Agenda item

Consideration was given to the Independent Reviewing Service (IRO) Annual Report 2020-21.  The IRO annual report was a statutory requirement providing an update on the breadth of IRO activity within the year.

The report reflected the work undertaken by the IRO Service between April 2020 to March 2021 detailing key performance figures and how the Service met its stated aims and responsibilities to Looked After Children.  It also included children’s views on the Service that they had received and actions for the Service and wider system for the year ahead.

Discussion ensued with the following issues raised/clarified:-

Reviews

-        During the pandemic, the reviews had taken place via Teams; as soon as the restrictions had lifted IROs had been back out seeing the children in their settings

-        IROs were clear they did not want to review without clear information

Health

-        One of the continuing key challenges was Dental.  Proposed incentives were being worked on in an attempt to get young people to engage in dental care.  There was also an issue with regard to signed consent should a LAC require anaesthesia as well as registration with a NHS dentist

-        Rotherham Health’s standards were very high and the Initial Health Assessments checks were extremely thorough

Quality and Compliance

-        A Quality and Compliance form was completed before every IRO review and scale what they thought the record was like in relation to the care plan.  Significant positive increase had been seen

-        Need to improve the timeliness of some of the paperwork for reports to ensure within statutory compliance

-        Every child in Social Care was tracked with the IRO working very closely to ensure it was shared in their care planning work

Foster Carers

-        The pandemic had caused anxiety for some of the foster carers due to their age and requirement to shield.  Work had taken place to make such the best decision were taken together and that the Service knew which children were in school

-        A number of foster carers had resigned

Virtual School/Education

-        The Virtual School welcomed the challenge from IROs

-        The Virtual School did not provide home elective education.  They had had children come who had been home educated and they had supported them back into mainstream education

-        One of the biggest issues in secondary education was ensuring that the Personal Education Plans were of the highest quality.  Head Teachers had access to them as it was their document and they signed them off.  They were reminded that it was their duty to inform the Virtual School of an exclusion/considering an exclusion

-        14 of the 16 Rotherham schools would be taking up the Trauma Informed Practice training.  It was hoped that the remaining 2 (unable to release staff) would be able to participate

-        The Strategic Lead for Inclusion was introducing, both for primary and secondary, inclusion panels so where a school was thinking/considering exclusion, they would be encouraged to submit the case before a panel for consideration and wider support.  The panel would be made up of other Heads and a Local Authority Officer who could try and provide some help and guidance

-        From September there would be a one year pilot of an outreach team for secondary schools.  It would provide supportive intervention with the aim of that the one person learning would be able to spread it across the school, improving the skill set of the school and support assistance so it could meet the needs more effectively rather than escalating a child through the system

IRO Line Management

-        Currently line managed by the Head of Safeguarding, Learning and Development and reports directly to the Strategic Director

-        Their visibility and footprint sat within the child’s recording – they were asked to record visits to children and report within the system to make sure they were visible and have line management supervision ever 4-6 weeks

-        It allowed them to be the other voice in the team and worked in a very restorative way

-        IROs were experienced Social Workers – “critical friend”

-        They used Liquid Logic and it had to be recorded as part of the child’s record

Resolved:-  That the Independent Reviewing Service Annual Report 2020-21 be noted.