Agenda item

Report of the Assistant Director of Children’s Services

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

The submitted report provided mid-year (July 2021 to September 2021) 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 also highlighted where Children and Young People 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 10.7 per cent of the children referred during this quarter had been re-referred to Children’s Social Care within 12 months of a previous referral which was positively below the internal target of 18 per cent; 100 per cent of children with a Child Protection (CP) plan, and 100 per cent of Children in Care (CiC) had an allocated social worker; no child had ceased to be subject to a CP plan who had been subject to the plan for two or more years, and continue to positively perform below the target of five per cent; the number of Children in Care (CiC) was 266 by the end of September 2021, which was a large reduction of 11.9 per cent when compared with the number of children at the end of September 2020 (302) and work continues to safely reduce the number of children coming into care; 92.9 per cent of statutory CiC visits were completed within timescale during Q2 above the target of 90 per cent; 9.8 per cent of our Children in Care, as of September 2021, had 3 or more placements within the previous 12 months and performance was positively below the internal target of 10 per cent; 69.8 per cent of 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, in line with the internal target of 68 per cent; 8.3 per cent of Children in Care had been placed 20 or more miles away from home as of September 2021 below the target of 10 per cent; 93.7 per cent of children due a review health assessment year to date had one completed, which was above the target of 90 per cent; and 21.3 per cent  of Care Leavers were not in employment, education or training (NEET) at the end of September 2021, which was positivity below target of 30 per cent and 100.0 per cent were in suitable accommodation.

The areas highlighted for focus were in respect of Social workers completed 87.3 per cent of the C&F assessments within timescale during Q2 2021/22, which falls below the target of 90 per cent, although was higher than the 80.4 per cent for the same period last year; 78.8 per cent of Initial Child Protection Conferences (ICPC) were held within 15 working days from the strategy meeting / section 47 being initiated, excluding transfer-in conferences, by the end of Q2; 68.2 per cent of referrals were screened and completed within 1 day by the end of Q2, below the target of 90 per cent and 7.6 per cent of the referrals took over three days to complete; at the end of September 2021, the percentage of children becoming subject to a CP plan for a second or subsequent time within two years of the previous plan ending was 9.8 per cent, above the 6 per cent target, however this was a reduction from 14.3 per cent as at the end of Q1 2021/22; 87.1 per cent of children received a statutory CP visit within 10 working days during Q2 below the target of 90 per cent; and 75.7 per cent of children due a dental check assessment year to date had one completed, and although below the target of 90 per cent it was a significant improvement from 55.8 per cent as at the end of Q1 2021/22. 

Members discussed in particular the challenges around the recruitment and retention of social workers which was noted as both a regional and national challenge and requested information on what the authority was doing to address the shortfall in social workers; questioned the current position regarding caseloads and were assured by the Assistant Director of Children’s Services that caseloads were at a safe and manageable level; and noted the increase in missing from care and questioned what was being done by the authority to address this.

Members also questioned if the recommendations of the Munro Review of Child Protection and the subsequent recommendations in May 2011 were now in practice within this authority.  The Assistant Director of Children’s Services assured Members that over recent years there had been a move away from bureaucracy and procedure to focus more on families and practice alongside the Strengthening Families work in collaboration with Leeds City Council which aims to build connections and communities and the authority were moving in the right direction.