Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from John Thomas.

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Children and Families declared an interest as his sister worked for the County Council on the Connecting Families Programme.

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Head of Legal and Democratic Services in writing or by e-mail indicating the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case 21 November).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/e-mail address below.

None.

(previously circulated)

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 31 August 2016 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

As part of the Council's development of the 2017/18 budget, the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Children and Families and the Director of Children, Families and Communities had been invited to discuss the budget challenges facing services in 2017/18 and how these were being addressed. All Panel Members had received a copy of the 17 November 2016 Report of Cabinet: FutureFit – Proposals for Change and Reform to Support the Medium Term Financial Plan.

The Panel received a presentation from the Head of Strategic Infrastructure Finance and Financial Recovery (copies of which were circulated to the Panel electronically after the meeting). In setting the context of Children's Services position, the main points made were:

·       The Council had existing plans to deliver c£13m of savings, with a further £6.8m of proposals for savings being finalised for 2017/8 (of which £1m related to Children's Services) and £2m raised through work with District Councils.

·       Since 2013/14, £14.6m had been invested in Children's Services of which, £11.3m was for children's social care.

·       Over the same period, there had been £18.4m of savings relating mainly to education and early help.

·       In 2015/16, there had been a budget overspend of c£5.8m.

·       £4.5m had been invested in 2016/17 and was reducing to £3m in 2017/18.

·       There were plans in place to reduce the spend on children's social care placements by £2.015m (including the £1.5m removal of investment plus an additional £1m reduction in 2017/18).

·       The Service would continue to increase the capacity of in-house units, reduce the reliance on more expensive agency placements for children by increasing the number of children living with families and in more permanent settings, reducing the time they needed to stay in the care system and looking at short break alternatives for children with disabilities.

·       The Work streams that the Service was concentrating on were:

Ø  Changing the culture

Ø  Improving the entry point into social care

Ø  Achieving permanency more quickly

Ø  High cost placements

Ø  Placement and Sufficiency Strategy

·       The main risks associated with these were:

Ø Insufficient suitable properties available

Ø More children entering care than expected

Ø Delays in moving children through the system

Ø Agencies not playing their full part in managing demand

Ø Staff recruitment and retention

During the discussion, the following points were made:

·       The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Children and Families acknowledged the priority that the Council had given Children's Services in recent years, particularly Children's Social Care.  He was grateful for the ongoing financial investment that Children's Services had received at a time when significant financial cuts were being made.

·       In response to the Chairman of the Panel inviting the Corporate Equalities and Diversity (E&D) Manager to comment on the Equality Relevance Screening, carried out in respect of the concept papers being developed for new savings proposals, the E & D Manager flagged up that further analysis would be required for the short break alternatives for children with disabilities proposal.

Although the Panel acknowledged that they had been invited to make  ...  view the full minutes text for item 260.

The Chairman welcomed Tina Russell, who had recently been appointed as Assistant Director Safeguarding Services (Children's Social Care).

At its meeting on 31 August 2016, the Panel considered the Worcestershire Children's Safeguarding Board (WSCB) Annual Report 2015-16. This report concluded that whilst improvements were being made the WSCB did not feel able to give assurance that child protection systems were sufficiently robust. In light of this, the Panel had requested an update in respect of what action was being taken to address the concerns in respect of safeguarding assurance.

It was important to note that effective and robust child protection and safeguarding practice relied on a range of interrelated activities led by the Local Authority (LA) Children's Social Work service and implemented with the support of partners who had a duty and responsibility to support the LA to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

The Service Improvement Plan addressed the concerns identified by Internal Quality Assurance processes and the Local Government Association (LGA) Peer Review 2015.  The Key developments in this area were:

·       Refreshed Thresholds Guidance had been re-launched as Levels of Need Guidance on 4 July 2016. 

·       The new Family Front Door (FFD) came into effect on 4 July 2016 and was currently subject to a three month review of Phase One.  Contact with the Children's Services FFD was now made by telephone if concerns required immediate action, or by the online Cause for Concern Notification form.

·       For professionals, there was a dedicated cause for concern professional portal to register a cause for concern form and check details of children open to Children's Social Care.

·       In line with development of the FFD, Phase One of the Locality Safeguarding Teams re-design began with a large scale review of case work to address drift and delay in plans for children. This work would inform the final organisational design.

·       There had been service development in performance information and practice standards for social workers.  Standards relating to the process and timeliness of practice were complete and there was now consistent performance management in place throughout the levels of management.

·       Work was progressing to the address the quality of practice and learning and development needs of the organisation.

In terms of Safeguarding Assurance:

·       Worcestershire's Early Help offer was subject to review to ensure services were appropriately targeted at the most vulnerable children and hard to reach families. 

·       As part of the FFD Phase One evaluation, further developments had taken place to improve information sharing, understanding and application of thresholds:

Ø   Development of the Concern Contact Form to identify concerns for the welfare of children in order that these can be identified without delay and be passed to the qualified Social Workers at the FFD for a decision on the most appropriate level of response.

Ø   Implementation of a Referral Outcome letter to professionals that identified the rationale and the determined level of need. This would give partners clear understanding of the rationale and promote a focused professional conversation using the level of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 261.