Minutes:
The recent Monitoring Visit had focused on looked after children and had been, overall, the most positive visit since the Trust had assumed responsibility for services. It had noted the major improvement in key areas since 2016, the implementation of the recommendations made at the previous inspection and the quality assurance in place under new arrangements. Audits had provided significantly better results and the cases assessed demonstrated an accurate picture of the child’s progress was being recorded. The process for looked after children was also more secure and timely. However, in a small number of cases, changes in the situation of the child had not been reflected in records. The care planning process was also substantially improved, although could be slow in some instances. Staff morale had risen with the stability of social workers also having increased. Overall, children felt safe and secure in their placements.
In terms of areas to improve, managerial oversight still required further work. In addition, whilst data quality had improved it was still not at the desired standard.
The Panel raised the following points in discussion:
· The stability of placements had improved, although this had not historically been a weakness. Both the short term and long term measures used to adjudicate on provision here put Slough above the national average, although not in the top quartile.
· In cases where a handover was required, the policy was to allocate the case before the first worker left. A handover meeting would then be organised, including discussion of a plan for the individual concerned; however, it was recognised that this is not always the case. Children were also encouraged to be honest about their relationship with the social worker; forums for this included discussions with Independent Reviewing Officers, the Reach Out! Scrutiny Forum and email.
· Within the Children’s Services Trust, the Senior Management Team were permanent with the exception of the Chief Executive and the Head of Improvement. Equally, the proportion of agency workers had fallen to approximately 20% in Child Protection teams; the figure was higher in the Front Door team but still lower than previously. The students recruited through the ‘Step Up’ programme had also now graduated to permanent positions in many cases.
· However, it was impossible to reduce agency worker levels to zero. Despite the fact that sick pay, annual leave and other benefits may be less for agency workers, the pay levels and flexibility offered by such an arrangement was preferable for them.
· The Trust’s emphasis on ‘deep impact’ work (intended to make change permanent and children more resilient) was more labour intensive than previous approaches. Given this, workloads had been reduced; having previously been an average of 22 cases per social worker, this figure had now reduced to 13.
· Should a child ask about changing their social worker, an advocate would be appointed and the matter investigated. The Trust would then moderate the case; some withdrew the request, some pursued it and in these cases a worker may or may not be reassigned. In those cases where a change was required, the average turnaround was a matter of weeks.
· Intervention in cases was based on thresholds, rather than the number of referrals made to the Trust. The levels of children who had left the care of the Trust being readmitted was tracked, and statistics indicated that the ‘deep impact’ approach was increasing the level of permanent change in children’s lives.
Resolved: That the update be noted.