Issue - meetings

Report CS17062

The Committee considered an update on progress in implementing the Children’s Services Improvement Action Plan which had been agreed by the Council’s Executive on 14^th September 2016.

The Council’s services for children in need of help and protection and children looked after and the Bromley Safeguarding Children Board had been inspected by Ofsted between 11^th April and 5^th May 2016.  Although the Inspection had identified some strengths across children’s services, the Local Authority had received an overall judgement of ‘Inadequate’ and the Bromley Safeguarding Children Board was rated with a judgement of ‘Requires Improvement’.  Following the publication of the Ofsted report, the Department for Education had appointed a Commissioner to assess the service and make a recommendation on how to improve children’s services in Bromley. In September 2016, the Commissioner’s report was provided to the Secretary of State, who accepted the positive direction of travel indicated and agreed with the recommendation that a Department for Education Commissioner be appointed to undertake a further six month period of scrutiny to ensure that progress continued to be made. 

The multi-agency Children’s Service Improvement Governance Board was established to oversee the improvement process and support the development of the Improvement Action Plan which had 10 priorities covering the 23 Ofsted recommendations.  An Officer-led Service Improvement Team was also convened to lead on work streams identified in the Improvement Action Plan, as well as to monitor improvement actions and performance measures and to report progress to the Governance Board.  The Council’s Executive had evidenced its commitment to implement the Improvement Action Plan by agreeing an additional £950k funding to be released over two phases, with plans for a third phase of funding in early 2017 that would bring the total additional funding to £2.3m.  A comprehensive training programme had also been developed for Members to assist them in their role as Corporate Parents. 

The first Ofsted monitoring visit took place between 8^th and 9^th November 2016.  The Inspection Team reviewed six cases from the Children’s Social Care Division’s monthly audit cohort, and sampled 15 cases chosen from the list of children and young people who had been involved with children’s services since June 2016.  The Inspection Team also interviewed a number of Officers from across the Local Authority, as well as young people and parents and carers.  Following the visit, Ofsted confirmed that it recognised the progress made in management, leadership and governance, but identified a need to further improve social work practice and increase the pace of change.  It was expected that more significant improvement would be demonstrated at the next monitoring visit in February 2017.

In considering the update, the Chairman was concerned that of the six cases reviewed as part of the first Ofsted monitoring visit, four had been judged as ‘Inadequate’ and two as ‘Requires Improvement’.  The Executive Director acknowledged that there were issues with historical casework but that the focus of improvement would be on cases going forward.  The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56