Agenda item

Information on the role and responsibilities of Independent Reviewing Officers (IRO) to accompany and inform a  discussion on the stability of placements.

The committee had  at a previous meeting received a brief introduction about the roles and duties of an independent review officer  and now invited two  officers to attend a meeting to discuss their work with the children’s services  and talk about the difference their role was to the work of the children’s service. The independent review officers were asked to reflect on a typical couple of weeks work in the children’s services.  The committee learned that the independent review officers assisted with the chairing of Child Protection Reviews  and ensured that the meeting was child centred . This meant  engaging with the child before and after the meeting . They aimed to keep the meetings as small as possible in the interests of the child and ensured that requirements such as translators or sign workers   were on hand to attend the meetings.  The  IRO’s also had responsibility for examining health  and education requirements of the child as part of the review. When asked about their  communication with children under 5,   they advised that they would observe the child’s behaviour in their placement  and report views to the meeting. The Independent Review Officers worked in consultation with the Social Workers to choose the appropriate people to be around the child at the meeting.  Although  they worked quite closely with Social Workers and were employed  by the council  , their role was to be a critical friend and provide quality assurance. If they had  serious concerns about, for example,  if  timescales were not being met for dealing with issues concerning a child they had the free role  to escalate matters through the management structure as their duty was  to act on behalf of the child  at all times. This duty was recognised by social workers when getting feedback from the IRO. In their free role they were able to pick up on general issues in social work activity  and process . They had recently brought to the attention of senior management the issue of post 18 provision and also raised  similar issues as  the committee  on the need to look at the trends in the service and have  strategy for  dealing with them. It was noted that recently a group had been set  up to look at how general issues  identified  need to be addressed by  senior management.

 The independent review officers  explained to the Committee that they were going through a difficult transition period as 2 experienced officers had retired and  one other officer was moving to a position in another borough.  From the 1^st of June the IRO service would become part of the Safeguarding Quality Assurance and Practice Development service which has the responsibility to establish a new and robust quality assurance framework covering both child protection and looked after children.  This would further involve amalgamating the roles of the IRO and Child Protection Advisors.  There was anxiety  expressed by the independent review officers on taking on the extra responsibilities that this would entail  as  it would mean that, with less staff,  they would be expected  to now  manage the cases   instead of managing the care plan. The committee noted that the service were advertising to recruit to the 3 vacant  IRO position and these  existing positions would be filled . Going forward, the  children and families service  would consider  the management of the cases  to ensure that there was a safe number.

In response to a question on how the findings of the IRO officer had influenced practice, the allocation  of children to certain teams could be sometimes disputed. Currently the IRO officer felt that children subject to care plans with disabilities should be placed with the disabilities team instead of with the children in care team.  

It was noted that an annual IRO report  would be produced and the Corporate Parenting Committee was due to consider  this in April 2012.   It was proposed that,  before this date, a mid term report be considered by the committee at their meeting in October.  The committee agreed that this should be a frank report led by the independent review officers themselves which would set out their  concerns and challenges . An example of the  type  of issues that could be highlighted in the report were the changes to  university tuition fees which  could unduly impact on unaccompanied minors as they will  be asked to pay higher oversees student fees if they  have not been given indefinite leave to remain in the country . In the past this group of LAC in particular  have took  up this opportunity in higher education.

In response to  question on the number of  issues taken forward with management , it was noted that there over the last year there had been 5 issues  escalated in relation to transport, location, suitability of placement, and sibling contact.  All the issues had been resolved and  the committee noted that it was only as a last resort that issues wee taken outside the authority to  CAFCASS.

RESOLVED

1. That a mid  year Independent Review Officer report be considered by the committee  at their meeting on  27 October 2011.

2. That the independent review officers be added to the distribution list for Corporate Parenting Committee  papers.

3. That the concerns expressed about post 18 provision and placement of children with disabilities and subject to care plans  with the children in care team be added to the Committee’s matters arising report to enable the committee to  follow  how these concerns are being progressed.

4. Agreed that a report on Looked after children with disabilities be considered  at  a future meeting of the committee.