Agenda item

The Assistant Director Safeguarding Services (Children's Social Care) had provided the Panel with performance monitoring data for children's social care for 2017/18 Q3.

In the course of the discussion the following main points were made:

·       It was agreed that for future meetings the commentary/analysis would be placed before the data tables.

·       It would be helpful to have a breakdown and analysis of where referrals were from.  Where no further action was recorded it was not clear whether this may relate to repeat referrals for the same child.

·       With reference to return interviews for children missing from home, it would be helpful to have some analysis of the impact of these interviews and, again, whether the figures related to repeat incidents involving the same child.  Members were informed that there was a great deal of data behind the figures for children missing from home.  There were 3 full time missing children officers working on improved timeliness and a better analysis of information to feed into the strategic group. Having received an explanation about the data provided to the front line staff it was agreed not to add to the data presented to members for this item.

·       In relation to Child Sexual Exploitation it was suggested that it would be helpful to have data for previous years in order to identify trends.  Members were informed that accurate data was not available for previous years and this data would be used as a baseline going forward.

·       It was confirmed that children missing from care figures related only to children in the care of Worcestershire County Council and did not include children who were the responsibility of other local authorities.

·       A question was asked about the use of young boys as drugs mules with dealers trafficking them from other areas of the country.  There were currently no statistics available on this but they would be dealt with on a case by case basis by social workers.  The aim for the future was to bring together an overarching team of experts from different disciplines to improve coordination between partners.

·       The Panel had been given data for the percentage of children who had had 3 or more placements in the previous 12 months.  However, Members felt that, where the number of placements was particularly high, it would be helpful to know the actual number of placements that some children had and the reasons why.  Members were informed that work was underway to support and train foster carers and residential placements to avoid placement breakdown.

·       The fact that the number of children spending up to 12 months in care was increasing was seen as a positive sign.  It showed that children coming into care were achieving permanency at an early stage.

·       It was confirmed that the majority of children would leave care at 18.

·       It was suggested that it would be helpful to know how many children had had multiple changes of social worker.  It was acknowledged that this was a national issue, not just in Worcestershire.

·       With reference to placement costs, the Panel requested data for previous years in order to make a comparison over time.  It was confirmed that kinship carers would be paid less than in-house foster carers.

If Members had further questions on the performance data following the meeting, they were asked to raise them with the Assistant Director Safeguarding Services (Children's Social Care).