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 increase in the number of UASC;

·           Adam Davis explained that any increase in any cohort of CIC would cause a challenge, not just UASC.  There were additional challenges in relation to UASC in terms of culture, faith and language, where Wokingham alone may not have the resources to fully meet their needs;

·           In response to a question Adam Davis made reference to the Ofsted focused visit letter, in which they talked about how to meet the emotional wellbeing of UASC.  Part of the solution to this challenge was the new Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for CIC.  Adam Davis added that it could be particularly difficult to support UASC in the first three to four months of their arrival;

·           Helen Watson pointed out that Ofsted had commented on the “Herculaneum” effort which had been undertaken by all Children’s Services staff to deal with the increase in numbers of CIC.  She added that the virtual school was also focusing on the education of UASC;

·           The Chairman, on the Committee’s behalf, wished to commend and thank Children’s Services staff for all their ongoing work;

·           Councillor Rowland asked if it was possible to include a breakdown on the number of CIC to show the number of UASC;

·           Adam Davis stated that some metrics used by the service did split the numbers.  He confirmed that at the this point in time, out of 136 CIC 28 were UASC;

·           In response to a question, Adam Davis explained that children from Hong Kong or Ukraine did not qualify as UASC;

·           Councillor Howe reminded the Committee that this was a public meeting, and that all had to be mindful of that fact in relation to sharing data in the meetings;

·           In response to a question Adam Davis stated that there was an error in the date in the table for this dashboard, it should have been rolled over to 2022.  He explained that all visits had moved to face-to-face.  There were four categories within children’s social care:

1.    Child In Need– a child with a plan of support

2.    Child Protection – a child with a plan of support and protection

3.    Child In Care – a looked after child with a care plan

4.    Care Leavers – a young person with a pathway plan

·           The total number of visits listed in the report included the first three categories.  He confirmed that a high level of face-to-face visits had been sustained throughout the pandemic;

·           Adam Davis explained that the table showed the level of activity, every visit related to one social worker meeting a child and producing a report;

·           In response to a question Adam Davis explained that an upward arrow did not necessarily mean an improvement, it meant an increase in the numbers;

·           Councillor Helliar-Symonds expressed concern that the number of children with more than one social worker in 12 months had gone up;

·           Adam Davis agreed that this was an area of concern.  However, this could be related to a particular month when a social worker became a team manager.  He added that this issue related to the national challenges in the recruitment of social workers.

 

It was noted that there was some confusion with interpreting the presentation in the report.  Officers agreed to review the format of the report, to make sure that the presentation was clear for Members.

 

Dashboard item 6 – Care Leavers

·           Councillor Chadwick asked what was the future of Care Leavers who were Not in Education Employment or Training (NEET), she wondered if they would go on to receive benefits long term;

·           Sal Thirlway explained that although there was an increase in the percentage, this equated to two young people.  The figures were in relation to care leavers who were in touch with the local authority, this represented 99% of Care Leavers.  The higher the number of Care Leavers in touch, the higher the NEET figure was likely to be.  By having a better understanding of the numbers, the local authority would be better placed to help and support them;

·           Adam Davis added that with changes in legislation, the offer to Care Leavers had been extended to 25 year olds, therefore increasing the cohort of Care Leavers;

·           Sal Thirlway pointed out the NEET figures were improved compared to the same period last year.

 

Dashboard item 7 – Children Missing from Home/Care

·           The Chairman asked what the plan of improvement in relation to the return home interviews was? (this had been mentioned in the Ofsted report).  He also asked if the improvement plan could be shared with the Committee:

·           Adam Davis informed that the service had challenged that figure, explaining that some children had only been 15 minutes late returning home, the figure was in relation to the police being informed of a child going missing and their status.  However, the service was reviewing this issue and it was part of a plan of improvement.  It was important to ensure that the reporting was right, he added that when Officers looked into the figures, there was no concern of risk to those children;

·           Adam Davis stated that this was being monitored by Corporate Parenting Board.  He agreed to copy Members of the CSO&S into the documentation in relation to this improvement plan;

·           Councillor Chadwick asked about the statistics in relation to Elective Home Educated Children (EHEC);

·           Sal Thirlway confirmed that EHEC were not included in the figures for this dashboard.  EHEC were considered to be receiving an education and were not required to be on a school roll;

·           Sal Thirlway explained that currently there was no legal requirement to hold the information about the number of EHEC, it was up to parents and schools to inform the local authority about EHEC.  The local authority had a level of knowledge on the number of EHEC, the Education Welfare Service worked with families of EHEC.  The Department for Education (DfE) was looking to put in place more robust legislation in relation to the powers of the local authority to monitor EHEC.

 

Dashboard item 8 – Children’s Services Workforce

·           Councillor Howe suggested that Officers comment on the rise of staff turn over, in particular of social workers;

·           Adam Davis explained that around two years ago, a recruitment campaign had been implemented, the figure at that time was of 33% locums, and the service set itself a target of 10% - including maternity and sick leave gaps.  The service got very close to the target and achieved 15%, and this remained for a period of time.  The figure now was closer to 28%, this was due to a number of factors, such as covid and the ‘great resignation’ (people re-evaluating their lives and choosing to do different things). 

 

A number of measures were in place to bring down the number of locums, such as offering training opportunities for newly qualified social workers.  Wokingham was also part of Memorandum Of Cooperation (MOC) this was a Member association of 19 local authorities across the South East which prevented permanent social workers from living a permanent role and becoming a locum in one of those authorities.

 

There were a number of work streams underway, including a very good training offer, to tackle the recruitment challenges, this was a national challenge.

·           Councillor Rowland acknowledged the efforts being made and stated that it was important to keep this under review, and to treat staff very well in order to retain staff and maintain the level of service;

·           Adam Davis agreed that part of the solution was offering manageable case loads;

·           Councillor Neal was concerned about the MOC, and wondered if this constituted an abuse of power, by stopping people from becoming self-employed;

·           Adam Davis explained that this was the approach used in the Southeast and many other parts of England.

 

The Chaiman stated that the demographics of CIC profile was changing.  He would like to know the implication of these changes, both in terms of challenges and opportunities.

 

Adam Davis stated that some of the changes were the increase in the number of UASC (30% of CIC were UASC) and the variation in the age rage of CIC, with more CIC now being 16 to 17 years old.  This variation in age had an implication in the need for Care Leaver’s accommodation, there was work being undertaken with Housing to support this need.  There was also a focus on transition to adulthood.

 

Adam Davis explained that in terms of opportunities, the service offered a number of engagement opportunities with CIC.  These events were regularly reported to CPB.

 

The Chairman stated that another issue that was often mentioned, was the increase in the level of complex needs.  He asked about the implications of this increase on the services.

 

In response to the question about complexity, Adam Davis explained that this was about the layers of complexity.  The covid situation and the rise in cost of living also had an impact on the services.

 

Helen Watson added that the level of complexity in relation to children and young people’s mental health was increasing.  There was an opportunity to make a bid to the DfE for capital funding for some provision to meet the needs of very complex children and young people.  This opportunity was being explored with the CCG.

 

The Chairman proposed that the data in relation to UASC be continuously monitored, given that this cohort was increasing and that this trend was likely to continue in the foreseeable future.  He also proposed to review data in relation to emotional health and wellbeing of children and young people.

 

Councillor Rowland agreed that it was important to monitor the emotional health and wellbeing of children and young people.  She added that children faced of lot of challenges currently, in the context of the digital age that we are living.

 

Councillor Howe stated that there was a lot of activity that occurred in the services in relation to UASC, he supported the proposal to monitor this data.  He added that Children’s Services was a very complex service.  He suggested that the training session for Members include information about the structure of the service.

 

Councillor Helliar-Symonds agreed that training sessions were very useful to understand how the service was structured and its complexities.

 

Helen Watson suggested that separate information about UASC be provided in a part 2 session, given that those children were part of small cohort that could be easily identified.

 

Adam Davis confirmed that a training session was scheduled for later in the month.  Helen Watson added that if needed, more training sessions could be provided during the year.

 

RESOLVED That:

 

1)     The Committee would continue to monitor the activity of EHCPs (Dashboard item 1) at its next meeting;

 

2)     Data on UASC would be provided in a part 2 session;

 

3)     The number of Elective Home Educated Children in the borough would be circulated with the minutes; and

 

4)     Training sessions would be provided to Members in accordance with the need.