Issue - meetings

Report of the Deputy Strategic Director, Children Social Care and Early Help

The Committee received a report on demand pressures in Children’s Social Care for the first quarter of 2022/23, (April – June).

It was reported that the service is seeing an increase in demand for support and this is in line with the national trend. The North East has the second highest rate of child poverty (38%) and 16% of Gateshead residents live in the most deprived 10% of neighbourhoods in the country.

In terms of contacts with the service there has been a 7% increase since 2018/19, there was a dip in demand in 2019/20 which was due to Covid. The number of contacts progressing to referral increased from 23% in 2018/19 to 31% in 2021/22. In quarter one of this year the number of contacts moving to referral increased to 33%.

The number of assessments completed in 2021/22 increased by 13% compared to 2018/19. Quarter one for this year has seen the highest number of assessments completed.

It was reported that there is an increase in the number of open cases across the service. There has been a 39% increase in children in need since April 2018, with a sharp increase from April 2020.  The number of looked after children has increased by 28% since 2018, currently there are 516 at the end of June 2022.

The number of Child Protection Plans has decreased and the number of care leavers remains static.

It was noted that there has been a year on year increase in the number of section 47 Enquiries, however the conversion rates of Initial Child Protection Conference to Child Protection Plans has decreased slightly.

In terms of the looked after children this figure steadily increased to March 2021 then there was a sharp increase until March 2022. It was noted that the current number of looked after children is 516, this is the highest level recorded.

It was questioned what stress this increased demand is putting on staff. It was confirmed that work is ongoing with HR to increase the workforce in order to better balance caseloads. It was acknowledged that the challenge is the complexities the service is working with. It was confirmed that caseloads are reviewed weekly to ensure they are appropriate and other areas of the system are used to help, for example practitioners are helping with visits and court papers for example.

It was questioned whether increased demand is due to a bigger issue or if it is to do with better identification of issues. It was confirmed that the increased demand was a direct correlation with the pandemic. It was acknowledged that more understanding is needed of why Gateshead is the third highest in the region for looked after children and what can be done to maintain children in their family network for better outcomes.

RESOLVED    -           That the Committee noted the content of the report and agreed

to receive a progress update in approximately six months.