To review the Children and Families Strategic Improvement Plan – progress update.

The Corporate Director, Children and Young People, introduced the report with the help of the Project Lead, the purpose of which was for the Committee to review the Children and Families Strategic Improvement Plan

During discussion the following principal points were noted:

•                Officers will be finalising the contents of the enhanced improvement plan in the next week. This will then be circulated to the committee for comment. A plan that frequently changes is not what is wanted and are looking to have a final draft ready to send that can be signed off.

•                Expecting to have quarterly data in July, which will be reported back to cabinet. This will provide feedback on how the plan is progressing in the improvement of the service.

•                Good to see that partnerships are being highlighted in the plan.

•                There are outside forums which engage with the service users and gain passive feedback on the services performance. What is key, is to capture the lived experience of the service users.

•                Expecting to see less complaints from users on the service provided as a result of this plan.

•                Expecting to see good performance improvements over the next few months, and not receive any surprises in July meeting.

•                Concerns raised over the term ‘critical friend’, and its usage in terms of the scrutiny function. Agreed that although scrutiny committees have the key scrutiny role, but the Corporate Leadership Team has a right to scrutinise its own work as well. The main difference in emphasis is that the committee scrutinises and the CLT monitors.

•                The service is already heavily monitored and the reality is that there is not currently sufficient time to satisfy all interested parties on performance whilst also completing their work on the improvement plan.

•                There are some measures that matter more than others, but there is no current feedback baseline by which to compare; this be improved in the final version of the new plan.

•                The committee wants to see realistic, but challenging targets to attain and against which to scrutinise.

•                The Improvement Plan is sent over to OFSTED and the Department of Education for review to show how the work that is underway is progressing. Feedback illustrates there is a high degree of confidence in the direction in which the service is going.

•                There needs to be a sensible balance on the frequency of when these reports come to the committee. It is of course in the services interest for effective scrutiny, but there is a risk of duplication and excessive work that is unnecessary.

•                The directorate is happy to provide separate briefing notes as opposed to being committee meeting agenda items, providing stage reports on the improvement plan if necessary.

The cabinet member commented on the report and debate, saying they were pleased with the identification of the measures that matter most in the plan, and that being worded in plain English it is easier to understand and scrutinise.

Conclusions

Resolved - that the committee would like to review the following information:

• Regular updates to be circulated to members on the progress on Corporate Parenting.

·       Monthly updates starting the end of May to be provided on the progress of the improvement plan to all members via a briefing note

• A new format for looked after children to be updated and provided to the committee in the form of a briefing note within two weeks of the committee meeting.
• Version 2 of the improvement plan to be updated and circulated to the committee by the 6^th May

Resolved – that the committee would like the following action to take place:

·       When the updates are provided they should include feedback on how the voice of the child is reflected and this should be included within the first quarterly report in July.