Agenda item

BCP Children’s Services was inspected, under the Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACs) framework in December 2021. The outcome was an overall inadequate judgement. As a result the Secretary of State of Education issued a Statutory Direction and appointed a DfE Improvement Adviser to support the Council in their improvement of Children’s Social Care Services.

As a result a Children’s Services Improvement Plan is in place to ensure progress is made at pace in Children’s Social Care in line with the recommendations of the December Inspection and in accordance with the statutory direction notice received by the Council in March 2022.

Overview and Scrutiny require regular updates on themes regarding improvement. In October 2022 Children’s Services had their second Monitoring Visit, the letter published by Ofsted is presented for scrutiny alongside, the DfE Advisers first report. The DfE Adviser in their role is required to review the pace and progress of improvement at 6 months to ensure it is sufficient and report on this to the Secretary of State.

The Director of Children’s Services presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'B' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

BCP Children’s Services was inspected, under the Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACs) framework in December 2021. The outcome was an overall inadequate judgement. As a result the Secretary of State of Education issued a Statutory Direction and appointed a DfE Improvement Adviser to support the Council in their improvement of Children’s Social Care Services.

As a result a Children’s Services Improvement Plan was put in place to ensure progress was made at pace in Children’s Social Care in line with the recommendations of the December Inspection and in accordance with the statutory direction notice received by the Council in March 2022.

Overview and Scrutiny required regular updates on themes regarding improvement. In October 2022 Children’s Services had their second Monitoring Visit, the letter published by Ofsted was presented for scrutiny alongside, the DfE Advisers first report. The DfE Adviser in their role was required to review the pace and progress of improvement at six months to ensure it was sufficient and report on this to the Secretary of State.

The Committee discussed the report and comments were made, including:

• In response to a query regarding the Local Government Review (LGR) and the barriers which still needed to be address, the Committee was advised of the issues which needed resolving corporately, as well as the transition to moving to one case management system, which unfortunately still had not been resolved. 
• In response to a query regarding a Children’s Trust, the Committee was advised that the statutory direction from the DfE was to consider whether Children’s Services could prosper and improve within BCP or whether it should be removed from BCP’s control and become a Children’s Trust, which would be an independent legal entity from BCP Council.  The Committee was advised of the implications should that happen
• In response to queries regarding LGR and the corporate transformation, structure and board, it was highlighted that there was a children’s services transformation board which work along the corporate transformation.  Details of the financial support system, HR operating model and pay and reward model were provided to the Committee
• In response to a query about staffing and dependency on agency staff, the Committee was advised that a shortage of social workers was a national issue and could result in higher caseloads.  The way in which the service was trying to address this issue was detailed
• In response to a query about consistencies and good practice, the Committee was advised of the work being undertaken to drive improvement which included the quality assurance work, a good training offer and the need for a social work model which the service wanted to adopt and were looking for DfE funding to assist with that, however it was noted that this could only be introduced once the workforce had stabilised.
• The Chair enquired about what the external barriers were that were referred to in the report and the Committee was advised they included workforce stability, partners that the service worked with and how they supported it, the increase in unaccompanied asylum seekers and economic issues which led to higher levels of poverty.  The Chair concluded that if there was anything the Committee could do to support Children’s Services, to let them know.
• The Committee noted the upcoming budget café, which would give an opportunity to consider the Children’s Services budget and the Chair advised that following that, the Committee may wish to scrutinise it more in depth
• In response to a query regarding delays in decision making, the Committee was advised of the need for more professional curiosity in the decision-making process to ensure children are safe
• The Chair and Vice Chair thanked Children’s Services on behalf of the Committee for the work they were doing to improve the service.

The Chair summarised discussions as follows:

• LGR and the complexities which impacted on Children’s Services
• Children’s Trust and what it would mean
• Ongoing HR and financial resources
• Staff turnover and agency staff
• Consistency and striving for stabilisation
• External factors and their impact
• Budget
• Delays and what causes them
• Corporate insecurities.

RESOLVED that the Committee note the report.