Agenda item

Cabinet received a report providing:

·               an update on the national and local developments across the Children's Services Directorate in Buckinghamshire. The document covered the key policy changes relating to safeguarding, school attendance, and the social work workforce.

·               a summary of the progress of the Children's Services Transformation programme, which aimed to streamline the service delivery across Early Help and Social Care, reduce handoffs and prioritise the development of supportive and enabling relationships between families and professionals.

·               an overview of the increasing demand and financial pressures on the services for children with SEND, unaccompanied asylum seeking children and placements for children in care, as well as the actions the service was taking to mitigate the pressures.

·               feedback received from Ofsted and the DfE on the performance and improvement of the services and the areas that require further attention and support.

RESOLVED –

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

Cabinet received a report providing:

·      an update on the national and local developments across the Children's Services Directorate in Buckinghamshire. The document covered the key policy changes relating to safeguarding, school attendance, and the social work workforce.

·      a summary of the progress of the Children's Services Transformation programme, which aimed to streamline the service delivery across Early Help and Social Care, reduce handoffs and prioritise the development of supportive and enabling relationships between families and professionals.

·      an overview of the increasing demand and financial pressures on the services for children with SEND, unaccompanied asylum seeking children and placements for children in care, as well as the actions the service was taking to mitigate the pressures.

·      feedback received from Ofsted and the DfE on the performance and improvement of the services and the areas that require further attention and support.

During discussion the following points were noted:-

·       Education Secretary Gillian Keegan had commented that tackling school attendance was her priority. Attendance figures had dropped since the pandemic. Buckinghamshire was below the national absence rate although Opportunity Bucks areas had higher than normal absence rates. There were two full time attendance officers, but help would also be provided by locality teams. There was focussed work with schools particularly with persistent offenders. The DfE was being lobbied for additional funding to help increase school attendance nationally and workshops were being held with DfE advisors. There was a concern regarding Opportunity Bucks school attendance as this could impact on health and wellbeing and employment issues and it was important to have a Strategy to address this.

·       A Cabinet Member made reference to a table in the report that referred to demand levels which looked like numbers were decreasing but costs were escalating. The Corporate Director reported that whilst there was a decrease in certain categories of threshold of need, there was an increase in terms of contact and demand from the safeguarding hub. However, with better decision making they were working with children in those categories in a more appropriate way and not just pushing work through for an assessment. The increase in cost was primarily looked after children, which related to the unit cost as numbers had remained static. As there was a sufficiency issue independent providers could charge more money and also the cost of agency social workers was still high.

·       In terms of casework a recent audit said that 70% was good, 5% outstanding and 15% which did not meet good. This did not necessarily mean that it was inadequate but that it did not meet the criteria of good. This was a stable position that had been sustained for the last 6-9 months. There were still improvements to be made in casework e.g., he had noticed a recent example of where casework was in the wrong domain of need where social worker input might not be required and there had been some delay as it was awaiting a decision as to whether it could be referred to an early help worker.

RESOLVED –

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