Agenda item

Report of the Assistant Director of Children’s Services

The Group Director of People submitted a report (previously circulated) to provide Members with an overview of the work by the Independent Reviewing Officer Service in relation to Looked After Children and Children who are the subject of Child Protection Conferences and / or multi-agency Child Protection Plans; and to consider the Annual Reports of the Independent Reviewing Officer for 2021/22 and the Child Protection Conference Chair for 2021/22.

The Independent Reviewing Officer Annual Report 2021/22 was a requirement under the statutory guidance and covers the role of the Independent Reviewing Officer which is a defined role that relates to Children Looked After; and the Child Protection Conference Chair Annual Report 2021/22 covers the role of the conference chair in relation to children who are in need of safeguarding and the statutory requirements are set out in Working Together to Safeguard Children (July 2018).

It was highlighted that for the period April 2021 to March 2022, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, formal meetings, which in previous years would have been face to face, had been conducted using virtual platforms.  This applied to all Child Protection Conferences, Child Looked After Review, and most of the contact with children, young people, and their families.

The submitted report also provided information on the role of the IROs, the statutory and non-statutory functions that the service is responsible for; outlined the number of children subject to Child Protection Plans at 31 March; management and quality assurance; workload allocation; training and development; registration and accreditation; and highlighted the actions scheduled for 2022/23.

Members discussed the actions for 2022/23 and the ways in which the authority plan to increase the number of children who attend their Child Looked After Review; discussed  advocacy services available for Children Looked After and in particular how the authority planned to increase uptake of advocacy services for those children and young people who were subject of Child Protection Conferences; and the improvements to the Independent Reviewing Officer footprint since the 2018 Ofsted inspection by the introduction of the Liquid Logic system.

RESOLVED – That the annual reports of the Independent Reviewing Officer and Child Protection Conference Chair for 2021/22 be noted.