To receive Report No.143/2019 from the Strategic Director for People.

Report No.143/2019 was received from the Strategic Director for People.

Mr Wilby, Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services and Education opened this item by commending the officers working in Children’s Services who were working extremely hard with limited resources and, when compared with other East Midlands Councils, were performing well. The Deputy Director for Children’s Services, in conjunction with the Portfolio Holder, would be focusing on further improving performance by introducing procedures that enabled officers to work ‘smarter’ with the limited resources that they had.

Mark Andrews, Strategic Director for People, went on to introduce the report the purpose of which was to demonstrate to the Committee a selection of key performance indicators (KPIs) relating to children’s services in Rutland, with a view to some or all of these being reported to the Committee on a quarterly basis in the future.

During discussion the following points were noted:

·         There were a number of acronyms used in the report and more clarification was needed for future reports.

·         The figures needed to be shown in comparison to the previous year and other Councils in order to show the direction of travel and to put the data in context.

·         The targets were set around the performance of services rather than the impact on beneficiaries.

·         Members suggested that figures for the number of mental health assessments, the level of truancies, staff retention and the number of foster parents, also be shown.

·         The virtual school head report was an excellent source of information and Members commented that in the short time that the virtual school head had been with the Council she had transformed the system.

·         The next virtual school head report was being finalised and would be available in November.

·         School Attendance records needed to be included as it was the Council who prosecuted parents not the School.

·         A more in-depth report would be provided by officers with further explanation of the figures once the Committee had decided which performance figures it wanted to concentrate on.

·         As Rutland was so small in comparison to other authorities, often the percentages reported could give a skewed impression.

·         The Deputy Director for Children’s Services had been in post for four months and was working on embedding a performance culture in the department with a clear management framework and performance indicators.

·         Social workers were embracing the new culture and performance clinics were being held fortnightly.

·         As the KPI report was finessed members would be able to see progress over time.

·         The latest percentage figure for care leavers who were in Education, Employment or Training (EET) was 63%. One of the ways in which the service was supporting care leavers who were full time parents was by helping them with parenting skills as often they had had their own disruptive parenting experience. Officers wanted to get this right first rather than put pressure on them to access education. However, there were opportunities available through children’s services and the Rutland Adult Learning Service and this could be on a very part-time basis or through accessing online courses.

RESOLVED:

The Committee;

1.    REQUESTED that a training session covering Children’s Services processes be delivered in advance of the next meeting of the Children and Young People Committee on 28 November 2019.

2.    AGREED to receive another performance report at the November meeting and to then decide the delivery and frequency of Performance reports.

3.    REQUESTED that the Governance Officer circulate the Virtual School Head Annual Report to all Members of the Council as soon as it was available.