Agenda and minutes

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, Members are asked to declare any interest they may have in any matter which is to be considered at this meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 13 September 2023 were confirmed as correct.

The Head of Participation and Engagement presented a report on Working with Faith Communities in Barking and Dagenham.

The Committee were advised that Barking and Dagenham was one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse communities in London with a rich diversity of faiths and beliefs. Over 75% of

residents had identified as having a faith in the 2021 census. Faith organisations were regularly and increasingly working outside of their “traditional” functions, to become a hub for community activity, social action, and to deliver essential services to the most vulnerable people in our communities. Working with faith communities was a core part of the Councils community and engagement aims.

A multiphase action plan was built to directly link the principles and themes that were explored in the Faith Builds Community Policy and to strengthen the progress made so far. As part of the action plan, the Closed Collective otherwise known as the Faith Leaders Network was established under BD Collective.  The Faith Leaders Network was publicised on BD Collective website.

In response to a question on who the current 18 members of the Faith Leaders Network were, the Director of Community Participation and Prevention advised the committee that an open invite was circulated to all faith groups across the Borough. There were 18 faith groups who chose to come together to form the Faith Leaders Network. The membership of the Faith Leaders Network included Barking Churches Unite, Powerhouse International, Al Madina Mosque, St Chad’s Church and, Lifeline Faith Action. Lifeline Faith Action worked as a facilitator for the network, which had funding to do so.

The report suggested that there were ten areas within the Borough in which residents with no religion had been the second highest group. A question was asked if residents with no religion were represented within the faith groups. The Faith Network was open to all including Atheists and Agnostics. There had been work undertaken on the locality of the organisations for residents to know where they can go for support. There were networks such as BD Collective which brought together voluntary and community organisations across the borough that can service both the broader community and individual communities.

One suggestion from the report was to invite faith groups to give awareness training to LBBD staff to help promote inclusion. The Council could invite faith organisations to take up the training opportunity to staff, and in response to a question advised that this would also be extended to Councillors.

In response to a question regarding youth faith communities and schools, the Participation Manager (Partnerships) responded that there was not currently a focus on the youth faith communities within the action plan. However, there was a wide range of faith organisations that had provisions for youth services. It was proposed for the Director of Community Participation and Prevention to hold a discussion with members of the Youth Forum regarding the engagement of youth faith communities.

The Borough had many faith organisations, a concern was raised on whether the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

The Operational Director Childrens Care and Support and the Commissioning Director for Care and Support presented a report on the OFSTED inspection of Children’s Services and arrangements for publishing the Council’s OFSTED Improvement Plan.

In July 2023, the Council’s was subject to a Standard Inspection under the OFSTED Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Service (ILACS) framework. The inspection itself occurred over a course of three weeks with a lot of preparations made before the inspection. The inspection included heavy scrutiny from the team of inspectors as well as meeting and observing the work of frontline officers.

The overall judgement of the OFSTED inspection was that the services for children required improvement which was the same during the last inspection in 2019. The experiences and progress of care leavers however was rated as “Good” which was the first time it had been achieved in the Council.

The areas that were rated as “Requires improvement to be good” were:

·  The impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families.

·  The experiences and progress of children who need help and protection.

·  The experiences and progress of children in care.

·  Overall effectiveness.

OFSTED identified eight key recommendations where they felt improvement was most strongly required. These were:

·  Timeliness of strategy meetings.

·  The capacity, quality, consistency and impact of supervision and management oversight.

·  Assessment and decision-making for children experiencing neglect.

·  Timeliness of pre-proceedings pathways.

·  Consistency of response to 16- and 17-year-olds who present as homeless.

·  Oversight of children’s placements in unregistered children’s homes.

·  Application of threshold in early help.

·  Life-story work and permanency planning.

The context within which the findings of the inspection that must be considered such as the rapid growth of the boroughs population which had increased by 18% since the 2011 census. The borough also had high levels of deprivation and child poverty, with the COVID pandemic and the current cost-of-living crisis also added to an increase in pressure for children’s services.

In response to a question on whether the children’s mental health played a role in the OFSTED inspection, the Operational Director for Children’s Care and Support advised the Committee that OSTED investigated the mental health of care leavers and children in care. There was a therapy team that supported the emotional wellbeing and mental health of young people and bridge the gap between children and adults’ services. There was also an emotional wellbeing care worker who focused on care leavers.

The recruitment and retention of social workers was a constant challenge to the Council. The use of agency staff within children’s services was lower compared to other boroughs. Social workers would want low caseloads, good supervision, good work-life balance and health and wellbeing support. Caseloads for social workers had been reduced however, compared to other boroughs that were rated good in OFSTED inspections, the caseloads at LBBD were still high. There were specialist intervention services along with other services that work alongside social workers to ensure the social workers were not alone in dealing with caseloads.

The Committee  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

The committee noted the work programme.