A programme of audits has been established by the Children’s Safeguarding Policy and Practice Committee in order to monitor practice and performance in Children’s Social Care, and identify areas of good practice and areas for improvement. The independent member of the Children’s Safeguarding Policy and Practice committee was asked to examine new referrals to the safeguarding service in a particular week in July 2011.
Minutes:
A programme of audits had been established by the Children’s Safeguarding Policy and Practice Committee in order to monitor practice and performance in Children’s Social Care, and identify areas of good practice and areas for improvement. An audit of new referrals between July the 12th and 19th 2011 had been examined by the Independent Member with involvement from Cllr Amin. The findings had been considered by Children’s Safeguarding Policy and Practice Committee at their meeting in September and were also shared with the Corporate Parenting Committee as part of this joint meeting.
Comment was made on the following: the number of cases where statutory timescales were not being fully adhered to ,whether there were fewer referrals to the service but higher numbers of children being taken into care and the length of time the cases were open for in comparison to other comparator boroughs. The Independent Member of the Children’s Safeguarding Policy and Practice Committee advised that at the time of writing the report the 2010/11 comparator data had not been published. Since this report comparator data for 2010/11 conveyed that Haringey were now more significantly in line with comparator boroughs in terms of number of children coming into care. In response to the query about the adherence to timescales i.e. for core and initial assessments, in this sample of cases, social workers were awaiting information from GP’s or teachers in order to decide how to take the referral forward. Overall the timescales for dealing effectively with referrals was improving . In cases where there was a risk of significant harm to a child, these were prioritised. Due to the nature of some referrals there was a need to do preparatory work to understand how best to take the referral forward . This was further explained by the Head of First Response in the attached action plan arising from the audit.
A councillor attending Regulation 33 visits asked the Independent Member whether in her experience in working with the council she had seen missing information from files .The Independent Member confirmed that the paper work she had seen in files relating to this audit were up to date .
It was further confirmed that the follow up actions relating to the audit were attached to the report and the cases looked at in July would be further followed up in November to check their progression or outcomes.
The Committee thanked the Independent Member for the insight and knowledge gained from considering the real life and complex cases in the audit and understanding how Social Workers were dealing with them. Cllr Amin had assisted with this audit and was thanked for her input and advice. Councillor Amin advised the Committee that some of the social work practices she had seen, being applied to the referrals, were to a very high standard and the service should be commended for this.
Arising from the discussion of this paper Members asked various questions and learnt the following: