The chief executive of Devon County Council has described an Ofsted review of the council's children's services as "like winning the World Cup". The review assessed how the council looks after some of the county's most vulnerable children.
In its latest update, Ofsted said the council's children's services department now largely provides children and families with a "timely, well-coordinated and increasingly integrated" response. The monitoring visit does not change the official rating of the service, which was rated "inadequate" by Ofsted for a second time in May 2025.
Devon's cabinet was updated on the latest review, and an edited video of staff testimony was shown to the meeting. "It was a fantastic result," said Donna Manson, the council's chief executive, in the video. "I was so excited, it was like winning the World Cup."
Manson said she was most proud of Ofsted's view that the service is "working sensitively with families, not working with families with judgement or with predetermination". At the cabinet meeting on Wednesday 9 September, reference was made to the council's efforts to provide earlier help and support for families, so issues are dealt with sooner and prevented from escalating. Manson added that it was the first report she had received from Ofsted that did not discuss legacy issues and focused on the "good job now".
The Ofsted letter acknowledges widespread improvement by the county council. It says leaders have an "accurate understanding of the strengths and remaining inconsistencies across front door services", and that frontline workers were "helping the large majority of children and families in Devon to receive the right help at the right time". "Leaders have engaged practitioners and partners well in designing their family help model and planning its implementation," the letter from Ofsted said. "This work builds on leaders' highly impactful expansion of targeted early help, which has significantly improved families' timely access to support."
Councillor Richard Jefferies (Liberal Democrat, Feniton and Honiton), the cabinet member for children's social services, said: "More children and families are getting help when they need it and Ofsted recognised that." He added that a teacher who had returned to the profession after a few years out said they were "impressed by the early help offer and family help offer now available" from the council.
Julian Wooster, the interim director of children and young people's futures, acknowledged the huge effort by frontline staff to improve the service, but noted work remained. "The only thing is that there is still quite a significant amount of work to do," he said. "We have made great progress, and we are not in the same place we were in 2024, but there is still significant improvement work around the sufficiency of children's
Devon Chief Executive Compares Ofsted Review to World Cup Win