York has been made a Children's Social Care Improvement Team by the Department for Education. Its services were rated Requires Improvement as recently as 2022.

The Department for Education has picked City of York Council to help other councils improve their children’s social care. York becomes a Children’s Social Care Improvement Team, one of a new group of councils the government will send to support others.

The council announced the appointment on Monday (City of York Council, 14 September 2026).

It is a quick turnaround. Ofsted rated York’s children’s services Requires Improvement in 2022 and Outstanding in 2025. The council’s announcement says the appointment “also highlights” that improvement.

What an improvement team does

The programme is new this year. The Department for Education set it out in its implementation plan for the children’s social care reforms, which runs from 2026 to 2029 (Department for Education).

According to that plan, improvement teams:

  • are drawn from councils with “the expertise, leadership capability and capacity” to support other councils
  • work alongside those councils to help them put the reforms into practice
  • focus on safe, sustainable services that fit the Families First Partnership programme and the national framework for children’s social care

Eligible councils had to apply. The plan says the first tranche would start providing support in summer 2026. It builds on the sector-led improvement partnerships that came before it.

The council has not said which councils York will work with, how many staff will be involved, or whether the department is paying for their time.

From Requires Improvement to Outstanding

Chart of Ofsted grades for York children's services: requires improvement in every judgement in March 2022, outstanding in every judgement in the 2025 inspection
In 2022 Ofsted judged children in care and care leavers together. The 2025 inspection graded them separately.
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Ofsted inspected York between 7 and 18 March 2022. Every judgement came back as “requires improvement to be good”, including overall effectiveness. The report found services had not kept up the standard of the previous inspection in 2016, when York was rated Good (City of York Council scrutiny report, 28 June 2022).

The next inspection ran from 24 February to 7 March 2025. Every judgement was Outstanding (Ofsted):

Judgement 2025 grade
Impact of leaders on social work practice Outstanding
Children who need help and protection Outstanding
Children in care Outstanding
Care leavers Outstanding
Overall effectiveness Outstanding

Inspectors put the change down to “a relentless drive by senior leaders” after a change in the senior team, including the corporate director. They also praised the stable workforce, and the focus on keeping children within their wider family where it is safe.

When it published the result in April 2025, the council said York was the first council in the country to go from below Good to Outstanding in every area in a single inspection cycle (City of York Council, 15 April 2025).

Outstanding did not mean perfect. Ofsted named two things to improve:

  • the quality of assessments and plans for disabled children
  • keeping care leavers’ pathway plans up to date when their circumstances change

What the council said

Cllr Bob Webb, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Education, called the appointment “a real honour and a significant national achievement”. He said it would let the team “continue to learn and improve our work in York” as well as support other councils.

What it means for you

  • If your family works with children’s social care in York: nothing changes in how you get help. The appointment is about York supporting other councils.
  • If you want to read the inspection: the full 2025 Ofsted report runs to 14 pages and sets out what inspectors saw in each service.
  • If you work in social care: York’s service will now be sharing its practice with other councils. Its jobs are advertised on the council’s careers pages.

Sources