To review performance against the safeguarding and family support improvement plan 2019/20.

The committee considered a report by the assistant director for safeguarding and family support (ADS&FS) which provided an update on performance in quarter 4 of 2020/21 against the safeguarding and family support improvement plan.

The ADS&FS introduced the report which included the points below:

·         There was a need to improve the response of MASH to referrals within 24 hours and work was ongoing to facilitate the handling of less serious referrals by early help services. Work was also continuing to attempt to address the high level of referrals received from the police;

·         There had been a decrease in the number of children on child protection plans. An audit was in progress in an attempt to understand the cause of this trend with a report available in June or July 2020;

·         The completion of special guardianship orders and the rescinding of care orders might be impacted by the closure of courts during the COVID-19 pandemic;

·         The roll-out of signs of safety had been affected by COVID-19 which had delayed the programme of briefings;

·         Improvements that had been achieved in quarter 4 included: timeliness of visits; supervision; and the completion of assessments within timescales.

There was a brief adjournment at 1.51 p.m. to allow Councillor Jennie Hewitt to reconnect with the virtual meeting. The meeting reconvened at 1.55 p.m.

In the discussion that followed the principal points below were raised:

·         It was proposed that when the new arrangements for the improvement report were considered that thought be given to prioritising the actions contained in the improvement plan. The invitation of all members of the committee to performance challenge sessions was also proposed as a recommendation. The DCF explained that work was ongoing on making changes to the improvement plan including smarter actions/timescales and to be clearer about the priority areas. The ADS&FS explained that it was difficult to prioritise elements in the plan as all actions were essential for improvement.

·         There was concern that the improvements realised would be undermined by the COVID-19 pandemic and if there was sufficient resource in the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) to cope with an increase in referrals during the easing of the lockdown. The ADS&FS explained that mechanisms had been put in place at the start of the lockdown to ensure that meetings and visits could continue virtually where appropriate. Where necessary face to face visits were continuing and keeping in touch meetings were taking place virtually to ensure that contact was maintained with children. Work was ongoing with partners to ensure that there would be sufficient staff resource in the MASH to handle any potential increase in the level of referrals following the return of schools and proactive conversations were taking place with schools to monitor the return of children on child protection plans. Social workers from the assessment team were being trained to undertake work in the MASH if an increase in referrals required additional resource.

·         It was queried if the involvement of third sector organisations had been considered to support the actions contained in the improvement plan and it was proposed that work with the voluntary sector was explored. The ADS&FS explained that a lot of work had taken place to facilitate partner agencies, in frontline contact with children, to complete early help assessments. The DCF explained that the talk community initiative was playing an increasing role in the county and the intention was that this would continue to develop an approach which was focused directly on the benefits for children through family based work and utilised community strengths.

·         The increase in the number of looked after children over the previous six years was queried and when the rate in Herefordshire would begin to fall into line with neighbouring local authorities. The ADS&FS explained that the focus of the looked after children reduction strategy was to reduce the number of children entering care and enable children to leave care. The work of the edge of care service would assist in preventing children becoming looked after and the use of pre-proceedings allowed for plans for children and families to be put in place at an early stage before care arrangements became necessary. Membership of the regional adoption agency would help provide more options for adoption with greater opportunities for arrangements such as foster-to-adopt.

·         The reference in the report to the lack of triaging of domestic abuse referrals was queried and what risk this presented. The ADS&FS explained that a domestic abuse hub had been established which ensured that any level 4 domestic abuse notification received in the MASH was taken directly to a strategy discussion. It was confirmed that all domestic abuse notifications were now triaged daily.

·         There was concern expressed regarding the delay to the work on the transition pathway for vulnerable young people and it was proposed that the committee recommend closer working between the children’s and adults’ directorate to establish the pathway.

The cabinet member children and families commented that it was encouraging to see progress but it was acknowledged that there was still improvement to be achieved. The appointment of the new assistant director, quality and improvement, had been positive and would help realise improvement. The issue of transition between childhood and adulthood was work that was ongoing and greater interaction with adults’ services was required. The attendance of committee members to the performance challenge sessions was encouraged.

The committee voted on recommendations proposed during the debate including: arrangements for the improvement plan report in future; resourcing third sector organisations; joint work between directorates on the transition pathway; member attendance at performance challenge sessions; and the outcome of the audit of the child protection plans. The recommendations were agreed.

RESOLVED: The committee agrees that:

·         consideration is given to how future versions of the report could provide details of the prioritisation of actions in the improvement plan;

·         consideration is given to how third sector organisations could be resourced to support actions in the improvement plan;

·         the children and families directorate works with the adults wellbeing directorate to undertake joint work on establishing a clear transition pathway for vulnerable young people;

·         all members of the committee should be invited to attend performance challenge sessions; and

·         the outcomes of the audit of the reduction in child protection plans to be made available to the committee.