Agenda item

Consideration has been given to the annual reports and strategic documents

for services for children, young people and families.  Cabinet has been appraised of key messages contained within the reports, to give assurance with regard to the Council’s corporate parenting and safeguarding role as follows:

Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs) Annual Report – this quality assurance role ensures the views and feelings of the child are considered and that any drift or delays are challenged.  The Council has 376 Looked After Children which is higher than last year and is above both the regional and national average.  Not only has there been an increase in child protection activity, there has also been an increase in complexity of families coming into the child protection process.  However, the number of children looked after for more than 12 months or more has decreased for the second year in a row.  Placement stability remains good with 103 children in placements for at least two years.  The Council is performing well in meeting review requirements. Following a review of this service the Council will be recruiting two additional IROs to address the increased workload.

Gateshead Child Protection Conference Chairs’ Annual Report – 67% of cases relate to neglect and there has been a 23% increase in case conferences held in the reporting year.  Work is being done with partners to improve the timeliness of reports which is critical to good decision making.  Service user feedback will also be strengthened.

Annual Report on Children and Families Services Complaints, Compliments and Representations 2016/17 – the number of complaints has reduced from 37 in 2015/16 to 32 in 2016/17 and there has been an increase in compliments.    Children are positively encouraged to feedback about the services they receive and more are doing so with the introduction of the ‘Mind of My Own’ app. 

Annual Report on Adults Services Complaints, Compliments and Representations 2016/17 – complaints decreased by 15% on the previous year, however, the number of appeals after assessment or review has increased.  This is due to robust application of eligibility criteria to ensure that those most in need receive appropriate support.  Monitoring is stringent to make sure people are receiving the right service to the right level of quality, in the right place at the right time.

Adoption Service and Fostering Annual Reports 2016/17 – performance of permanent adoption placements is improving with 23 children placed into adoptive families, a further 18 children in placements with their adoptive families and the service actively family finding for 11 children.  A further 28 foster carers have been approved and there has been an exceptionally high level of long service awards.  The majority of Looked After Children are placed with the Council’s in-house foster carers, which make up 200 approved foster households.  The payment for skills programme has been very successful in increasing the knowledge, skills and competence of foster carers, particularly for the complex cases that are more frequently presented.

Education Gateshead Annual Report 2016/17 – the number of pupils showing a good level of development at the end of the Key Stage has increased from 64% to 68% which is 1% below the national average and in line with the regional average.  Primary schools continue to perform above the national and regional averages and GCSE performance remains strong.  Post 16 education is also performing above the regional and national averages.  Ofsted judgements are more positive for primary and special schools by some margin, however, 38% of all schools in Gateshead are judged to be outstanding compared with 20% nationally.

Families Gateshead Annual Report 2016/17 – the service is performing well on ‘turning around’ families under the Families Gateshead work, which will increasingly be aligned with the Early Help offer.

RESOLVED -

(i)

That the following reports be endorsed:

a)         Independent Reviewing Officers annual report for             2016/17

b)         Child Protection Conference Chairs Annual report for              2016/17

(ii)

That the following reports be approved:

a)         Children’s and Adult Services Annual Complaints,             Compliments and Representations Reports 2016/17

b)         Adoption Annual Report 2016/17

c)         Fostering Annual Report 2016/17

d)         EducationGateshead Annual Report 2016/17

e)         FamiliesGateshead Annual Report 2016/17

The above decisions have been made for the following reasons:

(A)

To continue to ensure that the needs of children, young people and families continue to be met.

(B)

To ensure most effective use of resources and alignment of programmes to achieve the priorities in the Council Plan.

(C)

To ensure the Council fulfils its statutory duties.