Agenda item

Presentation from Linda Joyce.

Linda Joyce gave a presentation on the Independent Reviewing Officer’s (IRO’s) Annual Report for 2019-20. The IRO has a statutory responsibility to ensure that the local authority gives due consideration to any views expressed by a looked after child and to monitor the local authority’s performance of its functions in relation to each child’s case.

Linda led the meeting through the main elements of the report drawing attention to key points including:

·         The IRO had continued to provide a high-quality service during lockdown with an improving trend in the timeliness of looked after review meetings being held, that being 99% for March 2020.

·         The importance of children not only attending but actively participating in their review meetings to ensure their views were captured. Various technologies had been made use of recently during lockdown to assist this process. Some meetings had also taken place in gardens, with appropriate safeguards, where it was felt appropriate.

·         The average attendance at review meetings was 6% lower than the previous year. Linda reported that most children attended, and some liked to lead with meeting, whilst other children just refused to attend. She advised that it was always explained to them that the meeting would still take place and that the minutes would be shared with them later. Work was ongoing to seek to identify ways in which greater participation could be encouraged.

·         Quarterly targeted audits were carried out to review the work of the IRO, with 199 mid-way audits being completed during the year. These were an important check to ensure that Care plans were being enacted and actions being completed. Feedback from families was very positive and this was shared with all relevant professionals. A targeted feedback exercise was also carried out with young people, to which 30 returns were received.

·         The importance of the dispute resolution process if an IRO has a quality assurance issue was highlighted. Linda advised that there had been an overall decrease in DRP’s being issued during the year and more use of the informal DRP, which sought to resolve matters at an early stage. A key focus for the coming year was to ensure DRP responses were completed consistently within the required timescales.

·         Good feedback from Ofsted had been received, with positive comments including the chairing of the review meetings and the way in which records of meetings were child friendly helping them to understand decisions that affected their lives. The Team were continually reflecting on how to make further improvements.

·         7 next steps were listed for the IRO service which would be the focus going forward.

A Board Member praised a very positive report but also highlighted a concern that the feedback from children had shown that 20% of them did not feel that what had been agreed at their last review meeting was actually done. Linda confirmed that this was a concern which they were following up and seeking to ensure that follow up systems were tightened. Another Board member highlighted that it would be helpful to gain a wider sample of feedback to establish a clearer view. Linda confirmed that they were working on ways to improve the return of feedback forms. The Chairman asked that feedback on the progress of this matter be provided to the Board in due course.

Tina Russell offered some further insight, in that some recommendations inevitably took longer to implement than others with a legitimate reason for this. The timescales for action needed to be understood. In terms of attendance she also highlighted that when children were happy and stable, they didn’t necessarily want to attend a review meeting, but it was still important that their views were captured.

The Chairman thanked the IRO for a thorough report.