Dudley Council’s work in transforming services for children and young people has been ‘highly commended’ at a national awards event.

Dudley Council was one of two local authorities to receive the prestigious accolade in the Workplace Transformation category at The MJ Achievement Awards, which celebrates the very best of local government services up and down the country.

Dudley Council’s award submission focused on the success of the Dudley Centre for Professional Practice (DCPP), which was introduced by social workers at the authority following an Ofsted inspection and inadequate rating three years ago.

Since then, the authority’s children’s services department has been on an improvement journey, which has been recognised by Ofsted inspectors in subsequent monitoring visits.

The DCPP team is made up of social work practitioners who offer support to all children’s service staff and champion best practises.  It has been at the heart of services and brought about significant changes to the workforce through auditing, coaching, system development, policy review and training in order to best meet the needs of children, young people and their families.

During an 11 day inspection towards the end of last year, Ofsted inspectors rated services as ‘good’ in two of three categories, with the overall result being ‘requires improvement to be good.’ This was hailed as a “significant achievement” in a letter received by Yvette Stanley, the national director for social care at Ofsted.

She wanted it made clear social workers had been praised in the report as a springboard to try and attract more to come and work in the borough. Councillor Ruth Buttery, cabinet member for children’s services, said:

“This national recognition is a fantastic achievement for the team and it is a testament that we are on the right path as we continue our improvement journey.

“We are very proud of our social worker led Dudley Centre for Professional Practice, regionally it puts us at the forefront of good practice and is continuing to offer the right help and support to social workers on the front line.

“We know like, many other local authorities up and down the country, there are challenges ahead and there is still much to do. We are now working hard to improve our Youth Offending Services and provision for children with special educational to ensure all children and young people across the borough have positive outcomes.”