Agenda item

To inform scrutiny 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 area to allow effective scrutiny of services.

Mrs Del Curtis, Director of People presented the Children’s Services Improvement Report and the Chairman invited questions from the Committee.

The Committee queried the relationship with schools and was informed by Mrs Curtis that engagement from schools had improved significantly since the introduction of the Blackpool Challenge Board. She added that the level of funding provided to the authority for school improvement reduced each time a school converted to academy status and she highlighted the Government’s announcement that every school would become an academy by 2020.

Members noted that 303 contacts had been received from the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub with only 42 converted into referrals and questioned why so few had converted. In response, Ms Josie Lee, Service Manager, Children’s Social Care advised that the Performance Review Group had requested a full report to analyse the contacts and any trends, a copy of which would be circulated to the Committee when completed.

In response to questions, Ms Lee advised that all children who had been on Child Protection Plans for more than 18 months would be reassessed to determine if the plan was still appropriate. She added that agencies were often unsure of taking children off plans and more work was required to manage the agencies’ concerns.

The Committee noted that the report highlighted that the number of Our Children (Looked After Children) had increased due to increased demand and a number of serious injuries to young children and requested further information. Ms Lee advised that a number of large families had been accommodated since December 2015 and that four instances of serious injuries to young children had occurred within one month, all of whom had been taken into care.

Members discussed the funding received to provide therapeutic support to young people who had been sexually abused. In response to questions, Mrs Curtis advised that the therapeutic support would link to HeadStart and that the funding received was a one-off and the results of the pilot would be analysed to identify impact.

Members went on to consider the increase in the number of children who had been removed from mainstream education to be educated at home. Mrs Curtis advised that an initial visit was undertaken in each instance in addition to an annual review. She added that the Blackpool Education Registers Attendance (BERA) Panel tracked all young people including those educated at home. The Committee sought further assurance that young people in receipt of home education were safe and received an adequate education, however, Mrs Curtis informed Members that although the authority had no power to monitor the standard of education any safeguarding concerns would be escalated following recognised procedures.

The Committee noted the significant improvements made to the reoffending rates of young offenders and reducing first time entrants to the youth justice system and queried how the improvements had been achieved. Mrs Curtis advised that the Youth Offending Team Service had been redesigned and had moved out of special measures. In order to continue improvements, the Youth Offending Team would be linked to the Vulnerable Adolescent Hub to provide a more joined up approach for young people in a preferable location.

The Committee agreed to receive the analysis of contacts received from the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub.