Agenda item

Purpose of the Report: To set out the response of Children’s Services to the areas of concern raised in the Ofsted Inspection of Children’s Services which was published 16 May 2018 and to show what action is being taken to address these.

Witnesses:

Dave Hill, Executive Director of Children, Families and Learning
Jacquie Burke, Interim Director for Change Safeguarding and Early Help
Claire Burgess, Chair of the Surrey Safeguarding Children Board
Clare Curran, Cabinet Member for Children

Key points raised in the discussion:

1. Officers highlighted the headlines of the report and noted that the Children, Families and Learning Directorate was undertaking a comprehensive response to the challenges faced in Children’s Services following the report of Ofsted (2018). It was noted that the Department for Education (DfE) had appointed a Commissioner to determine Surrey County Council’s capability to improve. It was also explained that draft feedback had endorsed the current plan of improvement, but stressed that the challenges of longstanding and severe deficits of services remained high.
   
   
2. Officers stressed that the service was taking a whole system approach, including partners in the redesign. It was explained that the service was too risk adverse and that the universal level of service was too incoherent. Officers gave evidence of planned improvement in this area with the introduction of the “windscreen” levels of need model which would create a clear, system-wide understanding of thresholds. It was stressed that the service wanted to ensure a clear, single practice model which could be followed by the service and partners.
   
   
3. Officers highlighted that they were introducing the “Family Safeguarding,” “No Wrong Door” and “Mockingbird” models across respective services to help improve current practice. It was stressed that these models had been employed successfully to improve in other comparable local authorities.
   
   
4. Officers noted the significant changes in leadership structure and the requirement to introduce high level strategic value in the service.
   
   
5. Members questioned how the service was planning to improve working relationships with partners and what the potential barriers to good partnership working would be. Officers explained that they would be working closely with statutory partners on the plans for service transformation. It was also noted that the service was including children and young people in the service redesign proposals to ensure that they are engaged in the process.
   
   
6. The Director of Children, Families and Learning stressed that Early Help transformation and the better utilisation of Early Help to reduce reliance on statutory services was essential to reducing cost and improving outcomes for children. It was also highlighted that this work could only be undertaken with partners and that it was important for the service to closely work with them.
   
   
7. The Chairman of the Surrey Safeguarding Children Board noted that there had been significant engagement with partners and that statutory partners were keen to be involved in the change process. It was noted that previous barriers to partnership work were that individual services had worked in silos and that this needed to be improved.
   
   
8. Members questioned the importance of partners understanding of thresholds in Children’s Services, which was an issue highlighted by the Ofsted report as a key area of concern, and how the service was planning to improve upon this. Officers explained that the Directorate had revisited the levels of need approach and had worked with partners to determine these levels for children.
   
   
9. Members stressed the capacity of partners, particularly teaching staff, to undertake the level of safeguarding work that was required. Officers noted that there was an impetus from teaching staff to undertake this work and engage with safeguarding services. However, it was stressed that the service was not expecting teachers to act as social workers. It was also noted that there was the need for a support network to ensure that there was adequate support for partners.
   
   
10. It was noted by the Executive Director of Children, Families and Learning that there was a need for significant improvement in Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and that there was a requirement for fundamental change in how the service is delivered. It was also noted that the CAMHS service would need to become more active in schools to be effective.
    
    
11. Officers explained that they had undertaken a review of performance management within the Directorate and would work to develop a small list of key indicators to help monitor progress of improvement. Members questioned whether it would be feasible to provide these figures to the Committee so that it can work to determine whether the service has improved.
    
    
12. Members questioned how the Directorate was planning to deliver upon performance improvement in the climate of savings requirements. Officers clarified that the Directorate intended to invest more into the universal services, rather than into high intensity statutory services, which was considered to be more cost efficient. It was also stressed that children currently in statutory services would be worked with better, as a result of improved management grip and ensure that there would be less need for resource in this area over time.
    
    
13. The Executive Director of Children, Families and Learning noted that the service needed to be more open to challenge from scrutiny and that it would work to help provide the information to question the quality of improvement work underway. It was also stressed that Members would need to be critical of the service and ensure constant challenge to help maintain improvement.
    
    
14. The Chairman offered her apologies to the children in need of services in Surrey and stressed that the Children and Education Select Committee would be focussing on the need to improve standards of delivery in the service.
    
    
15. The Cabinet Member for Children stressed the need for Members to take responsibility and that the improvement journey required the aid of the Select Committee to ensure that it is succeeding.

Recommendations:

1. That the Cabinet Member ensures that the service provides a suite of performance indicators as of the current date (7 September 2018), to inform future scrutiny of service performance, which is to be presented on a regular basis to the committee as of its next meeting in November 2018.

2. That officers provide an updated draft improvement plan which is Red-Amber-Green rated, includes date of delivery and highlights leads responsible as soon as feasible.