Decision details

Improvement Board Update

Decision Maker: Children's Services Scrutiny Committee

Decision status: Recommendations approved

Is Key decision?: No

Decisions:

The Chair welcomed Linda Clegg, Director of Childrens' Services, to the meeting. The report presented updated the Committee on the actions that had been taken following the 2015 Ofsted inspection. The report included the County Council's self-assessment report as part of the DfE Review.

 

The rigorous November 2015 inspection from Ofsted of Childrens' Services had lasted four weeks. The first thing the Department for Education (DfE) did was appoint an Improvement Advisor, Tony Crane. Childrens' Services had had an improvement notice served on them and had been given four months to improve.

 

The Improvement Board was multi agency, had an independent chair and met monthly. It included elected members, young people and frontline practitioners. The Board along with the DfE had signed off an Improvement Plan which responded to 17 Ofsted recommendations.

 

Ofsted would come in every quarter for an inspection and there was a formal review every six months by the DfE.

 

The improvement journey for Childrens' Services was well underway. There was leadership and governance from the DCS, Children's Services Scrutiny Committee, and, the 0 – 25 Programme Board which was chaired by Jo Turton. There was now a three locality model in place and more specialist teams.

 

There had been an additional 186 appointments to Children's Services and there was a recruitment and retention strategy in place. The biggest issue was around newly qualified workers. Additional development and supervision was needed to ensure that the more inexperienced staff were fully supported. Staff engagement was vital. There were DCS briefings with staff and there was an operational improvement group. Engagement with staff was also done through webpages and multi-agency focus groups which were led by partners on the Improvement Board. There had been a massive investment in technology.including SMART phones and upgraded IT equipment for all social workers. In terms of young people there was a young people's improvement group, Professional Personal Advisor (PPA) training and care leaver apprenticeships in place.

 

A good, robust auditing framework was in place. Children's Services had a refreshed continuum of need and there was an additional social worker capacity in the Contact and Referral Team (CART).

 

Regarding care leavers, all indicators on the improvement dashboard were in the good or outstanding threshold. The Committee was informed that there was a reduction in caseloads over the last six months. 50% of audits showed practice had improved in the last six months. There was steady progress being made with Ofsted and the DfE. The workforce was committed, engaged and up for the challenge.

 

One of the priorities for Children's Services was to review and refine its approach to Child in Need, ensure it was working with the right children and there was a strong management oversight in place. A redesign of CART / MASH was being led by Lancashire Safeguarding Children Board. There was lots of work being done around Early Help and demand was soaring. Children's Services must ensure that a robust multi-agency early help offer was in place. Children's Services must work with and learn from other local authorities. Some of the newly qualified workforce was very inexperienced in some teams so there had to be flexible use of experienced staff however it was acknowledged that the staff were the greatest asset.

 

Members of the Committee were invited to comment and raise questions and a summary of the discussion is set out below:

 

·  Members enquired how caseloads were measured and did new and inexperienced staff have protected caseloads. Managers used their discretion when allocating work around complex cases. Assisted and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) staff were always protected in terms of a maximum caseload. In their first year of employment the bar was set at 15 – 18 cases and for the qualified, experienced workers the bar was set at 23 – 25 cases. There was guidance for managers so as to not overburden staff. The Committee requested an update on caseloads for the last quarter of 2016.

 

·  Members felt Children's Services was moving in the right direction. To continue improving the right systems had to be in place and officers had to get up to speed with the processes that were now in place.

 

·  The Committee enquired how the outcomes for children were measured, what the indicators were, and when did the Team start measuring if children had better outcomes. In the early months the outcomes would not yet be seen until all the new systems were in place. Nothing would change for children until this happened. Systems for reviewing, assessing and intervening were needed before outcomes could be measured.

 

·  It was vital to keep the same care worker with the care leavers. Continuity of the same care worker made a massive difference. The only time there would not be continuity was if the care worker was ill or had left their job.

 

·  It was pointed out that when Child in Need cases were reviewed, 16% of the cases were escalated into child protection and 26% of the cases were closed which meant that nearly half of the Children in Need were not correctly categorised. Children in Need were not reviewed until recently as other children were. In other areas of categorisation, Child Protection for example, had an Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO). There was an independent challenge and scrutiny on Children in Need. IROs reviewed all the Children in Public Care as well. Children in Need were the group of children just below these categories. There was a more formal approach to Children in Need now. There will be formal, proper reviews now just like the other categories.

 

·  Concerns were expressed regarding social workers being relied on to work more hours than they were being paid for. Caseloads had much improved and were not as bad as they used to be but demand was still increasing. There was also a social worker health survey every year. The Committee was informed that around 70% of social workers were working additional hours.

 

 

Resolved: The Children's Services Scrutiny Committee received and commented on the report and the actions taken following the inspection. The Children's Services Scrutiny Committee also considered where it could add value to the work of the Improvement Board.

 

Report author: Richard Cooke

Date of decision: 18/01/2017

Decided at meeting: 18/01/2017 - Children's Services Scrutiny Committee

Accompanying Documents: