Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Social Care and Health Integration presented a report on the first Annual Self-Assessment of Children’s Social Care Services in the Borough, as required under the new OFSTED Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services regime, and the outcome of the OFSTED Focused Visit of Children’s Social Care Services that took place in March 2018.

With regard to the Annual Self-Assessment, the Cabinet Member commented that a very comprehensive, fair and balanced picture of services had been presented and the response from OFSTED had overall been positive.  Areas that received recognition included the “front door" service and Early Help offer to clients via the new Community Solutions service, performance on key safeguarding indicators, the support offered to Care Leavers and effective joint working between the Council’s Legal and Social Services teams.  Aspects that were highlighted as requiring focus included the agency staff rate and social worker caseloads, although it was acknowledged that the Council had already reduced its agency rate down from 55% to below 30%.  All the aspects requiring focus had been addressed under an improvement plan that was outlined in the report, which included the drafting of a Child Sexual Exploitation Strategy and a Neglect Strategy for future consideration by the Cabinet.

In respect of the Focused Visit, Cabinet Members were especially pleased to note that OFSTED had recognised the strong corporate leadership to meet the diverse needs of children and their families, the focus given to equalities issues and the effective working of the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH). 

The Cabinet Member for Educational Attainment and School Improvement made particular reference to the effectiveness of the Virtual School initiative, the number of Care Leavers going on to University education and the 2016 attainment results which showed that the Borough’s Looked After Children were ranked joint first in the country at Key Stage 2.  It was also noted that the Council’s commitment to “No One Left Behind” had been recognised by OFSTED.

The Cabinet resolved to note:

(i)  The first Annual Self-Assessment of Children’s Social Care Services in Barking and Dagenham, including the service improvement and challenges contained within and the actions taken, as set out at Appendix A to the report;

(ii)  The areas identified as priorities for 2018/19 as set out in paragraphs 2.36 to 2.47 of the report; and

(iii)  The outcome of the first OFSTED Focused Visit of Children’s Social Care Services that took place in March 2018, as set out at Appendix B to the report.