Agenda item

Director of Children and Adult Services

The Director of Children and Adults Services submitted a report (previously circulated) to provide Members with an update on performance against key performance indicators.

The submitted report provided Quarter 4 (January to March 2019) 2018/19 performance information in line with an indicator set agreed by the Monitoring and Co-ordination Group and subsequently by each individual Scrutiny Committee.

The submitted report highlighted where Children and Young People were performing well and where there was a need to improve.  It was also highlighted that where indicators are reported annually quarterly updates will not be available.

It was highlighted that 98.2 per cent of referrals are screened and completed within one day which was above the target of 90 per cent; 17.5 per cent of re-referrals were repeated within 12 months which was in an increase on the target of 18 per cent; 100 per cent of children with a Child Protection Plan and 100 per cent of Children Looked After have an allocated social worker; 92.1 per cent who had a dental health assessment due, received their assessment within the required timescale; and 25 per cent of Care Leavers who were not in employment, education or training (NEET) exceeded the target set of 33 per cent.

The areas highlighted for improvement in Quarter 4 was the timeliness of assessments which was slightly below the target of 90 per cent and the reasons for this have been analysed and monitored by the Head of Service; 95.7 per cent of statutory child protection visits were completed within 15 working days with 79.4 per cent completed within 10 working days; and 82.6 per cent statutory looked after children visits were completed within the timeline and all those visits that do not take place within the set days are closely managed; and the rate of looked after children has increased and is currently 110.6 per 10,000 population which was above statistical regional and national benchmarks and this increase was currently being scrutinised to determine if there were any areas that could be strengthened to safety reduce this number.

Members discussed in particular the increase in Section 47 enquiries, which was a significant increase from the previous year and the work being undertaken to reduce the number of enquires; the number of Care Leavers who were NEET and the number of reasons why they were not in education, employment or training; the reduction of timely completion of assessments throughout 2018/19 when compared to the previous year’s reporting; the improvements made to the missing from home interviews and what was being done to engage parents in this process to work with the police, health and social care representatives; and clarification on re-referrals which was currently better than the target but remains below statistical numbers, national and north east benchmarks; the current workload situation for social workers; improvement on the percentage of children who had moved placement three or more times; and the improved position regarding Foster Carers.

A Member also questioned if information on referrals made to the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) from school and also for Special Education Needs referrals was collated and was advised by the Head of Education and Inclsion that currently this data is not being collected but he assured Members he would raise this with colleagues in the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and report back to Members of this Scrutiny Committee.

RESOLVED – That the performance information provided for Quarter 4 2018/19 be noted.