Agenda item

The Director of Children's Services & Education introduced the report to the Panel and highlighted the following points from within it.

Virtual School

It has been a busy but successful year, including a highly positive OFSTED report. We have supported not only our Children Looked After cohort but also expanded to provide support for most vulnerable pupils open to a social worker.

Like our Social Care colleagues, the Virtual School supports a growing number of unaccompanied asylum seeker children. The Virtual School has appointed a dedicated officer to oversee this complex area of work to support this work.

Schools Standards Board

The Schools Standards Board continues to meet to facilitate discussions on area-wide education priorities with the Local Authority and the Regional Directors Group. The next meeting is on the 15th of November. The agenda will focus on delivering the LA's Safety Valve Plan, along with information on the Poverty Proofing schools, early analysis, and information sharing around education performance.

Children Services Workforce

We continue to experience significant demands within Children’s Services with regard to increased complexity of family’s presenting issues and this is likely to be exacerbated with the cost-of-living crisis.

Nationally, we are seeing significant workforce pressures in relation to the recruitment and retention of child protection social workers, and this is becoming increasingly evident within B&NES. We are working closely with HR colleagues to monitor and review this frequently to stabilise the workforce and minimise any impact this may have for our families and communities.

Foster Care - recruitment and celebration

The Children’s Transformation Programme includes a Fostering Recruitment and Retention project, which seeks to increase the numbers of in house foster carers, retain current fostering households, and improve on the support and training we provide to carers.

The project has been successful, and we have seen a rise in the number of foster carer households in B&NES. However, this has been offset in part, by a rise in the number of children coming into the care of the Local Authority. The rise in care numbers is a national issue and B&NES continues to be in line with our statistical neighbours and below national averages.

Youth Justice

Following a consultation with children and professionals, the Youth Offending Service is renaming itself the Youth Justice Service. This recognises the importance of taking a ‘child first’ approach and whilst the statutory requirement to prevent youth offending remains in place and is a priority in all our work, retaining the word ‘offending’ in the organisation’s name would not have reflected our focus on children’s holistic needs. Use of the word ‘justice’ also reflects our commitment to those harmed by children and our work to offer them involvement in restorative responses.

Councillor Michelle O’Doherty said that she was worried about the pressure on services as a whole and asked if staff were well supported.

The Director of Children's Services & Education replied that staff were very well supported and that the majority of a senior and middle managers have been retained.

Councillor Liz Hardman commented that nationally we are seeing significant workforce pressures in relation to the recruitment and retention of child protection social workers and that this had become increasingly evident in B&NES. She said that as we as Councillors have been informed we will need to cut spending and asked will the resources be available to recruit social workers.

The Director of Children's Services & Education replied that there are significant recruitment challenges for child protection social workers. Children’s Services are currently reliant on agency social workers. However, high quality social worker agency staff are in place. Children’s Services are seeking to recruit and retain permanent staff where possible.

Councillor Hardman asked if there are enough resources available for the care experience service in B&NES to provide a service to approximately 100 additional care experience young adults.

The Director of Children's Services & Education replied that the service is submitting a request for additional care leavers capacity as part of the Local Authority’s annual budget planning cycle. The service aims to ensure that the care plan of every child or young person is executed as best we can.

Councillor Hardman asked if there are plans in place to deal with the informal escalations raised that are mentioned within the Independent Reviewing Officer’s Annual Report.

The Director of Children's Services & Education replied that there are and that the escalations process had been put in place by the Council to formally address any concerns raised.

Kevin Burnett asked if there was any update on when Avon & Somerset Police will fully put into place Operation Encompass.

The Director of Children's Services & Education replied that she would contact them regarding progress and any potential date.

The Chairman thanked her for her update on behalf of the Panel.