To consider a report from the Corporate Director of Children’s Services.

The Director of Early Help and Children's Social Care introduced the presentation which covered the budget of the children’s placements, the savings that had been achieved over previous years, and the challenges the service faced in delivering further savings. It was explained to the Committee that the budget for the year included a 12.5% increase for foster carers, which had been agreed by central government. The Committee’s attention was then drawn to the over £1M in spend that occurred in P8 of 2022/23 due to new children coming into the system, which demonstrated the pressures within the system. The Committee were informed that there were twelve children with very complex needs which required high staffing levels and residential care provision. Out of those twelve children the Council were looking to step two down into foster care.

The Head of Service for Provider Services drew the Committees attention to slide 5 of the presentation which showed the breakdown of costs for some placements. The Head of Service for Provider Services described the different options of support that were available and the costs of using external services such as Independent Fostering Agencies (IFAs). The Committee were told that when there was no fostering support available that met the young person’s needs, the Council had to move them into residential settings. The Council were currently supporting 19 children in external residential placements at a cost of around £3.6M per year. The Committee were asked to look at page 7 of the presentation which showed savings which could be realised by young people being able to step down into other services such as fostering.

The Head of Service for Provider Services informed the committee of the budget management controls which were in place with a high-cost placement clinic, external placement panel, and Budget Monitoring all focused on ensuring that Trafford achieved value for money while providing the right level of support.

The Committee were then shown a graph which depicted that the number of children in care in Trafford reached its peak of 410 in December 2020 and had reduced since then to the point where the Council’s current position of 345.

The Committee were informed that Trafford had a very high level of cared for young people placed with parents and the service had put a programme in place to address the issue. The programme had proven successful and reduced the percentage of children care for by parents to 14% from 20% which was still much higher than the national average (7%) and slightly higher than the regional average (12%).

Slide 14 of the presentation gave an overview of the Trafford Demand Management Strategy which was aimed at ensuring that the right placement was in place at the right time to ensure young people received the correct support and prevented them stepping up into care or higher cost placements. The Head of Service for Provider Services informed the Committee that as part of this work the council was looking to predict demand for future years to enable them to plan resources effectively. The Head of Service for Provider Services had covered the 16 plus provision in detail the last time he came to the Committee, so he provided a brief overview stating that the service was focused upon ensuring that the right placements were in place for young people to move into when they turned 16.

The Head of Service for Provider Services concluded the presentation by speaking about Project skyline which aimed to provide greater sufficiency for all local authorities across GM and how the savings that had been made in previous years meant that any additional savings would be more difficult to achieve.

The Vice Chair asked what PNW what short for.  The Head of Service for Provider Services answered that it was Placements Northwest.

The Vice Chair asked whether there would be a cut off when the Council would not have any more Special Guardianship Orders (SGOs) granted. The Head of Service for Provider Services responded to the Vice Chair that several young people had been identified as being eligible for SGO over the next 18 months.

The Vice Chair asked what the relaunch of No Wrong Door would entail. In response to the Vice Chair the Head of Service for Provider Services explained that there were multiple posts required for the model that the Council were struggling to fill. When this was examined closely the Council had found that they were competing with several other Councils for people qualified for those positions. Of those positions one was still vacant and the Council was trying to appoint to that role. The Vice Chair asked whether the Council could train people up for those positions. The Corporate Director of Children’s Services responded that the Council had looked to train someone, but they had decided to stay in their current role. The Corporate Director for Children’s Services emphasised that the positions were highly specialised and there were a limited number of people who could be trained for those roles. 

The Vice Chair note that an amount of funding had been agreed for the number of children currently in the system and asked for more detail around what would happen if more came into the system. In response the Corporate Director of Children’s Services informed the Committee that the service had been provided additional funding within the Medium-Term Financial Plan in recognition of budgetary pressures being driven by the market. Work had been done to simplify the services budget so that it was more transparent and officers could see where the pressures were.  The expensive placements arose when children came into the system and the Council did not have a suitable place available. Due to the increased complexity of cases this was occurring more often than it had previously.

Councillor Welton stated that it was a very impressive report with a lot of detail and that the officers knew the brief and the service well. The Corporate Director for Children’s Services thanked Councillor Welton for recognising the work that had gone into creating the report. In recognition of the short amount of time the Councillors had to digest the information the Corporate Director told Members that they could send through any further questions they thought of after the meeting via email. 

RESOLVED:

1)      That the report be noted.

2)      That Committee Members are to submit any additional questions they have via email.