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 the Annual Self- Assessment for Children’s Services to enable constructive ‘critical friend’ challenge to take place and drive improvement in public services.

It was reported that Children’s Services update each quarter an assessment of social work practice, inclusive of Early Help, based on changes in performance data.  To bring the information into a stand-a-lone easy read document an annual self-assessment overview document is completed.

It was highlighted that the aim of the self-evaluation was to answer three questions: What do we know about the quality and impact of social work practice in our local authority; How do we know it; and What are our plans for the next 12 months to maintain or improve practice.   The self-assessment is used as part of Ofsted’s ILACS Annual Engagement Meeting and plays an important role in their understanding of local authorities and how they work.

Members questioned how progress on quality is measured; how the voice of the Social Workers working with children is captured; and how the authority plan to deal with the future effect of fuel costs on Care Centres and Foster Carers.

The Assistant Director Children’s Services acknowledged that the uncertain economic climate may have an impact on Foster Carers considering their current position and advised that there was work on going with existing carers also for potential barriers due to the economic uncertainty and also as a result of the recent pandemic.

RESOLVED – That the report is noted.