Agenda item

To present the report of the Interim Head of Children’s Services.

The report of the Interim Head of Children’s Services on the performance of Children’s Services was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The report focussed on the service’s performance against the following specific indicators –

•           SCC/025 – The percentage of statutory visits to looked after children due in the year that took place in accordance with regulation.

•           PM24 – The percentage of assessments completed for children within statutory timescales (42 working days)

•           PM32 – The percentage of looked after children who experienced (one) or more changes of school during a period or periods of being looked after, which were not due to transitional arrangements in the year to 31 March.

•           PM33 – The percentage of looked after children on 3 March who have had three or more placements during the year.

The Committee noted that it had requested a report on the performance of Children’s Services as a result of its consideration of the Corporate Scorecard for Quarter 1 2016/17.While it had accepted the mitigation measures presented at the time, and had not requested Officers to give account for performance as Q1 was considered too premature in the year to do so, the Committee had identified Children’s Services as an area requiring close monitoring. It had therefore invited the Head of Children’s Services to present a report by the end of the Quarter 2 reporting period. This report was however deferred because of the CSSIW inspection of Children’s Services that took place in November, 2016.

The Interim Head of Children’s Services elaborated on the service performance against each of the four indicators and he highlighted where the performance was currently on target (PM32 and PM33); where the target was on course to be missed (SCC/025 and PM24) he reported on the factors affecting performance and the remedial measures being taken.

The Committee considered the information presented and made the following points –

•           The Committee noted a marked decline in performance against Indicator PM24 from 100% in Quarter 1 to 81.62% in Quarter 3 and it sought an explanation for the dip. The Interim Head of Children’s Services said that workforce issues, in particular high staff turnover were influencing factors with regard to under-performance against the indicator. There are currently five vacancies for Social Worker posts which are being covered by agency staff. The recruitment of suitably experienced staff remains a challenge. The service was given permission to recruit an additional staff resource on a temporary basis but lost the resource to a permanent post. This has affected performance in the third quarter. It is unlikely that the Authority will be able to recruit qualified staff on a temporary basis; cover can be provided either by agency staff or by commissioning specific pieces of work on a consultancy basis. 

•           The Committee noted that it would have expected to see an improvement in performance against all the indicators by the end of Quarter 3 or at least for performance to remain stable at Quarter 1 levels. The Committee noted its disappointment that this was not the case and that the data reflected a worsening of the situation with regard to two of the indicators. The Director of Social Services said with regard to indicator SCC/025 that Quarter 4 data is likely to confirm the downward trend in performance against this indicator. In mitigation it is sometimes the case that a statutory visit has taken place but has not been formally written up so is recorded as late; attempts to carry out a visit may have been made but the visit has not been undertaken in the approved way. Staff need to better understand that working practices and the way certain aspects of work are carried out have an impact on performance indicators.

•           The Committee noted that workforce issues and specifically staff capacity were cited as reasons for underperformance when the performance of Children’s Services against indicator SCC/025 was challenged last year. The Committee noted further that it has been understanding of the challenges facing the service in this respect but is now concerned about the prospects for the delivery of improvement against this indicator. The Director of Social Services said that Performance Indicators focus on certain aspects of performance and do not reflect the range of provision. There are areas of service provision for which there are no formal performance indicators so improvements and good practice are not necessarily reported upon within the formal performance framework. Additionally, the main aim of the Corporate Scorecard is to highlight underperforming areas; once those areas improve and are brought on target they are displaced by other indicators on the Scorecard.

It was resolved to –

•           Note the report.

•           Refer the matter to the Children’s Panel for it to determine the type of information data that needs to be presented paying particular attention to the quality of services and the voice of children and their families.

•           Move forward without delay to establish a clear remit and objectives for the Children’s Panel to be operational under the new administration in May, 2017.