Agenda item

Report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services.

The Sub Committee received a report of the Director of Community and Children’s Services in respect of a review to evaluate the quality and impact of practice, against the findings and recommendations from the last Ofsted Inspection for Children’s Services in March 2020. The report summarised the findings and the steps taken in relation to the recommendations.

The LADO provided the following update since the agenda had been despatched.  

a)       Regulation 44 visits take place when an Independent Person visits a children's residential home, on a monthly basis, in order to check a child’s safety and wellbeing.

b)       Since the Audit in October 2021, all Regulation 44 (Reg 44) documents are shared with Commissioning and placed on the young person’s file.  Staff are fully aware of the importance of the information contained on the Reg 44.   One of the social worker students in Community and Children’s Services has prepared a presentation on Reg 44 for the next team meeting.

c)       No young person under the age of 16 is placed in semi-independent provision and, since December 2021, placements have been sourced through the Commissioning Alliance, which gives additional quality assurance.

d)       Quality Assurance (QA) visits to semi-independent providers have been taking place since 2019. During the pandemic, the visits took place virtually and usually involved someone from Commissioning and a Children’s Social Care Manager. A framework and rota for managers and senior leadership has been developed for future QA visits.

e)       In respect of unregulated placements,  Ofsted will be registering providers in April 2023, and standards will become mandatory from Autumn 2023. Ofsted will pilot inspections during 2023, with the first inspections starting in April 2024.

In response to questions, Members noted that the City Corporation had joined a London Consortium Portal to obtain semi-independent service providers and any not known to the City are quality assured.  During the 2020 Inspection, Ofsted commended the City’s QA process for being over and above what they would expect.   Members also noted that social workers had attended in person throughout the pandemic and, in the event of a contention, then a team manager would also attend. 

RESOLVED, that – the report be noted.