Agenda item

To consider a progress report on the recommendations made in the internal audit report of Post-Inspection Improvements issued on 29 November 2019. 

Mrs Diane Booth, Director of Children’s Services presented a progress report on the recommendations made in the internal audit report of Post-Inspection Improvements which had been issued in November 2019.

In relation to recommendation R1 ‘The health memorandum of understanding should be finalised,’ Mrs Booth reported that whilst the item was still outstanding, the health memorandum was in development as part of the Youth Offending service improvement plan. She highlighted that time had been taken to review examples of best practice at other local authorities and anticipated completion within the next six weeks.

Recommendations R2 ‘The future delivery of the Youth Offending Team (YOT) quality audit programme should be considered, including consideration of any linkages to wider Children’s Services quality audit,’ and R3 ‘The review and development of the YOT performance dashboard should be finalised,’ were reported as being completed. The addition of a new YOT IT system in November 2020 would further support the analysis and reporting of data going forward.

With regards to Recommendation R4 ‘A YOT workforce development strategy should be completed,’ Mrs Booth advised that the strategy was in place and under regular review in line with the wider Children’s Services improvement plan, adding that delivery had successfully continued remotely during the pandemic.

In response to Recommendation R5 ‘The redesigned Children’s Social Care performance reporting framework should be implemented,’ the Committee was informed that the work was complete and had been implemented, with Mrs Booth advising Committee Members that Children’s Social Care had an excellent understanding of performance which would support practice. The Committee was informed that Blackpool Council regularly received positive feedback and requests for advice and support from other local authorities across the North West due to the high quality of data reporting produced by Children’s Social Care.

In relation to Recommendation R6 ‘In accordance with the improvement plan, the strategic Children’s and Families partnership should be established and a Children and Young people strategy should be considered,’ the Committee was informed that the partnership had been set up and three priority areas for the town had been identified. Mrs Booth outlined these as Literacy, Inclusion and Improving the life chances of all children and young people in Blackpool. She added that the governance arrangements for the boards had now been implemented and embedded.

In response to a question from the Committee on whether assurance could be provided that adequate post-inspection progress was being made, Mrs Booth advised that despite the Inspectorate for Prison and Probation having cancelled all immediate inspection visits until approximately April 2021, the Youth Justice Service had undergone two recent peer reviews from other local authorities which indicated progress was on target in this area.

In relation to the Ofsed findings following the inspection of Children’s Services, the Committee was informed that no external validation would be available until Ofsted resumed inspections. Mrs Booth was able to report that the Department for Education Improvement Adviser had provided assurance to the Getting to Good Board that the anticipated ‘stocktake’ of Children’s Social Care would result in positive feedback and she hoped to be in a position to bring an update on the Commissioner’s feedback to a future meeting of the Audit Committee.

In response to a question on any barriers to the delivery of the audit recommendations, Mrs Booth advised that the most challenging aspect was that of strategic partnership working, which had initially been made significantly more difficult due to the Covid-19 restrictions. However, she was pleased to report that a bi-product of the pandemic had been a streamlining of processes between partners which was assisting in improving partnership working going forward.

The Committee noted the report and extended thanks to Mrs Booth and her team for the continuing progress in relation to the Directorate’s improvement programme.