Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Transformation and Partnerships, which presented progress towards achieving the key outcomes of the council’s corporate performance framework for the Altogether Better for Children and Young People priority theme (for copy see file of minutes).

In response to a question from Councillor Bainbridge The Strategy and Equalities Manager advised that there was not sufficient data for looked after children (LAC) and care leavers up to the age of 25, however this would be available for future reporting.

Councillor Durham queried whether there was a connection between the rise in enquiries and the rise in LAC.  The Strategy and Equalities Manager confirmed that the number of enquiries had not increased since 2017 and although there had been a significant increase in LAC, it had risen steadily over a number of years.  With regards to the case file audits which were given a scaling score of 6 and above, Councillor Durham queried whether there was a number of cases audited for a representative sample.  The Strategy and Equalities Manager confirmed that there were approximately 3500 case files and the focus was on the quality of the information rather than the quantity of files audited.  He explained that the new case file audit system was collaborative and included a meeting between a social worker and an auditor and each individual audit took a couple of hours to complete.  In response to a further question from Councillor Durham, the Strategy and Equalities Manager confirmed that these audits related to the quality of working practices and a different process was in place for determining whether a child should be looked after.

Councillor Patterson referred to the social worker caseloads for the Families First Team and sought clarification on the information contained in the report as this was not legible in the report.  The Strategy and Equalities Manager confirmed that overall the number of cases was reducing and advised that;

·         18% had 30+ cases

·         34% had 25-29 cases

·         15% had 20-24 cases

·         33% had under 20 cases

Councillor Patterson queried the quality of caseload files compared to the last quarter and the Strategy and Equalities Manager confirmed that there was no comparable data as there was a new system in place, however he confirmed that 60% was higher than the proportion of cases in the previous quarter which were good.

The Head of Early Help Inclusion and Vulnerable Children suggested it would be helpful to include an explanation of the quality assurance framework in the next report along with more detail to members to explain the information on audit activity of case files.

Resolved:

That the report be noted.