[Mandy Lee, Safeguarding Manager – Children, to present report]
Minutes:
Mandy Lee, Safeguarding Manger and Nicola Hale, Independent Reviewing Officer attended the meeting and Mandy Lee presented the Annual Report of the Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) Service 2016-2017 and highlighted key points.
Mandy Lee confirmed that the IRO service had remained stable, with an experienced and capable team and the team’s positive contribution had been recognised by OFSTED.
She confirmed that there had been a slight reduction in the timeliness of reviews and that appeared to be due to a spike in sickness and bereavements. That situation had now improved and it was a priority for 2017-2018 to improve that further.
The participation of children and young people in their Looked After Children (LAC) reviews also fluctuated and improving participation was another priority for next year.
Quality assurance had also improved, with access to quality assurance data, with quarterly review reports provided to the Children’s Services Management team. Future Action Plans would be looked at based on that data.
In addition to the information contained in the report and in response to questions from Board members, officers stated the following:
The Chair referred to paragraph 2.5 in the report and the reference to the change in legislation in 2011 and asked that in future reports the wording could be updated to reflect the current timescales.
Resolved:
That the Annual report of the Independent Reviewing Officer Service for 2016-2017 be noted.
Supporting documents: