Meeting documents

Cabinet
Tuesday, 21 November 2006

CA211106-08

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ITEM CA8

CABINET – 21 NOVEMBER 2006

EXTERNAL REVIEW OF CHILDREN'S SOCIAL CARE

Report by Head of Early Years & Family Support

Introduction

  1. An external review of the Children’s Social Care Service (since realignment of the Early Years and Family Support Service), was commissioned by the Director for Children, Young People and Families, in May 2006.

  2. The review was commissioned to examine and make recommendations regarding:

    • The budget and spend issues in children’s social care, a service with repeated overspends in previous years.

    • The service strategy, including a review of the "Placement Matters" strategy adopted by the Council in 2005.

    • Benchmark and comparator data relating to performance, activity and expenditure.

  1. The review was conducted by Tom Jones, an independent consultant with considerable experience, including as a former Head of Children’s Services.

    2. Review Findings

  2. The service and strategy recommendations of the review are listed in the Action Plan, which is attached at Annex 1 (download as .doc file), along with the proposed actions to address these recommendations. They address the service issues addressed in the report and are designed to achieve the modernisation of the Early Years and Family Support service, to support further integration of services within the newly established Directorate and Children’s Trust arrangements, and to deliver both improved and more efficient outcomes for children and families. The financial recommendations are to be considered through the Star Chamber process in November. Thereafter, copies of the full report will be available to Members.

  3. A key recommendation concerns the establishment of services and decision-making structures that replace the existing, professionally-dominated models, with mechanisms that enable and empower families and kinship networks to find solutions for, and meet the needs of, their children. The role of the public services becomes that of supporting families to make decisions and plans for their children, ensuring that through such an approach children are better safeguarded and enjoy better outcomes as a consequence.

  4. Such an approach has a strong research and evidence base to support improved outcomes and that families can and do make safe and secure arrangements for their children. The same research also found that numbers of children in the Public Care and formal child protection systems fall as a consequence of child-focused, family-centred practice and management models.

  5. Developing this strategic approach to our work in supporting families supports the Council’s vision to safeguard communities and help disadvantaged residents to live independent lives, and helps to achieve corporate priorities around improving attainment, reducing crime and anti-social behaviour, and decreasing inequalities.

  6. The report also makes recommendations concerning service reorganisation and modernisation, development for managers, and improved services for Looked After Children.

  7. The benchmarking data in the review indicate the following:

    • Oxfordshire’s performance against key Government Performance Indicators has improved steeply in two years. In 2004-05 Oxfordshire rose from 138th of 152 local authorities, to 22nd, in terms of performance. In 2005-06, first analysis suggests further improvement to 11th nationally, and within the top three, against all indicators, of its IPF comparator group of authorities.

    • Oxfordshire is a low spender on children’s social care services. It is within the bottom quartile nationally, while in its IPF group it is 12th of 16 in it’s spend. This is based on actual spend in 2005-06, which in Oxfordshire’s case was £1.2m over its agreed budget. If the budget figure is taken the Council falls to 15th out of 16.

    • Oxfordshire has a low spend on family support services – it is 132 out of 150 English authorities and 14th out of 16 in its IPF group.

    • The proportion of the budget spent on Family Support (i.e. other than on Looked After Children) is 10th lowest nationally.

    • The number of children’s social workers per 10000 population is also 10th lowest nationally, at 14.7, compared with an England average 27.2, and IPF average of 19.1.

    • The numbers of Looked After Children in Oxfordshire are lower than comparator authorities, while the types and costs of their placements are average within the comparator group.

    • Fewer placements for children are jointly funded (Health, "education", social care) in Oxfordshire than in other authorities.

  1. The report recommends wide-ranging policy, strategic and service changes, as well as making financial recommendations, designed to enable investment and strategic change within the service, that will, over time, yield savings through the effective delivery of support to families before their problems become entrenched or critical, when family breakdown and risk of entry to Public Care is harder to avoid or prevent.

  2. The Action Plan also addresses the Review’s recommendations for more integrated prevention and family support services across the Directorate and with partners in the newly-formed Children and Young People’s Partnership and Board.

    3. Financial and Staff Implications

  3. The financial elements of the review are significant, and will be addressed through the Star Chamber process.

  4. Significant service reorganisation and re-modelling is also recommended that will require consultation and carefully planned implementation, in order to modernise the service and re-focus activity and decision-making to ensure that interventions with families build on family strengths and place families centrally in the decision-making for their children. A significant management and staff development programme will be undertaken to achieve this refocusing.

    5. RECOMMENDATION

  5. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

          1. endorse the strategy and service modernisation recommendations emerging from the external review, enabling the Directorate to take these forward;

          2. endorse the policy shift towards the development of services and decision-making models that mandate family-based decision-making strategy and practice; and

          3. endorse the Action Plan as outlined in Annex 1 to the report.

ANDY COULDRICK
Head of Early Years and Family Support

Background papers: Nil

Contact Officer: Andy Couldrick, Head of Early Years & Family Support, Tel: (01865) 815833

November 2006

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