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Northumberland County Council

Unitary authority England Council website

What people reported
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Ofsted
Outstanding Short inspection, May 2024
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Official inspection

Ofsted

Inspection of local authority children's services (ILACS)

Overall effectiveness, as published

Outstanding

Short inspection in May 2024. Report published 12 July 2024.

Grades for each area

Impact of leaders
Outstanding
Children who need help and protection
Outstanding
Children in care
Good
Care leavers
Good
How Ofsted grades children's services

Ofsted inspects every English council's children's services. Each inspection gives an overall effectiveness grade, and a grade for leadership, for children who need help and protection, for children in care and, since 2023, for care leavers. There are four grades:

  • Outstanding. The highest grade.
  • Good. The standard Ofsted expects every council to meet.
  • Requires improvement to be good. Not yet good, although Ofsted found no widespread or serious failures leaving children harmed or at risk of harm.
  • Inadequate. Widespread or serious failures leave children harmed or at risk of harm. Ofsted then makes regular monitoring visits.

Councils graded good or outstanding usually have a shorter inspection next time. Between inspections, Ofsted makes focused visits to look at one area of practice. Visits don't give grades: Ofsted publishes a letter setting out what it found.

We copy grades exactly as Ofsted publishes them. They're separate from community ratings, and we never combine the two. How we use inspections

Source: Local authority inspection outcomes as at 31 March 2026, Ofsted official statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. These outcomes are about the service as a whole, not any individual worker.

Official inspection

Latest Ofsted reports

Inspection reports and visit letters, on Ofsted's website.

All reports for this council

Last checked for new reports on 9 October 2026.

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