Agenda item

The Corporate Director of Children’s and the Assistant Director Safeguarding and Quality Assurance introduced the risk deep-dive presentation on safeguarding.

·       It was explained to the committee that the Children’s department is not a single service, this relies on many services and partners which increases the need for assurance and quality assurance which is vital. Cross directorate partnerships e.g. with Housing. Islington has invested in the early years and universal services is very good.

·       The committee noted the main regulatory exercises include OFSTED inspections as well as an annual conversation with Ofsted which also informs their own QA and risk register.

·       Supervision with practitioners takes place and is quality assured by the dedicated officers.

·       Ongoing management of the significant risk in section 17 of the report, mainly around young people and families.

·       Approx 12 months away from inspection currently, considerations in place include the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on new and complex cases being brought into the system. Impact of cost of living on the supply side too such as social workers and foster carers. In preparation for OFSTED we are reviews of all current procedures are underway with a focus on resources and reviewing guidelines.

·       Currently a monopoly in the placements market, these costs are being evaluated, along with employee and workplace costs so these costs can be managed and mitigated.

·       Islington is competing with other London Borough’s due to the competing challenges in recruiting social workers, initiatives include the social work academy which has been launched, this included a wrap around service within the first year of practice. Working on initiatives for foster carers such as  housing adaption scheme which could involve the renovating of  their homes, balancing this with resources available to mitigate impacts of the cost of living crisis on foster carers.

·       620 young people that have left care which is a significant number

·       Costs are not always sitting with the expensive placements, sometimes the costs can accumulate from temporary accommodation, complex placements are competitive which increases the price as providers prefer to take less complex placements, driving the costs of complex placements up further.

·       Placement costs remain in the amber/red risk however a reduction in the number of looked after children.

·       Challenges with the SEN transportation overspends, taxi costs make up 70% of the overspend in 2023/24. SEN placement numbers mean travel is sometimes required across the country, with an increase in complex placements overall. This includes 7 different tiers of transportation.

·       Moving towards encouraging independent travel for young people.

·       Care proceedings should conclude within 26 weeks,  however as a result of the backlog from Covid as well as  changes in legislation made it harder to place children with families  under kinship orders  which also contributed to the rise in CLA numbers. To assist with this and to ensure care proceedings are only issued when all other preventable options have been explored the AD and Director for Safeguarding hold scrutiny and governance over the  Access to Resource and  Care Panels to further ensure  pre-proceedings  is offered to give families a chance to make the required changes to avoid issuing care proceedings.

·       There has been a historical overspend in Children’s, whilst there are no shortcuts with safeguarding we will be working to address the challenges reoccurring year-on-year.

·       In terms of maintaining the current level of risk with the tighter financial envelope it was noted that in year we are looking at £6 million after the hard work this was at 2%, therefore the overspend has been taken down slightly and risks are being managed at present.

·       Confident with the right management actions in place across some areas however other aspects such as taxi costs cause tensions which need to be managed with the current financial envelope.

RESOLVED:

·       To reassess the scoring system of risk to ensure this accurately reflects the risk within the various areas.

·       The report was noted.