Issue - meetings

The Committee were advised that the Independent Review Officer (IRO) due to give a presentation to the meeting was unfortunately unable to attend. As a result, it was agreed that the Deputy Director would provide a short overview of the role and responsibility of IROs as a prelude to an IRO attending the next meeting for a more detailed discussion session. A briefing would also be circulated in advance of the meeting. The Committee requested that this include information on the number of IRO changes for children and on any escalations made by IROs and the reasons why. 

The role of IROs was to provide independent scrutiny of care plans, advocacy for CiC and at a broader level, look at the quality of service provided by the authority. IROs, experienced social workers, were assigned to each CiC. Recent legislative changes had strengthened the role of IROs including new powers for external challenge and establishment of an IRO handbook setting out roles and functions more clearly. Recent changes meant that the separate IRO role covering CiC and child protection care plans would be merged in the future to allow continuity. An annual IRO report would also be produced, identifying trends and issues and would be submitted for consideration by the Committee in the autumn.