Agenda item

The Executive Director of Children’s Services will provide an update on the recent Ofsted visit to the Multi Agency Children’s Hub (MACH).

S Butcher, Executive Director of Children’s Services, and R Farnham, Director of Children’s Care, were in attendance at the meeting to provide the Panel with an update on the recent Ofsted monitoring visit to the Multi-Agency Children’s Hub (MACH).

 

The Panel was advised that two Ofsted Inspectors had carried out a ‘virtual’ monitoring visit over a two-day period on 23-24 September 2020.

 

During the monitoring visit, the inspectors focussed on progress made by the MACH, the ‘front door’ of Children’s Services, particularly:-

 

·         The quality and screening of referrals.

·         The identification of, and response to, risk.

·         The understanding by partner agencies of threshold decisions for social work support.

·         The quality of initial assessment and planning.

 

A significant amount of evidence was provided before and during the visit and Inspectors held case discussions with frontline staff and held interviews with Members and Officers involved in the improvement programme.

 

The findings of the visit were provided immediately at the end of the second day and summarised in a subsequent letter, dated 16 October 2020.  The letter would not be published on the Ofsted website, however, a copy had been circulated to all Members and partners.

 

In summary, the overall findings stated that the Local Authority had made some progress in the following areas:-

 

·         Social Work practice in the ‘front door’ of the Service.

·         The immediate response to 16-17 year old homeless young people.

·         Performance monitoring including a new quality assurance framework.

·         Improving strategic oversight of services for children and young people.

 

The Executive Director stated that Leaders acknowledged that there was still significant work to do in improving the quality of practice for children and young people in other areas of the Service.

 

In terms of leadership, the Panel was advised that the Inspectors found:-

 

·         Continuing commitment from the Chief Executive and Lead Member.

·         Determination and vision for improving the quality of interventions making a difference for children and families.

·         Senior leaders had a realistic understanding of the endemic weakness in practice informing an appropriately focussed Improvement Plan.

 

In terms of the MACH, Inspectors found:-

 

·         Substantially improved practice in the quality of referrals, screening, decision-making and management oversight.

·         An exponential increase in demand due to a necessary change in the application of thresholds for service and a lack of throughput for children’s cases.

·         Most contacts by partner agencies were converted to referrals for a social work service, demonstrating an improved understanding of thresholds by referring agencies.

 

In relation to the Assessment Teams, the Inspectors found:-

 

·         The quality of some children’s assessments had improved but most were not completed within a timeframe that supported the child’s identified needs.

·         Risk was better understood.

·         The child’s voice was heard through direct work, however, children’s voices and their lived experience was not consistently seen in all casework.

·         Children’s diversity needs and identity were narrowly understood.

·         There had been a rigorous approach to safety planning for children during the Covid-19 pandemic, in particular a multi-agency approach to children living with domestic abuse during lockdown.

 

In brief, the visit had found substantial improvement in the MACH, referral screening and decision making and management oversight.

 

In terms of improvement, the visit found that high caseloads were having a demonstrative impact on the quality of social work practice for children’s cases, the timescales of work completed, management oversight and the ability to embed learning from audits and training to social workers.

 

The Panel was informed that there would be a visit from the Commissioner for a three-day period between 9-11 November and that he would subsequently report on progress to the Minister for Education.  There would be an annual conversation with Ofsted on 9 December and between now and 31 March 2021 there would be a three-day wider focussed visit across the Service.  The next visit and report by the Commissioner would take place in May 2021.

 

During the course of discussion, the following issues were raised:-

 

·         In response to a query, the Executive Director responded that the key areas for improvement were around the workforce and a Workforce Strategy was under development.  This would cover recruitment, retention and the offer to Social Workers in terms of overall development and the Centre for Practice Excellence.  Permanence also needed to be a priority to ensure that children were moving to their forever homes as quickly as possible.  At the present time focus needed to be on how the workforce and its work was managed through Covid and beyond.  It was also highlighted that the recent monitoring visit had focussed on the MACH and that Social Work practice also needed to be improved in the areas of Child Protection, Child in Need and Children Looked After.

 

·         A Panel Member asked about the increase in caseloads due to revised thresholds and it was explained that the threshold of need had previously been set too high and as a consequence, thresholds had been reduced.  This meant that more work was entering the social work system, hence the reason for the increase in caseloads.  The Director of Children’s Care stated that there had been around a 36% increase in the number of assessments undertaken within the MACH and a large percentage of those children had gone on to require a plan either as a Child in Need, Child Protection or going on to becoming looked after.

 

·         It was recognised that 36% was a big increase and it was queried what impact this had on children waiting to be assessed and also the financial impact on the local authority. The Panel was advised that caseloads were high which was slowing the Service’s capacity to improve.  Some managed teams had been brought in, particularly during Covid, within the Referral and Assessment Service and Safeguarding and Care Planning Service.  The Third Innovate Team was recommissioned to look at care placements.  In terms of allocating children awaiting assessment, the most vulnerable children who needed to be assessed were allocated first.  There was a time period of 45 days in which to undertake an assessment and this was taking longer at the moment.  The impact of this was that it then took longer for a child’s plan to be put in place and longer for the child’s needs to be met.  A pro-active approach was being taken to carefully consider where the Service could finance bringing in Social Workers to make the biggest difference.

 

·         The Director of Children’s Care added that in terms of decision-making around children in relation to what needed to happen next for the child, October’s performance data showed that 90% of decisions were made within 24 hours and 100% of decisions were made within 48 hours.  It was hoped that the Panel would feel reassured that this part of the process did happen quickly.

 

·         A Panel Member asked whether, due to high caseloads, the Service was continuing to attempt to recruit additional Social Workers.  The Executive Director responded that there were some existing agency vacancies which had not been responded to.  There were currently three vacancies within the Children Looked After Teams, however, difficulties in recruiting Social Workers was a national issue.  Plans for a recruitment campaign were underway which would include the development of a ‘micro site’ with a foreword from the Executive Director, Chief Executive and Lead Member for Children’s Social Care in relation to Middlesbrough’s exciting improvement journey and becoming part of the team.  It was added that bringing in managed teams, such as Innovate ensured good social work practice and increased capacity.

 

·         Reference was made to one of the findings from the recent visit “… that children’s identity and diversity needs were narrowly understood” and it was queried whether this could be elaborated upon.  The Director explained that the service understood the needs of children in terms of religion and ethnicity, however, the broader identity of the child needed to be better understood, for example, what it was like for a nine-year-old boy growing up in Middlesbrough.  In terms of improving this, it was highlighted that this would become part of the training and development around awareness and education that was being embedded within Children’s Services.

 

·         Reference was made to the finding in relation to 16-17 year old homeless young people and it was queried whether they were young people already known to Children’s Services.  In response it was explained that they were referring to young people who presented to the Service as homeless and Children’s Services needed to discuss the option of becoming looked after with them.  This previously was not being done properly to offer them safety and security.

 

·         In response to a query as to how many staff made up the Leaving Care (Pathways) Team, it was stated that additional resources had been put into the Team since the last Ofsted inspection.  The Team consisted of Social Workers and Personal Advisors, a CAMHS Worker and Health Worker led by a Team Manager and two Assistant Team Managers.

 

·         It was queried what the current position was with regard to sick leave within the teams and the reasons for sickness absence.  The Panel was advised that regular reports had to be submitted to the DfE regarding the availability of Social Workers, including sickness absence and those within households that were self-isolating.  Absence levels had decreased recently.

 

·         Reference was made to guaranteeing interviews for young people in care/care leavers and it was queried whether this scheme was still operated by the Job Centre.  The Director informed that she would need to double check this in terms of the Job Centre initiative, however, Work Readiness Practitioners within the Work Readiness Team worked specifically with young people to help them into employment, education and training and this included working with young people in care/care leavers.

 

·         A Member of the Panel suggested that that the Lead Member for Children’s Social Care could meet with relevant directors and managers with a view to prioritising available jobs or training opportunities within the Council to Middlesbrough’s Children Looked After, providing they met the criteria.  For example, seasonal work within Environment Services.  The Executive Director advised that she would be discussing that particular issue with the Director of Environment.  The Lead Member for Children’s Social Care commented that Middlesbrough’s Children Looked After were our young people and that it was important to help them into a working environment and he would champion those young people.  It was acknowledged that access points for young people into employment created confusion and that the Council was looking at introducing transition workers to work throughout the town to help young people make decisions from leaving school into work.  This would be a step in the right direction.

 

AGREED that the information provided be noted.