To receive an updated report on the Recovery Plan for child protection services in Herefordshire.

The Committee received a verbal report on the Recovery Plan for Children’s Safeguarding.

The Director of People reported that the Draft Improvement notice had only just been received from the Department for Education, and the final version should be received within the next two weeks. Work was already underway within the Council, and the first report would be submitted to the Department before the Improvement Notice had come into effect.

The external audit of the casework files undertaken by Outcomes UK ltd would report shortly.  The majority of the cases had been audited by the company, but around 5% had been done by the Council in order to be in a position to strengthen its in-house auditing.  Similar themes to those found by OFSTED had been identified.  Of the cases that had been audited, 60% were in the adequate/good/outstanding categories.  A number of practitioners were operating on a good to outstanding level, and the analysis that had been undertaken would allow the Service to build on its strengths and provide support to teams where necessary.

She went on to outline the risks that had been identified in the system.  One of these was a weakness in frontline and middle management.  Interim and permanent managers were in place following the OFSTED inspection, but until there was a permanently recruited and stable cohort of front line management, it would be difficult to ensure a sustained and effective service.

A further risk was the volume of work that was currently in the system.   Child protection numbers had increased, and the team had to deal with a 50% higher workload than several month previously.   Whilst additional staff were being recruited, there was still a problem in providing timely responses to inquiries. There had been an impact on morale as a result of these pressures.  Staff were supportive of change and improvement to the service, but there were anxieties around the volume of work.

The Assistant Director Children & Young People Provider Services added that significant work was being undertaken in looking at the child’s journey through the system.  Complexity and duplication was being taken out of the system, which was being simplified.  She added that front line managers found the support of Members very useful.

In reply to a question from a Member, the Director said that, under child protection legislation, it was not possible to utilise means testing when taking children into care.  Some Local Authorities had considered this, but had not implemented it.  The administrative cost of ensuring payments were made was often prohibitive as, in such cases, parents were often in dispute with the local authority.  The numbers of people fostering in the County had grown over the previous two years,

In reply to a further question, the Director went on to say that a tender exercise had been undertaken on the case audit of 1,600 cases, and there would be a cost to the Council of £92k for using Outcome Uk Ltd.  The on-going audit of cases that was now possible following this process would mean that the Council would not need to use outside contractors in this manner again.  Consideration was also being given to the setting up of a West Midlands group of Local Authorities who could loan out their staff to audit the quality of work.  This cost effective process was already being used in London boroughs.