Agenda item

Purpose of report:

To update the Board on the key areas of focus for the Interim Head for Children’s Services.

Witnesses:
 Kevin Peers, Interim Head of Children’s Services

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The Board was informed that the Interim Head of Children’s Services would work to correct a lack of focus by introducing new Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and reduce the level of bureaucracy within the service. A particular example was given with regard to reducing documentation length in order to improve expedient decision-making.

2.    The Interim Head of Children’s Services identified 7 initial key areas of focus:

·         To reduce the processing length of the Child Protection Plan (CCP) to 18 months

·         To ensure that children under 16s assessment is complete within 45 days

·         Pathway Plans made more regular for children

·         To look at Long Distance Services and how best to deliver them

·         To look at proportions of children with disability plans compared with children in need

·         To look at provisions concerning missing children.

The Board queried why these particular priorities had been chosen. Officers explained that previous experience and the information gained regarding the service’s procedures had indicated that these priorities were the most fitting for initial work.

3.    The Chairman of the Board commended the conciseness of the report and suggested that future reports from the service should be similar in nature. The Board also expressed its appreciation of the Interim Head of Children’s Services desire to redress the level of bureaucracy within the Service and provide clear objectives.

4.    Officers advised the Board that there were a series of three month audit reports that could be put before the Board for scrutiny. The Board was also informed that the service’s improvement plan was being rewritten to reflect this increased focus.

5.    The Board asked for clarification on why the service would seek to reduce the time children were on Child Protection Plans, and whether this would increase the risk to the child. Officers advised that 18 months was considered too risk intensive for a child to be on a Child Protection Plan, and that and these issues should be tackled earlier. It was also suggested that escalation has been too slow and that an ideal way to combat this was to relaunch the Salford Neglect Checklist.

6.    The Interim Head of Children’s Service confirmed that, due to the large nature of the Council and high staff turnover, the results of the Ofsted report of June 2015were not always apparent to these new staff members, however that processes were in place to ensure that all staff in the service were fully aware of the report and the context it provided for improvement.

7.    The Cabinet Member for Children and Families’ Wellbeing expressed that, in co-ordination with the work of the Interim Head of Children’s Service the Public Value Transformation Programme (PVT),Special Education Needs and Disabilities 2020 Strategy (SEND 2020), Early Help (EH) and the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) are all contributing to the improvement of Children’s Services. The Council’s positive relationship with the Surrey Safeguarding Children’s Board (SSCB) and partners including the Scrutiny Board was also highlighted as supporting this improvement.

8.    The Cabinet Member for Children and Families’ Wellbeing commented that procedures did have room for improvement and that a key objective was to aim for an outstanding service, adding that the close teamwork within the Leadership Team contributes to an improved service and invited the Scrutiny Board to be part of the improvement strategy.

9.    The Board highlighted concerns related to the recruitment and retention of staff in Children’s Services, particularly social workers. Officers expressed the desire to make the Council an attractive prospect for social workers to improve retention of staff, citing the Safer Surrey scheme as a positive aspect in this and suggested that a greater contribution from the care system would be helpful with this matter..

10.  The Interim Head of Children’s Services also suggested, in order to combat the difficulty in retaining staff, that more support work could be done at a staff level below social worker. The idea of a concordat with neighbouring Local Authorities not to employ leavers on temporary contracts for 6 months was cited as another possible solution.

11.  The Interim Head of Children’s Services highlighted the need to improve the service’s performance relating to missing children, citing Ofsted judgements.

To resolve this, he suggested that his meeting with the 70 officers who had previous experience with missing children within their caseloads was positive in gaining information on their processes, allowing room for improvement, while also accepting that improvement was most needed with cases placed at a distance.

Recommendations:

That the Head of Children’s Services report on the progress made on the areas he has identified for improvement using the new key performance data and audit information at the Board’s October meeting.

      Further information to be provided:

That the Head of Children’s Services provides the KPIs to be used by Children’s Services to the Board.

      Board next steps:

Organise a meeting of its Performance and Finance sub-group for June to consider Children’s Services performance in depth as per the Board’s recommendation of 4 March 2016.