Meeting documents

The Committee will receive an update on recent developments within Children’s Services.

Contributors:

Mr Gareth Williams, Deputy Cabinet Member for Children’s Services

Mr Tolis Vouyioukas, Executive Director, Children’s Services

Mr Richard Nash, Service Director, Children’s Social Care

The Chairman welcomed Mr Tolis Vouyioukas, Executive Director of Children’s Services and Mr Gareth Williams, Deputy Cabinet Member for Children’s Services to the meeting. During discussions and in response to Member questions the following main points were noted:

·       Mr Williams promoted the upcoming early help consultation and encouraged everyone to get involved. He also highlighted recent visits he had undertaken to other Councils to share best practice. An additional children’s home would be opened in 2019 and Members were advised that the number of looked after children in Buckinghamshire continued to grow, placing pressure on fostering services and the budget.

·       A Member asked how confident the Deputy Cabinet Member and Director of Children’s Services were that the Medium Term Financial Plan for 2019/20 would be sufficient, given that the current year’s budget was stretched, due to the delay in implementing early help changes and increased numbers of looked after children.  In response, the Deputy Cabinet Member emphasised that as the service was demand led it was difficult to predict the largest cost areas, but the management team had budgeted for an increase in numbers for next year, based on an analysis of the cohort of young people currently on Child Protection plans.  Mr Vouyioukas assured Members that budgets would not determine the outcomes for any child.

·       In response to a question about staffing at the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), the Director of Children’s Services explained that there were some vacancies as it was a particularly demanding environment to work in, but managers were supporting MASH staff as best they could.

·       Currently Buckinghamshire had 505 looked after children and 634 children with Child Protection Plans. The number of looked after children was below the national and south east average, but the number of Child Protection Plans was higher than expected and this could lead to an increase in the looked after cohort. The Early Help consultation would run for 10 weeks. Independent guidance had been sought on the timing and length of the consultation and consultation documents had been designed to explain three options, with one preferred option clearly stated.  Public meetings were also being held to ensure the public could ask further questions.

·       A member stated that the percentage of repeat referrals was of concern and asked what actions were being taken to reduce them. Mr Vouyioukas explained that repeat referrals usually happened when a child had particularly complex needs or if a crisis occurred within the family to trigger a second referral. It was noted that there had been an increase in referrals involving domestic violence over the past few months.

·       The Chairman noted that some targets in the performance report had been reduced.  Mr Vouyioukas explained that whilst key performance indicators (KPI) have their place, both Ofsted and the Commissioner had commented that it was important to strike a good balance between data and KPI targets the quality of social work practice and improving outcomes for young people.

·       A member asked for reassurance that the number of looked after children placed within 20 miles of their original home setting would improve. It was noted that the importance of a child receiving the correct high-quality placement was the prime motivator, and also that some children need to be placed away from the County. To date this year, the demand for placements had been met within the County, but this would not be sustainable going forward.

·       A member asked whether the frontline and management staff issues had been remedied. Mr Williams said caseloads were still too high in some teams and would take time to reduce, but he had confidence in the new permanent senior management team of excellent individuals who had the experience and expertise to drive improvements. It was acknowledged that realistically it could take up to three years to turn performance around and get to ‘good’.

·       The Director of Children’s Services commented that the service was on the right track – the improvement plans were ambitious, especially with the changing demographic demands, but the Commissioner had confirmed that the service is moving in the right direction and the new management team would continue to build momentum.

·       Members were concerned about frequent changes to foster placements and the effects on children. Mr Vouyioukas said that the service keeps placement moves to a minimum, but some children had special requirements or may display challenging behaviour within a particular setting, which might necessitate a change of placement.