The Director of Children’s Services will submit Document “AH” which reports on the Vital Signs report requested by this Committee on 7 October 2020. The Vital Signs report is a Children’s Social Care performance report which enables leaders and members of the Improvement Board understand and interpret the key trends in children’s social care performance.

Recommended-

That  the contents of the report and the progress being made be noted.

                                                                                    (Irfan Alam – 01274 432904)

The Director of Children’s Services submitted  Document “AH” which reported on the Vital Signs report requested by this Committee on 7 October 2020. The Vital Signs report was a Children’s Social Care performance report which enabled leaders and members of the Improvement Board to understand and interpret the key trends in children’s social care performance.

Responses were given to member’s questions as follows:

·         It was difficult to give a timescale in which there would be a noticeable increase in Early Help Assessments because the process involved up skilling the whole workforce in the district including education, health, police and voluntary sector.

·         Tablets were being provided for Independent Reviewing Officers in response to the audit finding that insufficient technology was having an adverse impact on professionals’ ability to recommend the ceasing of Child Protection plans.

·         As of the previous week contacts had dropped from 900 in September to 680 and referrals leading to assessment were 230.

·         Examples of case studies could be provided at a future meeting.

·         All schools had made aware that 12 Early help Co-ordinators were now in post.

·         Video conferencing had been available since March but there had been a national shortage of IT equipment.

·         It was accepted the length of time children were on Child Protection Plans had increased and that due to lockdown there had been an understandable reluctance to step down plans however the number had started to reduce again.  A multi agency audit had found that safe decisions were being made regarding Child Protection Plans.  Average caseloads had increased and in mitigation Community Resource Workers had been introduced, there had been increased levels of supervision from Practice Supervisors with 44 Community Resource Workers and 40 Practice Supervisors being appointed.

·         It was noted that dental and health checks had reduced due to lockdown and that this was an issue with all Local Authorities and had been raised with the CCGs.  Bradford was one of the better performing authorities with 91% of dental appointments being  kept up to March 2020.  Once dentists opened Foster Carers would arrange appointments.

·         A risk assessment is undertaken to assess whether visits take place in person or digitally.  In August and September it was decided to undertake more face to face visits.  A dip sample was undertaken to audit face to face and digital visits to ensure that they were of the desired quality.

·         It was noted that there were extenuating circumstances in the cases where 2 conferences were re-arranged at the request of the family in August and that it was appropriate for the conferences to be delayed.

·         The reasons why the number of workers with caseloads over 26 had increased mainly in Keighley and Shipley  were still on going and families were being actively worked with.

·         The Strategic Director agreed to provide members of the Committee with more detail on the number of young people in custody doubling over time.

·         A further update would be provided for members on the discussions to finalise the Named and Designated doctor roles across Bradford District and Craven.

·         It was accepted that the number of agency social workers in the district was high and that that this was not sustainable, however it was recognised that agency social workers had provided stability and support for children until permanent social workers were able to be recruited and that this was an issue that would take time to address.

·         Training for mangers and senior practitioners regarding domestic abuse was being rolled out however workforce recruitment capacity was still an issue.

·         The domestic abuse audit had been started in the previous week.

·         The concerns of members regarding the high number of agency social workers was acknowledged and it was stressed that the recruitment of permanent social workers was a top priority and that an impact should be noticed at the next meeting.

Resolved –

(1)          That having considered and commented on the Improvement plan the Committee request that more detail be provided in relation to progress on targets regarding recruitment.

(2)          That a further report be presented to the Committee in December.

ACTION: Strategic Director of Children’s Services