To: a) inform Cabinet of the outcome of the Department for Education (DfE) Review; b) to inform Cabinet of the outcome of the Herefordshire Safeguarding Children’s Board (HSCB) Local Government Association (LGA) Peer Diagnostic; and c) to update Cabinet on the progress to date on the Ofsted Action Plan.

The Cabinet Member, Young People and Children’s Services, introduced an update report on the outcomes of three inspections concerning safeguarding within Children’s Services.

The Director of Children’s Wellbeing and the Head of Safeguarding and Review presented the update.

It was noted that the Department for Education (DfE) review was positive and that steps are being taken to improve the areas that were identified as requiring further attention. The rate of progress is dependent upon sustaining stability and quality of the workforce which is being addressed through a range of recruitment activity with the intention of reducing the proportion of agency workers from 31%. 

There is ongoing support from all agencies and progress is being made despite some issues with capacity, which is being addressed to ensure effective safeguarding.

It is hoped that the DfE will take the decision at the end of March 2015 to lift the intervention notice and this will enable transitional arrangements for effective safeguarding and for the service to then focus on continuous improvement. The appointment of a new Chair of the Herefordshire Safeguarding Children Board will be announced next week.

The Peer Diagnostic pilot scrutinised the functionality of the Safeguarding Board and informed the DfE review. It also recognised that better alignment of partnership working was needed and that the voice of the child needed to be embedded. Both of these matters are being addressed. The review also noted improvements in multi-agency working and in business support and was positive about what has been achieved within the past twelve months.

Progress on the Ofsted action plan was noted; the Safeguarding Board is now responsible for assuring delivery of the plan and this will form the bench-mark for any future Ofsted inspection. Key evidence will be that there is a case by case difference reflected in feedback from families.

In answer to a member’s question regarding sufficient resourcing of the business of the Safeguarding Children Board, the Director of Children’s Wellbeing explained that that there was support from partner agencies to enhance structures. A management of change process is underway and there is confidence that the structure will be fully staffed from April 2015. It was further clarified that there is work across the partnership to ensure that priorities are addressed through the Safeguarding Board.

The leader of the Independent Group asked about the scale of the concerns reported by staff feeling overwhelmed with administrative tasks. The Head of Safeguarding and Review confirmed that capacity in the business support function was being addressed to support the volume of calls to the service, further enhanced by improvements in telephony. The casework management system, Frameworki, is also being modernised to simplify processes.

The Chairman of the General Overview and Scrutiny Committee commented that there is more to be done to ensure stability and that there is an alarming volume of complex cases that remain unreported including those relating to child sexual exploitation.

The leader of the Green group asked for reassurance that there is now focus and strong  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64