Agenda item

Context:

To receive the Director of Social Services annual report 2017 – Improving Outcomes. Improving Lives.

Key Issues:

·         The report is currently in draft format.

·         To highlight the issues in terms of Children and Young People and Children’s Social Services.

·         The format of the report is now nationally prescribed and aligns with the Social Services and Wellbeing in Wales Act.

·         The report is scheduled to be presented to Full Council before the end of July 2017 and will be presented to Cabinet at its July 2017 meeting.

Member Scrutiny:

·         In response to a question raised regarding monitoring the safeguarding of children, it was noted that management of risk is the business of social services.  Referrals are received and the risk is assessed at that point.  For children where further investigation is required, the risk is managed in various ways.  The Directorate either puts in place a care and support plan or the risk is managed through a multi-agency decision onto the child protection register.

·         More children are being managed through a child protection plan.

·         One of the Directorate’s priorities for this year is to focus its family support services at two places. One of these is pre the edge of care, providing more intensive family support options prior to children coming into the looked after system.  The other aspect is to focus resources around family support, which is pre-child protection register.

·         Therefore, it is better to engage with families earlier to manage risk prior to child protection registration.

·         In response to a Select Committee Member’s question regarding the lack of data in some sections of the report, the Chief Officer informed the Committee that the report is still in draft format and the purpose of bringing the report to the Select Committee at this stage is to incorporate any comments that the Select Committee might have so that the final version reflects those comments made.

·         It was noted that there is also an annual report regarding complaints in Children’s Services which is brought to the Select Committee.

·         With regard to the format of the report, the Act that we adhere to in Wales, which came into being from April 2017, refers to people rather than adults or children.  The report is therefore people focussed, rather than just children or adults focussed.

·         In terms of complaints regarding child protection issues, the Directorate is learning as a service and working with staff to support them to resolve more matters at stage 1 of the complaints procedure and to reduce the number of complaints proceeding to stage 2.  However, if an allegation is made that requires investigation, this is undertaken in a multi-agency way with Gwent Police.  The Directorate is effective in resolving and closing down this type of investigation quickly.  Where there has been less support for families is when the Directorate has gone through a child protection process and children no longer live with their family, there is a significant grieving process that that family has to go through and there are very sparse services being provided at this stage. Therefore, this can lead to complaints being made against the Directorate around the process undertaken.  More needs to be done to help the families going through this stressful time.

·         A key priority for improvement for the Directorate is to recruit more foster carers within the County.  Investment has been made into the in house foster carer service in order to try to improve recruitment figures for in house foster carers.  However, to date, this has not worked.  The Directorate is working closely with the Authority’s marketing division and major campaigns are ongoing around initial recruitment.  There are a number of foster carers that are coming through.  One of the features of Monmouthshire is that we have foster carers but many are choosing to foster for the agencies rather than the Authority. There is a need to ascertain why this is the case, which is being looked at.

·         Monmouthshire Family and Friends Carers means that when a child is placed with, for example, a relative or friend of the parents, this will often be referred to as a kinship carer.

·         Monmouthshire County Council does not operate any residential care facilities.  The Authority has one residential educational establishment which is Mounton House.  This service is regulated and inspected by the Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales (CSSIW).

·         Welsh Government has commissioned a significant piece of work, which the Authority is a part of, which is looking at outcomes for looked after children who came into the system in 2013/14.

·         Outcomes for Key Stage 4 for looked after children is a priority for the authority.  It is a relatively small cohort but it is important that these children are known and identified early.  There is good work between the school and whoever is providing the care to ensure that they are supported out of school, as well as in school.  It is hoped that the gaps will begin to be filled that the children have experienced.  Work is continually being undertaken to ensure that provision for those children is appropriate and that the right courses are available to them.  Officers will be talking with Estyn regarding supporting vulnerable groups next week.

·         Under the new National Outcomes Framework, surveys are required to be undertaken every year of adults with care and support needs of carers and of children and young people who come in to contact with the Authority. The framing of the questions has been nationally prescribed so the questions don’t always flow the way that the Directorate might like to ask questions in terms of people’s experiences of the Directorate.

·         There is a need for the Directorate to look in more detail regarding the differential between carers and those with care and support needs and how the Directorate can continue to support carers.

·         The Authority has a service called Face to Face Counselling which is run by the Youth Service and provides support for children and young people across all schools within Monmouthshire at both primary and secondary sectors. This work is supported by a Welsh Government grant and by core funding from the Authority. The Authority has counsellors that go into schools and there are people who work with the children in school. Other routes are also being investigated to expedite this matter, such as a model which will shortly be implemented where the Authority will be working with Primary Mental Health which will provide a quicker referral process.

·         In response to a Select Committee Member’s question regarding ways to increase in house foster provision by providing council tax exemptions for foster carers, as undertaken in some local authorities in England, it was noted that council tax exemption has not been considered by the Authority but the Directorate would be willing to look at any practice from any authorities across the UK where they have managed to have success in increasing in house foster care provision.

·         It was noted that there was a need to intervene earlier where vulnerable young people are concerned establishing preventative approaches enabling more children to remain with their families. There are a range of services currently available, i.e., Families First, the Acorn Centre, Flying Start and health visiting.  At a strategic level via the Public Service Board, the Authority is working with Public Health Wales regarding the first 1000 days of children with a view to looking at the interventions required from pre-birth up to pre-school. This is critically important and necessary to refocus resources along these lines.

·         In response to a question raised regarding the percentage of agency staff being used, the Chief Officer will obtain and provide the Member with the figure.

·         At the beginning of 2016/17 there were 17 agency workers across Children’s Services.  This has been steadily reducing throughout the year. At the end of the year there were 8 agency workers within the service which is a reduction of over 50% in year.

·         In Management positions from team manager upwards, the Directorate no longer has any agency workers in place.

·         Over the previous 18 months, the reputation of Monmouthshire Social Services has improved considerably and recruitment over this period has been positive.

·         In response to a question raised regard the Child Protection process, it was noted that the Directorate has, in the last six months, moved the Team Around the Family from Partnerships into Children’s Services and the Directorate is reviewing and re-modelling that approach.

·         A review of Family Support is also being implemented with the first phase being to align services into a more coherent set of services.

·         Last year the performance indicator for completion of children’s assessments was at 75% at the end of the last financial year.  A permanent Team Manager is now in place and is monitoring this regularly.  The performance indicator is now in excess of 90%.