Agenda item

Report of the Associate Director of Children’s Services.

The Panel received a report of the Associate Director of Children’s Services and the Named Nurse Children Looked After (CLA) Harrow, which set out the delivery of health services to Harrow’s CLA from January to February 2019 in line with national guidance.

The Named Nurse reported as follows:

·                     there continued to be improvements in initial and review health assessments completed within timescales that quarter, with figures rising to 83% in February, compared to 80% in January 2019.  This was considered positive news which reflected the successes made through partnership working with social services;

·                     targets in relation to contractual conditions had reached 100% for both initial health assessments (IHA) and review health assessments (RHA), which emphasised the effort that social workers had been through to complete referrals on time, including for those CLA who had been based up to 20 miles away;

·                     over the past couple of months, the following work had been undertaken: regular quarterly meetings with Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), Independent Reviewing Officers Meetings and a permanency process was agreed in partnership with Coram – a children’s charity working with Harrow Council to help improve the borough's service to children needing adoption;

·                     further training  had been delivered to the First Response Team (FRT) and signposting for specialist training for Foster Carers was now in place;

·                     she had been asked for the health assessment paperwork by Wembley CLA to help improve best practice and was invited to contribute to the NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) draft scope consultation on CLA and young people;

·                     the Annual Client Satisfaction Survey results had been completed after an extended deadline, with over half of CLA respondents providing feedback on their health assessment experience between July and December 2018.  The number of CLA who had rated their experience as ‘great’ or ‘good’ was 91% and 9% had rated it ‘ok’.  She was pleased to note that there were no negative responses.  All the children (100%) felt they were treated with respect during their health assessment which was an increase from before considering that numbers using the service had increased.

Members were pleased with the outcomes and congratulated the Associated Director and the Named Nurse for their achievements.

Following questions and comments from Members, an officer advised that:

·                     the success rate of the Annual Client Satisfaction Survey was due to the fact that children had been involved in the input of the design of the form which had made it user-friendly.  A copy of the form was circulated to the Panel for their information. 

·                     practitioners were responsible for verifying details of the respondents but all responses were ‘anonymous’.  Members were of the view that the form should provide additional choices under the ‘gender’ section in order to give consideration to the number of children who were increasingly undergoing transition and identified themselves as non-binary.  An officer advised that work had been done on this by the Young Harrow Foundation but no consensus had been reached on how best to identify those who were undergoing transition.  It was suggested that Harrow CLA and other services should continue to make best efforts to consult with their users on this aspect to ensure all work was inclusive.

The Specialist Nurse relayed a case study about an unaccompanied asylum seeking child who had been diagnosed with Hepatitis B and the challenges surrounding this case as the child lived in a hostel with 30 other people of various nationalities.  She explained how collaboration by various health bodies had helped to resolve various issues to ensure safe outcomes for all those living in the hostel.  The young people concerned were now awaiting their boosters since their initial vaccinations and three had been referred to Adult Services.

Members thanked all for their work and endorsed the ongoing value of joint working in public health.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

Reason for Decision: To ensure that Members, in their roles as Corporate Parents, were availed of the performance indicators and the clinical work undertaken.