Children’s services have been rated outstanding in a glowing Ofsted report.

Brighton and Hove’s Local Authority children services were inspected by Ofsted and were upgraded to ‘outstanding’.

The report reads: “Most children and families in Brighton and Hove receive excellent support and intervention that help to improve their experiences and progress.

Since the last inspection in 2018, senior leaders have made significant improvements across all areas of practice and no aspects of practice have deteriorated.”

Highlights of the report included “skilled and knowledgeable social workers” who know their children well and build “trusted relationships” with them, allowing the children to “feel safe at home”.

The report also states that support is “tailored to their individual needs”, with vulnerable children given “intensive support”.

The report covers four separate categories for rating.

‘The impact of leaders on social work practice’, ‘the experiences and progress of children in care’, and ‘the experiences and progress of care leavers’, were all rated as outstanding. The fourth area, ‘experiences and progress of children who need help and protection’, was rated as good.

Only two areas were marked for improvement, being “the sufficiency of placements for children with complex needs” and “the consistency of the gaining and recording of explicit parental consent to checks at the front door for families”.

Councillor Jacob Taylor, co-chairman of the council’s children, families and schools committee, said: “This outstanding rating is well-deserved. I’d like to thank all our children’s services staff for the incredible job they do in supporting children and their families in the city.

"Set against a background of increasing demand, stretched resources and huge budget pressures, the positive feedback on the level of support offered by our children’s services is all the more impressive.

"Our priority is to make sure that all children and young people in the city get the right help at the right time. While there are challenges ahead and areas to improve, it’s fantastic to see our children’s services in such a strong place.”

The previous report took place in 2020 when the services were rated as good.