Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Director of Children’s Services

The Scrutiny Board considered a report of the Director of Children’s Services which detailed the progress with the Children’s Services Improvement Journey over the last twelve months.

Ofsted re-inspected Children’s Services on 6th - 30th March 2017, the outcome of the inspection was published on 13th June 2017, Children’s Services were judged as “requires improvement to be good”.  The Board had received reports regularly since this time detailing the continuous progress.  Children’s Services Continuous Improvement was transferred to Coventry Safeguarding Children’s Partnership as approved by the Children’s Services Continuous Improvement Executive Group on 28th October 2020.  The new arrangements were effective from 1st April 2021, the governance in place would ensure that Children’s Services continuous improvement remained a political priority.  Board members would continue to receive reports on Children’s Services continuous improvement and progress on an annual basis.

In March 2020, Ofsted paused inspections due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Children’s Services was anticipating a standard Inspection by September 2020.  Ofsted published their interim plans to reflect the COVID-19 context for a phased return to routine inspections which commenced from September 2020. The interim visits were paused again during the November 2020 lockdown. On 5 January 2021 a further national lockdown was announced.  Ofsted confirmed that interim assurance focused visits would be undertaken during the national lockdown period commencing from February 2021.  The interim focused visit, (COVID-19 assurance) was undertaken on 12 and 13 May 2021.  Interim focused visits differed from the usual focused visits in that they had a broader scope with a particular focus on the quality of decision making for children. The letter confirming the outcome was published on 25th June 2021.  Three areas were identified for improvement.  Children’s Services was likely to be re-inspected by Ofsted (Standard ILACS) Inspection in 2022.

The Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive continued to give public commitment that Children’s Services remained a key priority for the Council. This included prioritising funding for Children’s Services to maintain its capacity to improve. The Council, alongside partner organisations continued a relentless focus on securing improvements in services for children, young people and families to ensure they were safeguarded and achieved positive outcomes.

The Children’s Services Strategic Plan and Journey to Excellence September 2019- September 2022, outlined the improvement journey and the significant progress achieved by working with partners to improve practice, sustain the workforce, reduce reliance on agency staff, in delivering service changes.  The service continued to work closely with its partners to focus on achieving good outcomes for children.  The overarching strategic priorities included a sustainable workforce, improving the quality of front-line practice and partnership working.  The Children’s Services Strategic Plan would be refreshed in April 2022, embedding Coventry Family Valued relational restorative work with children and families and highlighting the significant progress against continuous improvement /transformation service changes and the aspirations for the future.

The report also detailed:

•  Children’s Services COVID-19 Journey

•  Workforce update

•  The Coventry House Project

•  Coventry Family Valued Programme

•  Ofsted Areas for Improvement Action Plan

The report explained that Coventry had a positive story to tell, the Director of Children’s Services was passionate about improving services for children; with strong, timely and effective political and corporate support; with a strong leadership team working with partners to drive improvements and work with families to embed Coventry Family Valued in Coventry.  Coventry wanted all children and young people in the city to achieve the best possible outcomes. The pressure of numbers of children looked after, and lack of local placement availability, had made it challenging to the service.  Embedding Coventry Family Valued was significant to improvements, and the impact and opportunities it brought would strengthen Children’s Services.  In the lead up to the Ofsted Inspection, the Children’s Services Leadership team and extended Leadership team continued to work together to drive forward practice improvements and services changes.  There was explicit intention to ensure that Children’s Services reached a position where it was continuously achieving good outcomes for the Children of Coventry.

The Board questioned officers, received responses, and discussed the following:

•  Increased demand on the workforce and the need to recruit agency staff

•  The involvement of schools in the Family Valued Programme

•  The process for Family Group Conferencing and the effectiveness of the intervention

•  The funding to continue the success of the House Project in future years

•  Social Worker caseloads compared over time, with other local authorities and whether they were at an acceptable level

•  Children’s Homes in Coventry

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Board:

1)  note the current progress

2)  request the Annual Report on Family Group Conferencing be shared with Members

3)  An Update on the Coventry Family Valued Programme and the House Project be added to the work programme