Hampshire County Council

Executive Member, Social Care

Item 4

26 March 2002

Outcome of Best Value Review of Looked After Children Services

Report of Director of Social Services

۰Consider raising foster care allowances to NFCA rates

- additional funding - £360,000 to uplift (at 2001/02 prices)

۰Appoint additional reviewing officers

- to be funded from remodelling

۰Appoint a contracts officer post

- additional funding of £37,000 p.a. - opportunity cost bid initially funded from QP MAP 4 grant

۰Appoint 3 participation posts

۰Children's participation officer post at Senior Practitioner level

۰Parents Participation Officer post at Senior Practitioner level

۰Corporate Children's Officer post

at Service Manager level

£29,423 p.a.

using QP MAP 4 grant

£29,423 p.a.

using QP MAP 4 grant

£41,920 p.a.

Part funded by SSD

using QP MAP 4 grant

Name:

Looked After Children Services: that is services to children who are in the care of the local authority either by court order or by agreement with parents.

Purpose:

The review looked at a range of services that make up the Looked After Children Services. The purpose of the services are multiple and are derived from three different sources that cover the services. The requirement to provide services to looked after children is statutory; there are national objectives set by the Department of Health, which are described in the Quality Protects Programme.

They are:

To ensure that children are securely attached to carers capable of providing safe and effective care for the duration of childhood

To ensure that children are protected from emotional, physical and sexual abuse and neglect

To ensure that children looked after gain the maximum life chance benefits from educational opportunities, health care and social care

To ensure that young people leaving care, as they enter adulthood, are not isolated and participate socially and economically as citizens

To actively involve users and carers in planning services and in tailoring individual packages of care; and to ensure effective mechanisms are in place to handle complaints

To ensure that social care workers are appropriately skilled, trained and qualified and to promote the uptake of training at all levels

To maximise the benefit to service users from the resources available, and to demonstrate the value for money of the care and support provided and allow for choice and different responses for different needs and circumstances

Secondly Hampshire has an over-arching Children and Families Strategy which includes objectives for looked after children services and they are:

1. When a child is separated from his or her parents for even a short time, we will give high priority to a full assessment of his or her needs, and the emphasis throughout discussions will be on planning for the child's return home. All plans and decisions will be made in partnership with parents and will take the child's wishes into account.

2. Voluntary agreements will be made whenever possible and legal intervention used only as a last resort.

3. We will actively encourage contact between children being looked after and their parents and families. Wherever possible, we will accommodate siblings together, but if this cannot be done we will make sure that a high level of contact is maintained.

4. We will accommodate children as near as possible to their own homes so that relationships and friendships that are important to them can be maintained. We will make it a priority to meet children's health and educational needs.

5. It is essential that we give the children we are looking after a feeling of security and continuity so that they develop self-esteem and a strong sense of their own worth.

6. Placements for children being looked after by us will vary according to their needs and what they themselves want. The first choice for most children will be a family placement, but the needs of some children will best be met by a residential placement.

7. In exceptional circumstances, when it is not in a child's best interests to return to his or her home or family, we will provide adoption services.

And lastly Hampshire has a Looked After Children's Strategy with the following local objectives which will result in positive outcomes. They are:

1. More children to remain at home.

2. More children to return to their family within 8 weeks of admission or move on to permanent placements.

3. Children's needs are identified. Their plan reflects those needs and the services provided meet those needs.

4. Both children in the community and those in the looked after system know what is going to happen.

5. Both children and their families are involved in care planning.

6. Young people leaving care are prepared to move on, feel supported and have a positive self image.

Current performance

Overall 10 national Performance Indicators reported under the Performance Assessment Framework and the Quality Protects Programme were identified as relevant to the Looked After Children Services. Compared with the national average, Hampshire performed above average for three indicators, at the average level for two indicators and below average for five indicators.

Hampshire is performing particularly well in relation to educational achievement of looked after children and their school attendance.

The main areas for improvement are in relation to care placements and staffing.

Proposed improvements and how they will be achieved

The review has identified 6 outcomes in its improvement plan. They are that

1. Looked after children gain the maximum life chances from education, health and social care provision

2. Through appropriate care placements looked after children are securely placed with carers capable of providing safe and effective care for the duration of their childhood

3. There is a competent and committed workforce within a participative and supportive management culture

4. Looked after children's individual needs and choices are met through maximising resources to deliver effective services that demonstrate value for money.

5. Users and carers are involved in planning; their individual care packages and the delivery of services

6. Services are planned to meet strategic objectives through accurate management information

The main performance targets are in relation to improvement generally in the areas of care placements and staffing. For care placements, they cover more children looked after reported as having appropriate health services provided, improvement in statutory reviews being completed on time, improvement in the long term stability of placements for looked after children, improvement in children and parents participation in planning and improvement in contracting with external providers. For staffing they relate to improvement in recruitment and retention generally and specifically in vacancy levels, sickness, morale, staff communication and training, e.g. PQ1 and CCA.

The review considered a number of options for improving services. These were presented to the PRC as the five Best Value options ranging from no services for LAC to radical changes to the services. It was agreed that as the local authority has statutory obligations in relation to Looked After Children, the first option was not appropriate. The second option of no changes needed cannot be supported by the review findings. PRC determined that further work on the third and fourth options for improvement to the present services was its preferred way forward. Option five which suggested radical change and the externalisation of key services was not considered feasible because the sustainability of the mixed economy of care would be threatened leaving the department vulnerable to market forces.

Conclusion

The above information demonstrates that Hampshire has considerable room for improvements in performance across its range of services for Looked After Children.

The Review has identified key areas for improvement, which will necessitate significant change. Changes underway as part of the remodelling of Children & Families services will address some of these key areas.

Additional action is needed in order to secure these changes. The greatest impact can be achieved in the areas of care placement and workforce planning, where additional resources will be necessary if Hampshire is to meet its obligations to looked after children and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the services but much can be achieved by recycling existing resources and by re-establishing the core priorities for looked after children's services.

Key actions include:

· Appoint additional reviewing managers, to ensure that the local authority's statutory obligations to review care plans on time and consistently, are met. Also to ensure that care plans identify services and progress actions that will meet the LAC's health, educational and social needs

· Develop a strategy for Family and Friends Carers

· Remodelled family placement teams to work up improvements in degree and type of support including out of hours to in-house foster carers

· Re-evaluating the residential strategy

· Performance development and supervision policy is reinforced and monitored

· Ensure that the Workforce Plan includes sufficient staffing levels (including administrative staff) to enable staff to deliver services and take up training opportunities without excessive work pressure

· Consider raising foster care allowances to NFCA rates

· Appoint a contracts officer post to improve the contracting process to gain more beneficial contractual terms with external providers and by working with managers involved in purchasing services aid consistency

· Strategic Service Managers involve users and carers in planning services

· Appoint 3 key new posts to meet Government requirements to ensure that children and families participation is not fragmented and piecemeal. These are a children's participation officer, a parents' participation officer and a corporate children's officer

· Evaluate the role of the Care Action Team and consider setting up a Young People's Council

· In order to ensure services are planned to meet strategic objectives through accurate management information:

· Ensure there are sufficient administrative staff to input data

· Develop the care management manual to ensure that social workers are clear about management information requirements

· All new staff should receive an induction pack with details of recording practice and management information requirements

· Ensure that the new Social Care Information System is introduced effectively to produce accurate management information in line with organisational and Government requirements

· Work towards the development of a shared database between Social Service, Education and Health