Issue - meetings

To receive and consider the Key Performance Indicators report.

Some of the comments made during the discussion of the item are listed below.

Dashboard item 1 – Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)

·           Councillor Chadwick asked why the number of EHCPs had gone up so significantly in Q4;

·           Sal Thirlway stated that there had been a greater need for assessment and placements, with an increase in the number of Special Educational Needs (SEN) children.  This increase in demand impacted on the timeliness of completion of assessments;

·           Councillor Rowland was concerned that the service was not good enough for schools and asked what the plan was to tackle this situation;

·           Sal Thirlway stated that the service and level of activity had improved, but there was still work to do to improve the service.  The capacity and nature of SEN services was continually monitored to support EHCPs requests.  A Wokingham Partnership was being established in order to better understand the needs for support at schools;

·           Councillor Rowland asked that this item be brought back to the next meeting to monitor the improvement of EHCPs;

·           Councillor Helliar-Symonds asked for the whole total averages of the year (not just 20/21) to be included in all of the dashboards;

Dashboard item 2 – Early Help

·           Councillor Rowland was concerned about the direction of travel on this indicator, she believed that Early Help for children was very important;

·           Adam Davis explained that a downwards trend was not necessarily negative for this indicator.  The downward time between referral and assessment was a positive result;

·           Adam Davis added that there had been a significant increase in the front door referrals of 57% and the service had retained the timescales, so this was a doubly positive result.

Dashboard item 3 – Children’s Social Care Front Door

·           The Chairman stated that, in relation to the percentage of assessments completed within 45 days, Wokingham continued to be below the national average and statistical neighbours averages.  He asked what was being done to address this?

·           Adam Davis stated that work was being undertaken to clear out the backlog.  He explained that sometimes delays were caused because other activities were underway, however this was an area of focus;

·           In response to a question Adam Davis stated that there were 25 assessments out of the 45 day timeframe, but this number fluctuated up and down.  Delays could occur because of delays in court proceedings for example, or in the case of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeker Children (UASC) delays were caused as the assessment could take longer.  The service was looking to improve this performance where possible;

·           In response to a question Adam Davis explained that there was a threshold document which assessed if a contact should be progressed or not.  However, this judgement was complex and subjective.

Dashboard item 4 – Child Protection

·           In response to a question, Adam Davis explained that child protection visits were undertaken every ten working days continuously.

Dashboard item 5 – Children In Care (CIC)

·           The Chairman asked if there were any particular concerns in relation to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8