Agenda item

To consider the Performance report as at 31 December 2018 for Children’s Services.

Documents:

·         Performance Report – December 2018

Discussion:

·         The presentation of the document had been revised to provide the narrative at the beginning

·         Assessments – there had been a dip in performance in November due to outstanding assessments being cleared.  Performance had increased to 94% in December.

·         The Committee were pleased to note that seven children who had had three or more placements were now settled in permanent arrangements

·         Performance for Looked After Children had improved for the third consecutive month

·         The Committee were concerned that Performance data was not up to date – January data was available but had not yet been considered by the Improvement and Assurance Board.  It would be useful if the most up to date information was provided for Committee.

·         An issue relating to staffing in one team which had affected performance was highlighted.  An Agency manager had been put in place to resolve the issue.

·         Sickness levels were much improved for permanent staff

·         The number of agency staff had increased to 43.  A restructure would be implemented in April which would address the issue.  Members asked if greater detail could be provided, for example, long or short term, persistent short term absences and comparators with other local authorities.  Members asked how managers were kept informed of sickness absence – within Adult Services, a sickness report was received from HR which provided monthly comparisons and trends.  There was a significant level of absence within domiciliary care staff.  Children’s Services Management Team also received a monthly report and greater detail has been requested.

·         The HR recording system, TRENT, was unable to discount missed supervision sessions if an employee was absent on long term sick leave which did have an impact on performance recording.  However, 95% of supervisions are on time.  Front line child care teams have the highest levels of supervision

·         The introduction of data quality clerks has also had a positive impact

·         Early help provision is key but is not yet well enough developed.  Communication across all services is essential to ensure preventative action across the Authority.  This will be demonstrable through the Children’s Services Improvement Plan.

·         Long term trends were important to recognise.  Whilst it could be expected that there would be an increase in the numbers of looked after children following a critical inspection, the quality of intervention must be measured to develop longer term indicators.

·         There remained a significant number of children referred to assessment teams but this had fallen from 70% to 58%.  All children subject to Care Orders have been reviewed.

·         A high number of staff left in December – this could be due to the Christmas break

·         The Head of Service was asked if feedback was provided to an Agency regarding the quality of work – this does happen but there is room for improvement

·         It had been reported that there were 14 children without care plans – care plans had been completed and were being worked to, but they had not been signed off

·         Stabilizing the workforce was key

·         Early help hubs were in place

·         The February performance report will be improved – work has been ongoing with Business Intelligence Unit to understand how business processes fit in with the new staffing structure

·         There is a proposal to merge some Panels to enable health and education to work more closely towards early intervention.  A ‘think family’ approach is to be adopted.

·         Members were reminded that all concerns must be directed through PPD in the first instance

·         The Committee asked for feedback from the most recent CIW Monitoring visit.  Safeguarding had been subject to a thorough review the outcome of which had been positive.  There was room for further improvement but the Head of Service was pleased to report that no issue had been identified by CIW which had not already been noted by officers.  The next monitoring visit will be in three months but officers do not yet know what the theme of that visit will be.

Outcome:

·         The Chair summed up and suggested the following issues raised during the meeting should be subject to ongoing or further scrutiny at either the Committee or Social Care Working Group:

o   CS Improvement Action Plan

o   Early Intervention

o   Cross team partnerships

o   Independent Reviewing Officers

o   Agency workers – finance and risk, benefits and opportunities

o   Think Family

o   Visits to Teams