Agenda and minutes

[The Chair to welcome everyone to the meeting.]

Cllr Rita Potter, Chair, welcomed everyone to the meeting and advised it was also being live streamed to the press and public.

[The Chair will explain how the meeting will proceed, how questions are to be asked and any matters of meeting etiquette.]

Cllr Potter explained the process to be followed during the meeting for asking questions.

Apologies were received from the following member of the panel:

Cllr Rupinderjit Kaur

Apologies were also received from Emma Bennett, Executive Director Families.

There were no declarations of interest recorded.

[To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record]

That the minutes of the meeting held on 24 March 2022 be approved as a correct record.

[To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record]

The panel approved the draft minutes of 23 June 2022 as a correct subject to the amendment to the list of attendees. Cllr Ellis Turrell to be recorded as being in attendance as a substitute for Cllr Stephanie Haynes

The panel queried the reason for delay in publishing the papers for the meeting and expressed concern about the problems caused when papers are published separately. Alison Hinds, Deputy Director of Children’s Social Care, apologised and advised the panel that due to employee absences there was a delay in getting reports ready in time to meet the publication deadline.

[Alison Hinds, Deputy Director of Children’s Social Care, to present report]

The Chair invited Alison Hinds, Deputy Director of Children’s Social Care, to present the report.

The Deputy Director advised the panel that the purpose of the report was to give a summary of the findings of the annual self-evaluation of Children Services in Wolverhampton. The completion of the report is a requirement under the Ofsted inspection framework and is prepared at the end of each financial year and refreshed annually at the end of September. The evaluation of the service covers all areas of social care provision, from early help intervention offer to adoption services and onto specialist services.

The Deputy Director listed the achievements of Children’s Services in 2021-2022 and the areas for development in 2022- 2023. The Deputy Director commented that she was proud of the service in managing the demand across the social care system. The service has continued to offer the right level of support to children and families at the right place and time, which has reduced the need for higher levels of statutory intervention.

The Chair thanked the presenter for the excellent report on the performance of the service.

The Chair invited panel members to comment on the report.

The panel queried the reasons for the 25 per reduction in the timeliness of Children In Need (CIN) assessments being completed since September 2021.

The Deputy Director of Children’s Social Care advised the panel that due to the difficulty in recruiting good quality agency social work staff over the previous 12 months there has been a reduction in the number of assessments being completed.

The Deputy Director outlined plans to address the issue and reassured the panel that the children concerned would have a social worker going into to see them regularly. The service is working hard to improve the performance figures.

The panel queried the reasons for the increase between January and April 2021 in the number of children and young people registered as Elective Home Education, following a previous period when the numbers had fallen.

The Deputy Director advised the panel that the service saw an increase in the number of children and young people being home educated during the pandemic and accepted the need to look at reasons for the change. The Deputy Director reassured the panel that there are clear processes where families who may be thinking of home education are contacted to talk about the reasons for them wanting this and the service will work with them to find a possible solution.

The Deputy Director added that parents have the choice to home educate their child.

The panel welcomed the effort to make sure where possible that only those children that need to come into care come are placed there.

The panel queried the number of children and young people who have not been placed with an adoptive family.

The Deputy Director commented that the actual numbers would be sent separately as not immediately available. The service continues to work with Adoption@Heart to review the cases of children that are  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

[Alison Hinds, Deputy Director of Children’s Social Care, to present report]

The Chair invited Alison Hinds, Deputy Director of Children’s Social Care, to present the report.

The Deputy Director outlined the action plan and proposed process for monitoring progress following the Ofsted inspection of the City of Wolverhampton Local Authority Children’s Service.

The Deputy Director advised the panel that Ofsted undertook a short inspection of Children’s Services between 21 March 2022 and 1 April 2022. The inspection covered the following areas - services for children and families needing help and protection and children and young people in care and care leavers.

The Deputy Director commented that since the last inspection by Ofsted the rating of the service for children and families needing help has been assessed as ‘good’, previously it was rated as ‘requires improvement’. The service has maintained an Oftsed rating of ‘good’ for service for children and young people in care and care leavers.

There is a Government consultation about making changes to the inspection criteria which would put the grading for care leavers services into a separate category in future Oftsed inspections. The Deputy Director commented that this proposal would be welcomed by the Council in the response to the consultation.

The Deputy Director commented that the assessment for the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families was rated as ‘outstanding’ by the inspectors; it was previously rated as ‘good’. The Deputy Director welcomed the recommendations from Ofsted and highlighted the reference to areas for improvement, for example, the arrangements for the tracking and monitoring children who are missing from education.

The Deputy Director advised the panel that an action plan had been produced which will be sent to Oftsed in August 2022.

The panel were invited to comment on the report and the action plan.

The panel welcomed the positive report and congratulated the service on its performance.

The panel queried if the availability of housing near a parent’s preferred school was an issue in the numbers of children and young people missing from education who were allocated a school further away. The panel also commented on the issue of children needing to take several buses to get to school because of the high demand for local places and queried the advice given to parents to engage them in discussion about their school preferences.

The Deputy Director advised the panel that in the example given this would probably relate to a situation where a family has moved because of an emergency.

The Deputy Director reassured the panel that the service works with colleagues in housing to enable children to attend the nearest local school where possible. The Deputy Director commented on the change role of the Virtual School Head to include families who may have been contacted by a social worker in the past to offer them advice support and advice in this situation.

The panel highlighted the issue of families with children with no recourse to public funds after being granted permission to stay being asked to move home at short notice  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

[Jennifer Rogers, Principal Social Worker, to present report]

The Chair invited Jennifer Rogers, Principal Social Worker, to present the report.

The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that the annual report covers social work practice across both Children’s and Adult’s Services. The Principal Social Worker outlined the main highlights in the report, with a focus on performance of social work practice in Children’s Services.

The Principal Social Worker commented on the work being done to strengthen existing quality assurance activity, responding to the challenges in terms of the recruitment and retention of social workers, the ongoing focus on tackling inequality and raising the profile of social work profession, and supporting excellence in social work practice.

The Principal Social Worker outlined the responsibilities of the role and the key priorities for 2022-2023.

The Principal Social Worker commented on the strong improvement in the quality of social work practice and the highlighted the increase in the number case files rated as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ as an example of the progress made. The Principal Social Worker highlighted the commitment to quality assurance which was recognised by Ofsted following their inspection in March 2022.

The Principal Social Worker commented on the annual joint social work conference in Wolverhampton which was attended by adults and children’s social worker. The theme for this year’s conference was celebrating diversity, challenging inequality with conference speakers sharing their lived experiences of discrimination. The feedback from the conference has been very positive from social workers that attended.

The Principal Social Worker commented that the work of six social workers in Wolverhampton were recognised by the British Association of Social Work and awarded the title of amazing social worker in 2022. In addition, 70 social workers have been supported to engage with the national review of independent children’s social care and contributed to the recommendations.

The Principal Social Worker gave details about the range of work being done to challenge inequality and the promotion and to further embed equality, diversity, and inclusion in areas of social work practice and policy.

The Principal Social Worker outlined the key priorities of the role as detailed in the work plan for 2022-2023 and highlighted the importance of having highly skilled social workers to help reduce the risk of children being taken into care and supporting adults with care and support needs to remain or become independent for as long as possible.

The Principal Social Worker commented on the need to build on the successful Ofsted report and to prepare for future inspections, to maintain links with other Principal Social Workers across the region that can help shape policy and practice locally and influence national policies.

The panel were invited to comment on the report.

The panel welcomed the report and the outstanding inspection report from Oftsed on the service and the achievements made during the year.

The panel queried the progress to the reference made in previous annual report about actions aimed at increasing the number of audits following a reduction during the pandemic. The Principal Social Worker commented on the changes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

[Earl Piggott-Smith, Scrutiny Officer, to present report]

The Chair invited Earl Piggott-Smith, Scrutiny Officer, to present the report.

The Scrutiny outlined future items on the draft work programme. The panel were invited to comment and or make suggestions to the work programme. The panel suggested that an item on Education Bill could be added to panel work programme.

Resolved:

The panel agreed to note the draft work programme report