Issue - meetings

Members were given an outline of this topic by officers. They stressed that each meeting of the sub-committee needed to have an item on the progress of the improvement plan, which officers committed themselves to providing. 

Officers emphasised that Public Law Outline (PLO) was a critical part of the process for protecting vulnerable babies and children and yet had not been valued or used to the full by children’s services. They explained that PLO had two benefits:

- It entailed all the preparation work being completed ahead of court appearances, thus avoiding delays

- The application process itself can be a wake-up call for families and present an opportunity to acknowledge problems and put things right   

The Council had previously carried out poor preparation for PLO cases, leading to difficulties during court cases and harming the relationship between the council and the court.

Following the Ofsted inspection, PLOs have become a priority. The number of care proceedings has increased significantly: 92 have been issued in the first five and a half of this financial year. Officers observed that pre-birth has been a factor in many of the referrals. This rise in the number of cases has presented a major challenge for resources, as a result of which two news teams have been created and a third one is now being recruited to.

Officers highlighted the fact that support for children was often hampered by the fact that information on their histories was often unavailable or of poor quality as the families concerned tended to move from borough to borough and information sharing from one council to another was an issue.

Officers explained that social workers dealing with such cases were being trained on court processes and trials to feel more confident when presenting a case. Members asked whether they could observe this training.

Members enquired why the council was having to deal with such high numbers of cases and asked whether parenting skills training could be provided to prevent problems from emerging in the first place. The Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Learning suggested that such support or training could be provided through the means of community engagement. Members agreed that this needed to be prioritised as prevention was far better than cure.

Officers were thanked for their responses to members’ questions.

RESOLVED to note the report.