Agenda item

[To receive and comment on the quarter three performance]

Gareth Payne, Policy Officer presented the quarter three corporate performance report for 2014/15.

Cllr Val Gibson reported on the Looked After Children performance measure and informed the Panel that the numbers had remained stable over the last few weeks at around 788.  She reported that there was still more work to do in order to reduce the number of looked after children. Referring to the performance measure ‘average time between a child entering care and moving in with an adoptive family, for children who are adopted (days)’, she acknowledged that the indicator was off target but that this had to be looked at in the context of the Adoption Service trying to find adoptive placements for more harder to place children such as older children or siblings.  This had the effect of skewing the performance figures.

Cllr Roger Lawrence added that where a foster carer adopts a child who had been with them a number of years, for example eight years, this would count as it has taken eight years to place the child for adoption, which and  also had the effect of skewing the performance figures.  Cllr Val Gibson agreed with the point adding that it was a position that the Council was happy with in terms of the outcome for the child.

Cllr Elias Mattu commented that it takes a long time to place children aged under five.  Cllr Val Gibson agreed that the length of time could be long and she briefly outlined some of the factors that can impact on the time it takes from changes in a child’s care plan to delays in the court process. 

In response to the Panel’s request at its last meeting, Ros Jervis, Service Director, Wellbeing gave a brief PowerPoint presentation on the Public Health corporate indicators for 2014/15 and Wolverhampton’s performance against the England average.   The presentation also covered health inequalities; the top ten causes of death in Wolverhampton during the period 2008 to 2012 and the 2015/16 corporate priorities for health  of  infant mortality; smoking; obesity; and alcohol.

Cllr Sandra Samuels informed the Panel that the data on life expectancy over the last four years only showed a slight improvement over that period.

Cllr John Reynolds commented that Council needed to get the message out about the action it and its partners were are taking to tackle the issues highlighted in the presentation.

Cllr Elias Mattu added that more need to be done to promote sports in schools. He commented that there were not enough school clubs for children to participate in sports and that the charges to use facilities were too expensive.  He suggested that these areas needed to be explored.  The Service Director, Wellbeing acknowledged the point made and reported that Public Health was working on its relationship with schools.

Referring to the rate of infant mortality in the city, Cllr Roger Lawrence commented that there where discrepancies across the city that could not just be put down to geographical issues.  He requested more detail on the other factors, outside of the geographical consideration. in order to understand what was behind the figures.  The Service Director, Wellbeing advised that an Infant Mortality Plan would be submitted to the Health and Well Being Board containing that type of information requested.

Resolved:

1. That the report be received and noted.

2.    That a report be submitted to a future meeting on the detail behind the headline infant mortality figures.