Agenda item

Mr Nazim Hussain, Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO), introduced the report. The meeting heard:

· The Council wished to try and reduce the need to utilise the dispute/resolution process. This would provide a clear ethos that the Council wanted to work in partnership to be able to achieve the best for young people. It would be useful to have a reduction in the number of uses of alerts and escalations for administrative tasks such as social worker reports and care plans not being available in time for child in care reviews. This could cause disruption for some of the children.

· There were a number of activities and services available through the Young Adult Services that helped promote pathways to education employment and training. Education, employment and training was a focus of all children in care reviews. Independent Reviewing Officers’ involvement ended at the at the age of 18 when the children had left care. Young Adult Services were working towards promoting engagement in education, employment and training.

 · Direct feedback had been taken from children on their experience. Children enjoyed participating in their reviews. It helped empower them and have a sense of control over the direction of the care planning and the conversations within their meetings. Some of the feedback questions could be adopted to ensure that where young people chaired or co-chaired their reviews, their direct experience could be documented. This would be reported on in a future meeting.

· The dynamics of young people chairing or co-chairing their reviews resulted in professionals taking a keen ear to show more responsibility in answering directly to the young person. The dynamics of the conversation started off with what was important to the young person. Often these consisted of everyday life issues. The IRO was there to support and ensure that a range of information that helped the conversation and understand whether the care plan was right or not and how it may be enhanced for the young person.

· In relation challenging other professionals, this was never personal and was about being able to achieve the best for the young person. It was not always possible to agree on resolutions, but it was important to make attempts to steer the work in the right direction. Working through partnership decreased any possible antagonism.

· Data was reviewed regularly to monitor progress. If a young person had been with their parent for 12 months and this was going well, the Council would advocate for consideration being given to discharging the care order.

· IROs continued to work with health colleagues to be able to improve young people's access to health. IROs worked closely with its virtual school and queries were often effectively addressed. IROs also responded when social workers, team managers and service managers reached out to them for queries.

· For the next annual report, particular examples of case studies would be brought to the Committee to demonstrate the progress of young people and how things worked in practice.

RESOLVED:

 To note the outcomes of the annual report for 2023/24.