Agenda item

The Children in Care Performance Scorecard for November 2020 is

attached.

Officers present spoke to the November performance scorecard highlighting that there had been no significant changes, though it was positive to note that there were less red indicators on the scorecard this time than the last report presented at the panel in December 2020.

In summary, officers pointed out that there were continuous issues around the pathway plan and highlighted a 6% increase between October and November performance. Officers acknowledged that there was more work to do to improve the performance. The other red indicator within the performance scorecard was related to the care leaver’s education training and employment. Officers addressed that the significant difficulties around this was partly due to the pandemic situation that caused challenging conditions to work with young people, though efforts were put in place to engage with the young people for training or education. There were other indicators that did not have a target and this was pending to be set by the Improvement Board.

Panel Members commented on the low percentage of the health assessments which had dropped to 50%, and the assessments conducted had also dropped to 50%, and asked officers for more information to this change. Officers advised that a variety of factors would have contributed to these changes such as a number of new social workers who did not understand process and another factor was not receiving consent. With regards to the decline of the health assessments the issue with services receiving correct information to follow through with the referral was often the delay in assessments not being completed timely.

Further comments relating to the health assessment was discussed with the foster carer co-optee representative adding that the process and communication needed to be improved as it was essential for an assessment to be carried out within three days. Officers recognised that there was often difficulty in meeting deadlines and information were missed and this was to be improved. The service managed weekly meetings between health services, there were also champions groups that met weekly ensuring assessments were completed. With part of the improvement, these things were to be tracked on a weekly basis.

Other areas of concern raised by Panel Members was the pathway plans that was still a red indicator, and officers informed that there was a number of issues linked with the pathway in the computer systems when updating pathway plans. Timeliness and updates were sitting in draft by it is to make sure it was followed in a timely way. Staff themselves do make complaints on this. Officers reflected on the challenges the service had over the last few months with financial implications and changes within the senior staffing particularly since the pandemic as morale was low, and gave assurance that the service was working very hard with the resources available to provide the best service and performance.

Panel Members acknowledged the pressures currently held within the service.

In regards to the indicator CLA21, Panel Members commended the low numbers and queried on whether the cohort was the same children. Officers informed that there was a small cohort, and the biggest number was linked in having custodial sentences, most have been in custody or in placements since the aged from seventeen.

The Panel noted the two red indicators within the performance scorecard, and gave recognition to what had been done, additionally it was good for the Panel to focus on the red and amber indicators in detail.

Panel Members also looked further to the performance and the data from Annex A in relation to indicator AD7 of the report, and officers informed that the figures related to the children placed on the adoption for a long time had improved significantly in performance and was in line with the statistics with their neighbours. In terms of children moving, the length of time between adoptions was two-hundred days, which was well under England numbers and was very good for the service over the last three years. Panel Members discussed further the granting of placement orders and placement was an average of two-hundred days, and noted that care proceedings on average could take up to a year. Officers informed that there was a low number of car proceeding that was completed after nineteen months, though the majority were completed within twenty-six weeks. Further officers addressed that with the care proceedings, the courts were more inclined for children and parents to live together meaning more assessments. Also, due to the pandemic there was an impact in assessing parents post birth therefore it could take longer than twenty-six weeks to complete, and there was allowances for a delay in the assessments.

ACTION: To provide data of the average time between the granting of a placement order and the date the child was made subject to an adoption order.

The Chair thanked officers for the report.