Agenda item

The Children in Care Performance Scorecard of November 2018 is attached.

The Chair noted that the agenda would be reordered to accommodate the availability of the young people attending the meeting.

The Head of Service for Corporate Parenting provided an introduction to the item. She highlighted that the number of Looked After Children (LAC) was continuing to rise. It was hoped that numbers would have started to fall with the transfer to other Councils of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) through the National Transfer Scheme.  However, this had reached a plateau and the National Transfer Scheme was not working as intended. This presented significant challenges for Croydon. 

It was explained that Corporate Parenting performance was measured through two key indicators; the stability of placements (as few moves as possible) and the proximity of those to home.

Ensuring that every Looked After Child had a Personal Education Plan (PEP) was a key focus.  A review had been conducted and it had been recognised that achieving this target was still an issue. This was being addressed by ensuring that all members of the service were working towards the target. A new Interim Head of the Virtual School, Sarah Bailey had recently started and had already met with the team; the objective was to make the PEP target high profile. The need to work in partnership and to target PEPs to meet the needs of children was being stressed.

Steady progress was being achieved in providing initial health assessments but it was acknowledged that there needed to be greater improvement. A LEAN review of the initial health assessment process had been undertaken and its suggestions put to the LAC Health Subgroup. The focus was on a simplification of the processes involved with some reassurance being taken that this was more of a process issue. It was emphasised that whilst not all Looked After Children were having their initial health assessments within the timescale required there were not large numbers of children having their initial health assessments fulfilled outside of this timeframe.

A Panel Member noted the Council’s poor Corporate Parenting performance and the need for challenge to be provided. It was asked how it would be possible for the Panel to gain reassurance that the service was working well. It was agreed that this question would be answered in the substantive item.

Another Panel Member asked why there had been a rise in the number of Looked After Children during May and September 2018. Additionally, it was asked why there had been a decrease in the number of Looked After Children remaining in the same placement for more than two years (KPI20).

In response, the Head of Service for Corporate Parenting explained that it was not uncommon to have an increase in care proceedings during Ofsted intervention. This was being driven by an increase in the numbers of local children coming into care and not Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children. It was stressed that there was no evidence of the judiciary saying the authority was initiating care proceedings for children unnecessarily. This was indicative that the service was acting correctly. It was noted that with the availability of different services it might be possible to reduce numbers of Looked After Children; the right services would need to be in place to support children to return home. Reviews were being conducted with children that had been through the care proceedings process to provide reassurance that the right action had been taken.

The Director of Early Help and Children’s Social Care added that a piece of work had been commissioned to look at recent care proceedings to see if it would be possible to streamline the process. 

A Panel Member summarised that they were unsure of the implications that could be drawn from this; whether numbers were likely to continue to rise or gradually decline. The Director of Early Help and Children’s Social Care noted that it was possible to look at the resources available through the Early Care team to prevent care proceeding being necessary. This was descried as working with families more effectively early on. The Panel Member was encouraged that this continued to be a focus and stressed their keenness to see the number of Looked After Children reduced.

With regard to the decrease in the number of Looked After Children remaining in the same placement for more than two years (KPI 20), the Head of Service for Corporate Parenting noted that this measure could be influenced by many factors including that some children don’t remain in the Council’s care for very long. The correlation between the length of care and other measures of success (for example educational outcomes) was stressed.

A Panel Member voiced their concern regarding the length of placements decreasing. The Head of Service for Corporate Parenting noted that with the number of children in care going up this would have a statistical impact on the measure of stability of placements lasting over two years.