To receive a presentation from the Director of Safeguarding and Professional Development.

The Director of Safeguarding delivered a presentation to the Committee which detailed the self-assessment work that Trafford did every year to ensure that they were prepared for inspections. The Committee were told that Trafford used peer review and challenge programme developed by North West Association of Directors of Children’s Services (NWADCS) to assess their services annually. The document was also used by Trafford when conducting their annual conversation with Ofsted inspectors. 

The presentation included the key Children’s Social Care statistics and listed the key areas for creating an environment where social work could flourish. The Director of Safeguarding then went through the different types of work that Children’s Social Care did, highlighted the key parts of that work, and listed the areas that were being developed. Following the presentation the Director of Safeguarding informed the Committee that the Council’s duty of care was being extended to include children up to the age of 25 and that this was bringing new challenges.

After the presentation, the Committee were given the opportunity to ask questions. A committee member asked what the criteria were for a child to be placed outside of the borough.  The Director of Safeguarding told the Committee that the children who were placed in out of borough placements would have been placed with an in house foster carer followed by an Independent Fostering Agency. If that placement failed the Council would usually try placing the child at few other independent fostering agencies. If none of those placements worked then the child would be placed within residential care within the borough. If that placement did not work then the Council would look at out of borough placements to try to find one that worked.

Children would also be placed in an out of borough placement if it was believed that staying in the area was not an option e.g. they were involved with a local gang. The Committee were informed that there had been an increase in the number of children who are involved in gang related issues. In these cases, the children had to be placed in a secure placement which cost the Council around £7000 a month. Trafford had recently needed to place a child into secure accommodation as they had been committing crimes in the area.

The Committee were told that other children have to go into specialist placements due to mental health issues or when staying in the area is a risk to their safety. The Director for Safeguarding assured the Committee that out of borough placements were the last resort for Trafford. However, once a child was in an out of borough placement and settled the Council avoided moving them as a change could have serious detrimental effects.

The Vice Chairman asked how long it took for a foster carer to be ready to take on a child. The Director of Safeguarding responded that it took around 6 months to go from an expression of interest to the point where they are ready to look after a child. The Director of Safeguarding then went through the stages that prospective carers have to go through in order to become a foster carer. The Stages included the completion of multiple assessments and concluded with the prospective foster carer being considered by a Council panel and then agency decision makers.

Another Committee Member asked whether performance data benchmarked against Trafford’s neighbours and statistical neighbours could be provided. The Director of Safeguarding stated that the Council collected this information as part of the peer challenge and sector led improvement and confirmed that the information could be provided for the Committee.

A Member asked what the reasons were for the recent increase in the number of Court orders. The Director of Safeguarding explained that the increase was a result of an increase in placements with parents which had been seen across North West. The Committee were informed that these placements were court orders that state that there are issues within the home in question but that the children are to be left at home and with support from the local authority.

The Chairman asked how these court orders were managed by the Council.

The Director of Safeguarding explained that those court orders required a large amount of work from the Council and due to the unique circumstance these cases presented a number of difficulties for social workers.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the update be noted.

2)    That benchmarking information be provided to the Committee.