Decision details

Umer Khonat, Intelligence Analyst, presented the Children's Services Performance update for December 2019.

 

A heat map was presented to the Board which was full of useful statistics that the Board can utilise and challenge services if required.  The heat map showed information relating to assessments, contacts and referrals, Section 47s, Children in Need, Child Protection, Children Looked After, Care Leavers and adoption information.  This data was also presented to Ofsted and the thresholds contained within it had been agreed by management and were comparators with our North West neighbours and England.  Information was broken down by districts and information was presented in a way that highlighted the positive elements and also the pinch points and again this could be seen clearly within the districts in what was working well and maybe what was not working so well and needed to be challenged and good practice shared amongst districts.  Data quality meetings were also held and Heads of Service in Children's Services come together with the Director of Children's Social Care to try to prevent any blockages in the system and to ensure that areas that were showing as amber, work progressed to ensure they did not run into issues and become red on the RAG rating system.

 

There is also a new data tool that will make the findings more interactive and this is called PowerBi.  Umer agreed to demonstrate this new tool at a future meeting.

 

It was reported that as at December 2019 Lancashire was good at the following:

 

Re-referrals

 

Re-referral rate 20.1% - December 2019.

 

Assessments

 

Timeliness – 6 month rate 85% (on par with national rate), improvement from 78% in 2017/18.  December performance 87%.

 

Children Protection Plans

 

1007 (40.3 per 10,000), reduced from 1329 since December 2018, the rate now remains below the regional (56.5) and statistical neighbour (48.3) and the national averages (43.7 per 10,000).

 

Children Looked After 

 

Short term placement stability – 7.8%.

Visits in Timescale – 87%.

Repeat Children Looked After - 9%.

Number of Children Looked After placed over 20 miles from home outside the local authority boundary – 11%.

 

Placements

 

Increase in Fostering to 61.7%.

Reduction in Supported accommodation to 6.8%.

 

Care Leavers

 

In Suitable Accommodation (19-21 Years) – 89.9%.

 

Private Fostering

 

Visits within timescale– 63%.

 

Caseloads

 

Average caseload – 16.7 for all social workers (November 2019).

 

Highlighted below were the areas that Lancashire needed to improve/challenge on as of December 2019:

 

Section 47/Initial Child Protection Conferences (ICPC)

 

Section 47/Initial Child Protection Conferences within timescale - 62%.

 

Children in Need (CiN)

 

Visits within timescale – 59%.

 

Child Protection (CP)

 

Visits within timescale – 81%.

Repeat Child Protections in 12 months (7.4%) and ever (26%) - off target.

 

Children Looked After (CLA)

 

Rate of Children Looked After per 10,000 – 84.5.

Children Looked After with an up to date Personal Education Plan – 79.2%.

Health Assessments performance - 78.3%.

Dental Assessments performance - 69.5%.

Missing episodes interview completed within 3 days – 54.6% (improved from 44.8% since October 18).

 

Strengths and Difficulty Questionnaire (SDQ)

 

No Strengths and Difficulty Questionnaire – 315.

 

Care Leavers

 

Care leavers in Education, Employment or Training – 44.8%.

Care leavers in Contact (last two months) – 74.2%.

 

Following the presentation from Umer the Board agreed that at its' Development Day they would discuss further what data the Board expects to receive at each meeting and some that is required on an ad hoc basis.  Other areas could be deep dives and more focussed pieces of work with the right people around the table to lead on the discussions, however, not required to attend every meeting.

 

It was noted that one piece of data was a cause for concern and this was the 55.2% of care leavers that were not in employment, training or education.  As a Board this was something that needed a bigger discussion and more information to understand the data further and seek assurances from the Service as to what was being done to improve this outcome and was there anything the Board could do to support this.  Again this was something that needed to be discussed at the Development Day to ensure it was on the future work plan.

 

Resolved:  That the Board discussed and commented on the information presented and agreed the content of future performance information provided to subsequent meetings be discussed further at the Corporate Parenting Board Development Day.