Agenda item

RESOLVED:

·         That the report be noted.

Lucie Heyes (Director of Children Social Care) introduced the report. The following key points were noted:

5.1. This update report last came to the Committee in September 2021. Since then, officers had seen an increase in demand, with 300 more children in the system at any time, compared to pre-Covid figures. Along with an increase in the volume of cases, there had also been an increase in the complexity and seriousness of the cases with 40% increase in the number of children on child protection plans in the last 18 months.

5.2. Owing to the national shortage of social workers, there were a number of vacancies in Children Social Care resulting in high caseloads for the existing staff. There were 26 vacant case-holding social work posts which was equivalent to 400 children who couldn’t be put into normal caseload arrangements.

5.3. There was a national crisis in the looked after children’s placements market where demand massively outstripped supply and that was leading to spiralling costs and significant pressure on the placements budget.

5.4. Lewisham had the second highest rate of children in care in London and the fifth highest rate of care leavers in London.

5.5. Increase in the complexity of placements in Lewisham meant that the number of children that were in care placements that cost the Council £10,000 per week had increased from three to eight in the last 6 months. The annual costs of each of these eight placements was £0.5 million.

5.6. Quality of services provided by Lewisham had now been externally validated thrice in the last 18 months- Ofsted inspected the looked after children service in July 2021, Mark Riddell’s visit (DfE advisor on care leavers) in July 2022 and the recent JTAI inspection on child protection services.

5.7. Investment made into the Meliot family support centre and signs of safety framework had reduced the number of children in court and entries to care.

5.8. 70% of the workforce in Children Social Care was permanent.

5.9. Officers stated that work on the Corporate Parenting Strategy and Placement Sufficiency Strategy would show some results in 2023-24.

5.10. Nationally, a favourable announcement about the independent childcare review and some additional possible restrictions on agency working were expected.

5.11. Child protection cases that earlier took about 26 weeks in the court were now taking 46 weeks, meaning children were in care longer and court costs were higher. Family courts were now taking some proactive action to reduce these delays.

Lucie Heyes (Director of Children Social Care) and Pinaki Ghoshal (Executive Director for Children and Young People) responded to questions from the members of the Committee. The following key points were noted:

5.12. The Committee recognised the high volume and the complexity of the work that was being managed by the officers in Children Social Care and wanted to understand how it could support officers. Officers stated that the formal response to the National Social Care Review from the Secretary of State would be helpful in this regard, and support from all quarters in ensuring that this was forthcoming would be welcome.

5.13. There had been an increase in the number of children going into very expensive placements with the critical issue being that of supply and demand. On the 11^th of January 2023, a report went to the Mayor & Cabinet regarding Lewisham joining a pan-London arrangement to establish a secure welfare accommodation within London. Currently there is no such accommodation in London.

5.14. Increasing the number of foster carers was an important part of the Placement Sufficiency strategy. 75% of Lewisham’s children in care were of secondary school age and it was difficult to find foster carers for that age group.

5.15. The Cost-of-Living crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic had both had an impact on children’s social care in terms of an increase in demand. However, the increase in demand had not translated into a greater number of children coming into care.

5.16. The Chair of the Committee stated that sometimes there was a false equivalence when replacing face-to-face services with virtual services as they are not directly equivalent. Therefore, the Chair fully supported the resumption of in-person learning and development activities. Officers agreed with the Chair and informed the Committee that they hadn’t faced any resistance from staff about return to in-person learning and activities.

Following this discussion, the Committee entered a Part 2 session. This session was classed as Part 2 since it involved a discussion around the recent JTAI inspection, the report for which had not been published at the time of the meeting.

This report has since been published and therefore the minutes of the Part 2 session can be made public. The following key points were noted in the Part 2 session:

5.17. The Joint Targeted Area Inspection in November 2022 was an intensive 3-week inspection that looked at child protection services and included both off-site & on-site work. Officers were notified about the inspection on Monday 7^th of November 2022 and the inspection began on Tuesday 8^th of November 2022.

5.18. Officers felt that the feedback was generally positive, and that Lewisham was very self-aware of its position.

5.19. If there were areas with particularly bad performance, that would lead to priority actions being recommended but officers felt that there would not be any priority actions for Lewisham.

5.20. Officers felt that the inspection recognised the strengths of the MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub) and complimented the Council’s relationship with schools.

5.21. The Committee voted to suspend standing orders.

5.22. Officers also felt that there had been positive feedback on the early help work and that the inspection recognised strong partnership working.

5.23. Officers felt that the recommendations from the inspection would include things that they were already working on improving.

5.24. The Committee noted that it was reassuring to hear the positive feedback around the MASH since it had been a problematic element in the past.

RESOLVED:

·         That the report be noted.