A THREE-WEEK Ofsted inspection of children’s services in Dorset started on Monday.

The in-depth look at services has been welcomed by executive director Theresa Leavy who told a meeting on Monday morning that she was confident services had improved and would continue to improve under the authority’s Thrive programme.

During the last year, despite the pandemic, the organisation has undertaken a restructure which aims to bring social worker and other professionals closer to families in the area where they live.

The executive director said that the county was now a place where social workers were keen to come and work, existing staff had acknowledged and generally welcomed the changes and that feedback from families and children in care was mostly positive.

She said there was now a greater recognition of quality working and learning and development which produced better outcomes for families and children.

“Spinning the plates across our county to make sure we are consistently delivering the best performance everywhere remains what gets us out of bed, but what also causes us a few sleepless nights sometimes, at a time when pandemic working has made it difficult to be where we want to be,” said Ms Leavy who added that the minimum aim was for a good or outstanding rating.