Agenda item

The Committee scrutinised a report of the Director of Children’s Services that provided an update on an earlier report, which had previously been presented to the Council’s former Performance and Value for Money Scrutiny Select Committee, at its meeting held 17^th December 2020 (entitled ‘Ofsted – Children’s Services - Update on Financial Performance and the Improvement Plan’) regarding progress in relation to the Children’s Social Care improvement plans and financial performance.

The Committee was informed that there had been good progress made in the Council’s improvement journey and that the Authority has revised it’s Getting to Good plan and, as such, will closely monitor progress of key actions, within clearly defined governance arrangements, to drive improvements and ultimately get the Council’s Children’s Services to ‘Good’, based on internal and external findings.

The service was responding to significant sustained volumes and complications associated with demand in contacts into MASH, Early Help, Domestic Abuse and Child Protection. Our Children Looked After numbers have slightly increased. Caseloads are manageable but Social Work Teams with pressure are Children’s Assessment and Fieldwork teams. Recruitment and retention of experienced social workers was a strategic priority.

Members of the Committee were reminded that that the 2022/2023 Budget Select Committee meeting on 27^th January 2022 included an update on the month 8 financial position of the Council, this included a forecast pressure of £4,308k for Children’s Social Care, further detail is provided in section 4 of the report.

Throughout 2021, Children’s Services had made good progress against its service improvement plan despite facing continued increased volume and complexity in demand for statutory children’s social work services. Children’s Services had refreshed their self-assessment of children’s services, which now more accurately reflects where the Service is on its ‘improvement journey’, and the priorities and actions that will need to be undertaken to enable the target of ‘Good’ being reached. This will form the basis of the Council’s Annual Conversation with Ofsted in March 2022.

Overall, the multi-agency partnerships were positive and senior leaders were working hard to build and maintain good relationships across the partnership, working towards a common vision of outcomes for children and young people in Oldham, through the Local Safeguarding Children Partnership and the Corporate Parenting Panel.

Children’s Services continues to develop strong multi-agency arrangements and partnership working, including exploring how they can broaden further partner representation within the Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). This work was overseen by the newly formed MASH Assurance Board which demonstrated the commitment across Oldham in ensuring the MASH is further strengthened to provide the best response to our children, young people and families in need of help and protection.

A Getting to Good Board had been set up, independently chaired by a senior leader in Children’s Services sector led improvement. The board was to provide the drive and focus required to ensure that the identified practice improvements are achieved and evidenced, resulting in Oldham’s Children’s Services being judged ‘good’ or better. This will be achieved through the promotion of a culture of high challenge and high support within the board and across the service.

The Council’s Children’s Services had been inspected by Ofsted in November 2021. The focused visit looked at children in need or subject to a protection plan. This included a detailed review of cases, speaking to social workers and managers in Fieldwork Services and Children with Disabilities Service.

Resolved:
that the report be noted.