Agenda item

(To receive a report which provides the Committee with key performance information for Quarter 3 2014/15 that is relevant to the work of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee)

The Committee received a report which provided key performance information for Quarter 3 2014/15 which was relevant to the work of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee.

Members were guided through the report and provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report, and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         In relation to stability of Placements for Looked After Children (LAC) it was noted that if a child was in foster care and then moved back home, this would still be classed as a move.  Members were advised that the Executive Director had requested a more detailed report to understand the wider issues of stability of placements;

·         It was queried whether there was anything that could be done to reduce the timescales between fostering and adoption?  It was noted that the national Adoption Reforms had reduced the time frames, and the authority was working to get this down, in some cases to 18 weeks;

·         It was noted that there were some legacy cases which would skew the data, and it was important to understand what the data was saying;

·         In relation to the vacancy rate of social workers, it was noted that performance of this indicator had become considerably worse when an additional £400,000 was allocated to recruit additional social workers.  This was due to it creating an increase in the number of available vacancies.  However, it was acknowledged that the authority continued to use agency staff more than it would like, and there were a number of agency staff who had been working for the authority for a number of years, but they preferred to continue as agency staff;

·         Concerns were raised regarding the number of complaints which had been made in relation to schools, and members were advised that people would often complain to the Council as they did not know where else they could go to complain;

·         The issue of vacancy numbers for social workers was one raised by the Task and Finish Group review which was carried out in 2014.  It was requested that a report in relation to the vacancy numbers came back to the next meeting;

·         There were three criteria which classified a family as a 'Troubled Family' and it was agreed that the Executive Director would provide a briefing via e-mail to Members;

·         In relation to complaints, 'other' would be selected if the issue highlighted did not fit any of the other categories;

·         It was noted that the increase in the number of young people classed as NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) was due to the work undertaken to reduce the number of 18 year olds whose education and employment status was unknown.  It was expected that performance in relation to the number of NEET's would look better by the next quarter;

·         A more detailed update on Youth and Community Development was requested.

RESOLVED

            That the comments made in relation to the performance data presented     be noted.