Ofsted has found that within children's services in Cheshire East "pace of change has accelerated, and appropriate steps have been taken to improve the quality of social work practice" following an inadequate inspection judgement last year.
A monitoring visit focused on the front door service, was carried out in February, and a letter has now been sent to the council summarising the findings.
Inspectors recognised that robust governance arrangements are now in place and the children's services budget has been aligned to the new strategic priorities with the investment having resulted in strengthened capacity across the service at a senior and frontline level.
However, they reported that the quality of practice for children at the front door is inconsistent and some issues identified at the last inspection have not sufficiently improved. These include the role of partners in decision-making for children, the recording of strategy meetings and its quality in assessments.
Also highlighted in the letter was the need for more social worker supervision, which is something the council says it is focused on through its drive to recruit more social workers and lessen the dependency on temporary workers to ensure better supervision and support.
Councillor Laura Crane, chair of Cheshire East Council's children and families committee, said: "I am pleased that our first Ofsted monitoring visit was positive. We're continuing to work hard to not only support vulnerable children in the right way, but to drive forward the transformation and improvements to our children's services.
"Since the ILAC inspection last year, the pace of change has quickened and improvements in practice were visible to Ofsted. Whilst we have made improvements and instrumental changes to the way we work, we know we still have more to do to support our children and families. We will continue to use their feedback to better shape our services for the future.
"Children in Cheshire East deserve the very best and we are working tirelessly to make sure they get this. Ofsted will conduct another monitoring visit in the Summer at which point we look forward to being able to show further improvement."
