At the start of this week Ofsted announced that Solihull Council’s children’s services are rated as ‘Good’, following the full inspection they carried out in November last year. I’m very proud of all the hard work that has gone into this improvement. It’s no secret that we needed to improve, therefore we made it our number one priority. I want to thank everyone who has been on this journey, staff, partners, children and families, those who have put their all into this. We have put our most vulnerable residents at the heart of everything we do for the last few years, and now we have the evidence to show for all that work. However, I must make one thing clear, this is not the end of our improvement journey. We are on the right trajectory, but we will not be resting on our laurels. I can assure you all that, as Leader of the Council and Lead Member for Children & Education, I will not allow this to happen.
We have put significant time, money, and energy into our children’s services to get to this point, and the benefits of that will continue to be felt as we move forward with a good basis for further improvement. Ofsted noted that “Leaders have a demonstrable track record of delivering improvement since the last inspection and show a clear commitment to securing further sustainable progress.” The key word there for me is ‘sustainable’. We must keep this progress up in the long run for the benefit of children, young people, and families all over Solihull. It will remain a priority for me, and I will keep it high on the agenda for everyone here.
Investing in our children’s future isn’t limited to our social services of course. Last week I had the great honour of attending the official opening of a new two-storey building at St. Peter’s Catholic School in Solihull. It’s a fantastic new facility, conceived and designed by the Council’s Strategic Land team and funded jointly by The Council and Our Lady and All Saints Multi Academy Company, who run St. Peter’s. Collaboration is key in education just as it is in so many areas of work and life, and I’m proud of the work undertaken here. I want to thank E Manton Ltd as well for carrying out the building work.
We invested in this building as part of our ongoing strategy to ensure sufficient school places in Solihull to meet the needs of families. Schools are much more than just buildings. The most important things I took away from my visit were the brilliant teachers I saw when we popped in to see some lessons, and the wonderful, bright, engaged children participating so eagerly. It didn’t feel like everyone had been told to be on their best behaviour because they had visitors, it just felt like we were given a momentary glimpse of a high-quality school in action, with staff and pupils both passionate about what they were doing. It was absolutely fantastic to see. I know this goes on in schools right across the borough day in, day out, and I’m delighted that we at The Council have been able to support one of our great schools to get this new building open.
Thanks for reading, enjoy your weekend,
Karen.