Decision details

Getting to Good Plan

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: No

Decisions:

Andy Smith, Safeguarding, Inspection and Audit Team updated the Board on the progress of the Getting to Good Plan.

 

In 2018 the Authority moved from a rating of Inadequate to Requires Improvement on the journey to being Good.  Lots of work had and was being undertaken.

 

A Getting to Good Board had been set up which the Corporate Parenting Board links in to along with the Operational Board - Permanence and Children in our Care.

 

Children's Services had recently undergone a Peer Review around Permanence and a Joint Targeted Area Inspection.

 

Following this 11 recommendations were made and key issues were as following:

 

·  Children Looked After Plans

·  Leaving Care - Challenges for Managers and Independent Reviewing Officers

·  Plans not progressing

·  If things are not happening, young people can challenge them

·  Permanence and Planning

·  Data

 

The focus for improvement was not just for the local authority, it also included other agencies such as health.  Good partnership working was needed to enable purposeful practice and that the needs of the young person was met all the way through the system.

 

There were currently 142 actions on the plan which are all RAG rated.

 

In permanence planning, and the Authority's corporate responsibility there should be no drift and delay.  There should be a clear plan for permanence.  This needs to be strengthened and Teams need to be a lot better at this.  The Peer Challenge was taking place w/c 20 May 2019 and were looking at corporate responsibilities for children in care and care leavers.

 

The Permanence Policy had been rewritten.

 

Challenges the Service face were recognising the change of Social Workers and the impact this had on young people.  The teams try to minimise this as much as possible.  Another was the caseloads that Social Workers have which are around 25-28 per worker.  Retention of staff and agency staff was also a big issue.

 

The number of children looked after going off child protection plans was increasing which has a significant effect on social workers caseloads.

 


Date of decision: 22/05/2019

Decided at meeting: 22/05/2019 - Corporate Parenting Board