Agenda item

To receive a report from Angela Bent, Head of Service Practice Improvement & Partnerships, Children’s Services.

Anne Stoker (Director of Children and Family Services) introduced the report.  Angela Bent (Head of Service Practice Improvement & Partnerships, Children’s Services) explained that the action plan was developed following the Ofsted inspection of Children services in March 2019. 

The Ofsted inspection had judged the following four key areas to be judged as Good

• To help and protect children
• The experiences and progress of children in care wherever they live, including those who return home
• The arrangements for permanence for children who are looked after, including adoption
• The experiences and progress of care leavers

The Ofsted inspection identified four areas where further improvement was required, and the improvement plan set out actions undertaken and ongoing actions in respect of the following areas –

·         The quality of plans for children in need

·         Return home interviews for children missing from home

·         Private fostering responses, including timely statutory checks and regular visits to ensure that children live in safe arrangements to meet their needs

·         Health information for care leavers.

The following issues were raised:

1. Audit of the quality of CIN (Children in Need) plans - p56 of the report (improvement action para1.3) mentioned that cases would be re-audited in November 2019 to ensure that practice had improved.  It was stated that this had been added to our audit programme, reported back in December and we have a robust service audit every six weeks which is, an in-depth review.
2. Members congratulated the service for the positive findings from the Ofsted inspection. Councillor Vince praised the work of foster carers and the support they are given. 
3. Officers were asked what they would consider to be the challenges for the service going forward.  It was explained there is a process of self-evaluation with an emphasis on continuous improvement. Challenges for the service were due to the complexity of some cases, with hundreds of referrals each week and risks considered on a daily basis, also delays in the court process. It was essential to maintain a high calibre workforce and for us to be confident in their abilities.  As part of this, we have a good training programme with a strong network for newly qualified social workers. We link with Kent University as a centre of excellence, who, it is understood will be setting up a base in Enfield.
4. Anne Stoker spoke of the need for consistency in the provision of the service – for example with CIN plans where there have been regular visits with social workers, she would want to hear from the children involved.
5. Members asked for an indication of the scale of the problem when children go missing from a care home. Anne Stoker said a Missing Persons Debriefing Service is now based in the MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub).  All missing children are offered an independent debriefing on their return and key information shared with relevant agencies to ensure our ability to keep them safe.  

NOTED

Members noted the progress made against the Enfield Improvement Plan following on from the Ofsted Inspection of Children Services in March 2019.