Minute of Children and Families Management Team
Held on Monday 9th November 2009,
at 2pm, in the Election Offices, Lochgilphead
Present:-
Douglas Dunlop
Mark Lines
Janice Frank
Alex Taylor
Alison MacKenzie
Gordon Higgins
Donna Carvill
Liling Payne
Billy Moore
Liz McDonald
Apologies:-
Rodger Wilson
John Duncan
Joy Daniels
Liz Strang
David Hanley
Jon Belton / Head of Service – Children & Families
Service Manager – Standards
Area Children’s Manager – OLI
Service Manager – Operations
Principal Officer – Early Years
Lead Officer – Children’s Integration
Area Children’s Manager – MAKI
Principal Officer – CABD
Children’s Placement Manager
Admin Officer – minutes
Service Manager – Resources
Area Children’s Manager – B&C
Area Children’s Manager – H&L
Lead Officer – Child Protection
Service Officer – Quality Improvement
Service Manager – Criminal Justice
Item No / Item / By Whom / Date
1. / Minutes of previous meetings
CFMT – 07 09 09
(i) Standby – DD spoken with Lynn Finlay. HR are undertakinga further benchmarking across Scotland and will respondmore fully in due course.
(ii)Admin Review – 1st draft of Karen Aspinall’s report has
been completed. DD/AT to discuss further.
(ii) Swine Flu – Limited uptake of inoculation from residentialstaff. Social Workers will be in second tranche.
(iii) CLAS – No specific date for uplift for 2010 data as yet. Complication has arisen in that Scottish Government do not have the capacity to store or analyse data. However it is important that Team Leader’s remain vigilant and keep Carefirst up to date.
(iv) Noted that Carefirst training is difficult due to the shortage of Carefirst trainers. Discussions have been held regarding having carefirst trainers in one place, running training for staff attend. Another suggestion is that on site support is delivered as part of admin support.
(v) Children 1st - ML has met with Children 1st to discuss pulling steering groups in to one meeting and having one point of contact. ML/LS/RW & DC to meet and discuss. . Concerns also raised by Liz Strang as to how referrals are prioritised - seems to be on a first come first served basis rather than the desired needs based.
(vi) Area Managers have voiced concerns regarding the service delivered by FGC, some advice given outside meetings is causing difficulties with the management of some cases. Discussions with FGC to clarify procedures required.
(vii) Noted that due to Cathy Paterson's illness, Family Mediation being run by Tanya MacDougall. Family Mediation hoping to secure base premises just outside Oban.
(viii) Viewpoint - CABD specific questionnaire still being developed. At the moment only the Managers within the Units can access Viewpoint, problematic for access when Manager not there. A number of children in foster placements have completed forms. Area Managers reporting that information received from questionnaire is valuable. Viewpoint protocol to be distributed to all staff.
(ix) New Adoption Act - Sheila MacFadyen and /or Moira Logan to visit area teams to deliver training. Jill Hughes will deliver training at the next Team Leaders day. Copy of new act to be distributed to CFMT members.
(x) IRD's - As agreed at CPC, smaller working group met to discuss format of form and develop process. The Police form has been amended to fit with Social Work and Health. Once Police sign off amended form, launch will take place at next Team Leaders day.
Clarification has been received that Lynn Merrylees is the person who is to take responsibility for Health. Noted that Yvonne Murton and Alan Clark are developing the CP1 form on Carefirst. / .
3 . / Budgets
Noted that Children & Families are projecting a £1/2 million pound overspend. The main drivers for this are costs of external residential placements, foster care payments and CABD packages.
Emphasis on effective care planning and reinforcing priority 1 and 2 situations only.
Service development bids for 2010/11 have been tabled and whilst it is unlikely that the available budgets will be increased, the bids have been favourably received.
4. / Area Team Capacity
There was further discussion regarding addressing Area Team Capacity to undertake long-term planning – a further meeting has been set up on 25th November 2009 to discuss this further. As part of this it was agreed to pursue options for the development of a 2nd IRO.
In a related issue DD has been in discussion with Legal Services regarding the status of children placed with kinship carers.
5. / Pyramid
CA14 – numbers will change due to changes regarding classification of Kinship Care
CA21 – change wording to:- ‘Percentage of LAAC in care over 12 months with a plan for permanence which is on track’
CA28a – as per CA14
CA42 – noted that there is no Pathways Co-ordinator in MAKI.
SCRA43 – very good work to sustain high percentage of reports returned on time noted.
SCRA44 – Figures from Reporter to be obtained for comparison. Calculations re S70’s to be confirmed
CF03M4 – noted that new Sect 22 to be completed within 42 days. Sect 22 & 23 completion timescale should be amended to 42 days and remain so through 2010/11.
MA74 – ML asked all areas to update unallocated cases as soon as possible. Issue raised regarding some staff not having had Carefirst training.
FS86 – ML and KA to develop weekly reports for Section 22 cases.
FS93 – Rodger and Jill Hughes to review all Community Childminders who receive an unsatisfactory report from the Care Commission.
6. / Case File Audit
Alex Taylor’s report for Q1 tabled and discussed.
81 files seen in this quarter, staff are now familiar with auditing process and improvements have been noted in child protection files.
Noted that the audit is also flagging up individual performance within their teams. Team Leaders are informing ACM’s of staff who may require support and guidance.
The Pyramid figure for risk assessments is 100% (CP7), however the audit is highlighting that risk assessments are not always completed on time. Full risk assessments should have been completed by review case conference stage and it was suggested that the wording against Pyramid CP7 is changed to read: ‘at every review case conference there is an up to date risk assessment’.
Noted that file audit for CABD has been put on hold until appoint of Team Leader.
7. / PDR
Reminder that all PDR’s must be up to date and training section sent to Ernie Brown.
Billy Moore reported that the Children’s Units are behind in this process and that he will discuss at his next meeting with Unit staff at their next meeting.
8. / Social Work Development Plan
Document tabled and discussed. The plan is a live self-evaluation based on EFQM method which is to be reviewed quarterly. Plan has to be e-mailed to all staff and tabled at staff meetings for discussion.
A further self evaluation event is planned for Jan/Feb 2010
9. / Health and Safety Policy
Document tabled for information. Policy is to be put on to notice boards for staff awareness and discussed at staff meetings.
Alison MacKenzie raised issue of lone working and it was agreed that it would be the Manager’s responsibility to identify risk, evaluate and agree solution with staff.
10. / A.O.C.B.
(i)GIRFEC Young Peron’s Plan – document tabled by Gordon
Higgins. GH to discuss the document in more detail with
ML and RW regarding the possibility of this document
replacing Home Supervision forms. GH to meet with DD
prior to the next Argyll & Bute’s Children’s meeting being
held on 6th December where the document will be tabled
for further discussion.
(ii)The Ardlui turf cutting ceremony to take place on 12th
November 09 – Mark Lines to attend.
(iii)Annual Leave – carry over. DD confirmed that new
contracts state that unused annual leave (up to 5 working
days) can be carried forward into the new year on the
proviso that it will be used before the end of January2010.
(iv)ACM’s attending Child Protection Committee – issue to be
discussed at the next CPC on 19th November 2009.
Douglas Dunlop
Head of Service – Children and Families
23rd November 2009