Agenda item

To consider and comment on the performance of Sandwell Children’s Trust (SCT).

Further to Minute No. 25/22 (10 October 2022), the Board received a performance update from Sandwell Children’s Trust (SCT) for the period July 2022 to February 2023.

Ofsted had carried out an inspection into the Voluntary Adoption Agency in December 2022. The Voluntary Adoption Agency Ofsted rating had been rated Good. The judgement noted; overall experiences and progress of service users taken into account; how well children, young people and adults were helped and protected had been rated Good, while the effectiveness of leaders and managers had been rated as Required Improvement.

SCT worked to progress permanence for children when adoption was identified as a part of a child’s care plan and continued to work closely with the Regional Adoption Agency to increase the number of children placed in fostering to adopt placements.

The highlights of the inspection noted the positive relationships children built with adopters; children were introduced to adopters in a planned and sensitive way; collaboration between partners had ensured children had uninterrupted support; a governance structure enabled good oversight and service delivery; a culture of high expectations and aspirations for children.

The inspection had resulted in a number of recommendations; more feedback should be encouraged from children; child stories should be individualised; child and prospective adopters should be introduced in a timely manner; the adoption process should be non-judgmental and feedback and lessons learned should be sought from adopters. 

The Board noted the following key performance headlines:-

·      referrals had decreased to 474 per 10,000 over the last 12 months - a reduction from 580 per 10,000. The referral rate was lower than the statistical neighbour and West Midland average;

·      re-referrals had increased from 20% to 23% over the last six-months which was 2.6% higher than statistical neighbours and 1.5% above the England average;

·      there had been a reduction in referral rate (400 in the last 12 months) was a factor in the re-referral increase;

·      the focus was ensuring the quality of the assessments and making use of the support services available;

·      single assessments completed over the past 12-months had ranged from 56.5% to 95.2%. During February 2023 the number completed had been 88.3% and had been above 85% since October 2022 which was above statistical neighbour, West Midland and England average;

·      the rates of assessment per 10,000 over the last 12-months had reduced from 718 per 10,000 to 530 per 10,000;

·      there was continued improvement in relation to Section 47 Enquiries stemming from a better understanding and management of risk;

·      the trajectory anticipated a rate of 183 per 10,000 over the last 12-months, significantly lower than 2018/19 with a rate of 312 per 10,000;

·      initial Child Protection Conferences held within 15 working days was in February 2023 was 94.7%.

·      of the Initial Child Protection Conferences, 82% resulted in a Child Protection Plan;

·      there had been a reduction in the number of Child Protection Plans over the previous 12-months from 409 to 365. The figures were below the statistical neighbour and in line with the England average;

·      of those children on Child Protection Plans, 16 children had been on a plan longer than two years;

·      as of February 2023, 811 children were in care, a reduction from 848 in February 2022;

·      over the last 12-months 167 children had entered care with 211 ceasing care;

·      of those children in care 67 children had moved three times or more within the last 12-months;

·      care leavers aged 19-21 who were NEET was 55.5%, which was 13% below the statistical neighbour and 15% below the West Midlands average;

The continued Social Worker recruitment challenges had been addressed. The national and regional shortage in social workers had been recognised in the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care and SCT was proactive in addressing the workforce recruitment and retention. A Workforce Strategy focused on growing our own, developing a marketing campaign and promoting a Sandwell Deal.

Following comments and questions from members of the Board, the following responses were provided and issues highlighted:-

·      the number of children leaving care would require additional staff to support care leavers where necessary;

·      among those who leave care a number moved to be with family members;

·      intervention and preventative services worked to prevent re-referrals, however, a number of service users declined continued involvement with the service following the initial intervention;

·      for those families who received intervention work, more had been done to ensure they understood the benefits of access to available services;

·      the higher re-referral rates were linked to domestic abuse, and partnership working continued to alleviate this;

·      a contract had been negotiated with the Richmond Fellowship which was hosted within SCT, for the delivery of the perpetrator programme, which aimed to break the cycle of domestic abuse;

·      a cost of living summit held by the Council in March had been well attended with a range of voluntary and community partners, the work with partners was focused on supporting those in need and promoting ongoing partnership working;

·      SCT and the Council continued to work in partnership to provide the necessary support and plans for those young people leaving care who were not in education, employment or training;

·      the Regional Adoption Agency and SCT had been collecting information relating to feedback and lessons learned but had not adequately shared this between partners. Work was now undertaken to ensure partnership working between the Regional Adoption Agency and SCT;

·      an ongoing challenge was adopters did not feel comfortable offering difficult or negative feedback fearing it having a detrimental impact on their application. SCT was encouraging potential adopters to engage with them and highlight any concerns;

·      the Care Review had made specific reference to the ongoing workforce challenges and its implications. It was hoped that agency and project teams would be attracted back into local authorities.