{"id":1093414,"date":"2026-07-16T19:32:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T19:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1093414\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T19:32:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T19:32:21","slug":"blog-putting-children-and-young-people-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1093414\/","title":{"rendered":"BLOG: Putting Children and Young People First.\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Liverpool\u2019s children and young people are at the heart of the city\u2019s ambitions, and this week\u2019s \u2018Good\u2019 Ofsted judgement for Children\u2019s Services marks a significant milestone in that journey. In this blog, Cllr Liz Parsons, Cabinet Member for Children\u2019s Social Services, reflects on the transformation of the service over the past three years, the investment made in staff and families, and why the city remains committed to building an even brighter future for its youngest residents.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I became Cabinet Member for Children\u2019s Services just over three years ago in the wake of an\u00a0\u2018inadequate\u2019\u00a0rating from Ofsted, I sat down, in the autumn,\u00a0with our new\u00a0Corporate\u00a0Director, Jenny\u00a0Glennard, and we agreed that\u00a0it would be\u00a0a 3-to-5-year journey to get to\u00a0delivering really good services.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast week\u2019s\u00a0\u201cGood\u201d\u00a0judgement\u00a0for\u00a0Children\u2019s\u00a0Services\u00a0reflects\u00a0the remarkable progress that we have made.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing branded \u2018inadequate\u2019 is much more than just a few negative news headlines. It floors the entire workforce, and so a lot of what we had to do, aside from fixing the structural things\u00a0and strengthening the team, was to lift morale and show\u00a0our teams\u00a0that it\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0a\u00a0direct\u00a0reflection on them.\u00a0\u00a0Our staff are passionate and\u00a0invested in\u00a0our children and we\u00a0needed to recognise and value that\u00a0commitment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe did that by investing in the workforce, hiring new social workers\u00a0to reduce caseloads, investing in training\u00a0and development, delivering visible\u00a0leadership\u00a0and\u00a0improving communication.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe inspection recognised the\u00a0relentless\u00a0pace and scale of change across the service, highlighting\u00a0\u201ctangible improvements across all areas of practice\u201d that have been achieved for some of Liverpool\u2019s most vulnerable children.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis achievement is not the result of one initiative alone. It reflects a city-wide commitment to ensuring that children and young people are at the heart of decision-making and have the support they need to thrive.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOfsted recognised\u00a0several\u00a0key improvements that have been made since our last inspection in 2023, one of which is that\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0made a huge shift in our workforce from\u00a0predominantly temporary\u00a0agency\u00a0workers\u00a0to permanent staff.\u00a0This is hugely important \u2013 you\u00a0wouldn\u2019t\u00a0staff a school\u00a0with supply teachers,\u00a0and\u00a0you\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0do it with social work. Staff need\u00a0time and space to build relationships with the children in our care to\u00a0earn their\u00a0trust.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe spent a lot of time in the early days going to social work recruitment events\u00a0to sell our vision of Children\u2019s Services. And it\u00a0has paid dividends. We have gone\u00a0from four out of five staff being agency workers\u00a0in 2023\u00a0to\u00a016% today. This really is bucking the national trend\u00a0when\u00a0councils across the country\u00a0are\u00a0struggling with a recruitment crisis.\u00a0Delivering such a drastic change here in Liverpool really has made all the difference.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u00a0means children and young people have consistency with the professionals who are supporting them, rather than having to get to know someone new every few months\u00a0and having to tell\u00a0their story all over again.\u00a0It also\u00a0shows that professionals have seen the changes in Liverpool and want to be a part of it.\u00a0\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0seen large numbers of staff returning who left us before or after the last inspection,\u00a0and\u00a0new faces, and people wanting to start their career with us and really make a difference to children and young people in this fantastic city.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInvestment in early help and family support has\u00a0also\u00a0been\u00a0central\u00a0to\u00a0our\u00a0journey. The city has delivered 12 Family Hubs,\u00a0providing\u00a0a one-stop shop for coordinated support services within communities. These hubs help families access the right support at the right time, reducing barriers and strengthening outcomes for children.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut social care is just one element of our commitment to supporting our young people.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are\u00a0also tackling inequalities through programmes that support health,\u00a0wellbeing\u00a0and enrichment.\u00a0In\u00a02025-26, Liverpool commissioned 85,758 Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) places,\u00a0benefiting\u00a09,389 children and young people with healthy meals, play opportunities and enriching experiences.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFree\u00a0leisure\u00a0centre\u00a0passes are now available for all children aged 8-17, supported by\u00a0more than\u00a0\u00a35\u00a0million\u00a0of investment in leisure facilities across the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlongside this, youth service funding has doubled, providing an\u00a0additional\u00a0\u00a31 million for community-based youth work.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd, since 2022, the city has been working towards becoming recognised as a UNICEF Child Friendly City and our Ofsted judgement shows\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0on the right track. This prestigious recognition would acknowledge the measurable progress Liverpool has made in championing children\u2019s rights and creating a city where every child can grow up in an environment that is safe, clean,\u00a0nurturing\u00a0and full of opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut we are not complacent.\u00a0We know\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0still more to do for care leavers.\u00a0\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0working hard to\u00a0deliver our\u00a0new Care Leaver\u2019s Hub to ensure\u00a0they\u00a0can access the right support for them in a familiar place and ensure they have the tools they need to strive in adulthood.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA\u00a0\u2018Good\u2019\u00a0Ofsted judgement is an important milestone, but the city\u2019s ambition remains clear: to continue improving services, championing children\u2019s rights and ensuring every child has the opportunity to succeed\u00a0so that,\u00a0next time we are inspected, we are judged to be one of the best performing services in the country.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool\u2019s children and young people are at the heart of the city\u2019s ambitions, and this week\u2019s \u2018Good\u2019 Ofsted&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1093415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8815],"tags":[27007,748,393,4884,179,16,15],"class_list":["post-1093414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-liverpool","tag-blog","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-liverpool","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116931326590787281","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1093414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1093415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1093414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1093414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1093414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}