Agenda item

To inform Scrutiny Committee of the work undertaken by Children’s Services on a day to day basis and to update on the progress and implementation of developments within the areas.

Mrs Diane Booth, Director of Children’s Services presented the report as read and highlighted that additional information would be provided on Placement Sufficiency to the next meeting of the Committee.

In response to questions, Mr Tony Morrissey, Interim Head of Safeguarding and Principal Social Worker, Children’s Social Care reported that the number of referrals to Children’s Social Care had reduced. There had been a slow decline, however, numbers did fluctuate regularly for a number of reasons included national interest. He added that referrals were analysed to consider where they came from and if they were appropriate. The majority of referrals were received from the Police.

Members referred to the report, noting that 86.5% of statutory visits had been undertaken. Mr Morrisey advised that team monthly performance meetings were held and social workers were required to explain every visit that had not been carried out. The majority of delays were small and often due to delays in updating systems. He added that if there were difficulties in accessing a child to undertake a statutory visit, escalation procedures would be followed. Mrs Diane Booth, Director of Children’s Services added that a back-up audit whereby young people were contacted directly to ensure visits had been undertaken was used and that Members could be confident that all required visits were being undertaken.

Mrs Booth highlighted the changes being made to the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub and advised that communication of the change was key. She added that the new model could be presented to the next meeting of the Committee for consideration.

The Committee discussed the exit strategy for Care Leavers and noted that the number exiting care had slowed and queried the reasons for the reduction. Mrs Booth advised that there were not enough senior social workers to carry out the work. She added that additional funding had been agreed to provide additional social workers to undertake the work, however, the required appointments had not been made. The majority of applicants were inexperienced and there were a number of roles an inexperienced social worker could not undertake including the discharge of children from care. In response to questions, she advised that existing staff were being retained, however, more were required. It was noted that details regarding staffing could be included in the dashboard agreed in Item 6 ‘Youth Related Activities and Youth Justice’.

Mrs Louise Storey, Head of Children’s Social Care added that the service was being creative in recruitment and had realised the aim of creating a good culture in the service, which had encouraged members of staff to stay. She highlighted that there was good team support with a no blame culture but at the same time a culture of accountability. It was noted that news of the positive culture at the Council was travelling by word of mouth and was encouraging more senior workers to consider Blackpool as an option.

The Committee discussed support for staff in detail and considered that a piece of scrutiny work should be carried out on how employees were supported, how involved front line teams were in determining support and the workforce strategy and that they would like to talk to frontline members of staff to discuss the impact of changes made to date and what more could be done. The work could also consider how the learning outcomes being achieved by HeadStart with regards to resilience were being used in the service.

Members considered the total number of children in care and noted the significant increase in June caused by large sibling groups. It was suggested by Mrs Booth that, previously, too many risks had been taken with not enough babies brought into care and in comparison, too little risk had been taken with too many teenagers brought into care. This had had a significant impact on the profile of children and young people in care in Blackpool as babies would likely be adopted quickly and therefore soon leave care, whilst an older child or teenager would likely spend a large number of years in the care system. It was highlighted that procedures had been put in place to ensure the right children were coming into care at the right time.

The Committee agreed:

1.      To receive information regarding the changes to the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub at the next meeting of the Committee.

2.      To include data on staffing in the dashboard agreed with Item 6.

3.      To undertake a piece of work on the support provided to members of staff within Children’s Social Care.