Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Ms S A Webb.

None.

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 Monday 23 October 2017).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/e-mail address below.

None.

(previously circulated)

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 13 September 2017 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for Children and Families, Director of Children, Families and Communities and the Assistant Director Safeguarding Services (Children's Social Care) were in attendance for the discussion on the Children's Social Care Service Improvement Plan (SIP).

The Panel received a presentation from the Assistant Director Safeguarding Services (Children's Social Care) which covered:

·       The sequence of events since the Ofsted Inspection in October 2016 (and subsequent 'Inadequate' judgement of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers; and review of the effectiveness of the Local Safeguarding Children Board' in January 2017) to the present

·       An update on the second monitoring visit from Ofsted on 12 and 13 September 2017 which focused on the Family Front Door (FFD)

·       Key considerations moving forward.

Following the presentation, the Panel questioned and discussed the following areas:

·       Why there had been a long timescale between agreeing the eight point SIP and being advised by Ofsted that it was too broad and needed to focus on a smaller set of key priorities.  The Panel were advised that Ofsted thought that the eight point SIP was a comprehensive Plan of what services should look like but in May 2017, after the first monitoring visit Ofsted advised that that they weren't seeing tangible outcomes and so it would be advisable to pick some key issues to focus on.  In response, the Member questioning on this area suggested that it would have been helpful if Ofsted could have advised that Plan was too broad earlier on in the process when they first had sight of it and the work to improve services could have had a more detailed focus earlier on

·       The focus of the priority plan was:

Ø  FFD

Ø  Early Help

Ø  Culture

Ø  Quality Assurance

·       The Directorate were pleased that Ofsted had acknowledged in the feedback from the second monitoring visit that the Director of Children’s Services and her Senior Team knew where services needed to be better and had the backing of the Chief Executive, wider Council and Political Leaders to tackle the challenges

·       In response to the question about what % of the Children's Social Care staff were agency staff, the Panel were advised that 36% of staff were agency staff, which was still too high and that two of the localities had a better vacancy rate than the others.  The point was also made that some agency staff were excellent and bought stability to the work force

·       The role of the recently appointed Principal Social Worker was having a positive impact on the Service as he had worked in Worcestershire for a while and was a good experienced practitioner in a dedicated full time role meeting with staff and working on complaints

·       Ofsted in their feedback had advised that the electronic performance systems to support managers at the FFD were still not fit for purpose. Although the developments required were in the work plan they needed to progress at pace. When questioned as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 294.