Report of the Head of Quality Assurance for Safeguarding

This report introduces the draft Independent Reviewing Officer Annual Report 2017 - 2018. It provides an account of the activity of the Independent Reviewing Service between 1 April 2017 and the 31 March 2018.  The report evaluates practice, plans and arrangements for looked after children and the effectiveness of Independent Reviewing Officer service in ensuring the local authority as a corporate parent discharges its statutory responsibilities towards looked after children.  The report also draws on evidence from the views of children and young people, carers, and professionals from the local authority and from partner agencies.

The Committee received a report of the Head of Quality Assurance for Safeguarding which introduced the draft Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) Annual Report 2017 - 2018. The report provided an account of the activity of the Independent Reviewing Service between 1 April 2017 and the 31 March 2018.

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

·         An evaluation of the practice, plans and arrangements for Looked After Children (Our Children);

·         An evaluation of the effectiveness of the IRO service in ensuring the Council as a corporate parent was discharging its statutory duties towards Our Children; and

·         Evidence from the views of children and young people, carers and professionals.

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

·         A request for clarification of the timescales for the final report to be produced;

·         That some of the terminology used in the report (for example, Looked After Children rather than Our Children) was not in line with the terminology that young people had asked to be used and to request that this be amended in the final version of the report;

·         Discussion of the figures in some of the graphs, in particular why the number of Our Children had decreased and then increased again;

·         To question the validity of the IRO survey referred to in the report as only 16% of Our Children had responded and to ask whether an alternative format, for example, an app could result in a higher response rate; and

·         To ask how the learning from young people’s complaints was taken forward.

The Head of Quality Assurance for Safeguarding informed Members that the draft report would be considered at the Corporate Parenting Panel’s meeting on 21 November 2018 and then, following any amendments, a final version would be published on the Council’s website.  She agreed that the terminology used would be amended in the final version of the report, to use the terms which Our Children had requested be used to describe them and their circumstances.  She also advised that officers would strengthen the commentary around some of the graphs to make the information clearer.  The Strategic Director of Children’s and Education Services informed Members that the number of children who were looked after had decreased in 2016 – 2017 following the establishment of a permanent, stable leadership team.  He advised that, at that time, there were children who were looked after but did not need to be and the service had focused on permanence planning and in ensuring that only those children for whom it was necessary entered the looked after system; however, he acknowledged that the numbers had risen again and informed Members that the numbers had risen nationally, regionally and locally.  He suggested that the Committee might want to look at this in more detail at a later date.  The Chair suggested that Members could look at this during a less formal session, outside of the Scrutiny Committee meetings.

The Head of Quality Assurance for Safeguarding reported that, while the service would have liked a higher response to the survey, the responses received were still important.  She advised Members that it had been a short paper survey but that officers would look at using technology, including the Mind Of My Own (MOMO) app, in future.  She outlined how complaints from children and young people were dealt with, advising Members that they were offered an advocate to support them through the complaints process.  She assured Members that learning from complaints was acted on, which could involve incorporating learning into the development programme for staff or reviewing procedures.

Decision

To request that a session be arranged outside of the formal Scrutiny Committee meetings for Members to examine the number of children becoming Looked After and the reasons for the changes in the numbers.