Agenda item

The Director of Social Care and Early Help submits a report, which considers the Annual Independent Reviewing Officers Report for 2019-20.

The Director of Social Care and Early Help submitted a report, which considered the Annual Independent Reviewing Officers Report for 2019-20.

Independent Reviewing Officers (IRO) perform a crucial role to ensure that:

·         Children entering care were the right children to be looked after,

·         Permanent plans were achieved as quickly as possible for those children

·         Have an oversight of the child’s care plan and input in the plan as the child progresses.

·         Young people understand and can ask questions as to where they are in their social care journey and,

·         Provide an opportunity that the services are operating in a way that is in the best possible interest of the young people.

Following Members comments the below responses were provided:

·         The Virtual School Head works with schools to oversee the progression of education until the child is discharged from care, goes home or moves onto a permanent arrangement e.g. adoption. If a child remains in care until 18 years, the Virtual Head ensures the child’s transition into employment/ training.

·         The Local Authority (LA) is legally ‘Corporate Parent’ for all children who are looked after. It is therefore responsible for that child to have access to the best education and employment/ training that can be offered in and outside of the City.

·         In terms of safeguarding, the LA also held the responsibility to ensure the child was safe in their environment and peer relations, that they were not being exploited and that contact with other professionals was safe.

·         The IRO’s position was to ensure that the allocated social worker and care plan addresses the above issues.

·         The improvement work taking place was so that children participated in the development of their own plans where possible. The service was now moving to the co-production part of the journey whereby the plan was co-produced with the child, so the child had full understanding of what’s taking place.

·         Special services and two of the children’s homes were noted to be specialist for children with disabilities.

·         The service recently adopted a model of a highly-regarded rights-based approach to participation by children and young people, which had been developed by Professor Laura Lundy. This had been rolled out for the past six months, and guided measures to enhance the implementation of children’s rights.

·         Following from a Members comments, the Officer agreed that a segment in the ‘Exit from Care’ chart which was referred to as ‘others’ required further articulation and clarity.

·         A number of different elements were noted for things that affected the transition for children in care into employment and training, including that the group of young people that count in those categories was ever changing. The Council had succeeded in increasing opportunities, however the challenge was to ensure that the opportunity was the right match for each young person. Employment was not always the right route for every child that turned 16 and the crucial task was to guarantee a positive experience. The service was now looking every six weeks at those young people not in education/ employment and communicating with their personal advisors to find the right hub for the child. In addition, bursaries were in place and long-term availability of opportunities being secured.

·         It was noted that a mid-way point had now been built into the system so the IRO could check the network of work being done with each child to find a placement. Placement sufficiency was also monitored periodically. Details were provided as to the measures taken with red, amber or green flags. The Member who raised the query requesting that the calibration and points that showed how far the service has developed was included in the report.

·         The Connexions service worked on a full range of options and opportunities for young people.

·         Officers went through the process in detail and explained the number of weeks for securing a care order. Some of the impacts nationally which also seen an increase in timescales of independent assessments and especially, consideration of cases by the Courts, were noted to be as a result of the pandemic. Leicester compared to other LA’s was showing positive signs in that it was able to secure placement of children with the permanent family prior to the Court granting the care order, so although it may take longer reaching the end goal, there were better outcomes for the children.

AGREED:

1.    That the content of the report be noted.

2.    That the Participation report which covers the Lundy model of engagement be bought to a future commission meeting.