Issue - meetings

The Panel review the annual report so as to ensure members are appraised on the care provided to children for whom the Local Authority are responsible.

The Deputy Lead for Safeguarding and Quality Assurance (Children

and Young People) introduced this report to the Panel, a summary is set out below.

The report is produced in order to provide the Director for Children’s

Services, the Lead Member for Children and the Corporate Parenting Board with information pertaining to the work of the Independent Reviewing Service (IRS) which is responsible for monitoring and reviewing the care provided to children and young people for whom the Local Authority are corporate parents.

Following a re-structure at Director Level, the IRO service now sits under the

Director for Education, Inclusion and Children’s Safeguarding. The change in

Directorate has not caused any disruption to the work of the IRO’s and has

preserved the high level of independence that IRO’s in Bath and North East

Somerset have.

The IRO service has been fortunate to gain some additional administrative

support this year, this has enabled the service to review some of its processes,

consider alternative ways of communicating with carers of children in care and

provides much needed support to the IRO’s in terms of their work.

All full-time members of the team receive monthly supervision with part-time staff receiving supervision on a six-weekly rotation. Supervision allows opportunity for reflection, consideration of the needs of the children placed in the care of the Local Authority, review of performance, statutory compliance and areas for development / learning.

The numbers of children and young people in care in this reporting period is fairly static from the previous year, with more children leaving care in the last 12 months than entering which is the first instance in which this has occurred for the last five years.

The appointment of an IRO when a child or young person comes into care is the responsibility of the IRO Service Manager. Allocation will be determined by the existing workload of the IRO, whether the child is already known to an IRO or Independent Chair, the number of children in the family, the location of the

child’s placement and the complexity of the child’s needs and level of care

planning required. It is important that IRO’s have a workload that is reflective of

their capacity and expertise.

The IRO Service chaired a total of 528 child in care review meetings in 2019-

2020, an increase of 74 from the previous year when the number of children and young people in care was higher. An increase in the number of child in care

reviews can raise question as to placement stability, however the stability rate for children in Bath and North East Somerset remains fairly static.

Between the 1st April 2019 and the 31st March 2020 there were only 19 reviews

that could not be held in timescale and as such this means that on average

across the year 96% of the reviews held were within the appropriate timeframe.

This is a significant improvement and is beyond the 87% target set for the service.

In Bath and North East Somerset, the gender  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51