I have worked with INGSON in a number of authorities during quite challenging times, including Dudley, Lambeth and Stoke on Trent. Their absolute focus on improving the quality of social work practice to secure better outcomes for children has without doubt helped front-line staff and managers to make significant improvements. They help practitioners understand what needs to change and to benefit from their support to help them do so. Both John and Suzi bring extensive knowledge and experience, and use that in a positive and enabling way. They provide continuous analysis and feedback to senior managers to help inform them on wider changes needed to enable practice to improve. I am always happy to recommend them.

As an experienced Director of Children (DCS), I have worked in a number of Authorities ranging from those rated ‘Inadequate Ofsted’ to ‘Outstanding’. This has involved working with many consultants and improvement partners. It is refreshing to come across people like Suzi and John (INGSON) who deliver consultancy services that are of the highest quality. They work well as a team and offer advice, support, and practical solutions to a range of social care challenges.

I worked with INGSON on a project in an Authority that was subject to a statutory notice to improve. They helped to design an innovative, bespoke programme of improvement involving front-line social workers and managers. It was a huge task that required clear planning, well-orchestrated interventions and effective communication with front-line staff, senior managers and external scrutineers. The programme was intensive and required INGSON to audit, quality assure, assess, and coach social workers to deliver good quality case work and supervision on a monthly scrutinised programme of intense improvement. They developed constructive working relationships to help staff to understand what ‘good’ looks like and how to achieve it, either as a front-line practitioner or a manager. In addition to individual and team coaching they provided examples of best practice, training videos and expertise on what constitutes good and outstanding work with children and families.

INGSON’s approach is methodical and reliable, but they are also flexible and responsive to changing requirements and demands. I found them an absolute pleasure to work with. They demonstrated a real empathy for workers and children and families – wanting the best outcomes for the staff and the children. Their passion for good social work is at the heart of what they do. I can highly recommend them.

We have commissioned INGSON on a number of occasions over the past four years to support us with quality improvement and auditing work. They have always provided an extremely helpful lens on a range of practice issues, and have supported us to develop our robust auditing process. John and Suzi’s sound understanding of context, sharp focus on relevant issues, and ability to engage and communicate with all layers of the organisation, means that their feedback is always well received and has real impact. They have added real value to our improvement work and our drive and ambition to develop a learning culture within our organisation.