Agenda item

Report of the Director, Children and Young People’s Service to provide an update on progress with delivery of the Safeguarding Plan, as requested by the Committee, and an update on the findings of the Ofsted follow-up inspection.

The Chair welcomed the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People’s Service - Councillor Reith, and the Director of Children and Young People’s Service – Mr Lewis to the meeting.  In respect of the JAR action plan – in asking for a brief update from Councillor Reith the Chair advised the Committee that it should be noted that the most recent Ofsted report had reported good progress.

Councillor Meehan commented for the record that in having both Councillor Reith and Mr Lewis present as requested at the previous meeting, the Councillor at that meeting (Councillor Butcher) who had been most vociferous regarding the JAR action plan and the need for both the Cabinet member and Director to be in attendance this evening, had not bothered to attend this Committee.

Councillor Reith in thanking the Committee for its invite to the meeting advised that the report before the Committee had also been the subject of considerable discussion and scrutiny at a number of Council bodies. Both the Safeguarding Monitoring Group, and the Children’s Trust had received regular updates of the safeguarding plan and had closely monitored progress, and it had also been the subject of additional meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee where Members had been able to ask a considerable number of questions and probe both Mr Lewis and herself.  Discussions had also taken place externally at GoL, the DCSF and Ofsted as well as a number of public meetings.  In respect of the role of the Audit Committee in terms of the safeguarding plan, it would be for this Committee to question the accuracy and validity of the data presented to it and question the sources of the information. It was also the case that every month as part of the on-going core assessment the data was independently assessed in a random fashion and the core information followed through on individual cases.  It was good to say that there had been a marked improvement in the service from where the service had been at 1 year previous and both members and officers were able to say this with confidence. However it was also recognised that there was still considerable room for improvement and both members and officer were of the view that improvement would be an evolving one based on the now effective systems in place to manage and assess the quality of assessment and the data supplied and a number of rigorous checks to test the authenticity of the data.

The Director of Children and Young People’s service – Mr Lewis advised the Committee that there were three specific elements to the report before them – at appendix 1 – the Safeguarding Plan Milestones report, appendix 2 – the Safeguarding Plan Performance Indicators Report, and the Ofsted Inspection of progress made in the provision of safeguarding services in the LB Haringey.  Mr Lewis reported that there had been only 2 elements of the inspection that had not been as on track as had been anticipated (NI) 59 & 60 Initial and Core assessments – they were on an upward trend – in all other parts of the plans actions had either been upheld and met or were to be worked on as part of the next phase of the progression and action had not yet started.

In thanking Councillor Reith and Mr Lewis for their introduction, the Chair asked if there were any comments or questions from the Committee.

Councillor Meehan referred to the content of the report and the assurances that data being given was accurate by both internal and independent evaluation.  In emphasising, the need to ensure assessment of data provided both internally and by external agencies, Councillor Meehan asked how confident and satisfied were Councillor Reith and Mr Lewis of this accuracy given the past history of assurances of accurate information when in reality this had not been the case.

Councillor Reith responded by advising that the statistical information and evaluation was in her view realistic and true and that this was primarily due to better partnership and joint working practices now.  The multi-agency working practices were effective and whilst there may be small degrees of suspicion as to the accuracy of data given past experiences, through the joint working and sharing of information there was now a strengthening of trust between agencies which had not been there previously, and the questioning of why such precise evaluation had not been carried out before. Councillor Reith referred to her own level of interaction both with talking with individual staff on a regular basis as well as external partners. It was also the case of that the Safeguarding Monitoring Panel carried out an effective evaluation of cases by following through the whole process. It was also the case that adoption cases and processes had also been assessed and evaluated and the data examined and questioned to ensure that correct practices were being followed. Ofsted had also carried out a thorough evaluation and questioned/followed through processes in order to be satisfied that the data provided was evidenced.

Councillor Santry, in reference to the mechanisms for sharing of information in particular to Children Centres commented that in terms of newly supplied health data information there had been an absence of new birth data and that it seemed that this information was no longer being supplied. Mr Lewis responded that he would clarify the issue.

Councillor Dobbie, in sharing Councillor Meehan’s view in relation to Councillor Butcher’s non-attendance, commented that whilst he accepted that there had been quite a lot of achievement in the past year, together with the recent gleaming report of the re-inspection by Ofsted, for him it almost felt like things were too good to be true and that the vast improvements mirrored the previous year’s situation.  He expressed a view of an element of doubt and concerns that, given the glowing responses to the now provision of service, was there in fact anything hidden and the need to ensure that there was a full evaluation of data provided.

Councillor Reith, in reiterating her earlier comments as regards to evaluation, referred to the Ofsted report which had been a marked improvement but that it was also recognised that the service was not yet where all concerned wanted it to be and there was still a way to go in terms and both the Council and its partners could not now be complacent, and would strive to continue to achieve further in the coming months. However, it had to be said that the Ofsted report had come as a positive moral boost to the service and that this indication of moving in the right direction, would have a positive effect on both recruitment and retention of key staff.

In echoing Councillor Reith’s comments Mr Lewis added that whilst the service had come a long way it had not come as far as it could have and that there was real commitment to being better and striving to be an excellent provider.

The Chair, in responding to the comments expressed, referred Councillor Reith and Mr Lewis to the requirement of the Audit Committee in terms of its independent scrutiny of supplied data, together with the evaluation of risk and the use of resources. In reference to the action plan he quoted point 21 of the Ofsted inspection in relation to progress on improving case recording in children’s social care, and in particular school based records recognised as being too inconsistent and action to be taken to introduce a consistent process.  The Chair asked if this point would be picked up within the action plan.  In response Mr Lewis confirmed that with this particular point action planned was underway and files were now consistent and up to date.   In response to further clarification by the Chair in respect of point 27 where the inspection identified the lack of a coherent strategy for family support and preventative services and the means to target and co-ordinate them effectively, Mr Lewis advised that a strategy had now been written and would be analysed.

The Chair referred to the point 13 of the Ofsted report in relation to priorities for further improvement and asked how the improvements would be progressed.  Mr Lewis advised that not all of the points would form part of a written report but that the 30 improvement points picked up by Ofsted would be considered by the Children’s Trust for sign off in approximately 6/8 weeks and that it was the case that much work had started already, and was being progressed.  Of the 49 management actions these would be considered and signed off by the Cabinet Member for Children’s Service. All of the evidence gathered would be shown to Ofsted and independently evaluated before final sign off.

The Chair, in summarising the discussion, thanked both Councillor Reith and Mr Lewis for their attendance, and advised that in order to discharge the responsibilities of the Committee to independently scrutinise the non financial parts of the Council, it had become necessary to request the Cabinet Member to kindly be present at the meeting to answer queries and comments on the report.

RESOLVED 

i.                    that the progress in delivery of the milestones as detailed in Appendix 1 and performance contained in Appendix 2 of the report be noted; and

i.                    that the good progress made in improving safeguarding as evidenced by Ofsted and as contained in appendix 3 of the report be noted.

At this point in the proceedings the Chair advised that the order of proceeding would be varied to next consider Item 14 – Tackling Health inequalities in Haringey, at the request of the Acting Joint Director of Public Health – Haringey Council and NHS Haringey – Ms Otiti.