Agenda item

Since the last update to Cabinet in October 2022, the Service had received two regulatory visits. The first was a Focused Visit from Ofsted that looked at the services and support offered to care leavers and the second was an inspection of Youth Offending Services by HM Inspectorate of Probation. Both visits went well and confirmed that the Service continued its improvement journey and whilst there was more to do, the Service had an accurate self-assessment and understanding of what was needed to be done.  In addition, two of the Council’s Children’s Homes were now judged to be ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted and the Council’s new 4 bedded Parent and Baby residential assessment resource had just opened, following registration by Ofsted.

IMPOWER had now completed their analysis of the profile of demand and developed a number of recommendations outlining how the Service could improve its financial sustainability by delivering better outcomes at less cost. The IMPOWER work also concluded that the service and its partners could work differently together to meet the needs of children and young people. The findings from this analysis had helped the Service to refine its self-assessment from which a whole system Children’s Services Transformation Programme had been developed. This change programme would redefine the support that was to be provided to children and families and redevelop the model to enable interventions that were more responsive to children’s needs. The ambition was to create more opportunities for professionals, including partner agencies, to integrate services around the needs of communities and move from a process driven case management model with multiple hand off points to a relationship based, solution focused system. 

There were a number of significant national policy changes on the horizon and the proposed changes to the way in which the Service operated were in line with national policy direction and were based on ensuring that children receive a consistent, purposeful and child centred approach wherever they are on their journey of need from early help through to being in care.

RESOLVED –

That the national and local developments across the Children’s Services Directorate be NOTED.

Since the last update to Cabinet in October 2022, the Service had received two regulatory visits. The first was a Focused Visit from Ofsted that looked at the services and support offered to care leavers and the second was an inspection of Youth Offending Services by HM Inspectorate of Probation. Both visits went well and confirmed that the Service continued its improvement journey and whilst there was more to do, the Service had an accurate self-assessment and understanding of what was needed to be done.  In addition, two of the Council’s Children’s Homes were now judged to be ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted and the Council’s new 4 bedded Parent and Baby residential assessment resource had just opened, following registration by Ofsted.

IMPOWER had now completed their analysis of the profile of demand and developed a number of recommendations outlining how the Service could improve its financial sustainability by delivering better outcomes at less cost. The IMPOWER work also concluded that the service and its partners could work differently together to meet the needs of children and young people. The findings from this analysis had helped the Service to refine its self-assessment from which a whole system Children’s Services Transformation Programme had been developed. This change programme would redefine the support that was to be provided to children and families and redevelop the model to enable interventions that were more responsive to children’s needs. The ambition was to create more opportunities for professionals, including partner agencies, to integrate services around the needs of communities and move from a process driven case management model with multiple hand off points to a relationship based, solution focused system. 

The Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services reported that there were a number of significant national policy changes on the horizon and the proposed changes to the way in which the Service operated were in line with national policy direction and were based on ensuring that children receive a consistent, purposeful and child centred approach wherever they are on their journey of need from early help through to being in care. It also covered Buckinghamshire’s local needs and identified any gaps in service. The report covered social care, schools, SEND provision, the implications of the new Child Care Provision and reforms, service transformation and strategy, placements, corporate parenting work and the two Ofsted visits mentioned above.

The Service area was dealing with increasing demand, increasing complexity of care, staff recruitment and retention, lack of cohesive partnership working, difficulty in accessing placements, rising costs of providers and subsequent year on year increasing costs. Overarching all of this was a national Strategy which was a direct response to the Care Review called ‘Stable Homes; Built on Love’. The Council was broadly in support of the six pillars for reform, which were set out in the Strategy. The Council’s goal was to ensure that children and young people receive the best care, have the best life possible and achieve their best potential. The Council was transforming itself to bridge gaps and fulfil needs.

During discussion the following points were noted:

·       One of the things that had been highlighted was the increasing demand and complexity of cases particularly since the pandemic. It was important to understand the causes of this and whether it was temporary or permanent. The Service Director of Children’s Social Care reported that it was due to a combination of factors and he was concerned about the deterioration in children’s and adults’ mental health as a driving factor. There had been an increase in the level of demand in the Opportunity Bucks wards which could be a result of substance misuse, domestic violence and mental health issues.

·       In terms of a question around the support from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, the Service Director reported that the Council continued to work with CAMHS and that the relationship had developed year on year. They also faced similar challenges to the Council in understanding demand changes and responding to them in a defined financial envelope, with similar recruitment issues.

·       Regional Care Co-operatives had been introduced by the Government to help manage the market, but some concerns had been voiced by the Local Government Association. The report referred to the County being in a crisis since last October when the availability of placements was significantly reduced, particularly for children with complex needs. There was recognition that local authorities could not solve the placement sufficiency on their own and the Co-operatives were a step in the right direction in the medium and longer term but did not address current pressures. The Cabinet Member reported that the transformation strategy would work with early years and families to address the major problem of family breakdown, trauma and anxiety to ensure that this did not result in longer term complex needs.

·       It would be helpful for the work of the Corporate Parenting Panel to have more visibility at the Health and Wellbeing Board to increase the visibility on the mental health of Looked After Children. The Cabinet Member reported that changes had been made to the Panel to ensure that the Voice of the Child was heard and to look at what young people need and want.

·       Buckinghamshire Council had now, along with all other local authorities, been mandated to take Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) when they were referred via the National Transfer Scheme (NTS). In addition, the Council was also now required to continue to receive referrals until it reached 0.10% of the child (0-18) population (128 individuals for Buckinghamshire) compared to the previous ask of 0.07%, 89 individuals for Buckinghamshire. At the time of writing, the Service supported 73 UASC, an increase from 48 in September 2022. A question was asked about whether this had been factored into the budget, whether this had been funded by the Government and also how these children were housed. The maximum amount for Buckinghamshire was 130 young people. Placements were made on the individual needs of children and young people, such as a foster placement or semi-independent living. There was some unfunded burden due to the time it took the Home Office to make a decision (2/3 years). The age that the child was when they were referred was also important, as whilst a grant was given to under 18’s, they would need to be supported by the Council over the age of 18, up to the age of 25 where the costs were much higher than the grant being received.

·       With the Social Work Qualified Agency Rate agencies often restricted the supply of staff to teams rather than individual vacancies. A concern was raised with the Locality Based model and whether it would be more difficult to obtain individual agency staff and what was a realistic target, as 26% seemed to be quite high. Also a question was asked whether there would be any impact on the Council regarding recruitment with the Government harmonising agency rates. The Service Director reported that this was difficult to predict but the main aim for the Council was to have as few agency staff as possible. Agency staff would always be required because of the statutory nature of the Service areas work. The rules that were being implemented were positive ones such as a newly qualified social worker could not leave their first place of work for five years and also individual agency staff could be allocated. Last week there were three sets of interviews and those candidates said they wanted to join Buckinghamshire because the Council was strong in their wellbeing support.

·       The opening of further children’s homes was dependent on capital funding and suitable sites. Registered Children’s Homes have a requirement to ensure that there were good matching arrangements and that was one of the reasons it could be difficult to place a child. It was important to increase capacity in Buckinghamshire. A Mother and Baby Unit would be opened and potential buildings were being identified.

·       The reform of the childcare system would have significant economic advantages to families so parents could go back to work. From 2025, 30 hours would be available for every child over 9 months. With more children in childcare any difficulties could be picked up early and addressed by the Service area. The Service area was also providing a new skills agenda for mothers returning to work. The Service Director reported that they were yet to understand what the funding arrangements would be for Buckinghamshire.

·       Following the consultation on SEND Review: Right support, right place, right time which proposed reforms for a single, national SEND and alternative provision system, the Cabinet Member reported that the chief problems were waiting times and the need for more training and staff to encourage confidence for schools to provide good services. The Government had outlined the package that they would provide. The funding was £10 billion nationally by 2024 which would help the Service Area to provide more advisors for schools, so that the schools could take on more of the SEND provision and to recruit more staff; currently there were 6,000 ECHP’s and rising. The Council were recruiting more psychologists from 12 to 20.

·       In response to a question regarding what the differences were between the Government Independent Review of Children’s Social Care proposed in 2022 and what was now being currently implemented, the Cabinet Member reported that the chief difference was the amount of money being devoted to all the reforms. The Government’s initial review was that £2.5 billion was required over 5 years. The Government was now able to give local authorities nationally £200 million over two years, which was why a transformation policy was required. The Government said that Councils needed 500 more social workers nationally, but a plan had not yet been put in place on how to achieve this. However, there was a plan for Buckinghamshire. The Government would be allocating £45m to 12 families first for children pathfinder areas to trial the care review proposal to introduce multi-disciplinary family help services, however Buckinghamshire was not involved in this. The main issue was children’s placements which was not being addressed nationally. There was no windfall tax on profitable care providers and no regulation and very little money for foster care (£27 million nationally).

·       Reference was made to the unprecedented increase in referral and re-referral rates which were statistically higher than neighbouring councils and how these were contributing to extra demand pressures. The Cabinet Member reported that this was a reaction to national and local difficulties and the Transformation Programme would be based around partnership, community and co-operation. There needed to be a better alignment between services and a menu of intervention. Early help was also important to help the whole family unit. Less reliance on agency staff would also help and assigning social workers to a varied case load to avoid burn out. The Service Director reported that the Council wanted to be proactive in transforming ahead of the Government review and making sure all partners such as schools, voluntary sector and health services were involved with children and young people at an early stage. In terms of re-referrals, there had been a system issue in how the Council measured this area which had now been addressed. If a re-referral was made, analysis was undertaken on why the previous service offered had failed and what needed to be put in place in terms of having an effective partnership around children to ensure better outcomes.

·       In terms of academisation of all schools, this initially caused alarm as there were 242 maintained schools. However, some schools got together in small groups, particularly with small village schools and also there was the option for local authorities having their own academies. This was a possibility for the future.

·       The Corporate Parenting Panel used every other session to listen to the  voiced wishes of the child and the other session to go through corporate reporting.

·       With recruitment and retention the Council needed to be mindful of the cost of living crisis. The worst pressure was in child protection teams where the work was more complex and traumatic than other areas. Support was given to individuals and to teams, the staff survey had shown that staff felt well supported and there was a good culture for discussing difficult cases. There was also a comprehensive wellbeing offer for staff. The combination of this had led to people applying for work in Buckinghamshire.

RESOLVED –

That the national and local developments across the Children’s Services Directorate be NOTED.