Issue - meetings
Children's Social Care Improvement Plan
Meeting: 11/09/2017 - Tower Hamlets Best Value Improvement Board (Item 8)
8 Children's Services Improvement Plan PDF 154 KB
Minutes:
The Board considered the report which set out progress relating to the four themes which would form part of the review framework that were established at the previous meeting. The plan indicated areas of concern as well as progress to date.
A summary of the initial feedback from Ofsted following their first visit was provided. The key assessment team found that there had been more progress than expected. In summary there had been progress at the client facing area of the children's social care services but this needed to be taken into the centre of the service and embedded in the workforce. It was also noted that the intervention advisers had now been identified and were in place. The board was informed that a Direction was expected to be issued by the Department for Education. A letter from OFSTED was awaited that would address the areas of progress that were required.
RESOLVED
1. That the progress made in delivering the Children Services improvement program be noted
2. That it be noted that the next steps in the improvement journey will be updated in the next report
Meeting: 14/06/2017 - Tower Hamlets Best Value Improvement Board (Item 7)
7 Children's Services Improvement Plan PDF 107 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Board heard from the Chair of the recently established CSIB that:
- The Council has accepted the result of the Ofsted inspection of children’s social care and shown willingness to address the issues identified. However it was necessary to understand why the issues had arisen and this would act as the basis of diagnosing what needed to be addressed.
- A meeting of CSIB had taken place on 12 June 2017.
- Alan Wood was Independent Chair of this body which would undertake to monitor the Council and its Partners and to evidence whether the arrangements for children in the borough are effective. The approach of CSIB would be that each Partner would outline the issues faced and the proposed plans to address them and also assess if these plans are likely to be effective and if there was capacity to deliver them.
- A 3-stage process would be followed
to enable the Council to assess the services it wants to deliver,
whether the measures offer capacity to improve, whether the service
delivery has the full support of the Council and are appropriately
prioritised –
- Assess evidence and identify causes
- Observe the service(s) in action and its/their aims and Identify any gaps
- Stress test the plan at CSIB meetings
- The role of Partners would be to assist and contribute in terms of their roles as an agent of delivery. This would be mirrored by the Chair in his role also.
The Board discussed the report and submission from the Chair of CSIB and noted the following matters:
- The council should recognise that a child-friendly approach should be taken throughout the organisation and not confined to the directorate.
- The Draft Summary of the Inspection Improvement Plan (IIP) appended to the report covered the ‘assess and observe’ elements of the process.
- In producing the IIP, the Council has been tasked to look deeply into the identified key causes – failure of professional leadership, political and corporate focus on other areas and a culture of false assurance -.
- There was cross-party responsibility for corporate parenting by the Council and therefore all political groups were encouraged to engage in acknowledgement of their responsibilities.
- Reports would also be made to Overview and Scrutiny Committee and to Council.
- It was necessary to learn lessons e.g. how should policy influence decision making.
- In order to assess/measure lessons learned, it was necessary to obtain user feedback as well as other type of assessment.
The Board then heard from Officers and noted the following matters:
- It was necessary to be mindful if the impact of the Ofsted outcome/judgement.
- The IIP provides elements of the causes and will test the assumptions that the Council will make.
- The IIP includes the key improvement plan.
- The Ofsted rating includes the Ofsted mandatory processes of the improvement plan.
- The Department for Education will issue directions and will appoint an Improvement Partner who will comment whether the root causes have been identified and assess whether the IIP is likely to deliver.
- There will be two Ofsted improvement ... view the full minutes text for item 7