Improvement Board Update - 25 February 2020
Posted: Tuesday 17th March 2020
Director of Children’s Services Progress Report
There is a proposal to refresh the improvement plan and to increase the contribution from partners to maximise their expertise and knowledge. A key aspect of the improvement activity will be Quality Assurance and Management Oversight. The aspiration is to have a more co-produced model within the next 6-8 week with a focus on, “what difference does it make” – as there is a difference between activity and the realisation of the impact of that activity.
Children’s Performance Report
The group discussed Trafford’s performance against statistical neighbours and agreed that data will be circulated that provides a comparison with 23 northwest local authorities. We also have data on Statistical Neighbours (SN) and a National Indicator (Nat).
Practitioner Forum Update
Request for protected time so social workers can think about what they want from it other than just as a vehicle for receiving and distributing information. There’s a question about how to best support practitioners to use the whole range of tools available to them, including allowing them time to practise using them.
Exception Reports
HR: Agency Report. Benchmarking has been carried out around pay rates and benefits which will be shared with the Practitioners Forum.
Audit Report. There is a question around how to make audit and data activity live to every front line practitioner. Learning from audit, and the forums used to support practice, is to be reviewed as quarterly forums on audits are too slow.
‘Spotlight’ Topic: Quality of Assessments
A paper was presented on the quality of child and family assessments by social workers. There were some issues about the effectiveness when using interpreters. A provider came in for training so that social workers are better able to specify what they need from an interpreter. There is better capturing of identity but there is ongoing work on how this informs assessments and also to ensure we think about diversity more widely, for example being aware of less visible issues such as mental health and domestic abuse.
Date and time of next meeting
10 - 12:30, Tuesday 31 March 2020
View the full Improvement Plan.