is contained in the Childcare Sufficiency Report for Gloucestershire. The report identifies where there are childcare gaps and the strategy and action that will take place to address gaps, especially in areas of greatest need.
If you have any questions or require further information please email
earlyyearsteam@gloucestershire.gov.uk and we will be happy to respond.
Pupil achievement
The Department for Education and Skills publish achievement and attainment tables and information on trends for:
Special schools
Special schools educate children unable to attend mainstream schools. Over 900 children who have a wide range of special needs currently attend 12 Gloucestershire special schools.
Statistics for these schools are at the end of the relevant primary or secondary tables - there are no separate Special School tables.
Primary schools
Primary school children are generally aged between 4 and 11, and progress from the Foundation Stage (Reception classes) through to Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2) and 2 (Years 3 to 6). At the end of every Key Stage they are assessed.
The tables are currently only published for Key Stage 2 at Primary stage.
Secondary schools
Normally, once children are 11, they transfer to Secondary school and work towards their GCSE's through Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9) and 4 (Years 10 and 11). Each child is asseessed at the end of Year 9 (Key Stage 3) and will generally sit GCSE exams in Year 11.
Twenty eight of our secondary schools have Sixth Form Centres that enable pupils aged 16 and over to study A Levels or Vocational courses (Key Stage 5)
The tables are for Key Stages 3,4 and 5.
Ofsted inspections of children's safeguarding and adoption
The overall outcome of the inspection was that children’s services in Gloucestershire are inadequate. Ratings were also given for specific areas:
- Children who need help and protection - inadequate
- Children looked after and achieving permanence – requires improvement
- Adoption performance – good
- Experience and progress of care leavers – requires improvement
- Leadership, management and governance – inadequate
Following the inspection we have undertaken an immediate review of the senior leadership team within Children’s Services and have appointed interim Directors to start to address the failings within our safeguarding services. The Council recognises that we need to put the building blocks in place to address the challenges in the Ofsted report and achieve sustainable change into the long term. We are working closely with the Department of Education and the Local Government Association to develop our Improvement Plan.
It is evident that we do have some good and improving services and these have been recognised by Ofsted, our record on adoption and fostering, the commitment of individual social workers to their children, our young ambassadors programme and our work with homeless young people have had a positive impact on the lives of children. We must build on our track record in these areas to ensure all of the support we provide to children and young people is the best it can be.
Ofsted is also positive about the leadership that has come from senior councillors, and have acknowledged the £9.2million investment the council is putting into this area of work.