Agenda item

To consider a report of the Director of Children and Families.

The Chairman opened the item by providing the background to the Children and Families Scrutiny Committee’s relationship with the issue of Safeguarding since the formation of Cheshire East Council. It was noted that in the early days of the Council the Committee were very keen to make sure that Cheshire East were ‘Laming Compliant’, particularly in light of a number of high profile child protection cases that had been prominent in the media. With this is mind a number of Senior Officers had attended a meeting in which it was admitted that the systems inherited by Cheshire East had a number of shortcomings. Following from this, it was explained that consultants had been appointed to identify the gaps and make recommendations on improvements.

After seeing these reports, some of which were concerning, Members of the Committee agreed to take a hands off approach to making the requisite improvements whilst officers proceeded, with it always in mind that the Committee would revisit the topic once the newly designed systems had settled. As an aside, it was noted that a steering group had been established comprising of the Portfolio Holder, Scrutiny Chairman and Cabinet Support Member for Children’s services which maintained a level of Member involvement.

Cath Knowles built on the Chairman’s points by explaining that the report offered a timely opportunity to brief Members on the future of Safeguarding as the direction of travel had now become clear.

Prior to engaging with the main points of the report, it was made clear that all aspects of the new safeguarding approach had been based on independent, evidence based reviews, not on anecdotal information.

Reporting on the first major change in the new approach it was reported that there had previously been one team to which every child was allocated, regardless of need. This had meant that social workers were forced to juggle competing priorities. It was explained that with the redesign, there were now more bespoke teams, for instance solely looked after disabled or cared for children. This had helped to organise work streams and focus work on the child’s needs.

Furthermore, attention was drawn to the newly formed Children’s Assessment team which had replaced the Access team. It was explained how the establishment of this team had meant that assessments were now being done in a more timely way and that signposting had improved greatly. This had helped make the child’s journey more seamless and improved continuity.

Cath Knowles continued to report that although these new systems had only been in place for a short amount of time, Cheshire East had already begun to see the benefit. For instance, it was noted that Cheshire East had received positive reports in a number of areas and it was explained that the safeguarding aspect was vital in achieving a good review. Additionally, the supervision toolkit that Cheshire East had developed was getting a lot of interest from other authorities as an example of best practice.

In responding to the report, the Committee as a whole noted the considerable progress had been made and wished to congratulate the service on the results they had achieved. 

A query was made by John McCann regarding referral training and whether this had yet to start. It was noted that there was referral training in place with the focus of this being to give people the confidence to manage risk rather than constantly making referrals.

A question was asked about the precise role of a ‘practice consultant’. It was explained that this position was based around the ‘Hackney Model’ in which it was deemed important to enable social workers when they became managers of their unit to continue to practice – facilitating a link between strategy and practice.

A query was raised over whether the service was still recruiting social workers. It was confirmed that the service was still recruiting and this was with the aim of reducing the caseload of social workers to 15-20 rather than the current situation of 20-25.

As a final point, the Chairman drew attention to the virtual school and commented that this appeared to be an interesting idea that the Committee would benefit from hearing more about. It was suggested therefore that the Virtual Head attend a subsequent meeting of the Committee.

With reference to the action plan, provided as an appendix, the Committee wished to note that they were pleased with the clarity of the plan.

RESOLVED –

a)     That the Committee note the report and the improvements that have been put in place within Children’s Services as part of the ongoing overall improvement plan with the aim to ensure Cheshire East children and young people remain safe and have opportunities to achieve.

b)     That the Committee note the improvements made within the Unannounced Inspection Action Plan.

c)      That the Virtual Head attend a subsequent meeting to brief the Committee on his role.