Issue - meetings

The Children’s Services Improvement plan is in place to ensure progress is made at pace in accordance with the ILACs recommendation, Monitoring Visit outcomes and the statutory Direction notice.

Overview and Scrutiny require regular update on themes regarding improvement and this report covers overall improvements to date.

The Children’s Services Senior Leadership Team are presenting the overall outcomes for the first year of Improvement through a presentation at this Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Director of Quality, Performance Improvement and Governance presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'D' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The Children’s Services Improvement plan was in place to ensure progress was made at pace in accordance with the ILACs recommendation, Monitoring Visit outcomes and the statutory Direction notice.

Overview and Scrutiny required regular updates on themes regarding improvement and the report covered overall improvements to date.  The Children’s Services Senior Leadership Team were presenting the overall outcomes for the first year of Improvement through a presentation at the Committee.

The Committee discussed the report and presentation, including:

• In response to a query regarding lowering caseloads, the Committee was advised that caseloads were dependant on the team a social worker worked in, however the Committee was reassured that the caseloads had reduced, and the variants and reasons were detailed within the improvement plan.
• In response to a query regarding terminology being used, the Committee was advised that Care Leavers were now known as Care Experienced Young People and although there was no national language, it was felt that BCP was ahead with its choice of language used.
• In response to a query regarding unregistered providers, the Committee was advised that they were placements or homes which hadn’t been registered and Ofsted regulated however, the Committee was reassured of the quality assurance in place around those placements which included weekly meetings with providers and children in those settings. 
• In response to a query regarding the culture of the Council and the transformation programme and its impact on Children’s Services, the Committee was reassured that it was felt there was strong support for Children’s Services corporately which was on a positive and mutually beneficial journey
• The Chair highlighted how positive his visit to the 333 Hub was and suggested when the new was Committee in place, another visit would be beneficial for new Members.  ACTION
• The Committee discussed the support, challenge and learning environment which was being provided to staff within Children’s Services.

The Chair summarised as follows:

• Caseloads
• Terminology
• Unregistered providers
• Culture of council and learning environment

RESOLVED that the Committee note the update.