Council and democracy

Agenda item

Children's Social Care Performance

Minutes:

The report provided an update to the children’s social care service where considerable work had been undertaken to manage the high level of demand experienced in Thurrock. A reduction had been seen in the number of contacts and referrals through the service’s improved early intervention service and management of MASH.

 

In regards to looked after children, Thurrock was closing more cases than its comparator group but the rate of new looked after children were still higher. The service continued to monitor all new looked after children and that they were only being looked after where necessary. For missing looked after children, a reduction could be seen when compared from 2017 / 18 – 291 and 2016 / 17 – 361.

 

Housing continued to be a key challenge for young people leaving care and this was addressed with the Head Start Housing scheme. This provided support to help young care leavers to manage finances and to find suitable accommodation.

 

Through the Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) framework, Thurrock had completed their self-evaluation which had been shared with Ofsted as required. An Ofsted focused visit was expected before the end of 2018.

 

Referring to the number given in contacts and referrals, Councillor Okunade asked the reason for the reduction which could help to identify how the service was doing well. The Corporate Director believed it may have been due to the restructuring of the prevention service that could have had some impact but he was unable to confirm as there were always variations in contacts and referrals. The service’s multi-agency servicing hub (MASH) may have added to it as well. Councillor Okunade went on to query the number of unaccompanied asylum seekers to which the Corporate Director said that there was a still a flow coming in from the Tilbury Port. However, the service was in discussions with the Eastern regions to ensure the numbers coming in were spread out evenly and in line with protocols.

 

On missing children, Councillor Redsell wished to know more details on why and where children went missing. The Corporate Director offered to present a further report in a future meeting if this would help. He went on to say all missing children eventually came back although some would go missing often which tended to be the teenagers. There was concern for all missing children but more so on younger children and each case was assessed differently. Echoing Councillor Redsell, the Parent Governor Representative added that the statistics given in the report had no heart and soul, there needed to be details to give sincerity to the report.

 

Referring to MASH, the Chair queried it being described as the front door and how effective MASH was. The Corporate Director confirmed it was common usage in the sector but was happy to reconsider the term. Through peer and external reviews, MASH had proven to be working effectively but the service remained vigilant. The Corporate Director offered the Committee the opportunity to look at MASH.

 

Going through the report, the Chair sought clarification on a range of issues. He also mentioned the inconsistency of the chart diagrams and asked for more consistency on those. The Corporate Director gave assurances and confirmed that:

 

·         The threshold levels for referrals had not increased as the service had not seen data suggesting that was happening but the service remained vigilant.

·         As a Director, he would delve into a random case on a weekly basis although the service would say it was too often.

·         The level of repeat referrals would be maintained as it was a key performance area for the service.

·         To achieve the target in looked after children; the service was looking at the recruitment of in-house carers. The indicator showed the service was doing well and there was more potential in Thurrock.

·         The furthest placement for a child was currently in the North, a few 100 miles away, due to specialist concerns.

·         The service worked with the Independent Reviewing Officer Service to address the looked after children reviews percentage which was not good with its percentage being lower than 95%.

·         Appropriate decisions were made when it came to children on a child protection plan. The service was careful not to take children off too quickly as it would only result in them being re-registered and this would increase the number.

 

On care leavers, the Chair asked what needed to be done to bring the percentage up. The Officer, Michele Lucas, answered that there were a number of plans in place for care leavers which ensured their progression pathways. There was a core group of young people who dipped in and out of employment and the service looked to help them to sustain their employment. However, young people did not always communicate with the service. Ideally, the service wanted to achieve 70% for care leavers in education, training and employment as opposed to the current 61.5% and there were fantastic members of staff who were in regular contact with their young people. The Officer asked the Committee to consider helping young people in this area.

 

The Chair queried the different sets of data provided in paragraphs 3.22 and 3.23. It was difficult for the Committee to understand that data when it was inconsistent. The Officer answered that data moved when pulled at different times. The service was committed to the Head Start Housing Programme which would help to address the number of care leavers in unsuitable accommodation.

 

Councillor Redsell mentioned that children were not taught how to manage finances in school and referred to last year’s Democracy Week run by the Youth Cabinet, where young people had brought the issue up. The Chair asked if there were any examples of schools teaching children to manage finances. The Officer was unable to confirm but would speak with colleagues to find out which schools taught managing finances.

 

 

RESOLVED:

 

1.1  That the Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee noted the areas of improvement in children’s social care, work undertaken to manage demand for statutory social care services and highlight areas of further investigation for deep dive studies.

 

1.2  That the Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee noted a new inspection framework had been introduced by Ofsted for children’s social care.

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