Members are asked to refer to the report included in the Cabinet agenda 24^th November, 2021.

The Committee received a report that provided an update on the Council’s performance against the performance indicators included in the Councils Strategic Plan in quarter 2 of 2021/22. The main points of the discussion and answers to questions raised may be summarised as follows.

The Committee:

v  Noted that since the meeting in September 2021 the Chair had received a further update from the Service on the Committees requests for the strategic target measures and performance information. However, the requested format does not seem to meet the legal requirements in terms of the current internet accessibility standards for online publications. Accordingly, the Chair has requested that the Service provide the Committee with a separate copy of the quarterly performance report in the requested format.

v  Noted that the Service has confirmed that they will provide a separate copy to the Committee with the indicator tables scaled onto one page and this has been circulate offline so Members should have received a reformatted copy to the one that in under public domain.

v  Noted that there are eight regeneration outcomes which are set out in the Local Plan and the Council is scoring strategic planning permissions out of eight. In this quarter three strategic planning applications had been permitted which meant that LBTH had exceeded the target of achieving 5 of the 8 regeneration outcomes.

v  Noted that regeneration benefits from strategic planning permissions can often take several years to realise due to the length of time it can take to complete these developments.

v  Noted that corporately these highly complex applications having been discussed for many months or in some cases possibly for several years on major development sites and the view had been taken that overall the benefits as against the disbenefits in terms of regeneration outcomes had meant that they were viable. In addition, the developers when submitting any proposals know not to include any element that would be considered as a fundamental objection.

v  Noted that in regard to Long term looked after children who are in stable placements (Measure No. 14) the Authority is assured that no children had been put at risk put additional risk and the performance on this measure is just below the minimum target and has improved in the last month and is moving from Red to Amber.

v  Noted that there has been a significant increase in demand for long-term fostering matches which has increased pressure on the Service.  Accordingly, agreement has been given for an additional number of social work posts to be recruited to help manage that pressure on a time limited basis although it is proving very difficult to find locum social workers of the right calibre.

v  Was advised that almost every child subject to protection plan is residing within the Borough whilst there are a very small number that have just moved outside of Tower Hamlets, although if they are moving to another local authority area, then there's a well-established process to transfer responsibility to that local authority.

v  Was informed concerning (Measure 15) Young people engaging with the youth offer who achieve a recorded outcome that whilst not all of the provider contracts that LBTH expected to be using at this point are set up yet the majority of the new contracts have been awarded and the new providers with contracts are currently in place.

v  Noted that concerning the specialists youth provision in respect of children with special educational needs and disabilities, LGBTQI and those in transition between primary and secondary schools. There has been a legal challenge that has prevented awarding two contracts but the Service is confident that it will be in a position to make those awards within three weeks from now.

v  Understood that in respect of development and the stability of our social work workforce LBTH continues to be in a better position year on year we now are down to 14% of the social work workforce being locum social workers.  Which is better than the national average by some considerable margin and better than the London average.

v  Noted that neighbouring boroughs are all having more severe pressures and difficulty in recruitment and retention than LBTH.  Although it is important to keep that momentum going and the Service target is to get below 10% of locum social workers which really would indicate that LBTH is the employer of choice for this area of London.

v  Was advised that in terms of foster carers there has been a slightly improving position through the course of this year and LBTH now has more in-house foster carers now that back in April 2021.

v  Understood that it is a highly competitive field between fostering agencies and this is a real challenge for all inner London Boroughs, in particular because of housing costs and the need for foster carers to have additional space although the Service works well with housing colleagues to give larger properties to foster carers and there is where LBTH cannot meet the needs of a particular child through an inhouse foster, carer.

v  Observed that with regard to Measure 53 (Victims of violence against women and girls who feel safer after engaging with victim support) the primary reason for a drop in performance is a direct result of not having sufficient satisfaction surveys returned.

v  Agreed that it was important to look at the longer-term sense of safety and that it is about aftercare and can the Service do better in terms of following up with these victims of violence through casework.

Following a full and wide-ranging discussion, the Chair thanked all those Committee Members in attendance together with (i) John Biggs, Executive Mayor; (ii) Denise Radley (Corporate Director, Health, Adults & Community) (iii) James Thomas, (Corporate Director for Children & Culture)  (iv) Thorsten Dreyer, Head of Intelligence and Performance for their contributions to the discussions on this critical issue.

In addition, the Chair indicated that this scrutiny session had been most informative with the questions asked and the responses received in particular the challenges in regard to: (i) the recruitment and retention of social workers; and (ii) young people engaging with the youth offer.