Vicky Metheringham, Service Director for Child
Protection and Family Support and Jo-Anne Sanders, Service Director
for Learning and Early Support, presented highlights from the
Performance Data covering the period ending January 2025.
Vicky Metheringham highlighted the following
key points:-
Care Leavers
There had been a deterioration in some areas
of practice despite the focus on this area.
- There had been some recording issues
regarding the number of care leavers in suitable accommodation and
these figures were being amended. Housing colleagues were working
on schemes that would better support care leavers and there was
confidence that improvements were being made.
- A number
of care leavers were unable to work due to disability,
illness or parenting duties. If those unable to work were removed
from the figures, there would be almost 65% of care leavers in
education, training or employment, which was encouraging. Strong
links existed with C&K Careers, Kirklees College and
Huddersfield University, and there were opportunities within the
Council for employment.
- The figures showed a drop in contact
every 8 weeks with care leavers, and practice standards were being
reconsidered to better meet the needs of care leavers. Sickness
absence had contributed to the decline, but more PAs had been
recruited and different ways of supporting additionality to the
service were being investigated.
Children Going Missing
- Data suggested that there had been
more missing children episodes, however
the change in the way the Police recorded data had impacted on
these figures.
- The number of children going missing
in the last twelve months had increased, after a previous
significant reduction, and work including partnership auditing
continued, in order to better understand
the impact of the recent changes in policies and protocols.
Children at Risk of Criminal Exploitation
- The number of children at risk had
risen; this was seen as positive as it was a result of an earlier
intervention approach.
- The information sharing portal was
being well used, as partners worked together to share information
on vulnerable children.
- A multi-agency group met weekly to
scrutinise individuals’ circumstances.
- Risk reduction was a priority, and
bespoke and targeted work was taking place with vulnerable young
people through plans which had been developed to reduce risk.
- The Kirklees Youth Engagement
Service were integral to the plans to support young people and
shared valuable intelligence about targeting perpetrators and
potential perpetrators.
In answer to a question from the Panel about
the rising numbers of children being electively home educated and
the ways in which those children were safeguarded, Jo-Anne Sanders
advised that-:
- There were officers dedicated to
Elective Home Education (EHE) as part of the Access to Education
function, who were notified of children becoming EHE.
- Each child registered as EHE was
screened for vulnerabilities and each notification was RAG rated to
prioritise the next steps for support.
- If the child had been on the school
roll, then the school would be contacted, to ensure all background
information was known and so that the family could be supported
appropriately.
- Reasons for the parental decision
were explored with the family to determine the appropriate
approach.
- Families were offered support to
understand what was involved in Home Education and what support
they were entitled to and any safety and
wellbeing concerns were also discussed.
- The service valued the engagement
with parents and understood that there were different reasons for
deciding to home educate, from those who had made a positive choice
to do so, to those who wished to see their child back in
school.
- Support was given by the wider team
to help children get back onto a school roll where
appropriate.
- If there was social care involvement
with a home educated child, there was a multi-agency approach, and
services would work with the family to help the child return to
school.
- If there were concerns, there was a
robust process in place and if necessary formal action would be
taken.
In answer to a question from the Panel about
how children who had never been on a school roll, could access the
Healthy Child Programme, Jo-Anne Sanders advised that the Healthy
Child Programme looked after all children and there was a statutory
requirement that included mandated visits. The service worked with
the provider to look at all children, who were tracked through
information received by government. Public Health colleagues who
commissioned the Healthy Child Programme were looking for
opportunities to strengthen this, however families did not always
wish to take up the provision they were entitled to. It was
important that every child was accounted for, and under the Access
to Education function there was a Child Missing in Education Team.
The Panel noted that contact made by the service with families due
to the expansion of the entitlement to free early education, meant
that parents were aware of their opportunities and gave the service
an understanding of reasons why opportunities were not always taken
up.
RESOLVED:
That the verbal updates on performance data be
noted and Officers be thanked for their presentations.