Agenda item

Further to Minute No. 39 of 24th November, 2015, Sue Wilson, Performance and Planning, presented a report detailing recent and current external audits and inspections including the details of arrangements that were in place regarding the accountability and governance for implementing any recommendations that arose.

The following update was given:-

Adult Social Care

-          Treefields Close (Learning Disability Respite Service) – overall rating of Good awarded following an unannounced inspection on 14^th and 15^th July, 2015.  There was one required improvement action in relation to “is the service well-led”.  It was found that the service was well led, however, there had been no registered manager in post for several months despite it being a condition of the Home’s registration.  The registration process of the new manager had commenced and the current acting manager would be interviewed by CQC to enable sign off

-          Quarry Hill Road (Learning Disability Respite Service) – inspected on 11^th and 20^th August, 2015 and awarded an overall rating of Good with one area “is the service caring” rated as outstanding.  The service was now jointly managed with Treefields and formal sign off that the manager had been registered was awaited from CQC pending the interview scheduled for April

-          Netherfield Court (intermediate care provider) – an overall rating of good following the unannounced inspection on 7^th and 8^th October, 2015.  There was one requires improvement action in relation to “is the service effective”.  It was found that the service was effective although improvements could be made in the way consent was obtained and recorded

-          Park Hill (Learning Disability Residential Care Provider) – inspected by the CQC on 10^th and 13^th November, 2015, and was awarded an overall rating of Good.  The CQC made no action or enforcement action requirements of the service

-          Overall Adult Services had a satisfactory compliance record with standards subject to inspection.  Work had commenced to review current inspection governance arrangements including the stronger practices now implemented in CYPS to further strengthen its arrangements for preparing for inspections and responding to their outcomes

Children and Young People’s Improvement Plan

-          Following recommendations from the CYPS Improvement Board in March, 2016, and an intense period of change and improvement within Children’s Services, the Plan was currently under review 

·           Provide a refocus on the priority actions to ensure they map against all key Ofsted judgements, recommendations, findings and have realistic RAG ratings

·           Refreshed plan would build on the actions completed to clearly identify and evidence the impact and differences the changes had made to the lives and experiences of the children, young people and families

·           The twenty-six Ofsted inspection recommendations would remain in place and “open” until such time as it was determined that Rotherham had come out of intervention

·           To put in to place a sustainable approach enabling CYPS to meet aspirational objectives and provide a continuous improvement cycle to enable movement to become a child centred Borough with outstanding services

·           Refreshed plan would be live ready for the next Improvement Board in May, 2016 

Ofsted Improvement Visits

-          There had been five visits as part of their improvement offer looking at the MASH, Duty and Assessment, Child in Need, Child Protection, Leadership, Management and Governance, CSE and Missing Children

-          A further Ofsted improvement visits was planned for April focussing on Early Help

-          There would also be two regional Sector Led Peer Reviews looking at Leadership Management and Governance in June 2016 and Looked After Children and Care Leavers in September, 2016

-          Feedback received had been encouraging in respect of improvements in Duty and Assessment, effective responses on CASE with a continued child centred approach to CSE and a robust MASH where the quality of decision making and signposting continued to improve

-          Feedback also identified key learning points which included the voice of the child needed to be influential at all levels in Children’s Services

Rotherham’s Residential Children’s Units

-          Cherry Tree was judged as Requires Improvement in 2015.  At the interim inspection on 23^rd March, 2016, the Home received a judgement of sustained effectiveness

-          Liberty House was judged as Good on 27^th January, 2016.  At the interim inspection on 17^th March, 2016, the Home received a judgement of sustained effectiveness

-          Silverwood was judged as Good on 30^th June.  At the interim inspection on 29^th February, 2016, the Home received a judgement of declined effectiveness

-          Woodview was judged as Inadequate in 2015.  The Home closed in October, 2015

-          St. Edmunds – was judged as Inadequate in 2015.  The decision to close the Home was made on 12^th January, 2016, following a full consultation

Economic Development Services and Housing and Neighbourhoods Services

-          External peer health checks programme, led by the LGA, commenced

-          The EDS Directorate had committed to review current inspection governance arrangements to further strengthen its arrangements for preparing for inspections and responding to their outcomes

Finance and Corporate Services

-          The External Auditor issued a range of reports each year which were presented to the Audit Committee e.g. External Audit Plan, Annual Audit Letter

-          No recommendations made in relation to the audit of the 2013/14 financial year

-          Audit of the Council’s 2014/15 claim was completed.  The Council received only very minor qualifications resulting in amendments being made to the final claim in accordance with the DWP arrangements.

Discussion ensued with the following issues raised/clarified:-

·           Although the twenty-six recommendations were outstanding they were all covered as part of the Improvement Plan.  Their status would remain until final sign off by Ofsted.  Recent published consultation by Ofsted stated that it would be at least two years from the date that the Authority published their action plan – Rotherham published their action plan in February 2015, so it would be February 2017 at the earliest.  Final sign off would be part of the inspection next year

·           The two recommendations concerning leadership, management and governance had received “reassurance” on the Ofsted visit in March

·           Risk assessments and plans for a child should include the use of contingency plans and be SMARTer so the outcomes, timeframes and who was responsible for such were very clear

Resolved:-  (1)  That the governance arrangements that were currently in place for the monitoring and managing of recommendations from external audits and inspections be noted.

(2)  That regular reports in relation to external audit and inspections and progress in implementing recommendations.