Issue - meetings

Children's Services Performance [REQUESTED NOT CONFIRMED]

Meeting: 21/06/2022 - People Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Item 62)

62 Children's Services Performance pdf icon PDF 2 MB

To consider the latest position on children’s services performance.

Decision:

RESOLVED: that the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee:

a)     Recommended that West Northamptonshire Council recognise the need to improve performance from the current position of 47% of children in care receiving an initial health assessment within 28 days of entering care.

b)     Requested that Northamptonshire Children’s Trust develop the content of future performance updates to the Committee to provide more comparative data.

Minutes:

The Chief Executive of the Northamptonshire Children’s Trust (NCT) introduced the report and invited questions from the Committee on the latest overview of children’s services performance presented to it.

 

The Chair made the following initial points:

·         The report indicated that the overall position in Northamptonshire had been steadied but what plans were being made to achieve significant changes in performance where this was necessary?  The report identified that 47% of children in care had initial health assessments within 28 days of entering care in 2021/22.  This was an area where there was scope to show more ambition, although it was recognised that this function did not just involve NCT.

·         The Committee should consider any other areas where there might be scope to make more progress in performance improvement.  This should take account of external factors, such as pressures on recruitment, as well as good work being done such as the emphasis that the Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Education was putting on increasing local provision for children with special educational needs and disability and on future corporate parenting arrangements in the authority.

 

The Chief Executive made the following points in response: 

·         Work was being done with health partners relating to the completion of health assessments for children entering care.  This was recognised as a priority area.

·         The Local Government Association was due to carry out a review of corporate parenting arrangements in Northamptonshire in January 2023, which was timed to reflect the full Ofsted inspection in autumn 2022.

 

The Committee considered the report and members raised the following matters during the course of discussion:

·         What was the latest position concerning work to manage pressures on staffing, including in relation to attracting new social workers, developing existing staff members and enabling social workers to return to work after a career break?

·         It was questioned why the overview of Collaborative Reflective Practice Discussion (CRPD) gradings included in the report appeared to show a significant number of ‘inadequate’ gradings in the area of support to remain living safely with family.

·         How was the overview of CRPD included in the report used to maintain continuous oversight of performance?

·         Contact with NCT staff reinforced that improvements were being made as well as providing feedback that staff valued communication and openness by the Chief Executive and senior managers and felt able to raise issues.

·         There needed to be a clear idea of what ‘good’ looked like in relation to children’s services in West Northamptonshire and the provision of resources to support achieving this.

·         The profile of social work needed to be raised within society as a whole.

·         The information in the report that 12.7% of children in care had three or more placements within a year in 2021/22 suggested an issue with the quality of placements.

·         Consideration should be given to the availability of drop-in provision for young parents, which played a crucial role in supporting parents and children at that stage in their lives.

·         It would be useful for future updates to the Committee  ...  view the full minutes text for item 62