Agenda item

Principal Social Worker & Service Manager will be in attendance to present the annual report to the Board.

The Chair welcomed the Review & Development Service Manager to the meeting to provide an overview of the Independent Reviewing officers (IROs) annual report April 2019-March 2020.

 

The Manager outlined that the report outlined the contribution of Independent Reviewing officers (IROs) on the outcomes for children in care and care Leavers. The Board were made aware that in Middlesbrough the IRO’s have a dual role whereby they challenge, review and scrutinize those children who are subject to a protection plan.

 

At the time of the report, the Team structure was 14 IROs, 1 Manager reporting to the Director of Prevention and Partnerships. The structure has since changed due to the demand for more IROs and the structure is now as follows:

14 IROs

2 Team Leaders

1 Manager

All direct to the Director of Children’s Care.

 

IROs caseloads

The Board were advised that in terms of caseloads, for IROs in Middlesbrough this has been above the government guidance set out in the IRO handbook as 50-70, and above the local target of 80. IRO caseloads at times have exceeded 100, which was the mean caseload average at the end of March 2020. For children in Middlesbrough this means that their IRO has less time to dedicate to the continuous oversight of their plan or to raise concerns that they have about care planning, drift and delay. In response to the increasing caseloads and the outcome of the Ofsted inspection in 2019 it was agreed that additional IROs were needed and those posts have since been approved and advertised but the impact is not yet seen.

 

Feedback from Ofsted

The Ofsted concluded the following:

1.     The effectiveness of oversight from independent reviewing officers needs to improve

2.     Independent reviewing officers provide inadequate scrutiny to ensure that children’s planning is proportionate and that they are not subject to social work involvement unnecessarily. Some children, particularly those affected by long-term neglect, have waited too long for protective action.

3.     Children benefit from opportunities to meet with their independent reviewing officers, with whom they develop good relationships over time. Their care planning and review meetings are well attended by professionals, but delays in achieving permanence are not sufficiently challenged by these professionals.

The Manager advised some of the findings from Ofsted in relation to the performance data from 2019/20 e.g the number of children in care increased, which lead to higher caseloads for IROs. This lead to a slight decrease in Children in Care Reviews taking place in timescales from 90 to 89%. However in April 2020, the number of children in care reviews increased from 1254 to 1434 and 89% remained in timescales.

Following the inspection, the IROs have:

1.     Increase the workforce so each child has more time dedicated to them by their IRO

2.     Review and re-launch policies, procedures and practice standards for IROs

3.     Provide more training and safe reflective space for IROs to learn and develop their practice

4.     Increase management capacity to improve management oversight of IROs

5.     Strengthen audit and ensure learning is used to improve practice

6.     Actively engage young people to support us to improve service delivery

Feedback from the children is positive and some are outlined below:

 

“I get a boost of confidence from my IRO, social workers and foster carers”

 

“What helps me is that I am updated throughout, I know what is happening, keeping the same IRO from the start”

 

In terms of children in Middlesbrough’s care, the service identified that there was a concern in relation to drift and delay (much like what Ofsted had picked up in relation to permanency). Service level challenges in the past had been sometimes extensive, however last year there were a reduced number of challenges (3) and these were all responded too and led to better outcomes for children and young people.

The Service Manager further discussed the Tell Us more survey which the IRO’s were part of. The feedback from the survey was positive and further heightened about the relationships between the young people and the IROs. The feedback was as follows:

·        89% felt that their IRO does what they say they will

·        91% said that their IRO helps them to understand what is happening

·        93% said that their worker explained why they were working with them and their family

·        80% said that they had been involved in making plans about what needs to happen to make things better

·        93% said that their IRO spent time with them and listened to what they have

to say

·        83% said they felt their IRO had helped them to feel safe

·        93% felt able to talk to their IRO

We did ask what we could improve on, however feedback was not forecoming, however some comments were as follows:

·        “To be told when my IRO is coming”

·        “I wish my IRO wasn’t going on maternity leave”

·        “If she gave us sweets”

 

Child Protection

In terms of child protection, the Manger outlined that 528 children were subject of  protection plan, which was 169 more than last year. 379 children were subject of a protection plan on 31.03.2020.

 

The Manager advised that we want to have good oversight of those children subject to protection plans. They held challenge clinics to look at these and hold them to account.

 

The Manager finally outlined the priorities which had been set for 2020/21, most of which have been met:

 

1.     Review the capacity and structure of the RAD unit to ensure that it can meet the current demand and enable IROs to have increased, effective oversight of children and young people’s plans. This will lead to better oversight and improvement in the timeliness of statutory meetings (both child protection and looked after reviews)

2.     Improve the quality and effectiveness of IRO challenge. This will include a review and re-launch of the current Issues Resolution Procedure. Resolving challenge at a lower level, which will demonstrate management grip of plans for children and young people.

3.     Strengthen the quality assurance of children who are subject of a child protection plan. This will include strengthening the child protection conference through re-launching a good practice guide for Social Workers and partner agencies. Increasing the level of oversight from the Independent Chairs between reviews. More targeted challenge of children who have multiple CP plans, or those that exceed 15-months

4.     Engage with young people at all levels. This includes increasing visits to children before their review, more children attending their meetings (both child protection conferences and looked after reviews) and enabling children to provide feedback that will be used to improve service delivery.  

5.     Provide Training to IROs to build on the skills, knowledge and experience that exists within the Service. Ensure that IROs are best equipped to provide strong independent challenge to the Local Authority and ensure that plans are driven forward without delay. We will know this has worked when IRO’s effectively challenge if children are not receiving the right support at the right time, they are experience delay and subject to cumulative neglect so that children do reach their plan of permanence in a timely way.

6.     Develop Team profile and plans based on focussed auditing of the IRO service as part of audit to excellence programme.

 

The Chair thanked the Manager for her excellence report and presentation of the annual report.