Issue - meetings

Consideration was given to a report on the Inspection of Local Authority Children's Services ILACS - Outcomes and Action Plan.

The authority received its most recent inspection on 27 February - 14 March and their report was published on 9 May. The report to Cabinet summarised the key findings of the inspection; details the area of good practice and improvement also identified; introduced the key strands of the already existing improvement plan which had been revised to take into account the outcome of the inspection, and sought Cabinet approval for the action plan.

The inspection resulted in an overall judgment of ‘Requires Improvement’. Ofsted required an action plan to be developed in response and to be submitted to them by 16 August.

The Good and Beyond Board was already established as an independently chaired body charged with providing effective oversight and drive for continuous improvement planning. This Board was already providing leadership and focus for actions emerging from the September 2022 Focused Visit. The Board would continue to provide this oversight role for the revised improvement plan.

The key areas for improvement identified by Ofsted were around:

a. The quality and effectiveness of plans for children and care leavers, including safety plans agreed with parents.

b. Sufficiency of suitable foster homes for children.

c. Frontline management oversight across the service, in relation to the quality of assessment and plans and the impact of interventions.

d. Opportunities for more children and care leavers to have a voice and to influence the development of services.

6. Other key areas around the need for further action were:

a. for placement sufficiency, especially for children with complex needs

b. More capacity for foster care

c. Evidence of the impact of challenge from Independent Reviewing Officers

d. The need for more opportunities for participation for children and young people in care and care leavers

e. Consistency of PA support

f. Better arrangements for health information for care leavers

g. The visibility of the care leavers offer

h. The need for a refresh of the corporate parenting approach

The inspection also detailed the considerable amount of progress since the previous inspection and several areas of good and positive practice:

a. There are clear signs of progress and improvement since the 2019 inspection and since the September 2022 Focused Visit;

b. Leaders know the services well and are realistic about them;

c. Positive statements about the front door responses;

d. Skills and ability around issues such as domestic abuse;

e. Thoroughness of child protection investigations;

f. Improving quality of assessments;

g. Effective legal planning in deciding when children need to come into care

h. Sensitive responses for disabled children

i. Effective arrangements around child exploitation

j. Tenacious responses for missing children - interviews and responses

k. A focus on school attendance

l. Effective responses to homeless young people

m. Good approaches to family and friends placements

n. Effective adoption arrangements

o. Good management of out of area placements

p. Good support for unaccompanied asylum seeking children  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8