Issue - meetings

Surrey County Council must meet its statutory obligation to ensure that decisions about children and their families are made using robust information. Often this information is obtained through a range of expert assessments (psychological, cognitive and parenting assessments) that support care planning decisions.

The level of demand for expert assessments in Surrey is very high and Surrey County Council’s in-house Children’s Social Care teams are finding it challenging to meet this statutory and in some cases court ordered demand. To cope with this demand and ensure our statutory duties are met, Children’s Social Care teams have been spot purchasing specialist external experts to carry out these assessments. The level of spot purchasing now requires a waiver if it is to continue, whilst new arrangements are developed. 

It was agreed that a nine month waiver for expert assessments is approved to

allow time for work to take place that will provide a better solution to spot

purchasing.