Agenda item

Report by the Director of Children Young People and Learning.

The report updates the Committee on the developments and progress made in the Children First programme since its last update in September 2021, with a focus on quality assurance.

32.1     The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Cllr Russell, introduced the item reporting that the paper outlined the quality assurance path the service had taken on the journey of improvement thus far. 

32.2     The Executive Director Children, Young People and Learning, Mrs Butler, reported that when she joined the County Council in 2020 audit had not been in the lifeblood of the service.  She was pleased with the progress made to date, recognising the service was on a continued journey of improvement.

32.3     The Assistant Director – Safeguarding Quality and Assurance, Ms Steele, reported that the quality assurance team had worked with operational services to introduce several changes to ensure audits were undertaken and the pace of that work had been significant.  The Quality Assurance Framework had been outgrown and work was in progress to produce another version for the future.

32.4     The improvements shown in the report reflected a high return rate of completed audits.  The quality of the audits had been improved which in turn had improved quality of practices.  It was important to have a timely response to actions resulting from audits and a relaunched practice standards document had been issued to social workers.

32.5     Members of the Committee asked questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows:

·       How does the quality assurance framework recognise increased pressures on managers undertaking audits?  Ms Steele reported that due to the reduction in the number of audits, in order to focus on quality and the number of managers involved, the audit rate was quite low, around one audit per manager per month.  Audit was now considered as business as usual rather than an additional pressure.

·       The Power BI dashboard would enable the service to track actions, identify patterns and trends for further research.  It would also highlight good practice.

·       The service was working with the Complaints Team to address better responses at Stage One of the complaints process.  It was hoped this work and that as the quality of practice improved a reduction would be seen in the number of complaints.  The service was also being encouraged to promote compliments received. 

·       Voice of the Child – Quarter two showed a drop in the number of children contributing to their review and this was of concern.  Ms Steele reported that a drive was in progress to improve this.  The recent restructure of the Independent Reviewing Officers and Child Protection Advisor teams included training to ensure the voice of child was captured at reviews and child protection cases.  The voice of the child and families would form part of the audit process from January 2022 to seek and use their views.

·       The Assistant Director – Corporate Parenting told the group about work with the Corporate Parenting Panel (CPP) which now involved young people.  The Children in Care Council (CiCC) now has a Chair, Vice-Chair and six ambassadors.  The CiCC Chair co-chairs the CPP with Cllr Russell.  Young people are involved in the setting the agenda for CPP meetings.  There are sub-groups which involve the ambassadors, officers and elected members.  

·       Mind of My Own app (MOMO) – This is an interactive smart app which allowed young people to express their views, wishes and feelings at any point.  Action: Assistant Director – Corporate Parenting agreed to provide a short briefing for committee members on the MOMO app and how it is being used.

·       Whilst it was good for the Committee to hear the good news stories, were they really getting an opportunity to focus on problem areas?  The Committee were reminded that the service was also routinely monitored by Ofsted, the Commissioner as well as regular self-evaluations.  The self-evaluations prior to Ofsted visits usually mirrored the Ofsted findings, giving the service confidence they were not showing things better than they actually were.  The Committee were reminded that the County Council had never had a Children Social Care service rated as good so it would be a long journey and it was preferred that journey was slower, deeper and more sustaining.  It was hoped the monitoring visits in 2022 would show significant changes now that good foundations had been laid.

·       Governance - A Committee member raised that the scrutiny committee should be listed in the quality assurance framework as part of the governance role to support and challenge.  Action: The Assistant Director - Safeguarding Quality and Assurance agreed to ensure this was added in.

32.6     Resolved – That the Committee:

1.   Welcomes the progress, hard work and successful outcomes made on quality assurance to date and recognises the importance of audit to demonstrate the quality of practice.  The Committee would like to have a further update in the future on audit outcomes to a future meeting, to include an update on the contribution of children to their reviews and how the voice of the child and families is being sought and used in the audit process.  The Committee’s BPG will work with the service to identify a suitable timescale. 

2.   Asks that the Scrutiny Committee is referenced as part of the governance structure within the Quality Assurance Framework.