'Young people are the future of Luton' - Children's services portfolio holder responds to 'good' Ofsted rating

Labour High Town councillor Umme Ali was responding to a ‘good’ overall effectiveness rating for the department, after an Ofsted inspection in January.

“Working within children’s services has been the absolute highlight and I’m proud of how incredibly hard our team works, particularly to make the changes needed during the last two years,” she said.

“I’ve seen the feedback from children, young people and care leavers reflected in Ofsted’s judgement. They’re the future of this town, so we need to make sure they feel safe, secure and supported.

“We’ve shifted from children being a responsibility of children’s services to the duty of the whole council. Our partners across the system have helped shape this by working well with us across mental health and policing, around safeguarding.

“We’ve also been a pathfinder for the government’s social care reforms, as one of ten local authorities chosen, which have made a massive difference.”

Asked about maintaining progress, she replied: “We’ve a children’s improvement board with partners reporting to it and being kept accountable.

“There’s our corporate parenting board, which was entirely refreshed, where we’ve children in care and care leavers directly holding us and our system partners to account.

“Political members adopt the same approach at scrutiny committees, and we’re all dedicated and care about the children of Luton. I won’t allow standards to slip or complacency to happen.

“We’ll hold the team to account and continuously look at data, and carry on hearing the voices of children and young people to ensure we maintain that momentum.

“The culture of improvement needs to be embedded in everything we do. This is one inspection framework. There are others in children’s services, as we currently have a youth justice inspection ongoing. We don’t forget about everything for a couple of years until the next one happens.”

On Ofsted’s suggested need for improvements around care leavers, she explained: “This was the first time care leavers was graded as a separate judgement in the inspecting local authority children’s services (ILACS) report.

“We received a focused visit specifically into care leavers in 2024. They noted some areas of concern and where improvements were needed.

“Since then, I’ve set up a care leavers project board with some of them representatives on it. Our personal advisers capacity and caseloads were mentioned in 2024. We’ve increased the team from 14 to 24 members of staff, which is a significant rise to reduce caseloads.

“Our care leavers population has grown by more than 75 per cent between 2023 and 2026 because of the numbers of looked after children leaving care.

“We’ve improved our education, employment and training figures, which was identified in 2024. Support for young people in custody continues and a care leavers hub has been established, which is ‘a home away from home’ developed with and decorated by our young people.”

On what stood out for her, councillor Ali added: “The section of the report around leadership was absolutely brilliant.

“It was emotional to read. It stated there’s a strong, visible and inclusive leadership team, supported both politically and non-politically. There’s a stable workforce. Ofsted told us that staff said they love working here.

“We’ve worked on recruitment and retention. Staff have love for our children and are so dedicated. When the leadership is robust and stable we can continue to work hard.

“Families, children and young people have commented how different it feels to be worked with in this way, focusing on early help, intervention and prevention.”