Agenda item

SCRUTINY OF THE DEPUTY CHIEF EXECUTIVE AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (ECHS)

Minutes:

The Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director: Education, Care and Health Services gave an update to Members on work being undertaken across the Education, Care and Health Services Department.

 

 “The Roadmap to Excellence” was continuing to guide improvement across Children’s Services, with 93% of the 326 key actions identified by the Children’s Service Improvement Governance Board having now been delivered.  It was planned to undertake a skills audit to identify the full range of skills available to staff within the Department that could be used to benefit children and young people.  The Eclipse IT system was ready to be launched; however in light of the need to work with Ofsted as part of the ongoing monitoring programme, the Local Authority would liaise with the Department for Education before moving over to the new social care recording system as it would require the full migration of existing data with no capacity for parallel running.  The number of permanent staff in the Children’s Social Care Service had increased from 42% in March 2017 to 75% in February 2018, with the aim of achieving and maintaining 90% permanent staff.  To support this, a robust recruitment and retention programme was in place and the Local Authority continued to participate in recruitment programmes for newly qualified social workers as well as those encouraging former social workers to return to the profession and to recruit mature entrants to social work, who were able to qualify within 18-24 months via a fast-track programme.  A Member underlined the importance of ensuring that sufficient funds had been allocated to support the recruitment and retention of children’s social workers, including retention fees and bonus payments, and the Deputy Chief Executive agreed to present a report on the funding of recruitment and retention measures within the Children’s Social Care Service in the short to medium term to a future meeting of the Council’s Executive.

 

In considering education, work to strengthen relationships with key partners including academies and free schools was ongoing.  The Local Authority continued to work closely with schools in meeting its statutory duty to safeguard children, including through the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).  The Bromley Safeguarding Children Board had undertaken a Safeguarding Audit of schools which aimed to ensure that schools had due regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.  The Local Authority had a statutory duty to provide sufficient school places, including for pupils living out-of-Borough who had expressed a preference for attending a Bromley school.  A Member noted the growing interest in learning Mandarin across the Borough, particularly in Orpington which had an established Chinese population, and suggested that schools be encouraged to build this into their curriculum.

 

In response to a question from a Member, the Deputy Chief Executive confirmed that the “Caseload Promise” which ensured social workers had a manageable caseload of 12-15 cases had been delivered across the Children’s Social Care Service and that funding was in place within the Education, Children and Families Portfolio budget to maintain this for 2018/19.  Funding was also being held within the Central Contingency to deliver recruitment and retention measures that attracted and retained high quality social work staff.  The Deputy Chief Executive noted that he had the support of the Council’s Executive in driving forward the Children’s Service Improvement Plan and felt that sufficient flexibility was in place to enable him to respond to changes within the Children’s Social Care Service, such as an increase in referrals.  The Chairman highlighted the importance of all Bromley Councillors attending Member training relating to their responsibilities as Corporate Parents at the start of the 2018/19 municipal year.  The Chairman suggested it might also be useful to develop a pro forma to support Members in understanding the implications of decisions made as part of future budget setting processes.

 

With regard to the work of the Select Committee, the Chairman underlined the need to distribute the final reports of the Education, Children and Families Select Committee to schools, and for regular press releases to promote key findings and achievements.

 

The Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director: Education, Care and Health Services thanked the Select Committee for its rigorous scrutiny and challenge of education and children’s services during the 2017/18 municipal year.

 

RESOLVED that the update be noted.