Improvement Board Update - 14 January 2020
Posted: Tuesday 11th February 2020
Director of Children’s Services Progress Report
There was a discussion that, while actions were on track, it was really important to measure that the work was making a difference to children’s lives. This will be reviewed and suggestions were made that intelligence from audit information, data and what people are saying about the service, and it was agreed that it was important to hear people’s experiences within this.
Risk Approach & Summary
The key risk is a lack of capacity to manage Early Help. The design of the new Level 2 Early Help model is being developed with a range of partners. A Task & Finish group was attending various forums gathering feedback with a response to be communicated in February. Meanwhile work continues to re-design the Council’s Intensive Family Support offer, at Level 3.
Practitioner Forum update
Staff are finding the introduction of the audit process challenging but overall morale was improving, with an emphasis on peer review and supervision. Communications could be better and this Task & Finish group is back underway with the Communications representative attending meetings with managers and practitioners to see what teams would like to see.
'Spotlight’ Topic: Voice of the Child
(this will now be a standing item at meetings)
- Young people have been involved in making videos which are used in training and
attending where possible. Feedback confirms that children don’t like changing social
workers often and we are working to address that by recruiting a permanent workforce
- Feedback from young people on the Improvement plan at the Aftercare Forum and Children in Care Council – “would like to see changes being made quicker” “work needs to continue to ensure our voices are heard in their care plans”
- Membership of Children in Care Council has doubled to 12
- Gorse Hill Studios are now developing the Aftercare Forum
- Second Care Leavers takeover day held. 50% of the first cohort have secured employment with Trafford
- Young people involved in recruitment interviews: Young People’s Workers, CSE Intervention Worker, No Wrong Door Hub Worker, Service Manager Care Leavers, Director of Children’s Services, Kindle Lodge workers
- Training the workforce - assessment and smart planning (125 people trained by March 2020), Voice of the Child training now in place (4x per year), Restorative Practice training (350 people)
- Policies and procedures - new practice standards, new supervision policy/template
- Case Recording System - pen pictures of every child on file, voice of child recorded in red, updated forms and assessment forms
Date and time of next meeting
10am - 12:30pm, Tuesday 25 February 2020
View the full Improvement Plan.