Agenda item

12.1   The Committee considered a report by the Executive Director of Children, Young People and Learning (copy appended to the signed minutes) which was introduced by Cllr Russell, Cabinet Member for Children & Young People who made the following points: -

·       Referrals to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) were expected to increase now that children were returning to school – staffing levels were sufficient to cope with this

·       Face to face visits had increased

·       An OFSTED inspector had been seconded to the Council’s Adolescent Family Resource Team to provide support during the Covid-19 pandemic

·       In Early Help, safeguarding concerns were being dealt with and care packages and resources were still being delivered

·       The voice of the child was still being heard though video, texting and phone calls and the Department of Digital Media & Sport has requested to interview the team in relation to examples of good support given during Covid-19

·       1,396 Early Help Plans had been put in place with the proportion of referrals to social care being 2.6% against a predicted 2.8%

·       The Early Help service was being remodelled and it was expected that plans would be developed by September 

·       The Step Across Panel has helped 343 children move to Early Help from Social Care

·       Early Help has helped other areas during Covid-19 and will continue to do so during the recovery phase. The service was expecting a spike in demand as pupils returned to school

·       The Pause service has continued to help young women through virtual means  

·       50% of early years settings remained open at the peak of Covid-19

·       101 vulnerable children have been attending early years settings with support available to 188 who have not been able to attend

·       1,555 children of critical workers had been attending early years provision

·       Questions around funding meant that not all early years’ settings would open from 1 June

·       The service anticipated greater demand in areas of the County hit by unemployment in the travel and tourism industries

·       The review of in-house residential services had been delayed by Covid-19

·       The Fostering service has met with the United Foster Carers’ Association to review the foster care allowance scheme and improve recruitment and retention of foster carers

12.2   Lucy Butler, Executive Director of Children Young People and Learning added the following: -

·       90% of social workers kept working during Covid-19 often using virtual methods to contact children.  This was popular with older young people and would be continued

·       Assistant Director posts for Corporate Parenting and Quality & Assurance were currently being advertised

·       Improvement work had continued as a priority during the pandemic with the Improvement Board continuing to meet.  Ofsted inspections had been delayed, with no inspections anticipated before September

·       The County Council’s Promise for Looked After Children and those leaving care was being digitally launched in June

·       The service is continuing to focus on prevention and was working to put a practice model in place 

·       Establishing a Children’s Trust had been paused until August, however the legal and financial work would continue

12.3   Summary of responses to committee members questions and comments: -

·       The Commissioner for Children’s Services in West Sussex received monthly updates on the County Council improvement progress and also provides updates to the Department for Education

·       Service remodelling meant less buildings, not a reduced service which would in fact be enhanced

·       An impact assessment by Human Resources and a new recruitment & retention offer in September would hopefully offset deferred resignations and the end of the recruitment & retention offer that could lead to a high number of social workers leaving in the autumn

·       The journey of the child from the child’s point of view was being looked at as part of the service redesign with the aim of there being the least number of disruptions possible e.g. fewer changes of social worker

·       The aim was for social workers to have between 13 and 16 cases at one time to maintain quality of service, so caseloads were monitored weekly with extra resources used where necessary

·       Newly qualified social workers were supported and fed back on their experience near the end of their first year

·       A preventative practice model helped reduce caseloads and the amount of time children and families spent in social care

·       It was not possible to grade caseloads due to the complexity and difference between individual cases

·       The Council employed more agency staff than it wished and was working towards a more sustainable workforce – ACTION: Lucy Butler to provide the Committee with the number of agency workers in the Looked After Children service

·       Thirty social workers were about to join the Council and it was hoped a further ten would join in September

·       The number of children harmed had remained consistent over the last five months – ACTION: Sally Allen to provide relevant data to the Committee

·       Households identified by the early help hubs as suffering due to loss of income during Covid-19 were given help

·       The Committee recognised that reduced social worker caseloads were critical in the improved quality of work and outcomes for children and wished to be kept informed on caseload numbers at a future meeting

·       The Committee noted the amount of work that had progressed during the Covid-19 pandemic and thanked officers for their work to continue the improvement journey 

·       The Committee also requested to be kept updated on the impact of Covid-19 on workforce numbers at a future meeting as workforce stability was also key to improve the outcomes for children

12.4   Resolved – that the Committee is satisfied with the direction of travel and progress being made on the Children First improvement journey.