Agenda item

(CPT 11 & 16)

Purpose: To present the findings to the Executive of the recent unannounced inspection of the authority's Contact, Referral and Assessment arrangements.

Resolved that the report be noted and the Action Plan agreed.

This decision is eligible to be ‘called-in’.  However, if the decision has not been ‘called-in’ by 5.00pm on 8 April 2011, then it will be implemented.

The Executive considered a report (Agenda Item 7) concerning the recent unannounced inspection of the authority’s Contact, Referral and Assessment arrangements in November 2010. Councillor Gordon Lundie reported that the previous unannounced inspection had been carried out on the 12^th and 13^th January 2010. One of the main roles of the Referral and Assessment Team was to identify children at risk of harm and it was therefore an important entry point within Children’s Services. The Inspectors had considered a range of evidence as to the quality, effectiveness and impact of the service, including reading case records, supervision files and observing and interviewing a range of staff. Their findings had been published in a report on 15^th December 2010 and would contribute to the annual review of the performance of Children’s Services for which Ofsted would award a rating later in the year.

Councillor Lundie stated that the areas identified for action in January 2010 had been fully addressed along with the previous areas of development apart from one exception relating to casework allocations to family support workers. Additional resources had been allocated to the Team which had been effective. The Baby P incident had seen an increase in the number of cases due to the more intensive level of vigilance. One of the areas of strength which had been recognised by the Inspectors was the effective delivery of early intervention services, which included the good use of the CAF and the Locality Network system.   

Areas for development included assessment timescales which it was felt had not been consistently or robustly monitored. However, Councillor Lundie  reported that he had sat in on a number of meetings and cases had not been prioritised on timescales but on the element of risk to the child. Despite that timescales were rarely missed.

Councillor Lundie concluded that on the whole the findings had been positive and that the service was performing well.  

Councillor Alan Macro commended Officers and Social Workers on the positive aspect of the service. However, he was concerned about the areas for development and in particular the second one which noted that although social work caseloads were manageable and balanced,  the more qualified and experienced staff experienced additional pressures as they were required to undertake child protection enquiries. He felt that procedures needed to be put in place to ensure that this issue was followed up. Councillor Lundie responded that the supervisor audits would ensure that this was covered off.

Councillor Julian Swift-Hook also commended Officers on their achievements. He referred to the Action Plan where it seemed that a large number of spreadsheets were used and he queried whether any of those could be transferred to the RAISE system which would be a more secure method of storing information. Councillor Lundie advised that if the spreadsheets used were found to be ineffective then consideration would be given to using the RAISE system. However, there was no evidence to suggest that data security was currently an issue within Children’s Services.

RESOLVED that the report be noted and the action plan agreed.

Reason for the decision: Statutory requirement.

Other options considered: None.