Minutes:
Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Schools presented a verbal update on progress with the implementation of the Children’s Integrated Services Improvement Plan. She highlighted the following information:
a) 34 actions for improvements are complete;
b) the social work capacity has increased through new internal recruitment and agency workers. A new triage system has been introduced to process the number of referrals made to the service;
c) the Children’s Integrated Services consent training has been undertaken across the Council;
d) bed capacity has increased to support homeless children and a new advocacy contract being agreed for April;
e) the Missing Children’s Team has created new posts, including a Missing Children’s Team Manager and two more Children’s Workers;
f) the care service has recently appointed new senior advisors;
g) the Commissioning Team and D2N2 are working to increase the number of foster homes;
h) the Council has received the letter following Ofsted’s first monitoring visit to check for factual inaccuracies. The findings are embargoed until the first week of April. Initial indications show that the visit’s findings are favourable;
In response to questions from the Committee and during subsequent discussion the following points were made.
i) there were 10 posts created and recruited to with the Multi-Agency Safeguard Hub (MASH). Some of the posts are currently filled by agency workers to ensure sufficient resourcing within the Team. There are challenges in retaining social workers as there is a high turnover rate within the sector. The Council has links with universities in the area and use them to promote the Council’s social worker recruitment through graduate job fairs;
j) care leavers have access to support when they transition into adults around the 21-25 age bracket;
k) the Council also offers a social worker apprenticeship programme. Under this programme, an individual does their three year degree and is also employed by the Council to be trained as a social worker. These programmes have been taken up by the Children’s Integrated Services and Adult Social Care Services;
l) a Committee member suggested that case studies from care leavers about how they have engaged with the service would be very beneficial in identifying opportunities for improving the service;
m) the first monitoring visit following the Inspection took place between 28 February and 1 March 2023. The inspectors met with the Corporate Director for People (Children and Adults) and the Director for Children’s Integrated Services on 27 February and also spoke with social work practitioners. They also spoke to children and young people using the service, as well as their families;
n) a 28 day embargo for Ofsted reports is standard practice. A letter containing the initial findings is sent to the organisation or service being inspected. That organisation or service then has 5 days to respond to any inaccuracies within the report/letter. Any agreed changes are then made by Ofsted and then the final report/ letter is sent and put under the 28 day embargo;
o) the letter detailing outcomes from the first monitoring visit will not be published by Ofsted, but letters from second and subsequent monitoring visits are published.
Resolved to request that the letter from the recent Ofsted Monitoring Visit is provided to Committee members as soon as it is available.