To receive the outcome of the Ofsted inspection of services under the new Inspection of Local Authority Children Services (ILACS) framework, which was conducted between 4 June 2018 and 22 June 2018.

To consider the council’s response to areas for improvement identified and to make any recommendations regarding the council’s proposed submission to Ofsted and proposed actions to address the areas of improvement that have been identified.

The cabinet member children and families introduce the report, supported by the assistant director safeguarding and family support. It was highlighted that:

·         an inspection of children’s services took place in June 2018 under the new Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) framework;

·         the previous inspection in 2014 found services to be requiring improvement overall;

·         the new framework had greater focus on the experiences and outcomes for children, and more time during the inspection was spent taking to front line social work staff and reviewing case files;

·         the 2018 inspection judged Herefordshire as requiring improvement overall;

·         a number of areas of strength were identified, no children seen during the inspection were found to be at risk of immediate harm and children in need of immediate help or protection had their needs met;

·         the impact of leadership on social work practice with children and families was judged to be inadequate and insufficient progress had been made in a number of areas since the previous inspection;

·         additional funding to increase capacity of social workers, social work managers, family support and business support had been agreed prior to the inspection in recognition of the need to invest;

·         the impact of the newly appointed director and the passion of the staff was recognised but it was too early to see improvements;

·         links had been formed with other councils to help the service develop;

·         the improvement plan focussed on the next three month period, after which it would be reviewed and updated as completed actions were closed off and others added;

·         some areas were already seeing improvement, other changes would not be quick fixes and sustained change would require constant focus;

·         regular performance challenge sessions would monitor progress.

In discussion of the item it was noted that:

·         changes had been made to the council policy on hard to recruit roles, recognising that the market for skilled social work staff was very competitive and that other councils were also seeking to recruit and retain sufficient numbers of qualified staff;

·         Herefordshire had been one of the first councils to be inspected under the new framework where there was no formal interview process for senior leaders, only a review of cases and interviews with front line staff;

·         the greater emphasis on practice and outcomes for children in the new framework was welcomed;

·         the inspection findings mirrored those in the council’s self-assessment;

·         councillors had a role to play in challenging performance, particularly on areas where progress was not being made as swiftly as it should, and in holding officers to account, the regular performance challenge sessions were effective and it was important for councillors to continue to ask questions;

·         the council’s partners such as the police and NHS were aware of their responsibilities in keeping children and young people safe;

·         recruiting sufficient skilled social work staff was a national issue;

·         the additional funding made available prior to the inspection was being used to improve a numbers of areas, for example increasing capacity in legal services to support legal processes around children’s social care;

·         the financial position of the council was acknowledged and it was recognised that additional resources for children’s services meant that those resources could not be used elsewhere.

The chair of the children and young people scrutiny committee summarised the response of the committee to the report and action plan. She noted that:

·         the action plan went a long way to providing what was required in order to deliver a good service;

·         the new focus in inspections on the outcomes for the child rather than the process was welcomed;

·         the good work in a large number of areas should not be lost sight of;

·         referrals to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) from the police were very high and over 70% required no further action, this needed to change as social worker time was tied up checking information;

·         the scrutiny committee would consider the action plan on a quarterly basis and also consider an item on assessing referrals from the police.

Group leaders were invited to present the views of their group. It was noted that:

·         partnership working was important;

·         judgements on inadequate leadership had been made before and needed to be addressed;

·         a cultural shift was required which would not be delivered simply by throwing money at the problems;

·         it was a challenge to make Herefordshire an attractive plan for social work staff to work including keeping caseloads down and providing the right working environment.

Resolved that:

a)    cabinet determine any additional actions it wished to be taken to strengthen the draft action plan attached at appendix 2; and

b)    subject to any revisions, the action plan be approved for submission to Ofsted by 25 October 2018.