The Board will consider a report giving key highlights from the latest Performance Monitoring data for the Children’s Service
Contacts:
Ophelia Rix, Head of Service for Children in Care, Care Leavers and Looked After Children
Louise Hallas, Virtual School Headteacher
Gill Addy, Designated Nurse for Looked After Children
Ian Mottershaw, Head of Service –Contextual Safeguarding and Y.E.S, Family Support and Child Protection
Minutes:
The Board considered the latest Children’s Performance Highlights Reportgiving key highlights on Performance Monitoring data for Children’s Services. Ophelia Rix, Head of Service for Children in Care, Care Leavers and Looked After Children presented the key highlights in relation to Children Looked After Reviews and Missing and it was highlighted that:
The Board noted the update and asked in respect of Children Looked After Reviews and Missing and in the discussion to follow asked a number of questions.
Responding to a question from the Board about the number of foster carers for out of area placements and whether the figure presented in the report (55) related to in house or IFA’s foster carers, Tom Brailsford, Service Director (Resources, Improvement and Partnerships) agreed that the data would be provided to the Board to follow.
Responding to points highlighted by the Ex-officio, including staffing challenges in social work and continuing to keep children safe whilst managing the additional pressure on staff, Ophelia Rix reassured the Board that social worker vacancies were being managed through recruiting other practitioners who could bring additional skills to provide a network of support to children and young people. This included Family Support Workers and Youth Engagement Officers who would work alongside social workers to ensure that children were visited, and that the service continued to build good quality relationships with young people. In relation to education, employment and training, work was undertaken to ensure that there was a network of practitioners not just within social work but within the wider Council who could continue to build those relationships and ensure children and young people were seen in a variety of settings, including the home, and schools.
Responding to a question from the Board about the number of foster carer vacancies, Tom Brailsford advised that this information was managed on a weekly basis through the new Dashboard and agreed that this information would be provided to the Board to follow.
Ophelia Rix, presented the monitoring data in relation to Care Leavers and highlighted that:
The Board agreed it was essential to individualise pathway plans and agreed to receive the data around impact of the work undertaken. The Board also asked if staff had dedicated time to complete admin work, and in response Ophelia Rix confirmed that all practitioners had protected dedicated time to record information on the system.
Louise Hallas, Virtual School Head Teacher presented the data in relation to Children Looked After Educational Outcomes, and it was highlighted that:
· 100% of PEPs had been completed within the Autumn Term with 100% initial PEPs completed withing 10 school days.
· The Virtual School was currently leading on all PEPs which were virtually held meetings.
· The Virtual School continued to work closely with social care to improve young people’s educational experiences.
· 73% of school moves since the start of the academic year were carefully planned across the service to ensure a smooth transition with no break in provision.
· Attendance was key area of focus, which had reduced but there had been a lot of illness in the past month in addition to other reasons.
· Reducing the number of unauthorised absences in both frequency and duration was also a key priority of the Virtual School.
· There had been a reduction in the number of suspensions, and in the number of young people who are classed as PA (Persistent Absenteeism (90%).
· Not in full time education was another key area which impacted on attendance.
· School moves were very low in December but some of this was planned to ensure school moves were in line with the start of the new school term.
Stewart Horn, Head of Childrens Integrated Commissioning presented the data in relation to Children Looked After Health and it was highlighted that:
In response to the Boards suggestion around increasing the accuracy of data in relation to dental checks through taking into account the information from foster carers (at 4-6 weekly visits from supervising social workers) Stewart Horn agreed to discuss this with Gill Addy, Designated Nurse.
The Board acknowledged that the team had been under pressure for a sustained period, and that a business case had been put forward to help resolve this. The Board further asked about the future of the flexible commissioning project highlighting its value and impact. The Board also requested to receive feedback from the Oral advisory group via the Designated Nurse. Stewart Horn agreed to bring information in response to the Boards comments to a future meeting of the Board.
RESOLVED: The Board noted the Children’s Performance Highlights Report, and it was agreed that:
Supporting documents: