Agenda item

The Board will consider a report providing an overview of, and update on developments within, the children's residential estate.

Contact:

Joel Hanna, Head of Service, Sufficiency for Children and Young People

The Board considered a report providing and overview of developments within the Children’s Residential Estate presented by Kieran Lord, Interim Service Director- Resources, Improvements & Partnerships. It was highlighted that:

• There were currently four internal children’s homes within Kirklees, shortly the offer would be expanded to provide an additional home due to be reopened after a full refurbishment.
• Alongside reopening an existing home, a new home was being registered to provide additional capacity for up to four young people in need of small group living.
• Work continued with Ofsted to improve the four homes with the ambition to have all homes rated as Good or outstanding within the next inspection cycle.
• Work with facilities management and the revision of our staffing structures and staff training were central to achieving that aim.
• Of the registered homes; 1 home was judged to be Outstanding, 1 Home was judged to be Good, 1 home Required Improvement, 1 home was Inadequate and was due to be re-inspected in the next 6 weeks and 1 home awaited a judgement after reopening. 
• A core principle of the homes arrangements for bringing children together in group living will be ensuring that the homes’ statement of purpose and functions were delivered through careful matching of the needs of the children living in homes to the skills of the team and with consideration of the relationships between those who will live together.
• Work was ongoing with existing staff and the psychologist for the Emotional Wellbeing Service to develop and train the workforce on the model of care as well as sourcing specialist DBT (dialectical behavioural therapy) training for the workforce.
• The national sufficiency challenge was noted and addressing this locally was a key priority of the service.
• Work had been undertaken to engage with local providers and support the development of strong relationships. 
• In investing in the residential services infrastructure, the aim was to ensure that there were adequate business and administrative support resources across Kirklees homes.

The Board noted the update and welcomed the recent certification and the re-opening of the residential home in providing opportunities to improve sufficiency. The Ex-Officio also highlighted the information presented as reassuring. In response, to a question around Ofsted inspections and judgements of homes, Kieran Lord highlighted the importance of working with Ofsted as a partner to understand what the key elements were they were looking for at inspections.

RESOLVED: The Board noted the report Overview of Childrens Residential Services.

Virtual School Governing Body Update

Janet Tolley, Executive School Head Teacher provided a verbal update in relation to the work of the Virtual School Governing Body. It was reported that updates had been provided on:

• The Validated Headteachers report and Data Review: including PEP’s, Young people not in full time education and the reasons why, consultation for ECHP and a detailed analysis of suspensions by year group. The in-depth data outlined trends and the detail behind the information.
• Questions had been raised, around support for young people struggling with education and a detailed discussion was held.
• It was noted that an ILYACs inspection was upcoming, which could involve up to 3 days of scrutiny.
• Children with a social worker: the additional duty included working with all professionals to look at how practice can be influenced at a strategic level to achieve better outcomes and remove barriers to children and young people’s education.
• A key area of focus was understanding what children and young people were doing when they were not in school and identifying how to increase engagement with education.
• Work around Child Protection Plans and building on best practice.

The Board noted the update and welcomed that the Governing Body provided strong support and challenge.

RESOLVED: The Board noted the Virtual School Governing Body Update.