Report of the Director of Children’s Services

This report provides a further update on the progress and impact of the Early Help Strategy and the delivery of the offer of early help. The report covers the refresh of the Early Help Strategy in 2018, highlights the activity and impact from the Early Help Hubs, and outlines future priorities. 

The Committee received a report of the Strategic Director of Children’s and Education Services which provided a further update on the progress and impact of the Early Help Strategy and the delivery of the offer of Early Help. The report covered the refresh of the Early Help Strategy in 2018, highlighted the activity and impact from the Early Help Hubs, and outlined future priorities. 

Officers referred to the main points and themes within the report which included:

·                Governance and Accountability Arrangements;

·                Early Help Strategy;

·                Early Help Hubs and Partnerships;

·                Work undertaken with schools and Pupil Referral Units (PRUs);

·                Performance and Impact;

·                Early Help Assessments;

·                Impact of the Early Help Hubs; 

·                Quality Assurance; and

·                Future Priorities.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

·                Request to see the analysis of the Troubled Families outcomes for 2017;

·                Members’ positive experiences of visiting the Early Help Hub in south Manchester;

·                How the relationship with schools could be improved;

·                Request for a breakdown of the statistics at ward or district level;

·                Concern about the number of referrals related to homelessness due to rent arrears; and

·                What was “Liquid Logic”.

The Strategic Director of Children’s and Education Services informed Members that Liquid Logic was the provider of the new IT system for recording cases and generating data which would go live in May 2019.  He reported that he and the Director of Education were having conversations with school leadership teams on how they could work more effectively together to make limited resources go further.  The Strategic Lead for Early Help and Interventions informed Members that her service was doing a lot of work with schools.  She outlined work taking place with the PRUs and the learning which had come from that.  She reported that there was a school attendance officer based in every Early Help Hub and that staff in the Hubs worked closely with Education Caseworkers and with schools and families around attendance issues and in-school behaviour.  She informed Members that Bridging the Gap sessions were now taking place to provide advice and guidance in relation to specific cases and to share general information.  She reported that since 2015 90% of schools had completed an Early Help Assessment and that training had been provided to schools staff which had resulted in an increase in Early Help Assessments.  She reported that her service was speaking to schools about any barriers which stopped them from engaging with this work and looking at how these could be addressed; however, she advised that there could still be positive early intervention work going on in these schools, which they were not recording through the Early Help Assessment process.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services acknowledged that the Council needed to respond better on the issue of homelessness, due to cuts in government support, and reported he would be meeting with officers and Executive Members with responsibility for housing, homelessness and adult social care to identify ways to improve the Council’s response.

Decisions

1.         To request to that the analysis of the Troubled Families outcomes for 2017 be   

          provided to Members of the Committee.

2.         To request a breakdown of the Early Help statistics at ward or district level.

3.         To receive an update report in a year’s time.

[Councillor Stone declared a personal interest as a member of the governing body of the Secondary Pupil Referral Unit.]