Children’s services run by Swindon Borough Council are now officially good.

Ofsted carried out a full two-week inspection of the services in the borough in July and in its latest report it has upgraded the authority to ’good’ from the assessment of ‘requires improvement’ it gave it in 2014.

The report gives three good assessments in four categories: the impact of leaders on social work practice, the experiences and progress of children who need help and protection and overall effectiveness.

The experience of children in care and care leavers still requires improvement.

The report says: “The quality of services has significantly improved within the last 12 months.

“Arrangements to facilitate the delivery of consistently good services for children in care are firmly in place, however it is too soon to see the full impact of these more recent changes.

“Increased financial investment has been well targeted, and this along with persistence by leaders has ensured children’s needs have been considered and addressed.”

The council’s cabinet member for children’s services, Mary Martin said: “This is a result of a relentless focus on improvement in everything, day by day by the directors of children’s services and managers and staff and their diligence.

Coun Martin had praise for the director David Haley, who was also commended in the report for determined and well-focussed leadership”. She said: “When he was appointed he came in with a very clear plan of action which he’s stuck to.

“This is also a tribute to the diligence of the staff who have worked really hard to make improvements in every aspect of their day to day work.”

Following the report in 2014, a two-day inspection in early 2018 found services to be worse in some vital aspects.

It said the quality of decision-making in regard to vulnerable children had declined and said some social workers did not always identify dangers to children, leaving them at risk of harm.