Agenda item

To receive the Early Help, Children’s Social Care and Education Dashboard, in addition to some additional ‘Red’ indicators as requested at the meeting of the Sub-Committee on 27 June 2023.

The Sub-Committee considered a report set out on pages 73 to 78 of the agenda, which provided the Early Help, Children’s Social Care and Education Dashboard, Health Visiting Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Data and additional ‘Red’ indicators as requested at the meeting of the Sub-Committee on 27 June 2023.

The Director Quality, Commissioning & Performance introduced the item and stated that there had not been a significant improvement against the Health Visiting KPIs. Members heard that there had been considerable change in the configuration of the Health Visiting services, and that an interim Head of Service had been in post since September 2023. The responsibilities of the service have now been split into two roles with oversight of public health nursing (which includes Health Visiting, School Nursing and the Family Health Partnership) and Community Health Provision (which covered Asylum Seekers, Refugees and unhoused people). The Director Quality, Commissioning & Performance stated that there had been some early signs of improvement since September 2023 against KPIs and in recruitment. It was noted that a full item on Health Visiting was on the Work Programme for March 2024, when it was hoped that there would be more concrete signs of improvement in the service. The Sub-Committee heard that there had been a decision to reconfigure the way in which Health Visitors engage with Child Protection Conferences, to recognise the challenges arising from vacancy rates in the short term and that these changes are being discussed and agreed with the Safeguarding Service.

On Appendix B, Members asked why the target for W1a had been set at 20. The Director of Children’s Social Care explained that this target was set at a number of children it was felt was reasonable for any individual social worker to ‘hold in mind’ and maintain professional curiosity for each case. It was acknowledged that caseloads in the Family Assessment Service were too high, and a deep dive to analyse the duration of high caseloads was underway, to help in developing proposals identifying other resources or other actions that could reduce caseloads. Demand levels in Croydon had increased for a sustained period and options to manage this were being considered, with some short-term pilots likely to be trialled. The Director of Children’s Social Care explained that, if demand continued to increase, then there would need to be an increase in capacity to ensure service levels did not fall. In response to questions about what other things could be done to reduce caseloads, the Director of Children’s Social Care explained that Service Managers would review cases to see where these could be held in other services, or to help social workers close cases where they needed some assistance. In some cases, Early Help could be asked to provide interventions while assessments were happening.

The Sub-Committee commended the commitment to keeping caseloads at manageable levels. Members asked if W1a indicated individual children or families, and heard it represented individual children. On W1a, the Chair asked if April 2023 had been an outlier, and heard that this had been the beginning of a period of increased demand.

Members asked how services planned for the August and December holiday periods and heard that there was forward planning, including through duty rotas, to account for this, and that agency staff remained in post over Christmas. Where children were not visited, they featured on exception reports that were reviewed monthly to understand why this was the case. The Director of Children's Social Services explained that Christmas put a large amount of pressure on some families; the Council had relationships with charities and other organisations that could provide gifts or vouchers to parents and carers for their children to try to alleviate this.

The Sub-Committee reflected that they would like to repeat the process of reviewing wider CYPE ‘Reds’ at a future meeting.