Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on 26 April 2017 and authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meeting held on 26 April 2017 were agreed as correct records and signed by the Chairman.

The Sub-Committee were advised that 15 Corporate Performance Indicators fell under the remit of the Children & Learning Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Committee.

Nine related to the SAFE goal and six to the PROUD goal. Nine of the RAG indicators had a status of green and six a RAG status of Red or Amber.

Members noted that the position was consistent with the end of Quarter 3 update. 

Members noted that the following areas that required improvements within the SAFE goal:

•      The percentage of care proceedings completed within 26 weeks dropped for the second consecutive quarter during Quarter 4. To improve performance, there were a number of actions taking place including reviewing the legal tracking procedure; working with the Legal department to identify and respond to training needs; reviewing the supervision policy and developing accountability of social workers so that when targets were missed there was a framework in place to act swiftly to rectify this.

•      The percentage of children becoming the subject of a Child Protection Plan for a second or subsequent time within 2 years had continued to rise as the year had progressed and was higher than at the same point last year. The Face to Face programme was providing practitioners with training to work with families in a systemic way and provide families with the tools to sustain their own progress.

•      The percentage of looked after children (LAC) placements lasting at least two years was below target and both in the last quarter and last year. As part of the Department for Education Innovation Programme, the service was working to recruit specialist foster carers who would care for 11-17 year olds with complex and disrupting behaviour patterns. These foster carers would receive heightened support and training to respond to the increasingly complex needs of our looked after children.

The report detailed the following highlights within the PROUD goal:

•      The percentage of young people leaving care who were in education, employment or training at ages 18 to 21 was above target and better than the annual outturn the previous year.

•      At 3.3%, the proportion of 16 to 19 year olds who were not in education, employment or training (NEET) and not known fell compared to the outturn for 2015/16 as participation amongst young people in Havering continued to increase.

•      The percentage of Early Years providers judged to be Good or Outstanding by Ofsted exceeded target and was better than the previous year.

•      Apprenticeship numbers at ages 16 -18; had  increased compared with the previous year, as a result of the close working between the local apprenticeship provider forum and the local school and colleges to promote the apprenticeship offer.

Members were informed that Cabinet had approved the new Corporate Plan for 2017/18 which included a list of new Corporate Performance Indicators. As many of these new Corporate PIs do not neatly fall into the remit of one of the Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Committees it had been agreed that, from Quarter 2  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

The Sub-Committee received a report that provided an update on fostering arrangements in relation to developments, on-going performance and challenges in Havering pre and post the Ofsted inspection.

The report detailed the developments, on-going performance and challenges within the Fostering Service. Members noted that there had been significant work in maintaining foster carer recruitment, which had now expanded to include recruitment of specialist foster carers.   

The report informed the Sub-Committee that the number of Looked After Children was increasing and the in-house foster carers were not able to accommodate the volume of children requiring placements. It had resulted in the use of Independent Fostering Agencies, with some children being placed outside of the Local Authority. The current arrangement was to match children in long term foster care arrangements in order to promote stability and consistency for children who were looked after. This has required commitment from the foster carers. 

The Sub-Committee noted that the proposal was to sustain and build upon Foster carer recruitment and retention with the aim to support children with complex needs with specialist foster carers and build a system that can support challenging placements and provide value for money. 

The report detailed the profile/inspection outcome of the service, it was noted that as at 27 June 2017, there were 257 children being looked after by the authority.  79 children being placed in-house compared to 85 placed with Independent Fostering Agency (IFA) placements; 33 within semi-independent and 26 within residential placements.

The Sub-committee was informed that between April 2016 and March 2017 the Fostering Service received 181 enquiries from members of the public interested in foster caring. From April 2017 to date 28 enquires were received.

The Service had recruited 15 carers for 2016/2017, three carers below the set target of 18. It was mentioned that this was impacted by delays with the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks. It took five to six months to fully recruit a foster carer and present to Panel for approval. Since March  to 27 June 2017 there have been a further 11 fostering households approved, 7 approved for 0-18 and 4 for 0-12 years; 9 of these are available for sibling groups of at least 2.

The Service also monitored the reasons foster carers leave Havering as this also provided an indication of potential areas for attention/improvement. There have been a number of de-registrations in regard to quality standards. Over the year April 2016-17 seventeen foster carers have resigned with the following reasons:

• 2 shared carers (Short Breaks carer’s children with disabilities living at home) for whom Direct Payments were now used.
• 3 Carers who have moved out of the area and transferred to their new local authority.
• 6 Carers who were not prepared to work to the Local Authority’s standards and child centred approach.
• 5 retired/family circumstances
• 1 following an unsubstantiated allegation made by children previously placed.

The Sub-Committee noted that the innovation programme was being used to target specialist foster carers in recognition of the range of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

The Sub-Committee noted a report that detailed the service approach to continuous service improvement. The report updated Members on progress to improve the delivery of social care.

Members noted that the service had several key objectives for the year, across the range of front-line services. These include;

The Sub-Committee was advised that the following range of activities were underway to deliver against the outlined objectives;

·      A review of all placements had been carried out outlining the forward plan for these and determining the potential costs and savings that could be achieved by March 2019.

·      A workforce development working group had been formed with clear terms of reference, to ensure we have a robust approach to recruitment and retention. The group had led to the development of the Social Care Academy.

·      A financial recovery plan had been developed, which demonstrated what activity could lead to reducing the budget deficit and making efficiencies which included strict controls on expenditure.

·      Social care workforce were undergoing Systemic Practice training in order to enhance practice and allowing for more meaningful and purposeful interventions to be delivered to children and young people.

·      A work plan was being developed with the Joint Commissioning Unit, to enable better value for money on placements and other commissioning ventures.

·      An approach to demand management was being considered, including greater detail on the projected increase in population and what impact that would have on resources.

·      A more effective and regular supervision was now taking place to improve quality and timeliness of interventions.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

The Sub-Committee received an update report that outlined the service was meeting its statutory responsibilities and continuing to evidence improvement against Ofsted recommendations.

The Sub-Committee noted that the long-term ambition of the service was to achieve at least a ‘Good’ grading against all of the key areas Ofsted measure against the framework. It should be noted that the framework is expected to change in 18-24 months.

The report informed the Sub-Committee that further to the submission of the formal response to the Ofsted’s recommendations the service was committed to making changes in  the short and long term, to raise social work standards.

The report detailed that Social Care Service was successful in receiving Innovation funding from the Department for Education. The investment would be distributed across the social care system but predominately across Fostering and Leaving Care. The investment would enable the service to innovate in these areas and enhance the offer available, which would be tracked and monitored as part of the Ofsted improvement programme.

The Sub-Committee noted that the service was working through the 13 Ofsted recommendations. Each recommendation had a defined set of management actions which were owned by specific senior officers within the Directorate. The management actions each have a timescale, a set of specific measures, key performance indicators and outcomes which benefit children, young people and families.

The report indicated that the Leaving Care strand had developed a dedicated action plan which was directly linked to the overall plan.  This was as a result of the grading received in the area, and the need for the service to fully understand the issues, mitigate risk and plan for significant service improvement. It would also help identify and plan for the dependencies with the Innovation programme.

The Sub-Committee received the following update on the monitoring progress:

1.    Children’s Services had a Transformation and Improvement Board, which was responsible for overseeing change initiatives and service improvement. It would also be the governance mechanism where all progress, monitoring and decisions take place for all Ofsted improvement actions. The Director of Children’s Services (DCS) was the Senior Responsible Officer, supported by the Assistant Director for Social Care and other key senior managers within Children’s Services.

2.    Progress against the Ofsted Action Plan would be monitored every month, with a report available describing trends, ongoing activity within the service and the impact the activity was having.

3.    As of June 2017, a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) had been agreed by the Board. Baselines and targets have been agreed, where applicable. A first draft report had been presented to senior officers and feedback had been gathered to ensure the report meets the ongoing needs of the service.

4.    Early measures show considerable improvement in a number of areas, including;

• A reduction in the number of Child in Need plans.
• A reduction in the number of Child Protection Plans.
• An increase in the number of social workers taking up permanent positions.
• An ongoing improvement in the timeliness of interventions in Early  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

The Sub-Committee received a report that detailed the service vision to ensure a good start for every child to reach their full potential and our ambition to establish a self-improving education system.

The report updated members of the sub-committee on the progress to improve standards of teaching, learning and leadership across Havering’s schools.

The report indicated that following the published performance measures, it was agreed that a school-led improvement strategy was required to address the shortcomings highlighted by Ofsted data and the Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools (HMCI) annual report.

Further to the previous update to the Sub-Committee, the following steps have been taken:

·         An independently-chaired Improvement Board was established to oversee an agreed improvement strategy and had met regularly. The Board had met termly to monitor the progress and impact of the improvement strategy, holding schools’ leaders to account for improvement.

·         The key indicator of the success of the improvement strategy would be that all schools be judged to be good or better by Ofsted by July 2018, subject to each school’s place in Ofsted’s calendar of inspections.

·         As a measure of the joint commitment to the rapid school improvement required, in April 2017 a budget of £100,000 was allocated to support the work of the improvement strategy: £50,000 from Havering Local Authority and £50,000 from contributions from secondary schools through the Havering Learning Partnership (HLP - the association of secondary schools).

·         The Regional Schools Commissioner had increased the number of monitoring visits to Havering’s secondary schools, remarking on the positive approach the local head teachers group, governors and the local authority have taken in rising to the challenge to improve pupil outcomes.

·         Additional funding of £1.2m had been sought from the Department for Education (DfE) Strategic School Improvement fund. The fund was to help schools use their resources most effectively in order to deliver more good school places.

The Sub-Committee noted the following next steps by the service:

·         That the service continues to monitor the performance of all schools on a regular basis with a refreshed approach to bringing about necessary improvements. This includes forensic evaluation of progress through monthly performance review meetings in those schools identified as being under-performing and a greater use of the powers available to the authority where schools are a cause for concern. To date, there had been no change in the secondary sector to the baseline percentage of schools Good or better. The only two inspections that have taken place since January 2017 resulted in the same Ofsted grading.

·         The independently-chaired Improvement Board continues to meet the school-led governance body which monitors the agreed improvement strategy.

·         A decision was been awaited on the five bids submitted to DfE, the outcome was expected in August to deploy funds from September.

·         It was stated that individual secondary schools would learn of the pupils’ outcomes in late-August 2017. How local schools compare, such as against the Progress 8 measure, would not be known until later in 2017. This is because the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

The Sub-Committee is to note its annual report that summarise the activities during its year of operation ended May 2017.

The Sub-Committee agreed its annual report 2016-17 and further agreed that the report be referred to full Council.