Agenda item

Nazim Hussan, IRO service manager introduced the report for this item;

• This Annual Report produced by the Independent Reviewing Service was prepared in accordance with the statutory requirement to inform the Corporate Parenting Board and senior leaders about the Council’s performance in respect of children in the care of the local authority. The report covered the reporting period April 2024 to March 2025. This report's data was derived from Liquid Logic, the data system utilised by Haringey Children’s Service

• The following was noted in response to questions from the committee:

• As of recent, the IRS would contact social workers two weeks in advance to remind them of the data submissions required, sometimes that information would get lost in translation, particularly when young people transferred from one service to another. Officers were working on being more robust to ensure that social workers and practitioners were aware of upcoming reviews and had sufficient time to be able to prepare for those.

• Whilst there was a national reduction in terms of the young people going into care, if you look at the reasons why young people were either diverted or returned back home at an earlier stage, a lot of that was to do with the hard work that practitioners were doing.

• There were ongoing good outcomes secured for children, many children staying within their family networks which was really important in light of the system reforms and the family's first approach. Officers were well on their way with that work which meant that many children come out of care, although the arrangements that they had prior to proceedings might be different than at the end.

• It was noted that there had been a significant improvement in terms of the timeliness of the process.

• In terms of participation, some of the young people were missing having due to vulnerabilities from care. Some of them were not in a place where they were able to have an open discussion or participate in their care meeting. The IRO’s were very sensitive and attuned to the needs of young people, they would make contact with a young person outside of the review process. So, whilst that may may not be reflected in the participation code, there were other ways in which the Iro’s showed that the young person's voices were being captured.

• There was a range of activities that the IRO engaged with young people. It was usually the older cohort who had experienced significant trauma who were not in a place to be able to have a conversation as part of a meeting.
• IRO’s were attuned to cultural differences, backgrounds, and mindful of some of the trauma that unaccompanied minors and young people may have experienced and were sensitive to that.

• Officers were respectful of everyone's home, whether they were a professional or a family member providing care to someone who's vulnerable within their family.

• The stability within the team and the relationships officers developed with the workforce as a whole had helped contribute towards the unique position of being a critical friend, part of that would be having those challenging conversations, officers always wanted the best for young people.