Agenda and minutes

Helen Blackman, Director of Children’s Social Care, briefly updated the Board on the work undertaken to keep children in care safe.

There has been a lot of local concern regarding historic safeguarding issues of children in care from 60 years ago up to more recent times. Work is ongoing with the Police on these issues and to ensure the safety and well-being of today’s young people.

PC Sam Flint, Children in Care Police Officer and Lisa Hurst, Referral Officer of the Sexual Exploitation Unit, delivered a brief presentation outlining the partnership working to prevent young people becoming the subject of sexual exploitation and share information on how and where such threats arise. The following points were highlighted:

a)  agencies including City Council, have come together with the Police to form  the Child Sexual Exploitation Cross Authority Group (CSECAG) and agreed that where information emerges, it is fed into the group network. High level information is recorded on a ‘child sexual exploitation form’. However, information on all levels is considered potentially valuable, recorded and considered at both local and regional levels to help identify common patterns which can, or have, escalated to a level of risk. Information collated includes locations, vehicles, phone numbers, people, and concerning behaviour to try and identify common threads of sexual exploitation risks;

b)  once sexual exploitation risks are identified, all agencies work together to plan disruption techniques, gather further information and ensure a robust response;

c)  CSECAG meet bimonthly to share information. To date 32 risk concerns have been raised and 3 agencies have expressed concern on one individual which better enables assertive action to be taken. Since the formation of the group, fewer sexual exploitation referrals have been made due to the improved information which helps prevention;

d)  Where ever people of concern are identified their details are shared with Social Care. Places of interest appear as warning markers on the Police National Computer and Intelligence Plans. To date, 90 child abduction warning notices have been issued to prevent individuals from making contact with specific children;

e)  generally society is now more aware of the risk of childhood sexual exploitation but additional training is being provided to community protection officers who are also able to feed into the concern network;

f)  information gathered is shared with other Police Forces, but also the setup and structure of the networking model which primarily operates within the City is shared with other Authorities for them to adapt for their own use;

g)  PC Sam Flint has a good relationship with young people, children in care and care staff who are willing to share information and raise an alert were concerns arise. Teaching young people to listen to their instinct is invaluable as often if something does not feel right, it probably is not right, and it is okay to question it;

h)  where someone who is a potential risk is released into the community, information such as names, descriptions, nicknames and vehicles etc is shared with children’s home staff. Similarly, children in homes often talk to each other and staff so such information is shared with the police;

i)  partners agencies and community groups are coming together for an event to be held on 12 December 2014 to share information and ensure robust processes are in place to safeguard some of our most vulnerable young people;

j)  a theatre production ‘Luv u 2” has helped heighten awareness of child sexual exploitation among school pupils. A colleague/partner performance is to be held on 11 December 2014 and interested parties should contact Helen Blackman or PC Sam Flint for further information.

It is noted that the more detailed agenda item on the subject will be submitted to the January meeting of the committee.

Councillors welcomed the update and the refreshed approach to child sexual exportation safeguarding, but asked the phrasing of ‘low level intelligence’ is reconsidered to ensure that it’s potential importance is recognised.

Malcolm Wilson, Virtual School Head Teacher and Advisor for the Achievement of Vulnerable Groups, presented the report and highlighted the following points:

(a)  only a small number of young people are involved in Key Stage 4 exams so individual results can impact significantly on percentage statistics;

(b)  often there is a higher proportion of special educational needs for CiC pupils compared to other City school pupils. This can be related to behavioural, emotional and social difficulties although a significant proportion also have physical disabilities, overall resulting in lower educational attainment for CiC pupils;

(c)  there are currently approximately 350 CiC of statutory school age in Nottingham. The Virtual School aims to help and support these young people in raising their educational attainment;

(d)  46% of CiC pupils are educated within the City, 32% are educated in Nottinghamshire, and 22% are educated by other Local Authorities;

(e)  CiC often experience a significant number of school placement changes. Although efforts are made to prevent such changes, they  will inevitably impact on attainment, particularly during Key Stage 4;

(f)  during 2014 there has been an 18% improvement in level 4 or higher achievements compared to 2013:

(g)  45 CiC were eligible to sit Key Stage 4 (GCSE) exams during 2014 but results cannot be compared to previous years due to substantial changes made to the examination process:

(h)  the fixed term exclusion rate of CiC is similar to national rates and lower than statistical neighbours;

(i)  absence rates continue to be a concern, particularly regarding pupils in Years 10 and 11 although compared to National CiC absences, Nottingham’s CiC school absences are lower and continue to reduce.

(j)  significant changes are taking place to help accelerate the educational attainment of CiC. These include:

(i)  letterbox resources providing mathematical literacy equipment for CiC in Years 1, 3, 5 and 7;

(ii)  2 new Education Support Officers for the Virtual School;

(iii)  a strong Governing Body for the Virtual School, including  Councillor Mellen as a member;

(iv)  closer scrutiny of the Pupil Premium Plus Funding;

(v)  further support and advice for Designated Teachers, School Governors, New Social Workers and Foster Carers;

Malcolm Wilson responded to the Board’s questions as follows:

(k)  it is not fair to compare attainment of CiC against pupils in City schools as their circumstances are very different and many children in care will have experienced significant disruption which impacts negatively on their education. Ideally Virtual School statistics of other similar authorities would be used as a better comparison but are not available until January 2015;

(l)  it is important that Foster Carers understand the benefits of pupil premium;

(m)  the Virtual School has an important role where CiC and/or foster carers do not have a good relationship with the mainstream school.

Members expressed concern that where CiC are absent from school for health reasons, including attending Child and Adult Mental Health Services sessions, this is not recognised as an authorised absence and therefore skews the CiC the attendance figures.

In addition, it was noted that some Foster Carers had experienced mainstream teachers in secondary schools showing a lack of understanding towards CiC and their particular circumstances. This is an area where the Education Team need to work closely with schools to inform and support teachers.

RESOLVED

(1)  to note:

(i)  the recent trends and current levels of educational attainment for Nottingham City’s Children in Care (CiC);

(ii)  the proposed interventions to improve attainment and secure a narrowing of the gap between the performance of CiC and that of other pupils in City schools and between our statistical neighbours;

(2)  for the Head of the Virtual School to provide members of the Board with:

(i)  a detailed breakdown of how the £500 Pupil Premium is spent and how value for money is ensured for the young people to whom it is allocated;

(ii)  a summary briefing note comparing Nottingham City’s CiC attainment levels with those of other similar authorities once the statistics are available.

Kay Sutt, Service Manager for Residential and Targeted Support, presented the item which updates the Board on the outcome of the OFSTED inspection of internal residential homes.

There are 7 internal residential children’s homes in Nottingham which are registered with OFSTED and all are subject to unannounced inspections twice a year.

While the Local Authority aims to provide homes which are judged as good or outstanding, the latest inspections produced the following results:

1 home is judged as Outstanding;

2 homes are judged as Good With Outstanding Features;

2 homes are judged as Good;

2 homes are judged as Adequate.

Small points, including wedging open of a fire door at the request of the children during hot weather, may result in a lower judgement. This specific issue has now been addressed and fire guards automatically close when fire alarms sound.

Another reason has been that the OFSTED inspectors did not believe that there had been appropriate consideration to the mix of placements in a home, for example placing two young people with self harm issues at the same home as this may compound their individual problems. This has now been addressed in more in-depth consideration will be given to future placements.

All other issues identified by OFSTED have now been addressed and will be monitored.

Members expressed concern that some homes were reluctant to take young people with behavioural issues as this could impact on their OFSTED assessment result. It is frustrating that a home may be considered good to outstanding except for safeguarding issues where a young person may have high risk-taking behaviours.

Members are assured that, especially in light of historic issues, clearly recorded information about children will be retained for 75 years and be made available for the child to access their files either now or in the future and that a strict protocol is in place.

RESOLVED to note:

(i)  the ambition for all children’s residential homes is to achieve ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ OFSTED judgements by continuing to strive for excellence and ensuring that the national minimum standards are met and exceeded and this the results and reports ensuring homes are managed by a highly skilled qualified and experienced management team and staff team;

(ii)  that the results of OFSTED reports are analysed and monitored by the Service Manager and the Registered Managers to identify trends and patterns which enable performance improvement and sharing of good practice.

Elise Ashworth, insight manager for early intervention presented the revised format report, detailing the performance to date against performance indicators, accompanied by service commentary.

Board members welcomed the revised format.

It is noted that there are currently 597 of Nottingham’s children in care.

RESOLVED to note the performance to date.