Agenda item

[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 on the waiting list to make sure the plan is right for them.

The panel discussed the reference in the report to safeguarding children who may have witnessed domestic abuse. There was concern about the delays in the police responding to reports from schools and wanted more details about the process.

The panel also expressed concern about the risk of young people being exploited through their involvement in drugs and may already be known to the service and the extent to which current resources are available to support them at a time when social work caseloads are increasing. The panel shared examples of young people involved in drugs within their ward.

The Deputy Director commented on the work of Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH 24) which is a has a crucial role in tackling the issues highlighted. The service provides a multi-agency role with representation from the police and other

The Deputy Director highlighted the work of Power2 team in working with young people at risk of exploitation and engaged in high-risk taking behaviour.

The Deputy Director reassured the panel that the issue of exploitation is taken seriously and outlined other measures, such as a screening tool to help partners identify children at risk and there is an expectation that professionals will make referrals to MASH 24 if there are concerns.

The panel expressed concern about the reference in the report to number of children missing education whose whereabouts are not known to the service and asked for further details,

The Deputy Director commented that this issue is covered in more detail the next agenda item. The report from Ofsted made a recommendation following their review about the issue of children missing education and the report details the action plan to respond to this.

The panel discussed the issue of reporting to the police in cases of domestic violence involving children and was advised that a referral would be made to the child protection team automatically in such circumstances. The police when attending an incident involving domestic violence would send a report to the MASH 24 team.

The panel queried the reference in the report to learning from Child R case and the reference to professionals needed to be reminded when there is an injury to a non-mobile baby, that child protection procedures should be followed.

Jenny Rogers, Principal Social Worker, advised the panel that following a review there will be learning outcomes document which will lead to the publication of a multi-agency action plan.

The Principal Social Worker highlighted the need to remind social workers about good basic practice and to reflect and learn from the incidents such as the Child R case.

The panel queried the increase from the previous year about the number of children missing from home and the reference in the Ofsted report that return to home interviews were not being completed. The panel highlighted the importance of understanding the reasons for the absence but accepted that the young person may not want to engage with the service. The panel requested details of what further actions could be taken to reduce the numbers of children missing from home.

The Deputy Director commented on the changes in the number of children missing from homes during the pandemic and figures have fluctuated. The Deputy Director confirmed in response to the issue the has capacity of the missing exploitation team has increased, while accepting that some children may choose not to take up the offer, but as part of the action plan the service is thinking more creatively about how to engage with young people.

The panel wanted to formally congratulate the performance of the service and the excellent Ofsted inspection report about the work done to help and support children and young people in Wolverhampton.

The panel queried the different categories of ‘serious’, ‘significant’ and ‘at risk’ in the child exploitation figures and how the decision to made about which category a young person fits into.

The Deputy Director responded that in general the categories are based on level of risk. A decision about the level of risk would be based a multi-agency assessment which would include details about the level of intervention needed to support the young person. The level of risk to the young person would also be reviewed over time.

The panel thanked the Deputy Director for the presentation.

Resolved:

1. The panel asked for its comments on the report to be noted.

2. The panel endorsed the recommendations in the Children’s Service Self Evaluation 2022-2023 report.