Issue - meetings

To update members of Children in Care National Indicators and other key performance information  at  the end of  September 2010.

The committee received information on children in care national indicators together with key performance information as at the end of September 2010. The report further provided details of performance outturns for 2010 and the targets for 2010/11.  The committee noted that the Government were undertaking a review of National Indicators and all statutory data returns and the committee would be kept informed of the changes agreed.

We noted that for the month of September, 23 children became looked after and 22 children had ceased to be looked after.   The number of care proceedings initiated in September 2010 was noted to be lower in comparison to September 09 figures. This indicated that early intervention practices were beginning to have an impact.

Information was provided on neighbour comparator boroughs and the numbers of children in care. Haringey’s number of children in care was higher in comparison to statistical counterparts but the numbers were felt to be stabilizing.  It was important to note, when considering the lower number of LAC reported for both Hackney and Waltham Forest, that these boroughs had larger budgets for their children’s service. Hackney Council had focused the majority of their budget and organisation of their service on early invention.  The committee noted that it was too early to forecast whether this strategy was successful but agreed that it would be useful to receive a presentation from Hackney Council, at a future meeting, on the focussed work of the children’s service into early intervention to enable a view to be reached on its benefits and drawbacks. Further factors to note, when considering the figures of LAC in comparator boroughs, were; the level of thresholds adhered to by each borough, whether practices followed could be considered above scrutiny and whether the different strategies followed, to reduce the number of children in care,  were suitable for  use in Haringey. The committee learned about the work being completed by Waltham Forest on performance and asked if there was an opportunity for taking part in a cross borough initiative on service delivery.

The Council had 20 children placed in care as a result of the Southwark Judgement (16/17 year olds declared as homeless). The committee were interested in finding out about: the case history of these children, whether they had been in past contact with services i.e. through the CAF process, if they had any siblings and their ages, if there were any other young members in their family, which part of the borough they had previously been located, their schooling history and if there were gang related issues involved.  Analysis of this information would improve the Council’s learning about when, where, and how these children could have been identified and supported at an earlier stage.  Officers responded and agreed that there was now significant statistical information available on this group of young people to allow an analytical report to be devised and be put forward to committee addressing the above points. In considering this issue it was important to note the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34