Agenda item

Report of the Assistant Director – Children’s Services

The Assistant Director Children’s Services presented the report to provide performance information (April 2024- June 2024) in line with an indicator set agreed by Monitoring and Coordination Group on 2 July 2018.

Points of note included that at the end of Q1 2024/25, there were 205 families, 416 children open to the Building Stronger Families team. A further 60 families with 108 children were open to an external agency supporting the families.  115 children were subject to a Child Protection plan (CP) as at the end of June 2024 with a rate of 51.7 per 10,000 population with a CP plan.  This is an increase on previous years and comparable to the increase in CiN plans open and decrease in Children in Care seen during the same period last year.

Areas for improvement were highlighted which included in Q1 2024/25, 81.0% of the children had their referral completed within 1 working day not meeting our 90% target.

7.5% of Child Protection statutory visits were completed within 10 working days in Q1 2024/25 and 94.9% of the visits were completed within 15 working days.  Although below target (90%), this is an improvement on Q1 2023/24 where 70.1% of visits occurred within timescale.

Discussion was held with regards to the volume of information being presented to members in performance indicator reports with a member suggesting that a review of many indicators KPIs would be useful as well as an analysis of trends or notable anomalies.  Officers noted this input and reiterated to members that realistic additional indicators can always be requested by members.

Members also stated that performance figures paint a picture of the service as a whole and that they are useful in presenting the work and progress that officers are undertaking.

RESOLVED - Members noted the content of the report and performance information provided.