To receive a report on the outcome of the Ofsted Inspection of Children’s Services and the Action Plan.

The Director of Children Safeguarding presented a report on the Outcome of the Children’s Safeguarding Ofsted Inspection, undertaken between 29 April and 21 May 2014, together with the Action Plan, and following areas were highlighted during the discussion:

·         That the Action Plan allowed monitoring of progress not only by Officers, Members and the HSCB, but also by the Department and the Minister, as the Council was still subject to an improvement notice.

·         That there had been some good progress made since the first inspection, albeit some of it was very recent, and that Ofsted did not identify any child potentially at risk of harm.

The Head of Children & Families Casework said that the Action Plan  was due to be submitted to the Department by the 6 October.  There had been significant amount of consultation across the Council, including Cabinet, both the Adults and the Children’s Safeguarding Boards in order to be as thorough as possible.  The Plan would be updated on a monthly basis and subject to internal and partnership scrutiny.  The HSCB element  would also be considered by the forthcoming Local Government Association Peer Diagnostic.

In reply to a question, he went on to say that the intention was to ensure that every lead officer would be held to account on a monthly basis.

In reply to a question, the Assistant Director Safeguarding & Early Help said that obstacles to achieving the Action Plan targets included the increase in Looked After Children, the rising demand for services with a reducing budget.  The CHIPP programme had been put in place in order to recycle resources and use them in a more efficient way.  The issue would be included in the overall Council Risk Register. 

A range of approaches were being used to deal with issues arising within hard to reach minority groups. This included the Roma and traveller team  working to identify protection issues.

In reply to a query regarding children placed in County by another authority who went missing from care, the Head of Children & Families Casework said there was a cultural shift when dealing with non-Herefordshire looked after children.  Independent care providers in the County were aware of the standards that the Council required of them. Of the two or three children that were reported missing every day, most were returned within a couple of hours. Improvement was required when aggregating data regarding children who went missing on a regular basis.  Work was in hand with other Authorities in order to ensure that all issues were shared across County boundaries.

It was suggested that if the police were called out to a Care Home for any reason, that this should be recorded in the record of the home for later examination.

A Member suggested that in a rural county, it was possible that abuse of children as highlighted in the Jay Report into Child Sexual Abuse in Rotherham was even more likely to go undetected.

That there was a team within the police looking at cyber bullying and associated issues, and had a dedicated officer to deal with concerns. The issues were also considered by the Herefordshire Safeguarding Children’s Board (HSCB).

In response to a question regarding Frameworki, the Head of Children & Families Casework said that the system worked well, the  problem in Herefordshire had been in the way that it had been  .  Changes to the Child Protection modules had reduced the operating time by two thirds, and the data was more accurate. 

In reply to a question, the Assistant Director Safeguarding & Early Help said that the Peer Review had highlighted the large caseloads.  These had improved significantly through a specific plan of action and would be managed by continuing to improve efficiencies within the department.  As a result of improvements, it was now possible to know exactly what was happening, a situation that they had not been in 12 months ago. The backlog of cases had been cleared, and the performance of staff had improved.  Frameworki system improvements meant that a case could now be closed within two hours rather than nine.

The process for Child Protection Conferences had been streamlined, and multi-agency colleagues were reporting back on the HSCB quality assurance framework.

In reply to a question, the Cabinet Member Young People and Children's Wellbeing said that progress was being made in ensuring Members understood their Corporate Parenting role. There had been a lack of understanding amongst Members about their role during the term of the present administration, and a new programme of training would be put in place following the elections in May 2015 which would require mandatory corporate parenting training.  Members who failed to complete this section would not be eligible for their allowance until they had done so.  Group Leaders would discuss the matter further, and a programme would be bought back to the Committee prior to the election. 

It was noted that there was an active group of Members on the Corporate Parenting Panel, and that Members were also actively seeking ways of helping young people by offering apprenticeships and a range of other opportunities and support.  It was suggested that a database of the skills and experience of Members should be developed in order to provide Young People with a tool to approach Councillors for guidance. This could be put together by the Groups.

Resolved

That:

a)    the outcome of the inspection attached at Appendix 1 be noted; 

b)    discussions be held with Group Leaders regarding a programme of training for Members following the election in May 2015; and;

c)    A database of Members skills be made available to Children’s Services in order to provide a resource for Looked After Children.