Agenda item

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

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

The Deputy Director briefed the panel on the headlines detailed in the executive summary of the presentation.

The Deputy Director advised the panel there is a requirement for the local authority to complete an annual self-evaluation of its children and young people’s services. The process also gives the service the opportunity to review work done during the previous year and identify what has worked well and what could have been done better.

The Deputy Director highlighted the flexibility and adaptability of social workers in managing the restrictions of the pandemic while continue working with and supporting children and families. The Deputy Director praised the efforts of social workers who continued to safeguard the children of the city and maintain strong relationships with families and adapted to the need to work differently. The Deputy Director also praised the role and contributions of partner organisations across the City to protect and work with vulnerable children, supported by a strong and stable workforce.

The Deputy Director advised the panel that the service did see an increased demand for support at certain points during the year when schools returned, which was expected. The increase in demand is in line with regional and national trends.

The panel were reassured that the service continues to work with families at the earliest opportunity and where it is necessary will use its powers to intervene at the right level and only when required for the appropriate right length of time.

The Deputy Director commented on the increased placement stability for children in care throughout the last year, which is supported by a strong cohort of foster carers which has helped to keep children stable during the Covid 19 pandemic. The carers worked hard to support home learning and family time arrangements so children could stay to their family remotely during this period.

The Deputy Director commented on the improvements made to the services offered to families, for example the local House Project for care levers which helps young people in care to move into independent living with a range of specialist support. The aim is help young people to successfully take on and maintain their own tenancy at 18. The service has successfully managed to move 10 young people into their own tenancies.

The Deputy Director commented on a new project funded by DFE which involves social work teams based in schools. The project involved asking schools to volunteer to take part. At present 12 schools are part of the programme. There are six schools and social workers in, and some feeder schools taking part and six control schools.

The early stages of the project have been positive and has helped build relationships with school colleagues that will help to make sure children and families get the right level of support.

The Deputy Director advised that panel that a new multi-agency missing, and exploitation hub service was also set up this year. This is a partnership approach aimed working with other agencies to tackling the issue of exploitation in the city and to better understand where children are at risk and how the service can help prevent children becoming at risk of exploitation. The project will be evaluated in 2022.

The panel were invited to comment on the presentation.

Cllr Adam Collinge queried the reasons for the increase in the referrals to the service from school and expressed concern about the number of isolated children being home educated who may not be known to the service.

Cllr Collinge also queried how children in this situation will be monitored and expressed concern about the under reporting of cases known to the service.

The Deputy Director commented that the increase in the number of school children being referred to service is what would have normally been expected following the return in September. There has been no significant difference in the level of demand and referrals when compared to previous years at this time of the year. The situation will be continued to be monitored and the service will work with schools to review referrals and provide the appropriate level of support. The Deputy Director reassured the panel that there are robust safeguarding arrangements in place. In addition, there are regular meetings with partner agencies which provide opportunities to review the situation and to share information. The information is supported by monthly performance meetings which can help identify sudden increases in the number of referrals and or themes which can be investigated in more detail where necessary. The work of the MASH team would also support this work.

Cllr Adam Collinge queried the monthly variations in the number of visits made by social workers within five working days of a referral being made to the service in the report. The Deputy Director explained the work being done to increase the number of children that are seen within the target of five working days. In addition, social workers are encouraged to improve the recording more accurately during assessments visits. The overall picture shows an improving situation.

The Deputy Director added that the performance measure for initial visit for Children in Need (CIN)is not a statutory duty for the authority. The issue was highlighted during the last Ofsted inspection and is seen as good practice to monitor children with low levels of concern. The Deputy Director reassured the panel that were there are child protection concerns then a visit would be made immediately as part of the Council’s statutory duty. The variation in number of initial visits has been due to the difficulty in contacting the family and need in some situations to get consent to engage with family.

Cllr Adam Collinge queried the number of children who have moved from being assessed as being a Children in Need (CIN) to the requiring a child protection plan and the success of current policies and plans to prevent this where appropriate. The Deputy Director advised the panel most cases where children have been assessed CIN plans are closed after 12 months, which would suggest that the level of intervention is at the right level for families referred to the service. The situation will be continued to be reviewed and the threshold for assessing for risk.

Cllr Stephanie Haynes expressed concern about the link between the poor performance of a football team and the increased reporting of domestic violence and cases of child abuse.

Cllr Stephanie Haynes queried the reasons for why there has not being an increase locally in the number of referrals for child sexual exploitation (CSE), when the figures show an increase nationally.

The Deputy Director agreed that there has not been a local increase in the number of referrals to the service related to CSE and expected more research would help to explain the reasons for this. The positive impact of exploitation hub and soft intelligence form the police and other partners is helping the service to better understand the risks to children in Wolverhampton.

The Chair asked the Deputy Director to outline key future challenges to the service and plans for mitigating their impact. 

The Deputy Director highlighted the retention and recruitment of social workers in the future as a challenge and commented on work done to create opportunities for training and development to help them become more skilled and experienced and want to continue working in Wolverhampton.

The recruitment of recruiting good agencies social workers to replace social workers and the financial offer was highlighted as a challenge. The service is working with colleagues across West Midlands to look at ideas for maintaining the quality of social workers at the required level and that the workforce is strong enough to support families in the city.

A further challenge for the service is offering the right levels of support and training to social workers. There is an action plan which sets out the how the service is going to achieve this and continue to improve the services to children and families across the city.

The panel thanked the Deputy Director for the report and presentation.

Resolved:

The panel welcomed the report and the progress made towards seeking to ensure children and young people in Wolverhampton have the best possible start in life.