Agenda item

Report by Director of Children, Young People and Learning.

The Committee is asked to assess the progress of the Quality Assurance and Auditing work since the last full report to the Committee in December 2021.

37.1     The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Learning and Skills, Cllr Russell, introduced the report highlighting that it was the latest report to focus on actions since the full Ofsted inspection and it outlined the commitment, focus and drive to get the service on to a good grading and then, in time, outstanding, through the implementation of the Continuous Practice Improvement Plan. 

37.2     The members of the Committee asked questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows.

37.3     Officers agreed to reflect the work by the scrutiny committee in the governance process in future reports. It was highlighted that the work was also externally scrutinised by the Department for Education (DfE) who ask very similar questions to the Committee. 

37.4     Consistency is the biggest challenge around compliance and the service provided.  A key area for focus is increasing the voice of the child and the family, moving towards family feedback.  Feedback from the Children in Care Council (CiCC) and Care Leaver’s Advisory Board (CLAB) had led to a change in the language used and would feed into future quality assurance audit activity.

37.5     Initially the audits looked at compliance and have now moved on to looking at the quality of assessments, with the number of audits increased to 50 randomly selected cases a month.  The Ofsted framework tool is used for gradings.  The results are reviewed by the Performance and Assurance Action Board, team meetings, directorate leadership meetings and key themes are shared with stakeholders at multi-agency meetings.  Any audit graded as Inadequate is moderated by a head of service and a reflective conversation takes place with teams within five working days.  The case will be re-audited after six weeks (previously 12 weeks) to ensure purposeful change is happening. The auditor reviews the statutory documentation, additional information collected on a child’s record, the journey over the last six months, as well as a framework of questions and other tools, such as the Bright Spots survey, to gather information. 

37.6     The most common theme amongst complaints received was communication with families.  This was being worked on to ensure that families have contact details for social workers and embedded co-ordinators.  Customers can often be happy that work is progressing, but the system shows a case as overdue because the final response letter has not been sent.  Overdue responses are escalated to the heads of service to understand why there has been a delay or support a response being sent.

37.7     Whilst previously audits had been regarded with some suspicion by staff, a culture change within the service had meant they were now regarded as a positive process and that was helping with staff recruitment and retention, slowing down turnover in front facing social worker teams and had become part of the package to staff.

37.8     Children are prepared for the Bright Spots Survey through information shared by schools, social workers and PAs.  Support from an independent person can be given to children who need it to complete the survey.  The survey also offers children the opportunity to speak to someone in the Voice and Participation team.  Responses to the Bright Spot surveys are improving with the recent survey for Care Leavers reaching a response rate of over 50%.  Responses are reviewed within 24 hours and if there are causes of concern they are actioned according to normal processes and procedures.

37.9     Children whose cases progress to Child Protection Conferences are made aware that they have the option to have an advocate with them by the service.  To date every child who had asked for an advocate had received one.  Regular communication exists with the advocacy team, with quarterly meetings taking place to work on improving the uptake of advocates.

37.10  Some members questioned whether the report was balanced enough to really allow the Committee to identify where issues were occurring.  Officers responded that it was a full report with positives and negatives, and transparency about areas of continued work. 

37.11  Resolved – That the Committee:

1.   Welcomes the quality assurance process and how this is embedded within the service as it moves from compliance to quality. 

2.   Asks that reference is made to member scrutiny as part of the quality assurance process and that this is included in future reports.

3.   Recognises the continued progress to increase the number of audit outcomes rated as good and outstanding, and that this is an ongoing process and key part of the continued practice improvement.

4.   Notes the positive response to the Care Leavers Bright Spots survey and the work with the advocacy service to capture the voice of children, young people and families to make improvements to our quality of practice. 

5.   Welcomes the increase in complaint response times at the end of Quarter 4.

6.   Notes the comments made around the balance of scrutiny reports to ensure both successes and areas of development are clearly set out.