Agenda item

 The committee will  consider headline performance information relating to Looked After Childrenas at the end of May 2012.

Members of the committee considered the headline performance data for looked after children as at the end of May 2012. There was a further breakdown enclosed of the performance where the indicator showed a performance lower than the target which had been set.

Overall the committee were concerned about the format of the report as the figures in each row did not seem to add up and further explanation was required about the performance figure with some background information.

OP148 (Care leavers in education, employment or training). It was noted that the figures in the report were not up to date and it was agreed that more accurate information advising the number of care leavers in education, employment and training would be sent to committee members by email separately. It was also noted that the recently obtained aggregate quarterly figure for this indicator was just above target at 77.6%.

OP147 (Care Leavers in suitable accommodation) The committee were advised that these figures should be interpreted with care as the percentages were based on small numbers. For example at the end of April, two young people were counted as not being in touch. Currently one was still termed missing and the other had been found suitable accommodation. The committee were interested in returning to the subject of transition to understand the potential impact of the welfare reforms on care leavers and also requested a further update on the support provided to care leavers to tackle isolation. The report should include information about the support in transition. As an initial response, the committee noted that the council was one of the few authorities providing supported accommodation with a live in volunteer.

The committee agreed that a report come back to committee in September on Transition taking the above comments into account.

OP391 – (Timeliness of placements of looked after children for adoption following an agency decision that the child should be placed for adoption) The target was to complete three adoptions at the end of May and one had been completed. Although a small number this would still bring performance down. The performance in Adoption was due to be discussed at agenda item 9.

OP386 - (Children in care cases which were reviewed within required timescales) The committee were informed that there were technical problems with capturing this data and the service were working to get an accurate figure. This discrepancy had been realised from manually checking the figures. The service was working with IT to resolve how the data is collected from Framework I correctly as this was key management data.  The committee noted that if a case was not reviewed within the allocated days but considered 1 or 2 days later this would still show the target as not being met. The committee were reassured by the Head of Service for Safeguarding Quality Assurance& Practice Development that following the manual check on the figures she was confident that there was not a significant issue with the completion of these reviews.  The technical issues were expected to be resolved by September and the committee requested an update on this at their next meeting.

HY34 – (Percentage of social work posts permanently filled - annual indicator) The service was meeting this target with only a very small number of agency staff. A question was asked about the graduate social work scheme and it was noted that the service was on its last intake of graduate   trainees as this scheme would not continue, due to budget reductions, in the forthcoming year.  However the service had a good established working relationship with Middlesex University and would notify their graduates of any work opportunities.   There were also a more social workers available for posts compared to a few years ago also enabling the permanent filling of posts.

OP409 – (Foster carer recruitment) The committee agreed that they wanted a wider update on Foster care recruitment and requested a report to committee  in September  which should include:

Ø      Progress on how the consortium is  working

Ø      Drop out rates

Ø      Costs

Ø      Situation regarding the poaching of potential foster carers

Ø      Understanding how many  foster carers  live in the borough and  who they work for

Ø      Any other relevant statistics.

The performance figures should also distinguish between the number of kinship and stranger foster carers recruited as requested at the last meeting in March.

OP389 (No of Children in care including unaccompanied asylum seeking children) the figure for May stood at 562 and previously in December 2011 this figure had been 608. The Committee were keen to get the background on this significant reduction in number and understand the factors contributing to this. Also it would be useful to compare this trend in relation to last year to gain a further sense of the significance of the changes made and understand if there had been a shift in the management of risk. Agreed that an email be sent to members of the committee providing this requested information.

OP419 (Number of children missing or absconded from care at any point of the month) There were two under 16 LAC children missing, one of which was an unauthorised absence and the other was missing.   There was due to be a strategic discussion on the missing young person this week where an immediate course of action would be agreed following sightings.  The committee noted that the Cabinet Member for Children would receive weekly updates on missing children and absconders from care.