Agenda item

For Members to consider the Q2 Performance Report

Members were advised that this item would allow them to undertake a review of Quarter 2 Performance for Children’s Services.

The Chair welcomed Councillor Ash Lister (Cabinet Member for Social Services, Children’s) and Deborah Driffield, (Director of Children’s Services) 

Councillor Lister was invited to make a statement in which he highlighted areas of challenge and improvement.  Members were advised there continued to be challenges around wellbeing assessments, Section 47 assessments and core groups being convened on time.  He reassured Members that conversations were ongoing regarding performance management from an operational line management level to front line social workers and reviewing the way the service was supporting social workers to carry out their role in terms of core groups.   He stressed the amount of responsibility that was placed solely on social workers including business arrangements such as minuting and processing meetings. The focus was now on improving performance and progressing the workforce strategy.

Members were pleased to hear that the service was in a more stable position regarding the workforce and that the focus was on improving performance for some of the key performance indicators.  Clearer targets and expectations were now in place for individual workers and teams and it was anticipated continued improvements would occur.

Members were invited to ask questions and make comments; the discussion is summarised as follows:

• Members noted that kinship care had increased dramatically and asked for clarification on how the decision was made on whether a child was placed with their family or fostered.  Officers responded that robust processes had been put in place for assessing families and friends and ensuring systems were in place for identifying who children were living with either by family networking or family conferencing. The aim was that, following the outcome of parenting assessments, if a child was not deemed to be safely placed with their parents the Authority would already have details of the kinship. A more robust process had been established for kinship and fostering.  Kinship had been moved alongside fostering to ensure there was the same access to financial and 24-7 support.

• Members referred to the detail in the report on the steps taken to improve the amount of accommodation available and asked if there was a connection between the challenges in that area and the Welsh Government policy of removing profit from care and if there was any financial contribution to capital costs of purchasing properties or if the funding was obtained entirely from the Children’s Services budget. Officers responded that there was a contribution from the Welsh Government. There was a link to the Eliminate Profit agenda which arose from an in-depth review carried out by scrutiny to have a plan in place to build more children’s homes run by the local authority and to be placed in Cardiff. The aim was to have good quality homes for children in the local area accompanied by good quality links with Education and Health colleagues. The need to build expertise around more commercial skills and liaising with the small not for profit providers was acknowledged along with the need for more capital funding and more access to revenue funding.  There was a need to start scoping to see how much the plan would cost if all the children were back living in the local authority children’s homes and to assess what the funding gap would be.

• Members referred to the continued pressures facing the service and if some insight could be provided on the way forward – whether it was a question of capacity (which hopefully had been eased with the reduction in the number of vacancies of permanent staff), the form of management, sharing good practice or a combination of all of those.   Officers responded that it was a combination of all of the above.  The reduction in the vacancy rate and more permanent workforce would result in improvements but improving performance management was crucial to ensure that targets were being met and children were kept as safe as possible. All management posts in Children’s Services were now filled by permanent staff which made a difference in terms of being able to hold risk supporting staff and working more closely with families. Opportunities were being made available to social workers and social work assistants to develop and share best practice and practice matters was undertaken throughout the year.  A Practice Leads Team and Academy had been established and over and above their line management arrangements there were a number of staff who were able to undertake joint visits.  There was also an emphasis on partnership working and understanding what other partners could contribute and holding them to account in terms of their duties and powers.  It was also noted that although there was ongoing demand at the Front Door of Children’s Services there was an increase in the ability to manage demand. Although there had been increasing numbers of children becoming looked after the actual numbers of children in regulated placements had only increased by 9 over the last three years. The majority of children were looked after by their parents or families, but parental responsibility was shared by the Authority meaning officers could intervene and make decisions.

• Members referred to the fact that there the report mentioned there were 23 care leavers without a personal advisor and asked how the service was addressing that. Members were advised that young people now had direct access to all routes.  Officers responded that the Personal Advisor Service had moved into Adult Services due to the better fit with the Into Work Service. Members were advised that young people now had direct access to all routes.  Officers were aware there had been some issues in allocating personal advisors but this was being addressed and there was confidence that the figure would improve. 
• Members noted the proportion of care leavers who were not in education, employment or training in the second year after leaving care and asked officers how more could be done to support them as they moved into the adult world.  Officers responded that this had become a priority on the Corporate Parenting agenda and the Children and Young People Board.  Officers were looking at what was on offer across the Council for care experience young people and who was providing those services and if not, why not. It was hoped to understand the figures in order to meet the individual young person’s needs, what their aspirations were and how the service could deliver those needs.

• Members were pleased to hear there had been an improvement in completion of Section 47 and Wellbeing Assessments, and the decrease in the number of young people on the Child Protection Register. Officers referred to factors such as having a stable management team in place, practice leads and the academy in place to support social workers to hold risk, reviewing hubs and safeguarding chairs reviewing cases on a regular basis.

• Members referred to the staff sickness table on page 12 of the report and asked if there was a reason for it being so high and the strategy for improving it.  Officers responded that the sickness levels had been improving and as a result the performance target days for sickness had been reduced. Since the target had been lowered the levels of sickness were slightly over it.  There were now more children’s hubs in operation so it was expected that the levels of sickness would increase.  It was noted that stress was a factor in social work and therefore a considerable amount of work was being carried out around wellbeing and support.  Additionally, caseloads were being managed to ensure they were not too high for individual social workers.

RESOLVED: That the Chairperson writes to the Cabinet Member on behalf of the Committee expressing their comments and observations captured during the way forward.