COUNCIL – 20 DECEMBER 2016 – FOR INFORMATION

AGENDA ITEM 9

Document Owner: John McLaughlin

Safeguarding and QA Manager

Commissioning & Improvement –

People Services

Borough of Poole

September 2016

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT REVIEWING OFFICER SERVICE (IRO) 2015-2016

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Borough of Poole has a well established Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) service that continues to promote the wellbeing of Children in Care (CiC) in Poole.

The IRO has the task of quality assuring the care plan and reviewing process for children in care. All Poole CiC have an allocated IRO.

Performance indicators for children in care are generally positive, although in 2015/16 Poole has seen a continued rise in the numbers of children entering care and a similar number leaving the care system in Poole. In March 2016, 180 children were supported in care with 88 becoming looked after and 86 leaving care.

Resources to provide holistic IRO services have been under pressure with this significant increased demand. However, IRO’s held 97% of the 460 reviews on time. The voice of the child has been a noted strength in Poole with young person participation noted in 81% of the 376 child in care reviews.

The IROs have provided challenge around concerns raised for some children in care, including a particular focus on out of area and independent placements. The IRO ‘footprint’ of activity needs further improvement and the challenges and influence of IRO’s evidenced and made more apparent.

Developments identified from 2014-2015 have been progressed and there is an improvement plan for the service that has been approved by the Lead Member and Director of Children’s Services in 2016.

Index

  1. Purpose of this report
  2. The statutory duties of the Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO)
  3. The IRO Service in Poole
  4. Outcomes for Children in Care
  5. Increasing numbers of CiC in Poole and its impact on the IRO service
  6. Meeting the statutory requirements for timescales for cic reviews
  7. Participation of Children and their Parents in Care Plan Reviews
  8. Ways in which the IRO service have promoted the voice of the child
  9. Challenge about increased use of independent fostering agencies and residential facilities.
  10. Reunification
  11. Siblings
  12. Children leaving care
  13. Transition to adulthood and adult services
  14. Corporate Parenting Links with the IRO Service
  15. Delivery of the Developments and Recommendations made in the 2014-2015 Annual IRO Report
  16. Recommendations for development in 2016 to 2017

1Purpose Of This Report

1.1This report fulfils the statutory requirement to make available an Annual Report of theIndependent Review Service for scrutiny by members of the Corporate Parenting Working Group. While the report underlines the strengths in practice it also highlights areas for future service development.

1.2This report is designed to assist members as part of their Corporate Parenting role by providing the Independent Review Service view of the services provided for CiC.

1.3The report clarifies the function of the IRO team and reports on the achievements in 2015-2016 whilst recognising areas for further development.

2The Statutory Duties of the Independent Reviewing Officer

2.1The role of the IRO is set out in the DfE IRO’s Handbook 2010. The IRO’s primary focus is to quality assure the care planning and review process for each child in care within statutory timescales.

2.2IROs have a duty to listen to the young person’s voice (wishes, feelings and experience) as plans are developed.

2.3The IRO is responsible for assessing whether the care plan meets the needs of the child, to monitor and review the child’s case throughout the year and, where necessary, challenge practice and decision making.

2.4The IRO has a key role in identifying drift and delay in planning action and then raising concerns with the appropriate operational staff or managers.

2.5IROs have a specific responsibility for ensuring that appropriate decision making processes and assessments have taken place for any siblings brought into care and placed separately from each other.

2.6IROs have a responsibility to ensure that reunification of children occurs with both parents or relatives wherever this is in the child’s best interests.

2.7IROs have a duty to ensure that the Local Authority provide adequate support for children leaving care and where possible a review is held.

2.8IROs have a duty to ensure that the Local Authority provide a good quality of support (education, health and psychological services) before transition to adult services occurs and advise an early review to achieve this.

2.9IROs are expected to be involved in key meetings, court processes and to be keptinformed of any key events in the child’s life. It is not, however, the IRO’s role to manage the case, supervise the social worker or create the care plan.

3The IRO service in the Borough of Poole

3.1The IRO Service in Poole is based in the Commissioning and Improvement Service and reports directly tothe Service Unit Head, Director of Children’s Services, elected members and the Chief Executive.

3.2The team consist of 4 FTE Conference and Review co-ordinators who undertake the roles of IROs and Child Protection Conference Chairs. Therefore, the IRO role is undertaken by 2 FTE posts. The IRO handbook advises caseloads should be 50-70 cases for an IRO in a year, so any time that CiC numbers in Poole are above 140 per year children, the service is under pressure.

3.3All children in Poole have an allocated IRO and this is arranged as soon as they come into care. The IRO will then provide a consistent and long term relationship with that child, whilst they are in care, and will be informed of all key events and changes by the key professionals responsible for their care.

3.4The same IRO is allocated across a sibling group wherever possibleto provide consistency and to address joint issues such as contact, consideration of re-unification and overview of sibling assessments. It also reduces duplication of reviews.

3.5IROs participate in key meetings for the child(ren) throughout the year. These include Permanence Planning Meetings (PPM), Legal Gateway Meetings (LGM), Letter Before Proceedings (LBP), Adoption Tracking Meetings, Permanence Tracking and a large number of individual planning meetings. IRO’s in Poole can request meetings where concerns or unmet needs have been identified.

3.6Each IRO is an experienced, knowledgeable social work professional and all have established good relationships with each child on their caseload. It is the longevity of service that provides consistency and substance to the relationship especially when there have been a high number of changes to the allocated social workers for children in care.The IROs bring to the care planning process a good knowledge and realistic expectations for CiC.

3.7IROs in Poole are enabled to carry out their role most effectively by:

  • having established positive relationships and access to all staff within the social care unit and the Child Health and Disability (CHAD) Team in CYPL;
  • having open access to all case records for children in care;
  • using well established IRO links with birth parents, children, carers and key professionals;
  • playing a lead role in managing and attending meetings within the children’s social care quality assurance framework:
  • participating and raising key issues at social care management meetings;
  • being involved in pre-care processes such as chairing child protection conferences and threshold discussions, which increases their knowledge of the families and also their understanding of any potential reunification with family;
  • established links with psychological services professionals;
  • having an increased awareness of risks for children in care who are missing or vulnerable to CSE and being able to raise alerts where indicators have not already been addressed;
  • understanding messages from SCRs and being able to consider the learning in their practice;
  • developing closer links with children’s guardians;
  • direct line of reporting open to the Director of Children’s Services should the need to escalate concerns arise.

3.8Personal Education Plans (PEP) for CiC are managed by the Virtual School service but are monitored in CiC reviews. Termly meetings with all IRO’s and the Virtual School team check on progress of all school age young people. There are a number of examples where IRO and Head of Virtual School work closely to resolve identified needs.

3.9Health issues are managed well with excellent input and liaison with the Specialist Nurse for Children in Care and Care Leavers. IRO liaison with the Specialist Nurse is very regular and concerns are raised and addressed

3.10There are a small number of looked after children with significant disability (5 in 2015-2016) who live with parents, but require a short break provision exceeding 75 nights a year. This gives them a CiC status under statutory guidance and they receive an IRO service where they are recognised as being very vulnerable due to their significant disability.

4Outcomes for Children in Care

4.1Reports focussed on outcomes for CiC in Poole show that there is positive performance against some key indicators where the IROs are part of the service deliver to achieve the performance, eg.

  • adoption rates and timescales,
  • placement stability,
  • reviews,
  • care and pathway planning and
  • Care Leaver measures.

Indicators for dental visits, immunisations and emotional and behavioural health are all positive.

5Increasing numbers of CiC in Poole and its impact on the IRO service

5.1The Borough of Poolehas seen a steady increase of numbers of children requiring care services, as evident in the table below.

Year
(April to March) / CiC on 31st March / CiC during the year
2011 / 134 / 181
2012 / 157 / 209
2013 / 145 / 223
2014 / 152 / 232
2015 / 176 / 250
2016 / 180 / 266

5.2There are a number of children entering and leaving the care system throughout the year, which means the IRO role is required for a greater number of children than the recorded figure each March.In 2016, an all-time high of 266 were in care at some point in the year. This increases the number of reviews needed to commence a Care Plan within 20 working days and to review the plan for a child to end care as well as the reviews in between and other meetings and contacts about the children.

5.3This increase has created significant pressure in the IRO service and although the majority of reviews have been achieved within time, the capacity to visit children outside of reviews or to attend all relevant meetings for the children has been compromised. The service, as a combined service for CP Chairing, has also been affected by the rise in Child Protection Conferences required in 2015-2016.

5.4The IRO is not involved in the decision to bring a child into care, but can influence re-unification and ending care status. In some cases they will have been involved in CP Planning prior to coming into Care.

6Meeting the statutory requirements for timescales for CiC reviews

6.1BoP IRO service have ensured that a high percentage of reviews occur on time for CiC in Poole. 100% remains the target but there have been reasons that have caused lateness on a small number of occasions. All CiC have had the reviews they were entitled to, and 97% of reviews were on time. In 2015-16 14 late reviews were caused by staff sickness, foster carer holidays or unavailability or late cancellations caused by unplanned crises.

Year / Reviews Achieved / On Time / %
2012 – 2013 / 467 / 456 / 98
2013 – 2014 / 460 / 446 / 94
2014 – 2015 / 479 / 465 / 97
2015 – 2016 / 460 / 446 / 97

6.2Business support staff provide reminders for social workers, managers and IROs a month in advance of the proposed meeting dates. This has led to improved performance.

6.3IROs provide a written record of the review process, the voice of the child in care, views of the birth parents/significant relatives, professional views and a quality statement having amended the care plan.

7Participation of Children and their Parents in Care Plan Reviews

7.1The LGA peer review found that the voice of the CiC was strongly noted and acted upon in case work, including IRO records. When it has not been possible for the IRO to gain the voice of the child this is also recorded.

7.2The majority of CiC in Poole (2015-16) choose to participate in their reviews. 81% participated and of the 19% a significant number were under 4s or older children who chose to absent themselves from direct involvement.The IRO and social worker have a responsibility to check with the young person directly if they decide to opt out of the review. Young people occasionally ask an advocate to attend on their behalf or ask their carer or social worker to represent their view.

7.3This high rate of participation has been achieved for the past 3 years which shows meetings and venues are facilitated in a way to suit them, their strong engagement with IROs and a clear focus on the young person in the meeting.

7.4IRO’s often meet with the young person before the review. Not all children are visited by IRO’s between reviews as they are settled and not requiring an additional service or the IRO needs to prioritise the time available. Where significant issues arise the young person is given time and additional visits are prioritised, particularly for Out of Borough placements.

7.5Advocacy services are offered to all CiC aged between 8 and 18. Out of Borough placements are a priority for this service.

7.6Independent Visiting services continue to be offered for all CiC but the take up and interest in this service continues to be low. 9 referrals led to 2 Independent Visitor appointments in 2015-16.

7.7Birth parents and significant relatives’ views are recorded for every review. Where they are not available reasons are noted in the review record. IROs have recognised the need for social worker information about whether there have been significant changes in circumstances with a view to re-unification as an area for ongoing assessment.

7.8Young people are aware of the complaints process and the IRO’s would facilitate this action when required. In 2015-16, 30 complaints were made about Care Services, including 6 directly from CiC.Issues raised included communication, contact and placement delay. All complaints and concerns have been explored and investigated under Stage 1 of the Children Act Complaints process and appropriate actions identified for the follow up. The Director of Children Services and Service Unit Head receive details of complaints raised by individual children in care.

7.9Poole ‘Kidz in Care’ have met with the Director, Advocacy Service, Head of Service and IRO Manager and put on record a number of issues causing them concern. Contact with siblings, placements separate from siblings, changes of social worker and access to recreational resources are examples of this.

8Ways in which the voice of the child has been promoted by IROs in 2015-16

8.1The BoP IRO service has had a system in place for IRO’s to raise concerns and this is underpinned by an IRO escalation policy. The record-keeping of the system has been underused and the IRO service has used more informal approaches to raise concerns such as phone calls, emails and meetings. Although these have, on many occasions, led to improved outcomes the IRO intervention is not then evidenced on the children’s records.

8.2On some occasions IRO’s have raised issues with managers and insufficient actions have resulted and the lack of a tracking system has allowed drift or challenges to be unresolved. Improvements have been planned for 2016-17 with an ‘escalation log’ for all IRO’s raising issues being implemented. Also IRO’s have been encouraged to place evidence of challenge on management records on the child’s file and these will now be raised at a higher level routinely.

8.3The IRO’s provide a key role in listening to children’s views and ensuring that these have been adequately reflected in the care planning and decision making processes.Where a child’s wishes are assessed as not being in their best interest the young person will be helped to understand why alternative decisions are made.

8.4For the majority of children in care in Poole their voice has been heard and their experience is understood. The IROs fulfilled their responsibilities by responding to issues raised. The following examples of issues raised by children, staff and birth relatives in 2015-16 have led to positive resolutions.

  • On 2 occasions in 2015-16 IRO’s have assessed placement situations as being unsuitable or unsafe and action has been taken to move the child to a more appropriate resource.
  • The adverse affect on children in long term placements when new children are introduced without sufficient assessment of the potential impact. This has led to reflection meetings for both cases and a reminder to staff to follow the protocols in place in assessing the needs of the children in long term residence when considering an addition of a new child to that placement.
  • The over-protective or restrictive care provided by carers which was affecting the increasing independence we expect for young people.This has led to discussions about style of care offered with a particular focus on developing independence skills for the future. With children who have suffered abuse in early childhood, it is understandable that carers can be very protective of the children and occasionally it has caused problems when they are over protective.
  • The need for additional social work assessments, eg. sibling assessment, contact arrangements and long-term viability of reunification. IRO’s have a role to challenge the type and quality of these assessments especially if they lead to situations where children mat be separated from siblings or the relationship with birth parents is too restrictive. With the goal of reunifying some teenagers with the their birth family’s, this is an important aspect of care planning.
  • Foster carer and young people’s comments about poor quality or frequency of social worker visiting, including the use of duty social workers or agency workers, where a relationship is not established between the social worker and child. IRO’s focus on the quality of the social work support to the child and development of their care plan and must alert senior staff where there are concerns.
  • Team Manager not attending Out of Borough placements reviews and planning meetings, or showing a poor oversight of the care arrangements. With the high cost and complexity of these placements, it is essential to have a close management oversight on these care plans.
  • Contact issues including frequency, duration, venues, extended family and the need for supervision. On many occasions, the IRO intervention has led to an improved arrangement for the child.

8.5IRO’s can refer unresolved issues with the local authority to CAFCASS. This has not been required in Poole but is an option. The IRO service has not had the need to refer any situation beyond making the Head of Service aware in 2015-16.