ITEM AU6
AUDIT COMMITTEE – 21JANUARY 2009
SAFEGUARDING AND CHILD PROTECTION SERVICES IN OXFORDSHIRE
Report by Director for Children, Young People & Families
Introduction
1. This report has been requested to enable the Audit Committee to satisfy itself that policies, procedures, systems and practice are in place to ensure that appropriate action is taken to safeguard and protect children and to minimise the risk of a case occurring in Oxfordshire similar to the recent tragic case of baby P in Haringey.
Policies and Procedures
2. Detail interagency child protection procedures are published and regularly updated. These are available on the internet, and are used by professionals in all agencies working with children (including schools, GP surgeries, health visiting etc) to inform their Practice. Oxfords procedures were re-written in January 2008 and are updated on a quarterly basis, as new guidance is published by central government, new “best practice” models are developed etc.
3. Within the County Council, these inter-agency procedures are supplemented by specific detailed policy and procedures for social workers, education social workers, education psychologists etc, to ensure that practice and decision making are contained within an appropriate policy and procedural framework. Again these policies and procedures are subject to regular review.
How does the system work and how do we know?
4. The quality of practice and management in safe guarding and child protection in Oxfordshire is monitored, measured and assured through a number of mechanisms. These include:
· Regular monthly supervision of social workers, by their line managers, where cases and practice are examined and discussed, and the necessary improvements implemented. · Case consultation between social workers and independent child protection conference chairs, senior managers, legal advisors, external experts etc. · File audits are routinely undertaken to monitor the quality of case-work and recording. · Additional audits are undertaken by Independent Child Protection Conference Chairs. · The new integrated children’s system ( a government imposed IT system) enables managers to review and monitor case recording in “real time” · All the 220 children with formal child protection plans and the 410 children in care have their protection and care plans independently reviewed at least 6 monthly. · Independent inspection informs our judgement of the quality of service. Safeguarding services were rated as adequate in the Joint Area Review. Positive comment was made by inspectors in relation to the case-work and the child protection activity they examined. Services for Looked After Children were rated as good, as are Oxfordshire’s Fostering and Adoption services and the quality of care provided in Oxfordshire’s children’s homes.
Governance
5. All agencies providing services to safe guard and promote children’s welfare are accountable to the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board. This is chaired independently, and both the Director for Children Young People and Families and the Head of Service for Children and Families are members of the Board. The Board has a range of sub-groups, one of which is concerned with Monitoring and Evaluation, and is charged with monitoring and ensuring the quality of service provided by all agencies across the county. There are further sub-groups responsible for up-dating procedures, training, and for the management of serious case reviews carried out in the event of a child being significantly injured or harmed as result of abuse or neglect, or where these may have been a factor.
6. Oxfordshire’s Safeguarding Children Board was judged to be inadequate in December 2007 in the Joint Area Review, and has since been monitored by DCSF. The consultant undertaking this work reported her interim findings in September 2008, and the board was judged to be functioning as well as any other board in the country. The final report will be available in February 2009, and, assuming progress is sustained, the DCSF intervention will conclude.
7. The Safeguarding Board also oversees the work of three local panels, one in the North, one in the South and one in the Central area of the county, where local safeguarding issues are addressed and the Board’s strategic priorities are translated into local service improvement.
Issues Arising From the Baby P Case
8. Following the publication of the report into the death of baby P, a serious of Focus Groups with front line practitioners have been held and ---with first line managers in children’s social care. Some of the key emerging themes include the following:
· Since Baby P social workers are dealing with an increase of around 30% in the numbers of referrals of concern received from other Agencies. This creates a significant additional pressure. · It has been previously reported to Cabinet that Oxfordshire has a low number of children’s social workers compared with similar authorities. Steps have and are been taken to increase the capacity in the county. · The Integrated Children’s System, mentioned earlier, is a source of grave concern for social workers and managers. It is judged that social workers have to spend 60 – 80% of their time feeding information into the computer system when previously they would have been spending that time working with vulnerable children and their families. This is a national as well as a local phenomenon. · It is recognised that the range and quality of training provided needs to be improved in order to equip social workers with the skills in what is extremely difficult task, namely working supportively with families, while at the same time retaining the skills of “respectful uncertainty” and the ability to question and challenge and analyse the information gathered in order to form accurate assessments that drive appropriate decisions. · A key component of this is the quality of management, supervision and quality assurance provided and in some teams managers are managing too many social workers. This has an impact on the quality of supervision and critical challenge therein that managers are routinely able to provide. · It is clear that more needs to be done to support, enable and protect newly qualified social workers in the same way that has been done by government for newly qualified teachers. Joint visits, shadowing and mentoring opportunities, and greater protection of case loads are needed to allow newly qualified social workers to learn as well as practice.
9. These emerging themes are being fed back to Cabinet and to CCMT.
Concluding Comment
10. The emerging picture in Oxfordshire is of a social care service that is efficient, effective, sets and seeks to maintain high standards in practice.
11. A range of monitoring, evaluation and QA systems are in place, all of which are subject to continuous review and improvement.
12. Staff are clearly under considerable pressure and appropriate steps are being taken to address the issues and themes that emerge in order that the high standards in child protection and safeguarding practice can be maintained.
RECOMMENDATIONS
13. The Committee is RECOMMENDED:
(a) to note the content of this report;
(b) to accept assurance that appropriate procedures, processes and systems are in place, that these are followed and that Quality Assurance, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms are established, on a County Council level and between partner agencies responsible for safeguarding; and
(c) to recognise that, despite these, it is impossible to provide complete assurance as to the safety and well-being of all children and young people at all times.
JANET TOMLINSON Director for Children, Young People & Families
Background Papers: Nil
Contact Officer: Andy Couldrick, Head of Service, Children and Families Tel: (01865) 815833
January 2009
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