Agenda item

[To Follow]

The Corporate Parenting Panel considered the Children in Care Performance Scorecard which provided an overview of the December month. The Panel received an overview from the Head of Quality Assurance, Shaun Hanks, who highlighted the following:

-        The population comparison for December 2020 and December 2021 had shown a higher number of black children and less number of white children looked after.

-        There was an increase of children aged 7-14 becoming looked after and a decrease of 16 and 17 year olds who were looked after.

-        There was a number of Pathway Plans delayed due to some impact within the service, however there was an improvement with the numbers and quality of plans for the children. There was 75% of the plans completed on time, though it was noted that there was disparity in individual experience for plans to be completed on time.

-        Care plans had not risen much in performance, though there was better statistics for the younger aged groups than the older aged groups.

-        There was also disparity in placement moves.

In response to queries raised by the Panel, the Head of Quality Assurance, clarified the following:

-        In regards to Pathway Plans and supervision and management, there were some teams that were managing well, and a team that struggled and had caused a 10% drop in the overall performance to which management was working with the team to better standards. The service focused on the predictions of plans due to be out of date, and senior officers had noted that the failures within the teams was due to unforeseen personal circumstances, as well as not addressing plans that were due to be out of date.

-        Further, performance statistics in teams were 93%, 88% and 80% highlighting more room for improvement within the performance of teams, however the service was in a better stance for care plans completion than before which was a huge improvement overall.

-        Compliance and quality was changing, and the service was working very hard to make pathway plans and care plans the centre of work for frequent update. 

-        With the concerns raised for the high number of young persons that were Not in Education, Employment or Training, the service was working very hard to ensure that young people were in education, employment or training, though the service had experienced difficulties mostly due to the individual circumstances (such as health, being a parent). There was a lot of effort in finding opportunities through apprenticeships and a number of other placements through local networking. The service was also aspiring to seek more support to young people who were in new experiences.

-        Additionally it was noted that though the red key indicator performance for the young people in Education, Employment and Training was low, it was above the London’s national average; nonetheless, the service was looking for more ways to improve on this performance.

During the discussion, the Panel raised the following:

-        For future reports to address the work done on disparity particularly relating to placements and the amount of placements, and also the disparity between ethnic groups, in future panel meetings.

-        For future reports to address the affects and changes of young people in Education, Employment and Training.