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)

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 staff was crucial.

It was reported that One Workforce was considered at the Health and Wellbeing development session, a project Manager had been recruited and the next step was to get the framework agreed.

Areas of High risk which needed to be urgently addressed included:

·         Education Health and Care Plan Compliance Rates and Quality. Compliance rates within the statutory 20 week assessment period were low. In 2017 they were reported as 12% compare to a national average of 64.9% and Yorkshire and Humberside average of 61.2%.  Current performance was at 22%.

·         SEND Identification, Assessment and Review processes

·         Data Accuracy and Recording including interfaces to Social Care and Health

·         Outcomes for Children and Young people with SEND did not fully meet their needs

·         Joint Commissioning arrangements were not established or in place

·         SEND Placements and Provision

·         Quality and consistency of Health advice into EHCP Process

·         Collective agreement that the pathway on ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) identification and assessment was currently a key risk : 2 years plus waiting list, which is non compliant with NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) timescales

·         Waiting lists for access to specialist services e.g. SALT (Speech and Language Therapy)

·         Access to CAMHS (Child Adolescent Mental Health Services)

The Board agreed to have a development session on SEND.

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.