CAF Audit of Cases
To consider a report back on the audit of common assessment frameworks which has been completed by the independent member of the committee.
Minutes:
(Report from the Independent Member of the Committee – Agenda item 10)
In January 2010 Members of the Children’s Safeguarding Policy and Performance Advisory Committee considered a report on thresholds for Children and Young People’s Services. Members were concerned about children who might have significant needs but whose needs did not meet the thresholds for specialist social care services. It was considered likely that such children and young person would have their needs assessed using the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) and where necessary access universal and targeted services. The independent member of the committee undertook an independent audit of a sample of CAFs considered at the June CAF panels and reported to the committee her findings. These were: concerns about the delay in decision making on referrals to services, a small number of the cases looked at that did not require the completion of a CAF as the issue was quite minor and also little evidence of a lead professional being allocated where there was a team around the child. The independent member recognised the good work of the CAF panel in ensuring that key professionals were meeting and assessing the applications as this was a good way of identifying a range of needs for a child quite quickly and therefore she agreed to further consider the speed of the CAF assessments before the establishment of the CAF panel to further understand the scale of improvements. The independent member further agreed to track some cases after processing by the CAF panel and also read through the information considered by the CAF panel at their meetings. Following this exercise the independent chair would report back to the next meeting of the committee her findings
Continuing with the subject of CAF audits, the independent member of the committee advised that the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People had recently commissioned an independent audit of CAF cases recorded on Framework I and proposed that the committee request, from the Cabinet Member, consideration of the findings of this audit and subsequent action plan. The Chair concurred with this proposal and suggested that the Cabinet Member for Children and Young people be invited to the next meeting of the committee to share the findings of the audit and action plan.
RESOLVED