Agenda item

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION - QUARTER TWO

Report attached

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee received a report and presentation that updated on the Quarter Two 2021/22 (April to June 2021) performance information.

 

The report provided an overview of the service performance against the 13 performance indicators that have been selected for monitoring by the Sub-Committee.

 

It was noted that 7 of the indicators have been given a Red Amber Green status; RAG status. Five (71%) have a status of Green and two (29%) have a status of Red.

 

The presentation highlighted the following areas of strong performance and potential areas for improvement.

 

The report detailed that in the academic Year 2019/20, there were 9 inspections in Havering schools between September 2019 and March 2020, before the first COVID-19 lockdown. All seven primary schools that were inspected retained their 'Good' outcomes and the two secondary academies inspected improved from ‘Requires improvement’ to ‘Good’. Members were informed that this resulted in Havering’s overall percentage of providers being judged to be Good or Outstanding by OFSTED. There was an increase by 2 percentage points, which was s 5.2 percentage points above the national figure.

 

The percentage of primary phase providers judged to be Good or Outstanding by OFSTED reduced by 0.1 percentage point when compared with last quarter, due to the merging of one Infant and one Junior school into a Primary. The percentage of pupils attending a Good or Outstanding provider remains above target for both phases, and for Primary is better than the London average.

 

The report explained that the rates of both fixed term and permanent exclusions in Havering have remained below the rates for England as a whole and better than London - both for primary and secondary schools - based on the latest available published data.

 

It was stated that the percentage of looked after children aged under 16 who have been looked after continuously for at least 2.5 years and living in the same placement for at least 2 years have improved in the second quarter of the year to 65.2%, which was in line with the average for Outer London and just below the overall London average, based on the latest available data.

 

The Sub-Committee noted that Havering had a higher proportion of children in care experiencing 3 or more placements within a 12 month period, and the previously identified rise in placement moves has continued in the second quarter.

 

It was noted that there were a cohort of older children who were presenting with complex mental health/emotional needs, which was challenging for placement stability.  It was explained that in order to understand the reasons for the high number of placement moves, an active working group including the Assistant Director were using a constructed audit tool to identify causation, themes and areas for improvement. 

 

The report outlined the following areas that required improvement:

 

It was explained that the percentage of looked after children who ceased to be looked after as a result of permanency (Adoption and Special Guardianship Order) was below target at the end of the second quarter, with 3 Adoption Orders and 2 Special Guardianship Orders (SGOs) granted in April to September 2021. The report detailed that the national figures for children ceasing to be looked after as a result of adoption peaked in 2015 with a total figure of 5,360 children. The latest national figures available were for 2020, when 3,440 children of a total children in care population of 80,080 (4.3%) ceased care for adoption.

 

The Sub-Committee was informed that Havering set a higher target of 6% of children in care leaving care for adoption and this was being achieved.

 

It was noted that there was a significant turnover of staff over the summer period and which has impacted on the percentage of Children in Care with 2+ changes of social worker in the last 12 months. The service have 36 agency staff covering posts, and 2 vacant posts. It was explained that adverts are being placed in December for some of the social work posts covered by agency workers.

 

The Sub-Committee was provided with an update on staff recruitment, 11 new foster carers have been recruited. It was also mention that the service was about to launch a new campaign to fill vacant post with fulltime staff.

 

Officer were asked to provide future performance update that had been benchmarked with the statistical neighbours in order for Members to have a better indication of the performance indicators.

 

A breakdown of the exclusion figure was requested in order to determine how many were children with an Educational Health Care Plan were. It was noted that there had been 49 request by schools for exclusion but following officer intervention 44 were withdrawn.

 

The Sub-Committee noted the contents of the report and presentation

 

Supporting documents: