Councillor Laing (Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care, Culture and Communications) introduced the item an highlighted the following key points:  

 

a)    Achieving Excellence was an aspirational three-year plan for children's services which was developed in early 2024 which had extensive engagement from staff, from children and young people; 

 

b)    The plan included ten strategic priorities aimed at improving children's social care, education services, and partnerships; 

 

c)    Key milestones were set for 2024 to 2027, aligning with recent Ofsted inspection priorities; 

 

d)    The plan aimed to enhance outcomes for children and young people in Plymouth and strengthen workforce and system capabilities; 

 

e)    Progress was reviewed at the end of the first year, highlighting improvements in social care support, SEND services, and school attendance; 

 

f)     Priorities and milestones were reset for 2025-2026 to maintain progress and the plan would continue to monitor progress against strategic milestones. The plan would also ensure consistent engagement with stakeholders to refine priorities; 

 

Stuart Hogg (Practice Manager) highlighted a few key points before questions were put to Councillors Laing, Cresswell and officers by the participation member. A summary of the discussion included:

 

g)    Emphasised the importance of consistency in social care services;

 

h)    Young people expressed concerns about frequent changes in social workers and the impact on relationship building and having to tell their stories more than once; 

 

i)     The service reviewed worker changes regularly and aimed to increase permanent staff to reduce turnover;

 

j)     Family First reforms were designed to minimise disruptions and ensure continuity of care;

 

k)    Cabinet members supported increased funding to reduce caseloads and improve consistency. Cabinet wanted to see increased numbers of permanent staff within the service to ensure every child or young person had a consistent worker; 

 

l)     Handover procedures were discussed to ensure smooth transitions when changes needed to occur. Where the worker was off sick for a period of time, the team manager would be expected to step in;  

 

m)  David Haley (Director of Children’s Services) discussed the integration of the '10 Wishes' framework into supervision practices. Managers and workers were encouraged to reflect on how they applied the 10 Wishes into their work;

 

n)    Suggestions were made to include feedback mechanisms and QA processes to track the implementation of the ten wishes into social workers practice; 

 

o)    Significant changes were made in fostering services, including financial support and council tax allowances;

 

p)    Fostering summits were held to gather feedback and implement changes collaboratively across the partnership and with foster carers. Consistency in practice and workforce culture was emphasised;

 

q)    The Mockingbird model was introduced to create an extended family support model for a group of foster carers and the children they looked after. The first constellation went on holiday for a weekend which went well. Further plans were made to expand the Mockingbird model and monitor its impact; 

 

r)    Investments from the Council were made into social activities budgets; 

 

s)     The Corporate Parenting Board was strengthened and there were high aspirations to address cross-organisational issues within that forum;  

 

t)     More children were in placements either in Plymouth or very close to, to ensure that they were closer to much of their established networks;  

 

u)    Plans were discussed to improve outcomes for care leavers in health,accommodation, education, and employment;

 

v)    A Care Leavers Hub was being developed to provide centralised support;

 

w)   The Corporate Parenting Strategy and Local Offer were revised with young people’s input;

 

x)    There were efforts to improve the introductions to personal advisors sooner and more smoothly;  

 

y)    Efforts would continue to be made to increase employment and training opportunities.Businesses and organisations were engaged to support young people’s aspirations;

 

z)    Care Leavers were able to access free prescriptions and dental care provided by the Peninsular dental school; 

 

aa)  Concerns were raised about informing young people not involved in participation groups and it was suggested to produce newsletters, digital communications, and one-off engagement opportunities;

 

bb)Social workers were encouraged to promote participation and share updates with the children and young people they worked with.

 

In response to questions raised by councillors it was reported that:  

 

cc)  Social worker caseloads were lower than historical levels, but the target was to reduce caseloads to 12–14 children which would enable more meaningful engagement and better outcomes. Reforms aimed to shift the focus from thresholds of harm to children's needs, allowing social workers to build stronger relationships and reduce crisis situations; 

 

dd)The importance of reducing the Council’sreliance on agency staff and increasing permanent social workers to improve consistency and retention was a priority. Investments made into Children’s Services was made with the expectation of lowering caseloads;  

 

ee)The 300% rise in Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) escalationsreflected improved oversight and formal reporting, ensuring concerns were addressed promptly;

 

ff)    Plymouth had 11 static family hubs and planned to open 11 satellite hubs into parts of the city wherethere were no static hubs;  

 

gg)  Care-experienced young people were encouraged and financially supported to pursue higher education, which included bursaries of £1,000 per term, graduation costs, and additional support for postgraduate studies.Further support offered to care experienced young people included mentoring and early engagement; 

 

hh)The Care Leavers hub was funded primarily through the Youth Investment Fund. 

 

Actions:  

1.    A briefing report would be written to shows how the service has improved the quality assurance processes to be more explicit about the difference the service was making for children and young people by discussing The 10 Wishes in social work supervision. 

 

2.    Vivien Lines would speak with the participation member around ideas to engage more young people to seek their view. 

 

3.    Social worker appraisals in the summer would discuss how they were learning about the views and aspirations of children and young people.