Agenda item

The Strategic Director of Children and Young People’s Service, with Ms. R. Wall, Head of Service Safeguarding and Quality Assurance, and Mrs. S. Wilson, Head of Service Performance & Planning, gave a presentation which covered the 2016/17 year-end performance in relation to Early Help and Family Engagement, Children’s Social Care and Education and Skills:

What is working well

-        Early Help received 3,914 contacts during the last 12 months evidencing the improvements made in embedding Early Help

-        Timeliness of engagement with families in Early Help improved from 18.4% to 53.7%

-        98% people who completed the Early Help exit survey rated the Service as good or excellent

-        The number of re-referrals into Social Care had decreased evidencing a more robust approach (30.7% to 27.6%)

-        Following an increase in demand for assessments to be undertaken, a new team was established and as a result timescales within 45 days improved from 85.9% in February to 92.9% in March 2017

-        The number of children in need (CIN) with an up-to-date plan continued to perform well during the year - 93.8% in March 2017 (82.7% overall during the year)

-        Completion of Initial Child Protection Conferences in 15 day timescale remained above national average at 91% and reviews were maintained at 100% for 8 months of the year ( 98.6% for the year overall)

-        86.4% of Looked After Children (LAC) visits ( local standard of 4 weeks) improved from 80.2% in 2015/16

-        SYP made 17 convictions for Child Sexual Exploitation during the year and 327 referrals were made to post abuse support services

-        Early Years Found Stage, Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4 (progress 8) were all above national average

What are we worried about

-        Only 6.5% of Early Help assessments were completed by partners (75 out of 1,150)

-        39.4% of Early Help Assessments completed in 35 working days

-        29% of the targeted range of families for change achieved the Payment By Result outcome

-        Section 47 rates are significantly higher that statistical neighbours despite an in year reduction - 251.8/10k pop

-        There had been increase of those children on a Child Protection Plan (CPP) who haD been made subject to a plan for a second or subsequent time (4.7% to 8.4%)

-        A reduction on the number of children on a CPP who had had a visit from 99% to 88.4% during the year

-        A reduction in the number of children who were ceasing to be Looked After due to permanence from 40.1% to 28.3%

-        Only 68.2% of LAC had an up-to-date Personal Education Plan (PEP)

-        A reduction in the number of children who had 3 or more placements, however, this continued to be high (11.3%).  There has been a reduction in the number of children who had had a stable placement for over two years (67.6%)

What do we need to do next

-        Ensure that the right service at the right time was in place including work across CYPS and partners at all stages of the process particularly around thresholds

-        Quality remained a priority and this was a balance with compliance

-        Increased level of LAC - It was important to progress the implementation of the sufficiency strategy and other transformational and investment programmes

-        Continue to ensure that LAC were placed in family settings (even if this meant a move)

Discussion ensued on the report with the following issues raised/clarified:-

-        The reasons behind the dip in performance in the Families for Change programme and what were the achievements of the programme had been so far.

-        Levels of engagement with schools, particularly in relation to reducing poor attendance.

-        Clarification as to why there were higher than average Section 47 referrals in Rotherham?

-        Concerns about re-referrals and quality of decision making and practice in relation to ‘stepping down’ intervention.

-        Improvements in quality of practice as a result of the roll out of ‘Signs of Safety’

-        The implementation of the Liquid Logic case management system and confidence in accuracy of data.

-        Checks and balances in place to ensure that health and dental checks for Looked After children took place on a timely basis.

-        Engagement with the Early Help offer in relation to Children’s Centres.

-        Levels of referrals with domestic abuse as a presenting factor.

-        Areas of improvement from April 2017.

The Chair thanked Officers for the report.

Resolved:-  That the report be noted.