Agenda item

Report of the Director of Children and Young People’s Futures (CS/24/13).

(Councillor A Leadbetter attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(1) and spoke to this item at the invitation of the Committee.)

The Committee considered the report of the Director of Children and Young People’s Futures (CS/24/13) with attached Children’s Services Improvement Partnership Board report and the Social Care Improvement Plan Performance Measures/Data Set, which was discussed by the Board in May 2024.

The Children’s Services Improvement Partnership Board monitored the implementation of both the Social Care Improvement Plan and the Partnership Improvement Plan at its monthly meetings, which included consideration of the performance measures agreed for each of those plans.

The report highlighted a number of areas where performance had and continued to improve, together with the remedial actions being taken by the service.

The Committee was updated as to destination data for Children in Care NEET (not in education, employment or training) in that Devon was no longer an outlier and were now above the national average. Data in this regard was now live and would be shared with Members.  Monitoring would continue.

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services and Schools updated the Committee on some of the work that had been and was taking place across the whole Service, including:

-           Ongoing work with Essex as Devon’s improvement partner to help improve the service;

-           Most recent Ofsted monitoring letter that stated they were pleased with work in Devon particularly around the front door, and that no children were found to be unsafe.

-           Working with National Implementation Advisor for Care Leavers, Mark Riddell MBE, to improve Devon’s corporate parenting.

-           New Corporate Parenting Local Offer was now live and online; and Devon District Councils had agreed to a Council Tax exemption for care experienced young people.

-           Significant progress was being made with the District Councils in regard to housing.

-           Work with Exeter College on the offer of apprenticeships.

Members’ questions and discussion points with Officers included:-

·        That the voice of young children was heard through consultation as part of the audit process; through feedback from the Children in Care Council; and through assessments and visits. Work was ongoing. 

·        Repeat referrals had reduced further to 23% at the end of May, but recognition that it needed to improve further.  Useful discussions had taken place with the Police who were now triaging domestic abuse notifications to avoid sending in re-referrals.

·        Explanation that an unregistered placement was one which Devon had provided but which was outside the statutory framework, often used for emergency placements. Devon currently had 13 in unregistered placements for which registered placements were actively being sought.

·        The timing of health assessments was an issue for those placed outside Devon; and a recording glitch had now been identified and corrected.

·        Devon still had over 100 children in out of country placements some distance away and the team were working hard to bring them back into local placement, however it was noted that specialist placements were only available further afield.

·        A lot of work was also ongoing around rebuilding Devon’s relationship with its partners and providers.

·        An item on Sufficiency was coming to the September meeting.

·        Work was also ongoing around quality of supervision, which Essex were helping with and it was proposed that a report on quality assurance come to a future meeting.

The Chair expressed her appreciation to all the officers involved in making the improvements identified in the report.

It was MOVED by Councillor Sanders, SECONDED by Councillor Dewhirst and

RESOLVED that the Committee:

a)       Welcomes the improvements made across a range of performance indicators as set out in the report and the improved performance of Children in Care in NEET as updated by Officers in the meeting.

b)      Asks that Officers circulate the information on Children in Care in NEET with the Committee.

c)       Asks that a report on the voice of children and young people is added to the Work Programme for a future Children's Scrutiny Committee, and a further update on Quality Assurance is provided at the next Social Care Performance item in November 2024.

d)      Invites the Young Corporate Parenting Lead to a Children’s Scrutiny meeting as part of her work to link between care leavers and the Council, extending the invite to any care leaver apprentices to find out about the work of the Committee