Agenda item

[To consider the annual report for the Safeguarding Service which outlines the activity of the service, the impact for children and recommendations for service improvement that will enhance young peoples experiences]

Mandy Lee, Children’s Safeguarding Manager, presented the Safeguarding Service Annual Report for 2013/14. She explained that the Safeguarding Service had statutory responsibility for oversight and ratification of the care plans for Looked After Children (LAC) via the activities of the Independent Reviewing Officers (IRO’s). The service was duty bound to provide this Board with an Annual Report which outlined the activity of the service, the impact for children and recommendations for service improvement which would enhance young people’s experiences. She drew particular attention to the good performance of LAC participating in reviews but commented that the overall performance of the service was affected by the high number of children in the care system. This in turn had not allowed the service to fulfil all of its functions as outlined in the IRO handbook.

Cllr Dr Michael Hardacre enquired as to whether the “Agresso” system would provide “real time information” which would overcome the difficulties the Board experienced by receiving an Annual Report almost twelve months out of date. The Service Director, Children and Young People, reported that while the “Agresso” system would assist, other factors had led to the delay in this report being presented and that, in any event, it was the “Care First” system which provided the “real time” information which was used to populate the Performance Monitoring Report which was considered at each meeting.

Cllr Paula Brookfield referred Sections 3 and 4 of the Annual Report insofar as they related to quantitative and qualitative information about the service and asked if further such information could be included within the regular Performance Monitoring Reports. The Children’s Safeguarding Manager advised that she was working closely with the Business Intelligence Team to achieve that aim.

Cllr Martin Waite referred to anecdotal evidence of the national shortage of Social Workers and enquired whether the high level of caseloads was a concern. The Service Director, Children and Young People advised that the workload of IRO’s included attendance at Child Protection case conferences in addition to duties on safeguarding and that the high caseload level was a matter of concern. She reported on the initiatives taken to recruit additional Social Workers. Cllr Rita Potter reminded the Board that since March 2012 the number of children in care had increased significantly and enquired with the progress on the campaign to recruit Specialist Foster Carers’. Alison Hinds, Head of Looked After Children reported that recruitment to these posts had commenced but reminded the Board that even when fostered the children remained in the care of the local authority.

Cllr Dr Michael Hardacre commented that he understood that the LAC population had stabilised or even dropped slightly and enquired whether this would enable the Safeguarding Service to get closer to fulfilling the functions outlined in the IRO handbook. The Children’s Safeguarding Manager confirmed that this would assist but that the caseload was substantially above that recommended nationally and was also affected by the increase in the number of child protection cases. Cllr Dr Michael Hardacre queried whether there was a danger of the local authority not fulfilling its statutory responsibilities. The Service Director, Children and Young People reported that this was not the position.

Cllr Dr Michael Hardacre referred to Section 4.10 of the report insofar as it referred to children participating in reviews and reminded the Board of the views expressed previously by the Children in Care Council (CCC) that it was preferable if reviews were not conducted during school time. The Service Director, Children and Young People advised that reviews were not normally conducted during school time and that the comments made by CCC had related to Personal Education Plans (PEP’s). The matter of PEP’s being undertaken in school time was being addressed by Darren Martindale, COPE Team Manager/Virtual School Head.

Cllr Dr Michael Hardacre questioned whether the data provided by the Business Intelligence Team was provided in a sufficient timely manner. The Service Director, Children and Young People advised that the information and manner of presentation of the Performance Monitoring Report had improved considerably and that further work was on-going to improve the contents further. The Chair, Cllr Val Gibson, reminded the Group that many advancements had been made in both the content and style of presentation of the Performance Monitoring report but that this had often resulted in requests for more and/or additional information.

Cllr Dr Michael Hardacre referred to Section 8.1 of the report and “some issues arising with the return of timely responses on Red and Amber RAG’s by the social work managers and high turnover of staff in that area had lead to some confusion about the expectations” and enquired whether this position had improved. The Children’s Safeguarding Manager advised that there had been some difficulties encountered due to the high turnover of staff but that a review of the system was now being undertaken. The Service Director, Children and Young People explained that under the current system the system required a formal response to each RAG rating and whilst Red ratings were followed up those ratings with Amber and Green status were not always pursued. In any event the RAG rating system was quantitative rather than qualitative and did not have regard to quality of care.

Cllr Dr Michael Hardacre referred to Section 9.1 of the report and enquired as to whether the Council was yet in a position to comply fully with the IRO handbook. The Children’s Safeguarding Manager confirmed that this was not the case due to the continuing high caseloads albeit that the majority of the contents were now being followed. Cllr Dr Hardacre enquired as to the implications for the Council at an Ofsted inspection of non–compliance. The Service Director, Children and Young People, advised that the position with regard to caseloads was likely to be noted only by Ofsted given that the Council was not in a failing position.

Cllr Martin Waite enquired as to the reporting line for the Head of Safeguarding. The Service Director, Children and Young People, advised that the Head of Safeguarding reported to Ros Jervis, Service Director for Public Health and Wellbeing: the division of responsibilities being intentional to retain independence between the two areas of responsibility. Cllr Paula Brookfield questioned as to which Service Director held responsibility for setting priorities. The Service Director, Children and Young People advised that priorities were determined jointly by her and the Service Director, Public Health and Wellbeing.

Cllr Paula Brookfield commented on the absence of any information and/or reference to any reference to Children Sexually Exploited (CSE). The Service Director, Children and Young People reported that this particular topic was much wider than LAC, that considerable work was being undertaken on the issue and that the Council’s model had been adopted by the Home Office as an exemplar and that further work was proposed in respect of LAC who were missing from home or care.

Resolved:

1. That the Annual Report of the Safeguarding Service 2013/14 be received and noted;

2. That the thanks of the Board be conveyed to the Safeguarding Service for the work undertaken and for the Annual Report;

3. That details pertaining to LAC potentially at risk of CSE be submitted to a future meeting.