Agenda item

Report of the Group Director of People

The Group Director of People submitted a report (previously circulated) to provide Members with an update on performance against key performance indicators.

The submitted report provided year end performance (April 2020 to March 2021) 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 Services were performing well and where there was a need to improve.  It was also outlined that where indicators are reported annually, quarterly updates will not be available.

It was highlighted that 94.4 per cent of Initial Child Protection Conferences (ICPC) were held within 15 working days of the Strategy meeting being held / section 47 being initiated, which remains higher than statistical neighbour, regional and national average benchmarks; 100 per cent of children with a Child Protection (CP) plan and 100 per cent of Children in Care (CiC) have an allocated social worker; during 2020/21 no child has ceased to be subject to a CP plan who had been subject to the plan for 2 or more years and continue to positively perform below the target of 5 per cent; 89.0 per cent of children received a statutory CP visit within 10 working days during 2020/21; 93.1 per cent of statutory CiC visits were completed within timescale year to date above the target of 90 per cent and an improvement on the timeliness of visits when compared with the same period last year 89 per cent; 8.1 per cent of Children in Care (CiC), as at March 2021, had three or more placements within the previous 12 months which was better than the internal target, national, regional averages (all at 10 per cent) and statistical neighbour (9.9 per cent); 71.9 per cent of our Children in Care aged under 16 (who have been looked after for at least 2.5 years) had been in their current placement continuously for at least two years, above our target of 68.0 per cent and statistical neighbours (69.3 per cent), regional (69.0 per cent) and national average (68.0 per cent); 9.4 per cent of our Children in Care had been placed 20 or more miles away from home as at March 2021 which is below the target of 10 per cent; 90.9 per cent of the children, newly into care, were seen by CDDFT within 20 working days for an initial health assessment during 2020/21; 91.2 per cent of children due a review health assessment year to date had one completed; and 24.6 per cent of Care Leavers were not in employment, education or training (NEET) which was positivity below target of 30 per cent and 98.1 per cent were in suitable accommodation.

The areas highlighted for focus were in respect of referrals screened and completed within 1 day which was 77.7 per cent during 2020/21 below the target of 90 per cent; 19.1 per cent of re-referrals year to date, were repeated within 12 months, above the target of 18 per cent; timeliness of assessments was 86.4 per cent, below the target of 90 per cent; at the end of March 2021, the percentage of children becoming subject to a Child Protection plan for a second or subsequent time within two years of the previous plan ending was 9.4 per cent, above the six per cent target; the number of Children in Care had decreased to 272 by the end of March 2021, in line with the number at the end of March 2020 (270) and work continues to safely reduce the number of children becoming looked after; and as a result of dental surgery closures during lockdown, 57.2 per cent of Children in Care, that were due a dental check assessment had one completed.

Members discussed in particular the re-evaluation of the certain targets for 2022/23 and the timescales for these indicators being reset; the current position with Early Help and the effect of the lockdown on families; the general effect the pandemic had on services including the increase in families choosing elective home education (EHE).

The Assistant Director of Childrens’ Services advised that the Children’s Services Self-Assessment will be presented to Members at the next scheduled meeting of Scrutiny in August to provide more detail on the practice behind the data.

RESOLVED – That the performance information reported for the year end 2020/21 be noted.