Local democracy

Issue - meetings

OFSTED INSPECTION OF LOCAL AUTHORITY CHILDREN'S SERVICES (ILACS) AND SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND DISABILITIES (SEND) INSPECTION READINESS

Meeting: 29/01/2019 - Bradford and Airedale Wellbeing Board (Item 28)

28 OFSTED INSPECTION OF LOCAL AUTHORITY CHILDREN'S SERVICES (ILACS) AND SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND DISABILITIES (SEND) INSPECTION READINESS pdf icon PDF 278 KB

The Interim Strategic Director, Children’s Services will submit Document “I” which provides an update on the steps the Council is taking in response to OFSTED’s inspection of Bradford’s Children’s Services.

 

Recommended-

 

(1)       That the actions taken in response to OFSTED inspection findings be noted.

 

(2)       That the plans to establish the Improvement Board be noted.

 

                                                                        (Jenny Cryer – 01274 432438)

 

Additional documents:

Decision:

Resolved-

 

(1)       That the actions taken in response to OFSTED inspection findings be noted.

 

(2)       That the plans to establish the Improvement Board be noted.

 

                                                            (Jenny Cryer – 01274 432438)

 

Minutes:

The Interim Strategic Director, Children’s Services submitted Document “I” which provided an update on the steps the Council was taking in response to OFSTED’s inspection of Bradford’s Children’s Services.

 

The Board was informed that:

 

·         An Improvement Board had been set up and an Improvement Advisor appointed.

·         In the final stages of the draft Improvement Plan which would be submitted to OFSTED next week after the Improvement Board had considered it.

·         OFSTED would do a monitoring visit every 6 months.

·         The next Front Door Inspection visit would be on 6 March.

·         There was a significant demand for the service; 8% increase in Children’s Statutory Service which puts pressure on the service, it was unclear when that would level off.

·         Auditing 1700 cases for children who were Child Protection and Child in Need and undertaking corrective actions where required.

·         Putting in place an additional Head of Service for the Front Door and MASH to strengthen leadership capacity; the Interim Strategic Director, Children’s Services chaired the MASH Strategic Group.

·         Discussions taking place regarding localities and a crucial piece of work was taking place regarding that.

·         The Doncaster Peer Review noted the commitment of staff; disappointed they saw similar issues as OFSTED such as consent and threshold; looking at the structure of when a person first comes into contact with the service.

·         Positive things were taking place with the teaching partnership at the University; Teaching Partnership to put in place additional training for social workers and managers starting in January 2019.

The Police representative reported that the CSE historic team moved out of MASH but officers were still working together and fully engaged with making changes to improve the service in Bradford.

 

The Chief Executive of Bradford Council reported that Bradford had strong partnership working; grateful for the Police in making the changes; the result of the changes would take time; a new chairman of Children’s Safeguarding Board was being recruited and would like to see the Board play a more prominent role; a new Children’s Services Director was also being appointed.

 

The Bradford City, Bradford Districts and Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven Clinical Commissioning Groups representative emphasised that  each organisation appointed a representative on the Improvement Board; the Terms of Reference relating to the Membership of the Improvement Board  needed updating.   

 

A representative from Bradford University reported that it was working with the Council and its future workforce in relation to Social Workers; the university was doing everything it could to enhance their resilience and give employees a good career in Bradford; Social workers had a difficult job and needed to be provided with the support they need; a lot of work needed to be undertaken on how Social Workers were supported.

 

It was reported that there was a lot of work taking place in relation to retention; needed an update on the work of One Workforce and the Integrated Workforce Programme Board.

 

Board Members emphasised that there was a clear intention in the Mental Wellbeing Strategy to looking after the mental wellbeing of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28