Agenda item

Carmel Littleton, Corporate Director of Children’s Services, and Finola Culbert, Director of Targeted and Specialist Children and Families Services, introduced the report which assessed the performance of the Children’s Services directorate from April to June 2016.

The following main points were noted in the discussion:

·         This was the first quarterly performance report to the Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee. Such performance reports were previously considered by the Policy and Performance Scrutiny Committee. The Committee had the opportunity to revise the performance measures received to attain a broader understanding of Children’s Services’ performance.

·         It was noted that 95% of families with children under-5 being registered at a Children’s Centre was the Council’s best ever performance. Officers would be working to increase this figure further.

·         Although the national issues with the government’s Troubled Families programme were recognised, it was positive that 30 families had achieved successful outcomes through Islington’s Stronger Families programme.

·         The percentage of persistently absent primary school children was better than target at 9.5%, however the service was working to reduce this.

·         The quarter 2 report would include GCSE results for 2015/16, and it was indicated that these were above the national average.

·         The vast majority of Islington school leavers moved into sustained education, employment or training, at 96.7%.

·         The recruitment of new foster carers was a challenge across north London, partially due to housing sizes and the availability of spare bedrooms.

·         Although the number of children reported to be missing from care had increased, it was thought that this was due to the introduction of a new centralised reporting system. This system recorded each instance a child went missing from care, and some young people may have gone missing on multiple occasions within the quarter. A CSE and Missing Children Co-Ordinator had been in post for nine months and senior officers were confident that high-risk children were being supported appropriately. It was advised that the children who went missing from care were predominantly 16 and 17 year olds who had entered the care system as teenagers.

·         It was explained that homeless 16 and 17 year olds were required to be placed into care since the Southwark judgement of 2009. These children were very vulnerable; some were affiliated to gangs or had experienced sexual exploitation. These children were particularly difficult to engage with and some would drift in and out of the family home.

·         A member queried why Islington’s Stronger Families programme was considered a success, whilst the Troubled Families programme nationally had been regarded as a failure. In response, it was advised that the Council had made a sustained effort to support families and the Stronger Families programme was only a single element of the range of support services provided by the Council. For example, families on the Stronger Families programme would also be supported by early help services. This was not the case in many other local authority areas, which may have different priorities. However, officers did acknowledge that there were issues with the performance measures used by the Troubled Families programme.

·         The Committee reviewed the performance measures set out in the report. It was agreed that the performance measures be amended to include a greater oversight of the Council’s safeguarding activity and work to support looked after children.

RESOLVED:

(1)  That progress against the council’s corporate priorities and targets in the first quarter of 2016/17 be noted;

(2)  That the performance measures reported to the Committee be amended to include a greater oversight of the Council’s safeguarding activity and work to support looked after children.