Agenda item

(To receive a report by Carolyn Knight, Head of Service - Quality and Standards and Principal Social Worker, which introduces the six-month report on the inspection of the Local Authority Children's Homes by the Independent Visitors)

Consideration was given to a report by the Head of Service - Quality and Standards and Principal Social Worker, which introduced the six-monthly report on the inspection of the Local Authority Children’s Homes by the Independent Visitors, which was a statutory requirement and served to update the Panel on how the Care Standards are met within these homes in Lincolnshire.

The Panel was advised that it was a statutory requirement to have Independent Visitors whose responsibility it was to visit all of the Council’s owned and managed residential homes every month and produce a report against the quality standards which were detailed within the report. It was noted that visits had been in person over the previous quarter, whilst maintaining ensuring precautions were taken against Covid-19.

There had been an increase in the use of technology with young people in the children’s homes to ensure they maintained contact with their families and other professionals. Independent advocates were now attending for physical visits to address any issues and concerns that may be held by young people within the homes. The Head of Service - Quality and Standards and Principal Social Worker was pleased to report that there had been no escalations during the period.

As detailed in the report, the quality of care across all of the Council’s maintained children’s homes was rated ‘good’ and in some cases ‘excellent’ or ‘outstanding’. Members of the Panel were reassured that despite the challenges faced at the Albion Street Children’s home, there was a plan in place which was proving to be successful.

Recruitment to the homes continued to be difficult, however, assurance was provided that current vacancies were covered by existing members of staff or consistent agency staff to minimise the impact on the young people within the homes.

The Panel considered the report and during the discussion the following points were noted:

·       The Panel were satisfied with the quality of care being offered within children’s homes, in particular that which had been rated outstanding.

·       The Panel were assured that where possible, there were a number of relief staff members who were well trained to support the children and were being deployed to ease staffing issues. Many of the issues with staffing were due to the natural progression of staff and officers were not overly concerned by the levels at this moment in time.

·       Albion Street had faced challenges over the previous years, which were predominantly around staffing and difficulties in the recruitment of a Homes Manager which had created instability within the staffing structure. There had also been children of varying ages with complex needs living together which was creating further issues within the home. The introduction of an experienced Homes Manager and Apprentice Homes Manager had brought stability to the staffing group. Alongside this, some older children, who had previously lived at the home, had been placed in a different setting. It was important that children were placed in the most suitable environment for their needs to be supported and that the young people could flourish and thrive within the home. The unit had recently been described as warm, inviting, and unrecognisable and officers were confident that a ‘good’ outcome would be achieved at the next inspection.

·       Assurance was provided that there had been no children displaced as a result in the changes made to the residency at Albion House. Officers had identified the individual needs of the children and placed them in places which could meet their needs in other residential provisions which had also provided the opportunity to bring some younger children back into care within Lincolnshire.

·       It was confirmed that private children’s homes were subject to the same regulations as the Council’s children’s homes, including the Regulation 44 visits and Ofsted reporting. The Council worked with the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership to maintain processes, whereby they receive notification of any application for a children’s home to ensure they were located appropriately and also provided an opportunity to raise any concerns that directly involved children and any child placed in a home in Lincolnshire would also have a social worker and could be attending local schools and localities, which meant that they would have a care plan implemented by the Council. The Panel were assured that the Council would be notified of any concerns raised.

·       It was agreed that details of any inspection reports be circulated to the local Councillor for each children’s home.

RESOLVED:

              That consideration be given to the report and the comments made be            noted.