The purpose of this report is to present cabinet with the Phase 3 Children’s Services Improvement Plan for endorsement. 

It was confirmed that Tina Russell was appointed as the permanent corporate director for children’s services this week and congratulations were extended.  It was also confirmed that this appointment updates the position in paragraphs 7 and 8.

 ChildrenCHTHE MEMBER the The member for children and young people introduced the report.  Thanks were extended to the corporate director for their development of this approach regarding the children’s improvement plan and for their leadership in delivering the improvements required.  The leadership team, managers and staff were also thanked for continuing to deliver improvement in the council’s practice and approach to support and working with families. 

It was confirmed in producing the report, the council was conscious of key legislation, statutory guidance, the independent review of children’s social care and the published government’s response called ‘keeping children safe, helping families thrive’. As a result, the council are in a good position to develop and implement the government’s families first programme. 

The plan reinforces the council’s restoratives strength-based approach and it sets out the council’s tripartite approach in monitoring progress through key performance indicators, case auditing and gathering views and experiences of children and families. 

Thanks were extended to those who had shared their experiences with the council and by the end of March 2025 over 100 families had done so. The views reported were consistently positive. 

It was highlighted that Ofsted’s 7^th monitoring visit report was published on 17^th July.  Ofsted had noted that the quality of practice for children in care had improved at pace since the last monitoring visit, the director of children’s services and managers had worked with conviction to allow social work to flourish and consistently stronger practice was improving the experience and outcomes for children in care. 

It was noted that the approach taken during Phase 2 of the plan was making a clear tangible difference both in terms of quality of social work and the pace of improvements. 

Comments from cabinet members.  Thanks were extended to the director of children’s services and the cabinet member for their level of service, hard work and efficiency in turning around children’s and young people.  It was noted that the directorate was not only operating within budget but under budget as per the Quarter 4 report and were delivering an exceptional service. 

It was noted that whilst Ofsted acted as the independent arbiter, the Government appointed children’s commissioner also provided scrutiny on children’s services.  It was highlighted that previous concerns by Ofsted regarding the pace of improvement acknowledged that the pace had progressed to create an environment for social work to flourish. 

It was confirmed that the service was in a good place to deliver against the family first programme.  The four outcomes are for children and young people to stay together to get the help they need, that children and young people are supported by their family network, children and young people are safe both in and outside the home and that children and care leavers have stable and loving homes. 

It was raised regarding how well the council reflected on itself to ensure it went from strength to strength. It was noted that in Phase 3 the council commits to knowing itself and had identified where further work was needed.  It was confirmed that the council has a tripartite approach to measuring progress against those outcomes, it has a good understanding of its key performance indicators, and its case audit practices were improving.  It was confirmed that the service knows itself well and it was the feedback from children and families that was most important. 

It was highlighted that where a case audit was recorded as inadequate, it did not mean the child was at risk, it was regarding the way in which practitioners engaged such as the plan not being written in a child friendly way or the family didn’t understand the detail. The service continues to understand these points, so it can improve. 

Group leaders gave the views of their groups.  The encouraging progress on delivering the improvement plan was acknowledged. It was positively noted that the pace had also improved.  Appreciation and thanks were extended for the hard work and dedication of staff. Concerns were raised regarding repeat referrals and repeat child protection cases, allocation of stability for children in care and child protection, and two out of five social workers were still not permanent. It was noted that the health outcomes would be monitored to ensure that the ICB provided the necessary support for emotional mental health, dental support and therapeutic interventions.

It was queried how the key performance indicators in the plan compared with England and the council’s statistical neighbours.  It was raised how child friendly Herefordshire was embedded in policy. 

In response to group leaders, it was confirmed that the level of re-referrals had decreased and were in line with the council’s statistical neighbours. It was clarified there were two measures for repeat child protection (1) is a repeat within two years and this had reduced from 54 to 43 last year and (2) was a repeat at any point, this had reduced from 103 to 63.   It was noted that child friendly Herefordshire will be reflected on and considered in all decisions going forward.  It was noted that England averages and statistical neighbour data can be helpful comparators, but they should not be viewed as targets as each case was unique.  It was acknowledged the point about the ICB was important and children’s services were aware.  It was confirmed that a lot of the work was delivered through the Herefordshire Children’s Safeguarding partnership. 

Councillor Powell proposed the recommendations, and it was unanimously resolved that:

That Cabinet:

a)    Cabinet endorse the Phase 3 Improvement Plan outlined in Appendix A

b)    Cabinet authorises the Corporate Director for Children and Young People in consultation with the council’s Corporate Leadership Team to lead this improvement plan on behalf of the Council and to send it to Ofsted as part of the ongoing children’s services monitoring.