Agenda item

Report of the Corporate Director of Children and Families.

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Corporate Director of Children and Families which set out performance information for the Directorate.  Officers from Children and Families advised that the performance scorecards detailed in the report had been compiled by the Business Intelligence Team in the Resources Directorate, giving and independent view of performance.  A large data set had been considered in compiling the report

The officers highlighted the following areas of the report:

·                    Children’s Services was the most inspected and regulated service area of local authorities;

·                    current issues flagged up in the report included pressures on service delivery due to demographic pressures and an increase in the threshold for referrals to social care, which had led to almost double the rate of referrals and assessments that the service was dealing with;

·                    there was an 18% vacancy rate in the service, partly due to and the national shortage of skilled social workers.  However, all of the Service Manager posts and most of the vacant Team Manager posts had now been filled.  A number of measures such as improved learning and development, improved planning related to workforce needs, a fast-track route for graduates were being implemented to mitigate against this;

·                    following an inspection, the Early years and Social Care services had received positive feedback and inspectors had highlighted four distinct areas of good practice;

·                    the implementation of an attendance intervention model had succeeded in reducing unauthorised pupil absences from schools;

·                    92% of Harrow’s schools had been rated as good or above, with four schools rated as requiring improvement and one rated as inadequate.  The Harrow Schools Improvement Partnership and the Education Strategy and School Organisation teams were working closely with schools on improvement plans.  The Virtual School was making good progress;

·                    recent Care Quality Commission inspections of safeguarding in health partners had raised some concerns.  The CQC had yet to publish the report regarding this;

·                    health checks for Children Looked After (CLAs) had fallen below expected levels;

·                    the Youth Offending Service teams had made good progress in meeting targets set in the improvement plan, however, a number of ongoing IT issues had caused a dip in indicators which was affecting outcomes for young offenders and the improvement plan.

A Member queried the substantial increase in referrals to social care.  An officer advised that Harrow compared well with its statistical neighbours in this area.  The increase was due in part to the lowering of the threshold, families with high levels of need relocating to outer London boroughs and the increasingly complex needs of children in the borough. 

A Member asked whether any young people from Harrow were in secure accommodation.  An officer advised that there were none.

A Member queried the £0.815m overspend in the Directorate.  An officer advised that there was an overall income shortfall of £3m due to loss of income from hiring of the Teachers’ Centre and costs related to the Special Needs Transport service.  The Director undertook to provide a more detailed breakdown of the figures to the Sub-Committee.

A Member asked about the low rates of children subject to a child protection plan for more than two years.  An officer stated that the number of children had been flagged up by the OFSTED inspection of 2012.  She added that the number of children on protection plans had increased, however, the numbers on the list for more than two years had reduced, which indicated that cases were being progressed more quickly.

A Member queried the fact that the percentage of repeat referrals had reduced, however, the number assessed within 45-days had increased.  An officer advised that this reflected the increased pressure on the service.  While the percentage of assessments completed within 45 days had been below target in previous months, performance had significantly improved during December 2013 to 90% for that month.  This situation was being closely monitored.

The Chair queried the figures relating to Health Checks for CLAs.  The officer advised that 90% of health reviews would be completed for children who had been looked after for more than one year and that the main problems were with initial health checks for new CLA.  The Chair requested that the Sub?Committee re-visit the issues of initial Health Checks for CLAs and the final results of CQC inspection of safeguarding in health partners.

The Chair asked what remedial action had been taken in relation to the YOT and how soon the team were expected to be back on track.  An officer stated that this was being overseen by the Children’s Improvement Board.  An officer added that Capita were in discussions with the software providers regarding this issue.  The Chair requested that performance of the YOT be added to the Scrutiny Watch list.

The Chair congratulated the Children and Families Directorate for the improvements in performance.

RESOLVED:  That the report be noted.