Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies had been received from Councillors Scott, Thorne, Waddell and Renner-Thompson along with Mr A Hodgson and Mrs L Houghton.

The minutes of the Family and Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Meeting held on Tuesday 7 September 2023, as circulated, to be agreed as a true record and be signed by the Chair.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Family and Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on Thursday 7 September 2023, as circulated, be agreed and signed by the Chair as a true record.

?The report is to share the Framework that is used to reassure ourselves about how we evaluate practice in Northumberland Children’s Social Care. The framework outlines the numerous mechanisms that we use to explore the quality of practice and identify learning and continuous improvement.  This document highlights the quantitative and qualitative methods that we adopt in Northumberland, striving for better outcomes for our children and young people through our early help and statutory functions.

The report provided information on the framework that was used to provide reassurance about how the practice in Northumberland’s Social Care was evaluated. The framework outlined the numerous mechanisms that were used to explore the quality of practice and identify learning and continuous improvement.  The document highlighted the quantitative and qualitative methods that were adopted in Northumberland, striving for better outcomes for children and young people through early help and statutory functions.  A comprehensive introduction to the report was provided by D. Chambers, Head of Quality Assurance with the aid of a power point presentation.  In response to questions from Members the following information was provided:-

·       Minor changes had been made during the first review of the document, which was about the wider practice rather than just looking at key performance indicators (KPIs).  KPIs were looked at alongside the quality of work to understand the impact of decisions on a child or family and understand trends and what, as a learning organisation, we could do better.  The model operated within Northumberland was held in high regard and had been developed over time.

·       Whilst the Head of Quality Assurance was part of the organisation, the role was unique, sitting away from teams and therefore allowing an objective view to be undertaken.

·       Information regarding the numbers of compliments or complaints would be provided as part of the report expected at the next meeting, however there was regular work undertaken with client relations to gain feedback and work was ongoing on ways to increase feedback from families to increase the quality of learning.

·       Signs of  Safety had been chosen as the practice model to be adopted as this was a recognised framework which had been used for a number of years.  Northumberland was committed to ensuring an effective framework was in place across all services with key elements embedded and this process would continue to evolve.  The consistency of practice across the service as a whole was key.

RESOLVED that the way in which the Council assured itself that they were improving the lives and safeguarding children and young people was recognised by the Committee. 

The report is to share the content and findings of the children's social care annual self-assessment. The self-assessment supports an evaluation of the progress and current practice in children's social care and identifies future actions to support the continuous improvement that is required as we strive to achieve our vision of being a service where meeting the needs of children, young people and families is the focus so that they get the best out of life.

The report shared the content and findings of the children’s social care annual self-assessment. The self-assessment supported an evaluation of the progress and current practice in children’s social care and identified future actions to support the continuous improvement that was required in order to strive to achieve the vision of being a service where meeting the needs of children, young people and families was the focus so that they were able to get the best out of life. 

A comprehensive introduction was provided to the report by G Reiter, Director of Children, Young People and Families, with the aid of a power point presentation.  A copy of the presentation would be filed with the signed minutes and uploaded to Council’s website.  Members were informed that the report was something required by Ofsted and it would be a key document for their next visit, which was due at any time, however it was also used as a tool to look at what range of actions were needed to be carried out to continue to support and look after children and young people within Northumberland.

During discussions and in response to questions from Members of the Committee, the following information was noted:-

·       Attendance at schools was still not back to pre-pandemic levels and conversations around this were ongoing with the DfE.  Officers were aware of the schools where the challenges were to bring attendance back up, however there were none with specific spikes.  In relation to school avoidance work would be undertaken with the wider social worker team, family hubs and school inclusion team.  There had been some good successes in certain areas and it was hoped that this could be replicated in the rest of the County, however it was taking time to get to pre-pandemic levels.

·       In regard to the attendance drop and the main factors for this and how the local authority could assist, it was suggested that a further report be brought to the Committee.  There were various reasons for non-attendance including health/anxiety issues, children and young people not wanting to come into busy school classrooms and difficulties parents were having in persuading their child to attend. Members highlighted that poverty might also be a factor in non-attendance and stressed that the reasons needed to be understood   There was pilot work being undertaken in Northumberland in relation to Mental Health Trailblazer, however there were many very individual circumstances. 

·       It was clarified that this report was for last year and things had moved on since then.  There was no attendance hub identified within Northumberland, but there were some areas of good practice and officers were working with some Head Teachers to identify what they were doing right and how this could be replicated, however it was highlighted that the demographics were very different across the County and this also needed to be taken into consideration.  A great deal of work had been undertaken with Social Workers so that they understood the importance of attendance and relationship and inclusion summits  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

(a)  Forward Plan

To note the latest Forward Plan of key decisions. Any further changes to the Forward Plan will be reported at the meeting.

(b) Family and Children's Services OSC Work Programme

To consider the work programme/monitoring report for the Family and Children's Services OSC for 2023/24.

The Forward Plan of Cabinet decisions that had already been taken and future items was circulated for information along with the work programme for this Committee.   Members were advised that an additional meeting would be held on 7 December 2023 and that there was to be a joint meeting with Health and Wellbeing OSC on Tuesday 9^th January.

Reports on attendance and the risk register would be added to the work programme.