Agenda item

This report sets out performance data and trends for an agreed set of measures relating to: Children and Families - Contacts, referrals and assessments and Child Protection.

The Committee considered the performance data and trends for measures relating to contacts, referrals and assessments and child protection. For the benefit of new Members there was added explanation of   performance statistics and associated numbers. An understanding was also given of the pathway through children’s social care by the ordering of the performance information which started from the initial point of contact with children’s social care services, through to the child protection plan.

OP504 (The number of child contacts received) The First Response team will receive the first indication of a concern about a child’s welfare via phone call, email, letter or contact form.   Around 55% of the contacts received, will have been put forward by Police and it was also clarified that some contacts received may not necessarily be the first time the service receive a concern about a child as they may already be in the social care process or have been in the past.  When looking at OP410, it was ascertained that of the 501 contacts received by First Response in March 2013, 164 became referrals to children’s social care. The Committee were informed that a majority of the remaining 337 contacts would have required no further action by the social work team but some may have needed additional information to   establish if the threshold for a social care referral had been met.

When looking at the 164 referrals in March, the Committee noted that 87 %( 143 cases) will go onto initial assessment which was commented to be a high number of cases to receive a statutory service.

The next performance rate considered was OP383 Re – referrals within 12 months of the previous referral) This was explained to be a critical indicator, required by the service to judge whether good practices are being followed. The low referral rate at the end of the last year of 12% indicated that First Response team were applying the thresholds for a social care referral correctly and that appropriate support was being provided.

HY59 (percentage of initial assessments for children’s social care carried out within 10 working days of referral. The Committee noted that 70% (100 cases out of 143) had received an initial assessment within 10 days of referral. New members were advised that the Committee had previously investigated the reasons behind this performance level and had been satisfied that children were being seen within 10 days. The new single assessment from would help social workers complete the assessments and write them also within this timescale.  The new target for single assessments would be 95% and would be a 10 days (single assessment) + 35 days for core assessment.

Op388 – Children subject to a child protection plan - In March 2013 there were 275 children subject to a child protection plan.  This indicator included children in need and subject to plan.  New members noted that these families required the significant support of a social worker. There was a steady decrease in number of children on plans, achieved by providing co-ordinated support between the 4 safeguarding teams. The Safeguarding service had reviewed  the number of children on CP plans and the service had investigated the thresholds in use, analysed how children on the plans were worked with to understand this.

HY64   Child protection plans lasting 2 years or more.  This was a good indicator for the service to monitor and keep track of children that may need to come back on a child protection plan.

OP365 – Percentage of children becoming the subject of Child Protection Plan for a second or subsequent time. The Committee noted that this figure can fluctuate from month to month as families move in and out of the borough. It would be important to complete a learning exercise on children that are now 15-16, and have previously been through the safeguarding and support service, to understand where early help could have made a difference to their circumstances when they were aged 5-6.  This learning will aid the service take forward their offer of early help. In relation to this performance indicator, the Committee asked that the Performance team includes actual numbers, when the number of children is below 100, as this will provide a better understanding of the context.  This can be in addition to the percentages.

OP367 – percentage of child protection cases which were reviewed within required timescales.   The performance for March 2013 stood at 95% against a target of 100%.  Members noted that factors contributing

to this slight underperformance related to children moving into the borough from another borough that were already on child protection plans. Although, the children may already be on existing plans, when registering on Framework I, they would be input as new case. In addition, Members noted that existing plans will be scrutinised and reviewed to ensure they meet the thresholds for social care applied by Haringey.

 Op381 – Children in Need visits  Although the performance was below target at 85% there was a  good improvement from previous years  and the service would continue working to this high percentage of 95% of visits completed.

Overall the Committee felt the performance statistics were good.  The layout of the performance information provided a good understanding of how the service operated.  The Director of the Children and Young People’s service felt the Committee could be assured by the quality of the data and they were also able to rely on it when asking questions. There were also comparisons made with statistical neighbouring boroughs to provide an understanding of good practices and the performance levels to strive for.  It had also been useful to have the performance information on children with disabilities. This was a new addition and the Committee were pleased to note the good performance in relation to the care of disabled children subject to plan.