(a)

the Children and Young People’s Partnership had four objectives which set out the priorities for Children, Young People and Families –

·         Raise Aspirations

·         Deliver Prevention and Early Help

·         Deliver an Integrated Education, Health and Care Offer

·         Keep Our Children and Young People Safe

(b)

key areas of work which were being looked at included –

·         the Children’s Social Care Improvement Plan which was looking at everything that had been highlighted in the Ofsted inspection last year

·         Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) review

·         Children’s Social Care review

·         Integrated Commissioning strategy for children and young people

(a)

this piece of work drew together the work that had been carried out to date to review Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision and places across the city;

(b)

the framework described proposals for consideration for meeting the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) over the next 3 years;

(c)

in comparison with our statistical neighbours (in particular Portsmouth and Southampton) Plymouth had a marked year on year increase in pupils with statements, with 4,000 children with statements;

(d)

Plymouth had seven special schools, along with a range of school-based specialist support centres.

Following members’ questions it was reported that –

(e)

2,000 children had been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC), 1,600 of whom were known to be in school, the others were in pre-school or post-16 education.  Plymouth’s school population was 38,000;

(f)

data was captured from pre-school settings;

(g)

data was captured from children who moved in to the city;

(h)

Plymouth had a significant amount of SEND provision which was also used by children from outside of the city.  Plymouth City Council received payment for providing these services;

(i)

the Children and Families Act 2014 had introduced Health, Education and Care (HEC) Plans which would replace Statements;

(j)

the new HEC plans would span birth to age 25 and would involve parents and carers more than the old system;

(k)

the timescale for completion of Statements had been 26 weeks and Plymouth had a 98% success rate, the timescale for completion of HEC plans was 20 weeks and it was too early to say if Plymouth were achieving this target.

(a)

the plan was not an Ofsted Improvement Plan, although it focussed around the recommendations that had Ofsted made;

(b)

the plan had been submitted to Ofsted on 14 April and feedback was due

shortly;

(c)

a number of the improvement areas were ongoing;

(d)

the plan relied on working with other departments of the Council and partners/agencies;

(e)

an Improvement Board (a sub-group of the Children and Young People’s Partnership) had been established to monitor the Improvement Plan;

(f)

the following areas of the plan were highlighted–

·         1 – Ensure that practitioners have reasonable workloads  

Workloads were monitored weekly and service area action plans were in place.  Caseloads had increased, and this issue was being addressed;

·         2 – Improvement management oversight on casework and the quality of staff supervision

A new quality assurance framework was now in place and management had attended the relevant training;

·         3 – Improve the electronic social care record system so that it delivers accurate and timely data and performance information to improve the quality of service

The Care First system had been upgraded twice in the last six months which had resulted in an improvement.  A review of ICT requirements for Children’s Services was under way.  A trial of portable electronic devices was about to commence which would improve mobile working for social workers;

·         4 – Robustly challenge commissioners to ensure that child protection medical examinations are conducted without undue delay

The arrangements for child protection medicals had been discussed with medical colleagues and the waiting time was now one hour.  This would be closely monitored;

·         8 – Ensure that Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs) and child protection chairs carry out their quality assurance roles in a way that provides robust scrutiny of practice and, where necessary, strong challenge

These tasks and caseloads would be reviewed in due course.  The workload had decreased, and in the interim new ways of working were being piloted to improve capacity;

·         9 – Ensure that short-term placement stability is improved for lookedafter children

Any child who was now on their third placement was a cause for concern.  A business review was under way in relation to fostering and residential provision to improve this situation;

·         14 – Work with care leavers and looked after children to develop a local care leaver ‘pledge’ that reflects their needs and that is in clear and accessible language

Work was being undertaken with the Listen and Care Council (LACC) to develop this pledge and ensure that all care leavers were aware of its existence;

·         17 – Take action to ensure that child protection conferences are held within statutory timescales and are attended by relevant partners

69% of conferences were held within 15 working days, with the figure in May 2015 standing at 78%.  Police and GP attendance remained poor, there was now a peninsular-wide protocol (with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

(1)

regular updates on the progress of the SEND review;

(2)

a report following the recent Ofsted inspection of the Youth Offending Team.