Agenda item

OFSTED SINGLE INSPECTION: REPORT AND DRAFT IMPROVEMENT PLAN

Carole Burgoyne (Strategic Director for People) will submit a written report on the OFSTED report following an inspection of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers and review of the effectiveness of the Local Safeguarding Children Board.  Cabinet will also be asked to consider a draft improvement plan in response to the report.    

Minutes:

Carole Burgoyne (Strategic Director for People) submitted a written report on the OFSTED report following an inspection of services for children in need of help and protection, looked after children and care leavers and review of the effectiveness of the Local Safeguarding Children Board.  The OFSTED report and a draft improvement plan were also submitted. 

 

The report indicated that –

 

(a)

the Council was required to prepare and publish a written statement of the action it intended to take in response to the report within 70 working days of receiving it;

(b)

Cabinet was asked to approve the approach being taken to the preparation of the improvement plan.

 

Councillor McDonald (Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Public Health) introduced the proposals and reported that -

 

(c)

the Ofsted report’s overall conclusion was that the City Council’s services for vulnerable children were now judged as ‘Requiring improvement to be good’; 

(d)

there were approximately 51,000 children in the city under the age of 18 years and that, as at today, 433 children were with child protection funds and 403 children were in care;

 

(e) 

Ofsted had found a range of strengths in Plymouth’s services for vulnerable children;

(f)

key areas that the Council needed to improve included -

 

 

?

reducing high caseloads carried by social workers;

 

?

improving management oversight;

 

?

improving IT systems so they can deliver accurate and timely data;

 

?

improving working practises between the Council’s partners;

(g) 

the Council already had plans in place to address the majority of the areas for improvement highlighted by Ofsted in the report;

 

(h)

the report had recognised that children in the system were safe;

(i)

the draft improvement plan included 17 areas which had been highlighted for improvement.

 

Councillor McDonald moved an additional recommendation as follows –

 

‘As plans for recovery actions are identified they are delegated to the Cabinet Member for Finance in consultation with the Section 151 Finance Officer to identify whether these can be contained within existing budgets or additional funding needs to be approved as revenue or capital expenditure.’

 

Councillor Lowry seconded the proposal and indicated that there would be cost implications as a consequence of the Council’s response to the OFSTED report. He emphasised that the Council was committed to supporting children in care and that there would be a need to identify additional monies, subject to business cases and reviews.  He advised that when the detail had been worked up, a further report would be made to Cabinet.

 

Alison Botham (Assistant Director for Children’s Social Care) attended the meeting for this item.

 

Carole Burgoyne reported that –

 

(j)

the police, health and youth partners had all been involved in the OFSTED inspection and that improvements had been identified for everybody which would require the Council and its partners to work together to achieve the outcomes identified; 

(k)

other staff had continued the day to day work in the People Directorate whilst the inspection had been in progress and they were pleased that their commitment had been recognised by Councillors Evans and McDonald and Tracey Lee (Chief Executive), during a recent visit to the teams;  

(l)

some of the improvements highlighted had already been acknowledged in the Council’s self-assessment prior to the inspection;  

(m)

the final OFSTED report had been received by the Council on 2 January 2015;

(n)

she would be speaking with partners with regard to the areas of improvement identified; 

(o)

some issues would be brought back to Cabinet for example the capacity in the director role to be responsible for both children and adults;

 

(p)

further investigation was required of the areas in the draft improvement plan marked ‘tbc’;

 

(q)

the draft improvement plan would form the basis of the response to the report and that she would agree the final response with Councillor McDonald;

 

(r)

thanked Cabinet and scrutiny for their support on children social care matters generally. 

 

(s)

she was recommending that scrutiny hold Cabinet to account for delivering the improvements.

 

Tracey Lee reported that she felt that the OFSTED report was fair and set out the Council’s key strengths and areas for improvement.  She highlighted that the dedication of staff had been identified in the report and thanked Carole Burgoyne, Alison Botham and Judith Harwood (Assistant Director for Education, Learning and Families) for their outstanding leadership and day to day running of the department.  She also paid tribute to members who had been recognised by OFSTED as treating child protection issues in a non- political manner and in particular acknowledged the contribution made by Councillor Philippa Davey who had led the work on corporate parenting.

 

Councillor Evans (Council Leader) indicated that he had already met with Tony Hogg (Devon and Cornwall Police Commissioner) and would be meeting with the Clinical Commissioning Group shortly.

 

Cabinet Members –

 

(t)

were reminded that the Council had not made any cuts to children’s front line services in the budget proposals;

(u)

asked that their best wishes were sent to all staff involved in the inspection and thanked Carole Burgoyne, Alison Botham and Judith Harwood, and their teams, for their outstanding work.

 

Alternative options considered and the reasons for the decision –

 

As set out in the report.

 

Agreed -

 

(1)

to note the contents of the Ofsted report of the 2014 inspection of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers and the review of the effectiveness of the local safeguarding children board;

(2)

to endorse the draft improvement plan, as submitted, as a basis for the Council’s written response to the report and delegates responsibility to provide a written response to the report to the Strategic Director for People;

(3) 

to request the support of the Ambitious Plymouth overview and scrutiny panel in ensuring the effective delivery of the improvement plan, once finalised;

(4) 

as plans for recovery actions are identified they are delegated to the Cabinet Member for Finance in consultation with the Section 151 Finance Officer to identify whether these can be contained within existing budgets or additional funding needs to be approved as revenue or capital expenditure.

 

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