Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Children and Family Services detailing the progress made against the Ofsted Continuous Improvement Action Plan (OCIAP) in responding to the Single Inspection of Children’s Social Care in November 2016.  A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 11’ is filed with these minutes.

Arising from a discussion, the following comments were raised:-

(i)            Progress had been made with improvements to First Response, including timeliness of response and management oversight.  This had been recognised by an independent consultant who had undertaken a mock inspection in May.  The areas highlighted for development were the same as those identified by the department and work was taking place to address these.

(ii)          The main challenge to being able to undertake work to maintain improvements was the recruitment and retention of staff.  There had been a number of appointments, but an issue was the recruitment of experienced social workers.  A cohort of newly qualified social workers had been appointed who were due to commence in the summer.  However, for the first year, these would have a reduced case load and required additional support.  As a result, in certain cases, some agency staff had been retained.

(iii)         It was noted that recruitment of experienced social workers was an issue nationally.  However, within Leicestershire, there had been a delay with the development of the recruitment and retention strategy and the County Council had traditionally offered a lesser financial incentive. 

(iv)         In response to a query around how much staffing had been increased, it was stated that the department was not carrying vacancies, but some of the posts had been filled using agency staff.   All manager posts had been recruited to and the Independent Reviewing Officer vacancies were currently being filled.  An issue was the recruitment of staff to the Child Protection and Supporting Families teams in localities.  These teams were currently being reviewed to ensure that caseloads were appropriate.  However, compared to 18 months ago, the overall current staffing situation was much improved. 

(v)          With regard to recruitment targets, it was confirmed that these were based on caseload size rather than the number of staff required.  Caseloads were reviewed regularly and staffing requirements adjusted accordingly.  I was confirmed that recruitment targets had been met in a number of areas, and the areas where improvements were required had been identified.  It was suggested that future reports should contain more detail about the progress that had been made towards meeting the targets.

(vi)         There was some concern that the issue around recruitment and retention had not been included in the written report and it was felt that it would have been more useful for the Committee to have had this information prior to the meeting to allow better scrutiny.  Consideration would be given to the presentation of information for the next report.  Details of the recruitment and retention strategy would also be presented to the next meeting.

(vii)        It was stated that the County Council was performing well against the national average for the number of days from entering care to adoption and the number of days from court authority to placing a child.  It would be very difficult to reduce the average number of days significantly due to the legal processes that needed to be followed prior to an agreement being reached on where to place a child.

(viii)      The dental checks and health checks for children in care had improved, but some members of the Committee felt that these figures should be at 100%.  It would be very difficult to achieve this as older young people often chose not to have the checks.  In comparison with other authorities, Leicestershire was average and work was taking place to further improve the numbers.

RESOLVED:

a)    That the report be noted;

b)    That officers be requested to ensure that future reports on progress with the Ofsted recommendations include more detail, particularly on areas of challenge;

c)    That details of the recruitment and retention strategy be presented to a future meeting.