‘Hugely impressive’ improvements in the quality of Children and Family Services at Bridgend County Borough Council
Thursday 04 September 2025
• With council support, 92 per cent of children successfully avoided entering care in 2024-25.
• There was a 34 per cent drop in the council’s use of agency workers - from 41 to 7 per cent.
• A successful recruitment / retention campaign has created a stronger, more stable workforce.
• 86 per cent of Children’s Services staff recommend working for Bridgend County Borough Council.
A new report into how Bridgend County Borough Council provides key social services for children and families has revealed that the authority has delivered major improvements across every one of its target categories in less than two years.
The Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) report found that improvements have been made across fourteen key areas which they had previously identified as requiring attention during inspections in 2022 – 2023, and states that the council has ‘…consistently prioritised children’s services to support sustained and timely improvements’ which have ‘significantly strengthened the quality and delivery of social services functions’.
It praises the prioritisation of improvements within safeguarding arrangements and describes the partnership working and collaboration between different agencies based within the Bridgend Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) as being an example of ‘positive practice’.
The report also acknowledges how ‘Think Family’, a three-year strategic plan to improve services for children and families, is delivering encouraging early results such as a 48 per cent reduction in numbers of children being placed on the child protection and a 16 per cent reduction in the total number of children allocated to specialist teams.
‘Think Family’ has also enabled enhanced support for case management, commissioning and placements teams in addition to robust oversight of family support strategies and early help services, all of which has delivered ‘significant outcomes for people’.
The report calls the ongoing establishment of an Information, Advice and Assistance (IAA) service a ‘positive change’ which is improving outcomes for people while reducing demand on services and enabling staff to ‘consistently meet their statutory duties’. It praises how improvements in quality are being driven by a practice model based around principles that are solution-focused, strength-based and safety-orientated.
“This is a hugely impressive report which demonstrates just how far Children and Family Services has improved in the last two years. I am particularly pleased that early intervention helped 92 per cent of children to avoid entering care, and that is thanks to an incredibly successful recruitment campaign, which reduced our reliance upon agency workers from 41 per cent to 7 per cent. “I am also proud of our workforce as their ongoing dedication and commitment has played a key role throughout our improvement journey. It is heartening to note that when asked by inspectors, 86 per cent of staff said they would recommend working for Bridgend County Borough Council, and that the report consistently praises the robust corporate and political support that is helping to drive these improvements forward. “The council will seek to continue delivering this success while also strengthening other areas highlighted by the report to improve the overall quality of the services that we provide for local children. “Coinciding with today’s publication of the CIW report are the results of an inspection by Foster Wales Bridgend, and this too has found that the council’s fostering service has improved in all target areas with 3 requiring some further improvements. We will be considering the results of the report very carefully before taking it to Cabinet along with several new proposals for boosting how we can recruit and retain foster carers.”
The CIW report will go before Scrutiny on 25 September before being discussed by Cabinet on 21 October 2025, and can be viewed online at https://www.careinspectorate.wales/local-authority-improvement-check-letter-bridgend-county-borough-council-childrens-services-0
