Agenda item

A report was presented on the Quarterly Corporate Performance Monitoring for Quarter 2 of 2017/18. 

Start Well

It was reported that the number of Children Looked After (CLA) in Lancashire continued to increase.  There was a high number of CLA in the Preston area, however, the Committee noted that the rates at which children were becoming looked after in the North and East were reducing. 

The Access to Resources Team were working closely with children's social care to ensure optimum placements were identified.  It was reported that it was difficult to find placements for some children and that we were currently looking at ways to how best we could work with these young people.  A report would be presented to Cabinet in March 2018 on this.

Data released by Ofsted in September 2017 showed that there were two primary schools and four secondary schools in Lancashire judged as inadequate.  The Committee noted that significant intervention support had been put into these schools and that early in the New Year, a meeting would take place with the Schools Commissioner.  We needed to look at how the warning system was used and this would be detailed on the next quarterly update.  County Councillor Driver stated it may also be helpful for Committee to have an overview report on where Academy orders had been received.

Ofsted Post Inspection Update

Amanda Hatton gave a summary of the actions and activity that had been implemented to improve the quality of services that support and protect children and young people.

The Committee noted that next iteration of the Continuous Improvement Plan had been developed and was framed against the following three key areas:

·  Reduce the need for social work and care intervention and ensure effective prevention is in place;

·  Ensure social work and care intervention is effective and efficient – making the right plans for children, offering appropriate support and minimising drift and delay – purposeful practice;

·  Supporting long lasting and sustainable outcomes – permanence.

A revised Sufficiency Strategy for 2017-2020 had been agreed by Cabinet in October 2017, which set out how the Council would ensure that all children looked after had the right placement, in the right place at the right time, and the expectations for how this demand would change in the future.

It was noted that, as part of the implementation of the Residential Strategy approved by Cabinet in June 2017, additional resources were put in place to prevent young people coming into care, and to offer more outreach support and develop an adolescent support unit.

It was reported that HR and Learning Development were currently looking at  Social Worker career pathways.  It was noted that a report on this was expected in the near future.

The Committee were informed that LINX, along with the Barnardo's Young Carers Service and Children and Young People's Participation in Lancashire, had been shortlisted for the CYP Now awards.  LINX had also received a national award for their campaign for Care Leavers across Lancashire to be exempt from paying council tax.

The Committee noted that we had a clear trajectory of improvement from Ofsted.  A full inspection was due in Summer 2018, after the final monitoring visit.

Amanda Hatton wished it to be placed on record that staff had worked extremely hard in preparation for the last inspection.

Live Well

It was reported that the County Council was making progress in relation to the diversion of municipal waste away from landfill.  County Councillor Green asked how the District Councils' policies on charging for green waste would impact on the landfill and diversion rate.  Donna Talbot agreed to look into this.

Library visiting numbers had decreased by 15% when compared to the same period in 2016/17.  However, only one of the libraries which had been re-opened had been included in the figures. Over the same period, there had been an 83% increase in e-book downloads.  County Councillor Buckley was keen to improve the digital service and felt this would be a useful measure for the next performance monitoring update.  Amanda Hatton reported that from January 2018, there would be a big push on reading from the Schools Improvement Service and a grime artist was also due to do some work with young people.

There had been an improvement in uptake figures for the DTaP/IPV/Hib vaccine for babies (provisional figure of 87.6) although it was noted that this was still lower than the recommended target (95%).  A further report on childhood immunisations would be presented to a future meeting of the Health Scrutiny Steering Group.

There had also been an increase in the uptake of NHS Health Checks; this was 58.3% compared to the national figure of 48.9%.

It was reported that, despite there being more referrals, fewer people had commenced the Targeted Community Weight Management programme compared to the last quarter.  The Committee requested more information on this.

Key areas were currently being targeted in relation to road safety and there had been a significant reduction in the number of slight casualties.  More detail was available in the Live Well Quality of Service Report which was due to be distributed to Cabinet Members.

Age Well

It was reported that Delayed Transfers of Care was still a cause for concern and that a focussed DToC improvement programme had been approved by the Health and Wellbeing Board, with associated significant investment.

The Committee noted that waiting times for social work assessments had improved with 85.3% being completed within 7 days, an increase of 3.1% from quarter 1 and 95.7% completed within 28 days, an increase of 1.2% from quarter 1.  Waiting times for OT assessments had also improved in line with the drive to establish greater capacity and a more robustly managed OT workforce.

There had been a 9.6% increase between June and September in support to carers, through the award of direct payments.  It was agreed that information in relation to Young Carers would be provided to the next meeting of the Committee.

Highlights were provided to the Committee for services outside of the Start Well, Live Well and Age Well areas.

Resolved:  That the reported performance for Quarter 2 and the Ofsted post inspection update information and comments be noted.