Agenda item

This report presents the ILACS Inspection Report findings to the Panel.

The Director of Children’s Services, Service Development Manager and Interim Assistant Director presented the report to the Panel and highlighted the following areas.

• The local authority received ‘Good’ in all areas, including the new judgment for care leavers.
• Strengths included timely support, trauma-informed practice, innovative fostering, strong participation, early establishment of family networks and working with children with disabilities.
• Areas for development: Return home interviews for missing children, clarity of the local offer for care leavers over 21, and management oversight documentation. It was acknowledged that the service were already aware of these matters.
• Officers confirmed that an improvement plan would be submitted by 21^st November, with an interim visit within 18 months and a future inspection expected in three years’ time.

Councillor Liz Hardman congratulated the team and said she was pleased to see that no major weaknesses had been identified. She added that she welcomed the honesty of the tone of the cover report.

The Director of Children’s Services said that the judgement really was a team effort and that they wanted to be honest about intending to improve services.

Councillor Hardman asked if any comment could be given regarding the finding that the protocol for assessing homeless 16- and 17-year-olds was out of date.

The Interim Assistant Director replied that it was possible that the inspection team had viewed an outdated policy. She added that they have confirmed that the correct one is in place.

Councillor Hardman commented that some people over the age of 21 could still benefit from having access to work with a Personal Assistant.

The Director of Children’s Services replied that the statutory duty to provide a Personal Assistant stops once a person reaches the age of 22. She added that if there is a wish to continue to do so then a further discussion can take place.

Councillor Hardman asked if the outcomes of the Being our BEST programme would have an impact on the Council’s Social Workers.

The Director of Children’s Services replied that she did not expect it to and that it was good to have dedicated officers in place across the service. She added that they are looking to use AI where possible to assist officers and gave the example of Magic Notes that is being used to reduce some administrative work by producing notes via speech.

Councillor Paul Crossley referred to one of the slides shown and the wording ‘Most children live in safe and suitable homes’ and asked if any specific figures could be given and how this number could be raised towards 100%.

The Director of Children’s Services replied that there are currently 116 children that are subject to a Child Protection Plan because we have assessed that the risk to them is higher than we would want it to be, but we believe that support can be provided to them to enable them to remain living at home.

She added that approximately 600 young people are also subject to a Child in Need Plan who have support needs above what would be deemed a normal level for a family to cope with. She explained that within B&NES there are 229 Looked After Children.

She said that she felt that unfortunately there will always be some children who are at risk of harm, need support and children where the risk to them is so great that they need to be removed from their parent’s care. She stated that the Council resolve to take these actions only when absolutely necessary.

Councillor David Harding asked what resources would be required for the Council to receive a judgement of ‘Outstanding’.

Councillor May replied that he would not be able to give a fixed figure as a response. He said that if their work is carried out to the same level, alongside providing the evidence of such work then the Council would be in a strong position. He added though that caseloads and demand would potentially have an effect on the Council, but the drive is there to try to achieve more.

Councillor Lesley Mansell commented that having reviewed the report she felt that there were six areas of improvement and that administration and record keeping could be attributable much of them.

She said that she was particularly concerned with the shortage of suitable homes for children under the age of ten and the early involvement of Adult Social Care officers ahead of young people transitioning from Children’s Services.

She stated that she felt that the Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) was lacking in information regarding any mitigations.

She added she felt that there had also been a shift in the type of language used and believed the words ‘disabled people’ should be used rather than ‘young people with disabilities’.

She asked also for the format of the report to be addressed, in terms of accessibility, and to be justified only on the left.

The Interim Assistant Director replied that there was a national challenge in terms of sufficiency and said that a workstream to address this has been allocated to look at things such as how the Council recruits and retains in-house Foster Carers, residential capacity and short breaks provision for young disabled people.

She said that she felt that record keeping should be an easier issue to address moving forward and that a consistency was required across all files.

She acknowledged the points raised relating to language and accessibility and would seek for those to be addressed in future reports.

The Director of Children’s Services added that further work would be undertaken on the EIA and that a workstream regarding the transition between Children’s Services and Adult Social Care was ongoing.

The Panel RESOLVED to consider and note the findings of the inspection report and thanked all officers across the service for their work.