Decision details

Quarterly Corporate Performance Monitoring Report – Quarter 1 2017/18

Decision Maker: Cabinet Committee on Performance Improvement

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: No

Purpose:

This Corporate Performance Monitoring Report is derived from the in-depth monitoring reports and provides an overview of performance activity across the Council. Set out on the following pages is an overview of performance for quarter 1 2017/18 (April – June 2017)

Decisions:

A report was presented by Donna Talbot, Head of Services Business Intelligence, on the Quarterly Performance Monitoring for Quarter 1 of 2017/18.

 

Start Well

 

It was noted that the number of 1,875 Children Looked After (CLA), was the highest ever recorded for the Authority.  However, a number of initiatives would help to address this, and a report detailing these was due to be considered by the Children's Services Improvement Board. 

 

The proportion of care leavers in employment, education or training (EET) had reduced, although this was expected at this time of year when many children and young people were awaiting examination results and considering future options. 

 

The Cabinet Committee noted that recently published data from the Department for Education had suggested that the exclusion rate for Lancashire schools was higher than national, regional and statistical neighbour averages.  However, it was pointed out that some LAs did not record, as permanent exclusions, pupils who were placed in alternative provision, but removed from their mainstream school roll.  It was noted that this practice was not followed in Lancashire. 

 

Live Well

 

It was reported that there had been a low uptake of Health Checks which were available for 40-74 year olds, through a 5 year programme.  This had been due to a number of provider factors this quarter and was currently being addressed.

 

It was noted that representatives from NHS England had been invited to a meeting of the Health Scrutiny Steering Group on the 27th September 2017, to discuss uptake levels of the DTaP/IPV/Hib vaccine, which protected babies against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio and Hib.

 

Age Well

 

An area of concern was the increased rate of admissions of people aged over 65 years into care homes.  However, much of the Passport to Independence work was already focussed on reducing these admissions, and one project was looking at the pathway from hospital discharge to short term care to long term care, and ensuring sufficient reviews were in place to offer alternative solutions. 

 

The Committee noted that there had been a rising trend both locally and nationally in Delayed Transfers of Care.  This system was managed by the NHS but the County Council were investing in systems and resources to ensure that data was captured consistently, to give a full understanding of causes of delay, and to facilitate strategic planning needed to reduce delays. 

 

It was noted that waiting times for social work assessment had improved although waits for occupational therapy (OT) assessments were often excessive and not always easy to track.  A priority was to establish more capacity and a more robustly managed OT workforce to address these concerns. 

 

Highlights were provided to the Committee on Development and Corporate Services and Commissioning, Governance, Finance and Public Services.

 

Ofsted Post Inspection Update

 

Richard Cooke, Programme Manager, provided a summary of the actions and activity that had been implemented to improve services that support and protect children and young people.  This update placed particular emphasis on work that had been developed to improve the support to children looked after and care leavers.

 

It was reported that a new 12 week improvement plan had been agreed by the Children's Services Improvement Board in August 2017, which focussed on MASH/Early Help, quality of practice, placement sufficiency, child sexual exploitation and the workforce. 

 

The overarching Improvement Plan, which had been in place for 18 months, was being developed and framed against three key areas: Prevention, Purposeful Practice and Permanence.  This plan had been shared with the Improvement Board and would be scrutinised by Ofsted, prior to being agreed by Cabinet in September and signed off by the Improvement Board in October 2017. 

 

It was reported that a Social Work Academy had been established which meant that all new Social Workers, especially ASYE's (Assessed and Supported Year in Employment) would participate in a robust, two week induction programme.  Richard informed the Committee that a new batch of Social Workers were due to start this process on 18th September 2017.

 

The Committee noted that locality workshops had been delivered by Amanda Hatton, the Director of Children's Services to all Children in Our Care Teams on being a good corporate parent, which included input from young people who also produced a video on what they expected from their parents. This video was due to be shown at Full Council in December 2017.

 

It was reported that work continued on embedding the audit framework across children's services with new tools, training and support, enabling fostering and adoption to engage in the model.  Casefiles were now being audited on a monthly basis. 

 

The Committee noted that the formal letter detailing the outcome from the July Ofsted inspection was now available.  A link was provided to the letter and highlights were outlined in the report.

 

It was reported that the DfE had confirmed that their next 6 month review would be led by Tony Crane, would include senior civil servants and would be taking place on the 3rd and 4th November 2017.

 

There would also be a Local Government Association Peer Review which would take place on 16th October 2017 for four days, reviewing safeguarding practices and processes and the impact of these on vulnerable children.

 

Resolved:  That the reported performance for Quarter 1 and the Ofsted post inspection update information and comments be noted.

Divisions Affected: (All Divisions);

Contact: Michael Walder Email: michael.walder@lancashire.gov.uk Tel: 01772 533637.

Report author: Michael Walder

Date of decision: 12/09/2017

Decided at meeting: 12/09/2017 - Cabinet Committee on Performance Improvement

Accompanying Documents: