Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Children and Family Services concerning the performance of Children and Family Services at the end of quarter 3 2015/16. A copy of the report marked ‘Agenda Item 9’ is filed with these minutes.

It was noted that whilst the percentage of children becoming subject to a child protection plan for a second or subsequent time had decreased, Leicestershire remained in the fourth quartile of local authorities and the performance indicator was RAG rated as RED. The majority of children subject to a second plan had previous cases closed between a period of 2 – 7 years ago. The Department had undertaken work to understand why many cases had been closed in the past, and it was felt that professional optimism was a factor. It was reported that procedures were now in place to prevent this including robust management oversight, and it was expected that the percentage of second and subsequent child protection plans would continue to decrease.

Members noted Leicestershire’s target for 2017/18 of 70% of pupils achieving five or more A*-C GCSE’s (including English and Maths), and queried what actions would need to be taken in supporting schools to achieve this target, and who would be held accountable should targets not be met. It was reported that in the previous year, three schools had suffered from poor performance which had impacted upon the performance data. These three schools were currently supported to achieve improvements by the work of the Leicestershire Education Excellence Partnership. The local authority had a statutory duty only to monitor educational outcomes, though it was required to inform Ofsted what support was offered to schools with poor performance. Individual schools would be held to account as the providers of education if outcomes were not satisfactory.

It was felt that RAG ratings, whilst helpful in identifying areas of poor performance, read alone did not sufficiently explain the areas of better or worse performance for the Department and provide the required context to wholly understand the data. It was explained that the RAG ratings were based on the judgement of officers but, where Leicestershire County Council performance was in the top quartile, the RAG rating would be GREEN and where the Council was in the bottom quartile, the RAG rating would be RED. Officers were asked that for future performance reports, a narrative around those areas RAG rated as RED be provided alongside the dashboard to assist the Committee in scrutinising the work and performance of the department.

The Director advised that the Carers Charter had been updated in February 2016 and outlined the range of support offered to young carers in Leicestershire. It was agreed that a report on the support offered to young carers in Leicestershire be provided to a future meeting of the Committee.

The percentage of children aged three with one or more decayed, missing or filled teeth was RAG rated RED and performance had worsened since the last quarter. The Committee felt it would be beneficial to have sight of a report on oral health that had previously been submitted to the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, to understand child oral health in Leicestershire and associated commissioning and promotion activity. In addition to this it was suggested that a further report submitted to the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the 0-19 Healthy Child Programme be circulated to the Committee. It was agreed that both reports be circulated for information.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the Quarter 3 Performance Report be noted;

(b)  That Officer be asked to include a narrative in future performance reports around those areas RAG rated as RED to assist the Committee in understanding the performance of the department and the actions taken in relation to areas of concern or poor performance;

(c)  That a report on the range of support offered by the County Council to young carers be presented to a future meeting of the Committee;

(d)  That links to reports presented to the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the 0-19 Healthy Child Programme Review and Re-Procurement on 30^th March 2016, and on the Oral Health of Five Year Olds on 9^th September 2015, be circulated to members of the Committee for information.