Agenda item

The Children in Care Performance Scorecard for January 2021 is attached.

The Corporate Parenting Panel considered the Children in Care Performance Scorecard which provided an overview of the August month. The Panel received an overview from the Interim Director of Early Help and Children’s Social Care, Roisin Madden, and the Head of Adolescent Services, Early Help and Children’s Social Care, Hannah Doughty, who highlighted the following red key performance indicators:

-        The children who had an up-to-date care plan and an up-to-date pathway plan. The plans were to be updated every six or twelve months according to their need, however, the January performances had a low score of 74% and 70%. This had been acknowledged by senior officers who had put an improvement plan in place to support social workers in completing the documents.

In response to queries raised by the Panel, the Interim Director of Early Help and Children’s Social Care and the Head of Adolescent Services, Early Help and Children’s Social Care and clarified the following:

-        Responsible managers had been notified of the challenges and unacceptable performance of the red indicators that had been recognised for some time, and weekly meetings had been put in place to focus better performance and improving actions.

-        An affirmative action approach and a contingency plan was to be taken to address the concern around the unaccompanied asylum seeking children care and pathway plans. It was recognised that this was an area the service had struggled for some time and needed more improvement. There were teams that had better performance than others, concluding for a better planning approach to improve the levels of practice and performance.

-        It was agreed that the council did not have full control within the red key indicator relating to the number of young people that were not in employment, education and training, and though there was limited control, the global pandemic had impacted the availability of employment, training and volunteering opportunities. The service needed to utilise and access local and national government schemes that provided support to employment within the pandemic recovery phase, and support from the whole council would aid better support to raise the performance score of 58% to a more satisfactory mark.

-        The Care Leaver Representative addressed the importance of the issues not recorded within the 58% and that affected young children to not be in education or employment. Unsustainable accommodation was deemed a factor for example finding living costs would be claimed through universal credit, and therefore it was important to review the cause for why a young person would not complete pathways or remained in education. It was also highlighted that the South London Commissioning Programme had submitted a health inequalities bid for young people with mental health needs, social emotional needs and those struggling to get into education, employment or training for supported work to commence; further, the service proposed to support care leavers in apprenticeships within the council expanding opportunities in different sectors and not based around lived experiences. The Chair added that there was aspirations for apprenticeships to expand providing more opportunities for young people to work in other sectors for sustainability and provide young people with long-term training, which may suit young people who did not want to take a long routed course.

-        Officers noted that there was an area for improvement within the suitability of accommodation for young people, their involvement in choices and what their options were, also the transition in moving to adulthood. The work the commissioning team were now undertaking had insight to what the young people had addressed.

-        There was further discussion relating to the Staying Put policy and the concerns raised that the policy did not recognise young people with special needs living in independent accommodation. Comments highlighted that the policy was generalised. Officers addressed that the Staying Put policy had its complexities and there was a review to provide flexibility.

ACTION– The Chair recommended for available data of neighbouring authorities or good practice to benchmark employment, education and training to be provided in the future meeting.

RECOMMENDATION: To review the Staying Put policy and ensure it incorporates young people with additional needs living in an independent accommodation, which would be fed into the SEN Strategy Board.