Agenda item

To receive and consider a report giving details of the Children’s Services Performance Indicators.

Nick Hammond, Service Manager Intelligence and Impact presented the Children’s Services Performance Indicators report which was set out in agenda pages 15-24.

Members felt frustrated that the data contained in the report was not up to date and that this was an ongoing issue.  It was explained that this report had been written for the November meeting which was postponed, and due to the timelines it had not been possible to update the report.

The following point arose from questions and discussions:

·           Members agreed that the format of the report was much improved but asked that trends be included in future reports;

·           Councillor Helliar-Symonds expected the data to be more up to date as a result of a new software which was implemented last year;

·           Nick Hammond stated that monthly data could be made available to the Committee, but this would not necessarily tie in with quarterly reports;

·           Adam Davis stated that it was important to be selective with data to avoid an overload, it might be more productive to concentrate on the narrative;

·           Members asked that the next report to the 21 January meeting contain more up to date information;

·           Members asked why the Early Help indicator did not contain national statistics.  Nick Hammond stated that there was no statutory return for this indicator.  Also, Early Help was not a statutory service and different authorities used different approaches, therefore it was not comparable;

·           Members asked why the number of referrals for Early Help Assessments was lower than the number of Early Help Assessments.  Kelli Scott, Interim Service Manager Early Help stated that not all referrals led to assessments, and also not all families engaged with the service;

·           Members were pleased to note the improvement in dashboard 3 – Children’s Social Care Front Door;

·           Members were concerned with the percentage of children in care who have more than one allocated social worker in 12 months (dashboard 5) and asked Officers what actions were being undertaken to improve this indicator.  Adam Davies stated that a recruitment and retention campaign was underway; the service was seeking to employ more permanent Social Workers and reduce the number of agency staff;

·           Adam Davis stated that the service had employed a dedicated recruitment and retention member of staff, this was already making a difference;

·           In response to a question Nick Hammond stated that there was no obligation for care leavers to keep in touch, therefore the service could not force care leavers to keep in touch;

·           Nick Hammond stated that work was being undertaken to understand, on an individual basis, the reasons why some care leaver were Not in Education Employment or Training (NEET);

·           Nick Hammond stated that there were good links with Housing and the use of B&B’s was being reduced;

·           In response to a question Adam Davis stated that there were around 80 care leavers in Wokingham.  Members asked that figures as well as percentages be included in future reports;

·           There was questioning around the number of children missing from home/care (dashboard 7) as members felt that 53 was a high number.  Officers explained that this referred to the number of incidents not the number of children.  Members requested information on how many children this related to, how long the missing incidents were and to separate the number of incidents of children missing from parental home or from care in future reports;

·           In response to a question Adam Davis stated that the number of incidents was higher in the summer and children missing were always a cause of concern;

·           Members noted the improvement in the percentage of return home interviews carried out on time;

·           Councillor Helliar-Symonds stated that last year there had been a Social Worker Recruitment and Retention Working Group, the resulting report contained various recommendations.  She asked if this report had been taken into account in setting up the Social Worker Recruitment and Retention Strategy.  Adam Davis stated that this strategy was not yet finalised and that this report was being taken into account.

RESOLVED That:

1)     Future reports would contain more up to date information;

2)     Future reports would include trends; and

3)     Officers would provide more information around dashboard 7 and the narrative behind the figures.