Agenda item

The Committee is to consider the progress made on the improvement journey over the last three years, the outcome of the recent Ofsted Monitoring Visit and the preparedness for the full Ofsted Inspection expected in the coming months.  

27.1     The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Cllr Russell, introduced the report by reflecting on the journey Children’s Services had been through since 2019 and that it was a timely point to reflect on the progress made to date, with a full Ofsted inspection due between now and spring 2023.  The report outlined all key areas of progress and work undertaken and outlined changes and transformation and the impact of those changes.

27.2     The Committee received a statement from Mr Coughlan, the independent chair of the Improvement Board and previously the Commissioner for Children’s Services in West Sussex.  Mr Coughlan reminded the Committee that the County Council had found itself rated as inadequate following a long period of fragility in Children’s Services.  The first ever rescindment of a trust order by the DfE was a credit to the people involved in improving the service, particularly as it was during the early pandemic period.  The cost-of-living crisis compacting after 10 years of austerity and a national recruitment crisis were national issues providing additional challenge to the improvement journey, but Mr Coughlan felt that the County Council had coped admirably. 

27.3     Mr Coughlan felt confident around the work being done by the Improvement Board.  He felt the chain of command and accountability in the County Council was stronger now, particularly through the Chief Executive and Director of Children, Young People and Learning and the management team, and this gave him confidence.  He noted that the service was now awaiting a full inspection at any point within the next four months and that would be a critical milestone for the service.

27.4     Mr Coughlan reported that Ofsted inspections were primarily focussed on cases and case outcomes.  Through support with Hampshire County Council as practice partner, a stronger model of self-audit and self-evaluation had been developed in West Sussex.

27.5     For the future Mr Coughlan reported there have been challenges with the pace and consistency of high-quality practice in what is a relatively large county.  Driving at that consistency is now a core management priority.  He also noted the reduction in funding from the Department for Education (DfE) for the new practice model, recruitment of social workers and other suitably qualified staff.  The senior management team needed to be supported as they prepared for the full inspection, the Committee needed to carry on the much-improved tone of scrutiny going forward by getting the balance of support and challenge right. 

27.6     Members of the Committee asked questions of Mr Coughlan and officers and a summary of those questions and answers follows.

27.7     The effectiveness of the Scrutiny Committee today is light years away from the position in 2019.  Areas of interactions with members, the Leader and cabinet members is much better.  Work of the Improvement Board and Corporate Parenting Panel is collaborative and transparent.  The Scrutiny Committee could help officers more by challenging volatility in figures in quality assurance rather than scrutinising case outcomes.  It takes a long time to turn a children’s service department around, and even more so in a period of national recruitment and cost of living challenges. 

27.8     Support for 16- and 17-year-olds presenting as homeless had been highlighted by Ofsted several times through the monitoring visits.  Since the Ofsted report the Youth Homelessness Team had been moved under the Integrated Froot Door (IFD) and the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) service with a new line management and focus and with greater support of social workers.  Issues raised by Ofsted had changed over the years and more recently focussed on the quality of accommodation.  The responsibility for accommodation had been held by the corporate Home Housing Team.  From 1 December 2022 that team would move to the Children’s Commissioning team which would improve matters through increased quality assurance and greater monitoring and oversight. 

27.9     The Family Safeguarding Model is a very flexible model that could be adjusted to fit local circumstances.  The service is committed to the model with a reduced number of workers whilst continuing to lobby the Department for Education (DFE) for additional funding.  It was hoped to be able to feed back on the benefits of the new model to the Scrutiny Committee in June 2023.

27.10  Work was underway to increase IT efficiency and streamline the systems and services used.  The Committee asked that the Business Planning Group monitor progress at its next meeting to see if there were any areas for scrutiny.

27.11  The recruitment of social workers from South Africa had been an option because the social work model there was very similar to that of the United Kingdom.  It was intended to revisit in the New Year for another round of recruitment.  It was important to reduce the number of agency staff used and increase the permanent staff as they would be inducted into the culture of the service and take forward good practice.  Our social worker offer is benchmarked against other authorities to ensure West Sussex is in the top quartile. 

27.12  Since February 2021 the Integrated Front Door (IFD) had helped improve integration between early help and social workers.  The streamlining of responses was much better and there had been more positive feedback from partners.  The data on response times and referrals was consistently over 95%.  The IFD and MASH had been reviewed by a peer partner and there had been a positive response.

27.13  There had been an anomaly in September 2022 when a high number of children came off Child Protection Plans at the first review (i.e. after 3 months).  There had been an investigation into those cases to see why.  It is a multi-agency decision but if a conference or reviewing officer chairs a meeting and thought a child is likely to come off at first review, they will discuss with the service manager and social worker.

27.14  The Quality Assurance process feeds into improving practice by a monthly collaborative audit with social workers and team managers looking at reflections and learning.  The analysis of all the audits are moderated monthly and themes arising picked out.  Learning is fed back into the system. 

27.15  The expectation is that young people were kept informed of delays in allocation and changes to their social worker, however there had been occasions when that had not happened in the way we would have wanted.  In this event the team manager stepped in and apologies were given.  If there were gaps identified then young people were made aware of other partners e.g. school, health, who they could contact.

27.16  Scrutiny around timeliness of visits, and an action plan showed an improving picture.  Weekly dashboards were provided for team managers so they could plan visits and cleanse data to ensure it was reported correctly. 

27.17  Cllr Russell took over the Chairman’s role on the Corporate Parenting Panel in 2019 and, following the appointment of Mr Ruaux, and the involvement of young people from the Children in Care Council (CiCC) and Care Leaver’s Advisory Board (CLAB) had embedded the voice of young people in the work of the Panel and its sub-groups.  The Chairs of the CiCC and CLAB also help co-chair the Panel.  Children we Care for are also involved in the Improvement Board and the Youth Cabinet are also involved in County Council work.

27.18  Since October 2021 Conference and Reviewing officers had undertaken children protection and children we care for work meetings. This had given more consistency for children who moved from child protection orders into being children we care for.  The work had embedded the changes required and there was reassurance that it was now much better than it had been.

27.19  Over the summer period the service had struggled to allocate a small number of cases in a timely way. However, these issues had now been resolved and there were no unallocated cases.  It had been acknowledged that the recruitment issues, that resulted in the allocation delays in the summer, were not acceptable and had been resolved.  Those that were unallocated during the summer were risk assessed and closely monitored by a team manager until a key worker was in place.

27.20  Cllr Russell thanked Mr Coughlan and the Committee for their comments and questions.  She valued the challenges raised by the scrutiny committee and highlighted that some of the key achievements including the social worker of the year award, youth justice award and the launch of the fostering website.  She agreed to look at the request to access case studies with officers.

27.21  Resolved – That the Committee:

1.   Recognises the huge amount of progress that has been made since October 2019 by the service to improve outcomes for children and young people.

2.   Highlights that it is paramount that the pace and consistency of the improvement journey continues beyond the forthcoming Ofsted inspection to ensure that improvement is sustained, in particular around quality of practice. 

3.   Asks the Committee’s Business Planning Group to consider the potential future scrutiny of quality assurance so that the Committee can continue to monitor and seek assurance that quality of practice is continuing to improve. 

4.   Will consider the impact of the Family Safeguarding Model in 2023 and would like to see how the benefits identified in the national model are being realised locally and feedback from children and families included within that item.

5.   Recognises the impact of the national issue of recruitment and retention on the pace of the improvement journey and supports the continued focus on recruiting permanent staff. 

6.   Ask for a progress update on the IT implementation at its next Business Planning Group to consider if there are any areas for future scrutiny.

7.   Will continue to monitor levels of unallocated cases, recognising the negative impact this has on children and young people.