Issue - meetings

This report is an update of Children in Care National Indicators and other key performance information at the end of April 2011.

The committee received an update on the Children in care national indicators and other key performance information for the end of April 2011. This was a relatively concise report as the team were compiling the end of year performance report which would be available for the committee to consider at their next meeting in September. It was advised that there had been a spike in the number of children becoming looked after during February, March and April following a police authority exercise but the service had seen a reduction in figures for May.  The committee learned that there had been a concerted effort to review children that were the subject of a Child Protection Plan was to ensure that intervention was making a difference.

 The Committee noted that the service were confident that the number of children now ceasing to become the subject of a child protection plan was appropriate. The services were examining the current movements of children in care and considering: the children which were 18 and about to leave care, those in a pre adoptive procedure, the numbers of children with permanancey plans (which was a good number). The latter analysis had enabled the service to recognise that there was a need to make additional resources available to support this process. The service were  positive about the good number of young people,  that  through rehabilitation, could be deemed able to return to their family home. This would of course be following an assessment and section 20 agreement of the Deputy Director of Children and Families. The committee were interested in the next performance report containing some further information about the benefits of the services continued permanency work with children in care.

The Committee particularly expressed a need to continue with  understanding what the trends were behind the performance data , this would be important in understanding whether the borough was experiencing   different or similar challenges to other comparable boroughs.   For example looking at the young people leaving care at 18 , the number of unaccompanied minors ,considering the age ranges of children coming into care and leaving care, family groupings of children in care and sibling groups. The Chair requested that any further suggestions from committee members on the statistical information to include in the report could be emailed to her.

 Following questions about the rate of children in care in Haringey compared to the national average and other comparable boroughs and whether  there was reason to think that this number as too high, it was noted that Ofsted had reported in their recent inspection that the children placed in care  was correct.  More fuller comparisons with other comparable local authorities would be available in the next performance report to the committee as the full year data would be available.

 In responding to  questions about the work with the rehabilitation of older children in care to their family homes  where assessed as appropriate, it was noted that the service was working with the assistance of Independent Review  ...  view the full minutes text for item 90