Minutes:
Amanda Hatton provided an update to Board members on:
Ofsted
· Significant improvement in the three months since the last visit – no cases referred back and no queries on cases – all cases compliant.
· Workers knew their children well and spoke with passion and had manageable caseloads.
· Morale generally good.
· Some examples of good casework seen (especially in West Lancashire).
· Young people were inspirational and positive about the access they have to senior officers and members.
· Audit is finding the right things.
· Areas for development are what was known and are already in the new improvement plan – specifically:
Ø Reduce the changes of social worker and focus on effective career pathways and support to managers.
Ø Develop a clear social work model based on outcomes – purposeful practice and link to the Higher Education Institutes.
Ø Focus on effective permanence and challenge in relation to this – there is a section in the plan on permanence and corporate parenting.
Next Ofsted Visit
· Focus on Child in Need – very concerned about this at the last full inspection.
· Will take place in November with the same inspection team.
· Will inform the duration of the full re-inspection – might not be full four weeks.
It was apparent that recording was a key factor and that skills need to be developed on this, writing less but more accurate.
Issues around permanence where cases are left without proper assessment therefore management need to ensure that this does not happen and need to do what is best for the child – some permanence is by default.
No comments were received from Ofsted on Care Leavers, however they did talk about the transition stage which was commented on in the video seen earlier.
Performance
· Children Looked After (CLA) with a PEP has seen a significant increase.
· % of audits that are graded inadequate are continuing to reduce.
· Ofsted happy that the audit framework is robust.
· Small number of districts responsible for worsening performance on assessments within 45 days, majority are areas where there are staffing issues (experience, vacancies, management) – additional resources are being put in place.
· Education, Employment and Training (EET) – Lancaster is the worst performing district (drop from 51.5% to 29.4%) – this is being monitored.
· Care Leavers in EET on 20 July 2017 was 53.2%, this is still not good enough, but is moving in the right direction and the Corporate Parenting Board is looking at what can be achieved by working with Business Partners.
· CLA – 64 have been discharged of care orders (23 reached 18 years old). Lots of work is planned around this to address the issues and another challenge is that court time is full also. More work is being done on Public Law Outline (PLO). Need to monitor this closely.
· Going to look at the re-referral rates and will report this back at a future meeting, including step-down too.
· Louise Storey will bring to the September Board meeting the heat maps on recruitment and retention.
· Three staff workshops have been carried out and the next one is in September.
· Proposing to refresh the Practitioners Guide.
· A suggestion from the workshops is to look at a jury service model for real opportunities to harness talent – five days on a specialism/interest a member of staff may have and wish to share with colleagues ie play therapy will be implemented.
Actions:
· Report to the Board at a future meeting, statistics on re-referrals including step-downs – Amanda Hatton.
· Heat maps report on recruitment and retention for the September meeting - Louise Storey.