Issue - meetings

The Panel received the report of the Scrutiny Manager recommending that the Panel consider and challenge the performance of Children’s Services and Learning in Southampton.

Laura Trevett – Performance Manager and Stuart Webb – Head of Quality Assurance were in attendance and with the consent of the Chair, addressed the meeting.

The Panel noted a number of points within the report including:

• That the number of children looked after and children with children in need plans had reduced.
• That Intervention teams had worked well to provide support, following assessment, and had reduced the escalation to referral.
• Children in our care:
  • The number of asylum seekers in our care was likely to increase despite the drop in April.
  • The service was working hard at getting children safely back into family homes and was able to discharge children once they were back in family homes.
• Challenges in CLA: Staff absences had led to supervisions not taking place. Managers have oversight, so child are seen by other members of the team, so not to lose sight of children if the social worker is not at work.
• Multi-agency teams looked at how performance was measured. Where performance was down it was due to poor record keeping rather than meetings not taking place.
• Health Assessments performance needed to improve.
• SCC is an improving authority in terms of children’s services. The dip in placements during April was the result of Court judgements. No Placement Orders could be made until the Orders were resolved. Twenty-four children were placed for adoption in April. Children remain in care until the court discharges the Care Order, even if the child is back living at home.
• The No Further Action (NFA) trend was increasing.  There is currently no measure of outcomes of assessment, even though children will have had intensive support. That data needs to be separated.

RESOLVED that the recommendations of the report be approved.