Agenda item

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

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.

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 to include more comparative data to enable it to see progress over time.  The ratio of caseworkers to children, how this was changing and how it compared to the position in other authorities should also be included.

·         The percentage of children in foster placements in 2021/22 who were in in-house placements, and the percentage of children in care in residential placements, reinforced the need to make progress with the development of in-house provision.

·         The thanks received from service-users and successes set out at the end of the report had been encouraging to read.

The Chief Executive, Director of Social Care and Director of Finance and Resources responded to points raised by members during the course of discussion as follows:

·         NCT had just launched a teaching partnership with the University of Northampton that was intended to attract more trainee social workers to Northamptonshire and to support them to work in the area.  All social work students could be offered a supported year of practice through the Social Work Academy.

·         NCT was offering other childcare professionals opportunities to step up to social work.

·         The current vacancy rate for children’s social workers in Northamptonshire was 16.5%, which was better than the national average of 17%.

·         When the Chief Executive had first joined NCT he had been concerned at how far out of step the challenges it faced where with the national position.  This was no longer the case: Northamptonshire was now facing similar challenges to other local authority areas.

·         A specific recruitment process was used with social workers returning to the profession.  Further information on this could be provided if requested.

·         NCT had a net increase in social worker numbers over the previous six months.  It continued to work on the aim of reducing the number of agency staff.  Part of NCT’s approach involved the Chief Executive or directors speaking directly to applicants for social worker positions to reinforce that it offered a supportive working environment to inspire confidence in staff.

·         The overview of CRPD gradings included in the report showed a snapshot of the practice in particular cases that had been audited.  Of these, 77% were graded as ‘good’ for support to remain living safely with family: 9% that had been graded as ‘inadequate’ would be the focus of subsequent improvement work.  This level of ‘good’ practice, as well as the ability to quantify it and to maintain good oversight of overall effectiveness, reflected the improvements made in Northamptonshire in recent years.  

·         The NCT quality assurance cycle did not repeatedly revisit the same cases, although it would revisit those where concerns had been identified.  Cases where practice was graded as inadequate would result in action by managers to address specific issues.  The Quality Assurance Board maintained oversight of the overall position to ensure that Ofsted requirements were met.

·         The overview of CRPD gradings could be included in future reports produced for the Committee.

·         There would always be some children in care who would need to be in residential placements.  The percentage in Northamptonshire in 2021/22 was in-line with the national picture, although it would be beneficial to have more in-house foster carers.  Placements was an area of significant pressure as it was challenging to find placements to meet individual needs, particularly when young people came into contact with NCT at a point of crisis.  NCT was working to give young people more choice.

·         Nationally, the independent care sector was not effective and the more of a move that could be made to high quality local provision the better. 

·         NCT was required to demonstrate value for money and to work in a way that took account of the budget environment set by the two Northamptonshire authorities.  

·         NCT had no placements in Clarion Housing Group properties.

The Committee considered potential conclusions resulting from the discussion.  Committee members commented that the Committee could highlight to the Cabinet the point raised about performance on initial health assessments of children entering care.

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.