To receive a verbal update from Directors on the Council’s current situation for services within the remit of the committee with regards to the impact of, and recovery from, the Covid-19 pandemic.
Minutes:
The Corporate Director People and the Director of Families and Children’s Services provided a verbal update on the steps being taken by Children’s Services to recover from the impact of the pandemic. It was reported that a Strategic Coordination Group was in place to oversee the recovery and to hold performance to account. Issues identified were similar to those existing pre-pandemic but had increased in terms of demand and complexity. The Directors explained that since the last meeting there had been an increase in the number of lower-level referrals from partner agencies, with over 100 per week coming in from the police. Auditing had taken place to monitor this trend and found that conversion to support cases remained steady.
The Director of Families and Children’s Services reported that there were 345 Child Protection cases, equating to about 32.5 per 10,000 children, which was in line with good/outstanding Local Authorities (LAs) and just below Wiltshire Council’s target range. The number of referrals for Children Looked After was below the rates of outstanding authorities but in line with other good LAs. They explained that case load levels were increasing but the expected surge in demand had not yet worked through the system.
During the discussion key points included:
• Members thanked the Directors for the update and for their work in addressing the issues caused by the pandemic.
• Questions were asked about whether the benchmark for referrals was too high as the number of Wiltshire’s referrals of Children Looked After was at 39.6 per 10,000 children when outstanding LAs were referring an average of 59 per 10,000.
• The Directors explained that thresholds for referral were constantly reviewed and that the Family Key Worker Service has had a known positive impact on onward referral. This part of the service had recently been independently evaluated by Oxford Brookes University. Analysis had shown that the Council’s emphasis on early intervention was having an impact on the overall number of cases being referred.
• Members were grateful for the information provided by the Directors but sought further reassurance, given that the number of Children Looked After referrals were roughly 50 percent higher in some outstanding LAs than in Wiltshire.
• The Corporate Director People highlighted that local factors, including deprivation levels, will account for much of the difference. She explained that long term trends had been reported to the Performance and Outcomes Board and offered to share details of the detailed analysis that had taken place.
• When asked about why Wiltshire was far closer to outstanding authorities on other measures than the number of referrals of Children Looked After, the Corporate Director stressed that the figures were an average. She pointed to the example of North Yorkshire County Council, which was an outstanding authority but had lower referral rates of Children Looked After than Wiltshire.
• The Director of Families and Children’s Services noted that checks and balances were in place across multiple agencies and shared through the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). There had also been no increase in re-referrals, a consequence that would have been expected if the thresholds for referral were too high.
• In response to a question about the availability of teachers and supply teachers, the Directors explained that schools were not always required to report figures to the Council directly but were not experiencing class closures. They then spoke about the importance of the tutoring programme in ensuring that children were kept up to speed.
• Members asked about the number of vacancies among Social Care Practitioners and the workload across the team. The Directors explained the numbers had not been impacted by the recent budget and that caseloads were at a reasonable level. Some teams had higher vacancy rates than others and were harder to recruit to. It was noted that neighbouring authorities had recently received additional funding, so the Council’s basic employment offer was being reviewed.
• It was noted that it was currently challenging to recruit agency staff, but a regional working group was looking at recruitment and the pay rates of agency staff across neighbouring authorities to ensure that they collaborated on workforce matters.
• The Directors explained that there was a good balance of experience across the service.
Resolved
To note the update provided and welcome the proposed session on thresholds with regards to Children Looked After and Child Protection, to determine if further scrutiny is required.