Agenda item

Joint report of the Chief Executive and Interim Strategic Director, Care Wellbeing and Learning

The Committee received the end of year performance report, highlighting performance against the strategic outcome indicators and additional indicators that underpins the work of Children’s Services.

Overall achievements were outlined, including an increase in the level of engagement in Children’s Centres, an improvement in the number of children achieving a good level of development at age 5 and also the take up of three and four year old places.  The Gateshead Youth Offending Team has won a national award for its First World War Art Project. It was also noted that the introduction of the ‘MOMO’ app (Mind of My Own) has helped young people engage with the service better. It was reported that overall performance for social care remains strong at a time of increased demand.

Areas for improvement were outlined, these include; the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils at Key Stage 4, the rate of under 18 conceptions, self harm rates and also the rate of permanent exclusions.

In terms of the target for reducing excess weight in primary children in year 6 it was reported that performance is just above the national average, however the rate for Gateshead is on a downward trend and the figures for reception age children are lower than the national average.

Educational attainment at primary school is meeting the target of 82%, with primary schools performing above the national and regional average. It was noted that Gateshead was ranked 44^th out of 152 local authorities, with 35% of primary schools in Gateshead being judged as ‘outstanding’.  Also, GCSE performance remains stable.

The number of young people not in education, training or employment (NEET) is an improving picture, the service is tracking these young people well and the number of young people ‘unknown’ to the service is decreasing.

In relation to the number of first time entrants to the youth justice system, this currently stands at 47 young people per 100,000. However, there is a data lag so this relates to the period October 2014 – September 2015, this is a 46% reduction from the same period the previous year.

Targets have also been met and are improving in relation to child poverty rates.

The Strategic Outcome Indicator around reducing the number of children subject to a child protection plan has not been met. However, the percentage of children subject to a plan for a second of subsequent time is 11.8%, against a target of 15%, this equates to 40 children out of 338. Performance in terms of placement stability is measured by the percentage of children living continuously in the same placement for two years, performance is currently improving and is well above target.  It was noted that the number of children subject to a child protection plan was 273 at the end of the year, this is a 23% increase over the last six months and is above the national average.  Work is ongoing to unpick why there has been such an increase in the number of referrals, there is no specific pattern however there has been an increase in large sibling groups.

It was reported that the target has not been met in relation to timeliness of adoptions. There were 25 adoptions over the last year, however a small number of these took a significantly longer time due to sibling groups and complexities of the cases.

There has been some improvement in relation to hospital admissions for self harm although there are still some issues.  Hospital admissions are down but are significantly higher than the national picture. There is a lot of work ongoing with the ‘Expanding Minds, Improving Lives’ project, with Newcastle Council and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), to redesign the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), there are strong messages coming from this around early intervention. From this project additional counselling support has been put in place for this year.

It was noted that there is still a gap in GCSE attainment for vulnerable young people, there has been a drop in attainment for those pupils on free school meals and children with special educational needs. Also, attainment for looked after children did not meet the target, however performance was better than last year.

There has been an increase in the number of under 18 conceptions, with Gateshead now the second highest within Tyne and Wear, this was an increase of 16 conceptions. Work is continuing to develop a sexual health strategy for Gateshead.

The rate of permanent exclusions in Gateshead has increased significantly over the last year, there have been 52 over the last year, two of which were from primary schools.  The majority of permanent exclusions have been a result of drugs, violence and disruptive behaviour. A task and finish group has been set up by the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board (LSCB) to look at this issue in more depth.

At the recent inspection Ofsted raised the issue of care leavers not in education, employment or training. Work is now ongoing across the Council to increase the number of apprenticeships.

Re-offending rates remain steady, at 36.9%, however the service still faces significant issues with young people re-offending.

It was questioned whether the rate of mothers drinking alcohol during pregnancy is monitored, in the same way that smoking is. It was confirmed that the midwifery service do monitor this but it is not reported, although if there were significant issues a referral would be made through the Referral and Assessment Team with the potential of an unborn child protection plan being put in place.  It was suggested that this should be reported as there has been increases in babies being born with foetal alcohol syndrome.  It was acknowledged that there is still a lot of education work to do around this issue to get the message out around the effect of alcohol in pregnancy. It was confirmed that a case study on alcohol in pregnancy us due to come to this Committee in October 2016.

It was queried why a child would be subject to a child protection plan a second time. It was noted that the first plan may have ended previously and the family has come back into the service, it was confirmed that it is uncommon for a second plan to come in to force within one or two years of the first plan coming to an end. It was noted that a second plan may for example be due to a change in a relationship, this could trigger a reassessment.

The point was made that there has been no improvement in teenage pregnancy rates. It was confirmed that there has been a decrease since 1998. Although there has been an increase from 2013-14 overall Gateshead is the second lowest in the region for the first quarter. Also, the Family Nurse Partnership is continuing to work with under 19 mothers, this offers an intense service.  The point was made that the Council is having little impact in this area and it was suggested that this be looked at in further detail by the Committee.

It was suggested that looked after children’s attainment should also be looked at in further detail. It was confirmed that this is being picked up through the Corporate Parenting OSC work programme this year.  The point was made that more focus is needed on improving the experience and progress of care leavers, as highlighted by Ofsted. It was acknowledged that there is still a lot of improvement needed in this area, and work is ongoing to develop an action plan for care leavers. It was confirmed that a case study on support for care leavers is due to come back to this Committee in March 2017. 

In terms of closing the attainment gap for vulnerable young people at Key Stage 4 it was questioned how one school in Gateshead can have no gap. It was recognised that more sharing of best practice between schools is needed.

It was queried whether the increase in permanent exclusions is occurring in the same school. It was noted that there is a definite increase, however there is no pattern. Outreach work is underway to support schools to deal with behaviour better and ensuring there are better pathways for young people who are excluded.

It was questioned whether it was usual to have care leavers who do not remain in touch with the service. It was confirmed that this is not unusual and it may be the young person’s choice not to be involved with the service anymore, however programmes are in place to encourage young people to ‘stay put’.  It was also questioned whether any care leavers with special educational needs are looked after until the age of 25. It was confirmed that this depends on the level of need, there are a number of support mechanisms in place for young people up to the age of 25. There is an expectation that the service will have a pathway plan to adulthood when a looked after child becomes 16, therefore any special requirements would be supported through their individual pathway plan.

It was questioned what effect there has been on support as a result of Operation Encompass. It was confirmed that from a school perspective this has been very useful, this has enabled the school to be aware of what additional support is necessary.