Ofsted praises Kensington children in care, names 2 fixes

Children in Kensington and Chelsea’s care told Ofsted inspectors they are happy and feel safe and settled in their homes, in a letter published this month that also names two things the council has to put right.

Two of His Majesty’s Inspectors, Michele Henry and Monique Lindsay, spent 14 and 15 July at the council’s children’s services. Their letter to Sarah Newman, the bi-borough executive director of children’s services, is dated 13 August. (Ofsted focused visit letter, 13 August 2026)

A focused visit does not produce a grade. It looks at one area of practice in depth. This one looked at arrangements for children in care: how decisions are made about where a child lives, how children are matched to a placement, and the experiences of disabled children in care.

What inspectors found

The headline finding is that the council has built on the Outstanding rating it was given after a November 2024 inspection, which the council says was its third consecutive Outstanding, following 2015 and 2019. (Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, January 2025) Children’s services here are run jointly with Westminster.

Inspectors reported that:

• children in care “told inspectors that they are happy and feel safe and settled in their homes”
• most live in stable homes with carers who respond well to their needs
• social workers see children regularly and “know them well”
• direct work with children is strong, and children’s views show up in assessments, reviews and care planning
• family networks are explored “thoroughly and proactively” so children can stay with wider family where possible, and kinship arrangements get a high level of support
• unaccompanied asylum-seeking children get tailored support, with interpreting services used so they can engage with it
• a new permanence board has strengthened oversight of long-term plans since the last full inspection

Social workers told inspectors that senior leaders and managers are accessible, work alongside them and provide “high levels of support to help them manage the emotional complexity of their work”.

The two things to fix

Ofsted set out two areas for improvement, both tied to the national framework for children’s social care.

Supervision records. Inspectors found supervision is regular and gives social workers clear direction, but that the records of it “are mostly task-focused and lack reflective analysis or professional challenge, making it difficult to see how supervision has influenced decision-making or specifically addressed permanence for children in care”. They also found that senior management approval for significant decisions, such as using a residential placement or changing a child’s permanence plan, “is not always identified on children’s records”.

Oversight for older children. Independent reviewing officers, whose job is to scrutinise care plans on a child’s behalf, have improved and provide “constructive challenge when needed”. But they are “not yet fully consistent in their oversight and management of permanence arrangements for older children”. Inspectors also asked for stronger efforts to get a very small number of younger children into their own reviews.

Ofsted says it will take these findings into account when it plans the next inspection or visit.

The cyber attack gets a mention

One paragraph in the letter records something the council has otherwise had a difficult year explaining. “Senior managers in children’s services and across the council demonstrated resilient and effective leadership in responding to a recent cyber attack, making sure that children continued to receive the care and support they need,” inspectors wrote.

The council discovered “unusual activity” on the morning of Monday 24 November 2025. The attack hit the IT systems shared by Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, and Hammersmith and Fulham. The council has confirmed that some data was copied and taken. By 3 July this year it said it had moved from an emergency response to a recovery effort, with a number of systems, including council tax and business rates, still not fully restored. (Cyber security incident FAQs)

What the council says

Councillor Catherine Faulks, the lead member for families and children, said: “This is a really positive report and, most importantly, it tells us that children in our care feel happy, safe and settled.” She added that the report was “a testament to the skill and commitment of our social workers, carers and everyone who goes the extra mile”, and that the council would “keep learning and improving”. (Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, 25 August 2026)

What it means for you

If you are a foster carer or a kinship carer in the borough, the letter is unusually specific about kinship: family assessments are “progressed promptly” and support needs are “identified and addressed swiftly”. That is the standard inspectors have now recorded, and it is reasonable to hold the council to it.

If you are a child or young person in care, or a care leaver, the letter confirms your independent reviewing officer should be challenging the plan on your behalf, and that you should be in your own reviews. If you are older and your long-term plan has drifted, this is the exact weakness Ofsted named.

If you are thinking about fostering or kinship care, the council’s own children and family services pages are the route in.

If you want to read it yourself, the letter is four pages and plainly written, and it is free to download from Ofsted. Every quotation in this article except Councillor Faulks’s comes from it.

If the council’s own systems are still giving you trouble, our pages on Kensington council tax bands and bin collection days carry the current figures and dates.