Agenda item

Report of the Group Director of People

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 Quarter 1 (April 2022 to June 2022) 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 79.6 per cent of referrals were screened and completed within one day during Quarter 1 (Q1) 2022/23 and a continuing improvement when compared with previous quarters with a small number of referrals which took over three working days to be completed in Q1  (1.9 per cent) which was an improvement on 5.6 per cent for the same period last year and is within our threshold of 5 per cent; 16.1 per cent of the children referred during Q1 had been re-referred to Children’s Social Care within 12 months of a previous referral, which was below the threshold of 18 per cent and an improvement on the same period last year; 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; 100 per cent of children with a Child Protection (CP) plan, and 98.8 per cent of Children in Care (CiC) had their reviews completed within timescale; there were 273 Children in our care at the end of June 2022, excluding the unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (7) which was just above the number of Children in Care (CiC) in June 2021 (264) and below that in June 2020 (291) and work continues to safely reduce the number of children coming into care;

It was also highlighted that 25.0 per cent of the children ceasing to be in our care did so due to return home to their parents, 20.0 per cent had a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) / Child Arrangement Order (CAO) granted to a relative and 15.0 per cent were adopted; 89.1 per cent of statutory CiC visits were completed within timescale during Q1 which was in line with the target of 90 per cent; 10.4 per cent of our Children in Care, as at June 2022, have had three or more placements within the previous 12 months which was in line with the internal target of 10 per cent;  67.0 per cent of our Children in Care aged under 16 (who have been looked after for at least 2.5 years) have been in their current placement continuously for at least two years as at June 2022; 6.5 per cent of our Children in Care have needed to be placed 20 or more miles away from home as of June 2022 which was positive performance and below target of 10 per cent; 19.6 per cent of Care Leavers were not in employment, education, or training (NEET) which was positivity below target of 30 per cent and 98.2 per cent of care leavers were in suitable accommodation; and 60.7 per cent of our care leavers were in training or employment (30.4 per cent in full time, 30.3 per cent in part time) as of June 2022, and 19.7 per cent were engaging in education (5.4 per cent of which are in studies beyond A level).

Areas highlighted for improvement were in relation to 79.0 per cent of Children and Families assessments were completed within timescale in Quarter 1 (Q1) 2022/23 which was below Q1 2021/22 performance of 90.4 per cent in timescale, however, that was with 58.3 per cent less assessments needing to be completed as we continued to see a rise in assessments required; 75.0 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, during Q1 which showed a dip in Darlington's performance this quarter and it was reported that additional processes had been put in place to address this; at the end of June 2022, the percentage of children becoming subject to a Child Protection plan (CP) for a second or subsequent time within two years of the previous plan ending was 25.0 per cent, above the 6 per cent target, however, related to two families; at the end of June 2022, 8.3 per cent of children ceased to be subject to a CP plan in Q1 after being subject to the plan for two or more years and the plans had been confirmed as appropriately opened for this length of time; 73.2 per cent of children received a statutory CP visit within 10 working days during Q1 with a further 14.3 per cent of visits taking place one or two days outside this and  below the target of 90 per cent; and 28.8 per cent of children due a health review during Q1 and 19.2 per cent due a dental check assessment had had one completed. 

Members discussed in particular the recent negative OFSTED Inspections of two Children’s Homes and the impact of these and how it was being managed; and the information in relation to the number of missing episodes in Q1.

The Assistant Director of Children’s Services responded to Members on their concerns and in relation to Children’s Homes advised Scrutiny that a full review was being undertaken and would be reported to Members at a future date.

RESOLVED – That the performance information reported for Quarter 1 2022/23 be noted.