The Director of Children’s Services gave a presentation on transformation items his directorate were currently working on and their context with some case studies.  Cabinet were aware of the issues and work being done.  Some of the volume implications are seen nationally driven by the pandemic.  Members were informed that the first table showed the volume coming through Children’s Services giving a comparative snapshot year on year on 31st March.  The table showed increased volume, more child protection plans and increased complex cases.  The data gave members a comparison with our statistical neighbouring authorities and the national average for England. 

Members were next given an update on the statutory work force position.  At March 2022 there were 25 agency social workers, this reflected the trend in Berkshire with a difficulty in recruitment of professionals.  Agency “uplift” at current level costs us £340,000 a year compared to a permanent workforce.  The churn in the system often results in children not have a consistent social worker.  The additional demand during the pandemic have resulted in our caseworkers holding more cases than the national average.  More posts have been brought in to meet demand and retain quality of service.  A decision had been made to keep employing domestic support abuse workers even though the pilot scheme had ended, this was an example of having a workforce that met demand.  Pay and reward had been set to realistically meet the need of working in Berkshire and work continued within the market place regarding our children in care with focus on local placements and support for adoption.  It was important that when possible we keep families together.  Case studies showing the placement supply and costs were shown.

The presentation went on to show transformation opportunities with the graphic showing in grey showing a typical path a young person may take through the system from early help to becoming a child in need, maybe becoming a child in care and then becoming a care leaver. They may also have had additional needs, often during the school environment.  With regards to transformation we would look at the way we work within our practices, with our partners, making sure we get the right services in the right places and being involved early so we can effectively prevent escalation.  It was important to make sure more young people stayed locally rather then having to move away from the area for support.  Work was ongoing to increase the volume of foster careers and supporting more family members to come forward were appropriate.  We want more people to be educated locally, live locally and be able to be part of their local community.  To achieve this, we are working on effective connected systems and a sustainable stable workforce.  Examples of how this would be achieved was shown on the following two slides, such as early support work with health colleagues regarding well being and mental health, supporting local provision and replacing outdated systems with a digital end to end system making  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10