Agenda item

To provide an update on progress against the children’s services improvement plan to address the findings from the Ofsted inspection of local authority children’s services (ILACS) conducted in February and March 2024 and an update on the findings from the first Ofsted monitoring visit on the front door.

The Committee received an update on the progress to date against the improvement plan and an update on the findings from the Ofsted monitoring visit on the front door. The update outlined the strengths within the Front Door and leadership team, and areas for development with the Front Door.

The next monitoring visit would take place in June and would focus on those children subject to child protection processes and children in need.

Key improvement activity which had taken place since the last Committee was outlined and officers reported that 20% of actions had now been completed against the action plan.

The Committee congratulated the team on how much progress had been made.

Clarity was sought in respect of frontline visits as the report stated that the weeklong partnership learning opportunities that had taken place in February had replaced the previous programme of frontline visits, and that Councillors had been invited to participate in the programme, when the invite had only been sent to the Chair and Vice Chair of the committee.

Officers stated it was the intention to facilitate Councillors to have those conversations with frontline practitioners, however, the terminology and understanding of what “frontline visits” entailed had evolved over time. To address this a paper would be presented to committee to clearly define and outline the structure and expectations of those visits.

Previous information from frontline visits undertaken throughout the year by councillor’s work had ceased, but officers committed to reinstating the process which would be accompanied by an overview of practice and activities to ensure councillors had a comprehensive understanding of the service and issues faced by frontline practitioners.

In response to a question raised in respect of when information would be available on the use and cost of private unregulated alternative provision placements in terms of value for money and but also in terms of young people engaged in meaningful education and their outcomes officers agreed to bring a report back to committee.

In response to the Committees concerns in respect of recruitment and retention officers reported that following the Wellbeing Bill there may be a possibility to reshape and redeliver some roles within the service, however some roles were a statutory function.

In response to a question raised about oversight around recruitment and retention officers confirmed that performance scorecards were taken to the Improvement Board along with a HR report and a piece of work was underway to look at how the Board could support the end-to-end process of recruitment and retention.

In response to a question raised in respect of the types of contracts overseas social workers were on and whether these would be made permanent like the agency workers contracts, officers agreed to provide a written response outside of the meeting.

Career progression was not always obvious so there was a need to ensure there were enough routes for people to progress and a need to focus on reducing workloads and supporting managers with training and development.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee

1.    Note the progress against the improvement plan.

2.    Note the findings from the Ofsted monitoring visit on the front door.