Issue - meetings

To receive and consider the Children’s Services Performance Indicators report.

The Children’s Services Performance Indicators report was presented by Stephen Goss, Intelligence and Impact Performance Leader.

The Committee reviewed each dashboard indicator and some of the comments made during the discussions are listed below.

Dashboard 1 – Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP)

·           Stephen Goss stated that improving the quality and timeliness of EHCP had been a priority for the service for some time.  The improvements shown were the result of concerted efforts to drive improvement;

·           Councillor Loyes was interested to know if there were any figures relating to Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND).  Stephen Goss stated that this could be provided;

·           Councillor Mickleburgh asked if there were plans in place to deal with potential increases in demand.  He was also interested to know what checks were in place to ensure the quality of plans.  Sal Thirlway, Assistant Director for Learning Achievement and Partnerships stated that there was planning for further growth within the medium term financial plan, the service was actively planning to ensure that future capacity would be met.  Sal also stated that there was a range of multi-agency activity, and the service received support from other local authorities to ensure the quality was not being compromised over timeliness;

·           Councillor Croy asked if there had been an impact in staffing during this period, in relation to the pandemic.  Sal Thirlway stated that there had been only one or two staff changes where interim staff had left, at the moment there was a low level of churn.  Sal also stated that the next phase of development would be to recruit staff on a permanent basis;

·           Councillor Richards asked if the improvements were due to having more staff or due to changes in processes.  Sal Thirlway stated that as well as having more staff, there had also been an improvement in partnership working, for example better timeliness from Health professionals;

·           In response to a question Stephen Goss agreed to include targets, where possible, in future reports;

·           Councillor Bray wondered if the service expected an increase in EHCPs now that children were going back to school.  She asked that future reports include the number of EHCPs that had been applied for but not granted.

Dashboard 2 – Early Help

·           Stephen Goss stated that there had been an increase in the number of Early Help assessments in this quarter and an improvement in the length of time in days between referral and assessment completion;

·           In relation to a question about staffing, Sal Thirlway stated that this was stable.  Sal stated that a number of staff that had been isolating were now returning to work, there had been a lot of remote assessments during lockdown;

·           Councillor Croy noted that the fact that staff had been working from home had not impacted the numbers.  Adam Davis, Assistant Director for Children’s Social Care stated that there had been a change in the way the service was delivered, for example with more use of WhatsApp and phone calls; with less time spent travelling staff had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23