Strategic Performance Framework - latest Performance Results for Childrens Social Work
North Lanarkshire Council · 23 May 2023
Back to Education, Children and Families Committee — 23 May 2023 and its agenda
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Education, Children, and Families Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☒ Yes ☐ No Ref AG Date 23/05/23 Strategic Performance Framework - latest performance results for Children’s Social Work and Protection From Alison Gordon, Chief Social Work Officer (Children, Families, Justice, and Integrated Practice) E-mail GordonAl@northlan.gov.uk Telephone 01698 332001 Executive Summary For strategic overview and scrutiny purposes, this report provides Members of the Education, Children, and Families Committee with an update of the latest results for a suite of specific performance indicators for the Chief Social Work Officer (Children, Families, Justice, and Integrated Practice) that can be compared nationally and are within the remit of this Committee. This information complements information on social work performance and improvement activity provided annually to committee through the Annual Report of the Chief Social Worker (CSWO). The most recent CSWO report for the period 2021/22 was presented to Education. Children and Families Committee in February 2023. The information in this report and its Appendix 1 focuses more specifically on a statutory areas of children’s social work services and provides additional national benchmarking information for key indicators. Children’s Social Work Services are delivered within a wider partnership context with oversight and strategic direction also provided through the Chief Officers Public Protection Group and Children’s Services Partnership, for which the CSWO is lead officer. A key driver of improvement and transformation over the past three years has been the Promise as reflected in the Children’s Services Plan 2021-23 and two key programmes of work: Keeping the Promise -Care and Keeping the Promise – Family Support, which have been the subject of regular reporting to Committee over the past two years. Recommendations It is recommended that the Education, Children, and Families Committee: (1) Review the high-level performance overview presented in Appendix 1, and the supporting data contained within the linked Excel spreadsheet and identify where further information is required to understand or investigate performance further.
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1. Background 1.1 There are six inter-related strategic frameworks which are key to assessing the success of The Plan for North Lanarkshire and monitoring delivery towards achieving the overall vision by ensuring each stage is appropriately planned, guided, implemented, and governed. 1.2 The six frameworks focus on ensuring a corporate one council approach in respect of Policy, Governance, Performance, Self-Evaluation, Project Management, and Demonstrating Improved Outcomes for Communities. 1.3 The Strategic Performance Framework comprises performance measurement at three levels (as per the diagram on the right). This aims to collectively provide an overview of performance to help understand the impact of council activities on improving services and outcomes for the people and communities of North Lanarkshire. The measures in this Framework allow for day-to- day activities, and progress towards achieving the long-term vision set out in The Plan for North Lanarkshire, to be regularly monitored, reported, assessed, and scrutinised. 1.4 The Strategic Performance Framework is aligned to the Accounts Commission statutory direction which places a requirement on councils to report a range of information in terms of (1) improving local services and outcomes, and (2) demonstrating Best Value. Key points of note in this respect are that the Accounts Commission also expect to see: (a) A balance in reporting areas of improvement that have been achieved and not achieved. (b) Reporting that is undertaken in a timely manner. (c) Easy access to performance information for all citizens and communities. 1.5 A Performance Reporting Schedule supports the timely submission of a range of performance information that facilitates Elected Members and senior management to undertake regular performance reviews that inform scrutiny, challenge, and decision- making processes. This Schedule, endorsed by the Audit and Scrutiny Panel in February 2023, includes Chief Officer’s individual six monthly Performance Reviews at Service Committees in line with the Strategic Performance Framework. 1.6 This report therefore presents the Education, Children, and Families Committee with the latest performance results for the Children’s Social Work and Protection areas of service for Members’ further review and scrutiny. The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority All priorities Ambition statement All ambition statements
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2. Strategic Performance Framework Education, Children, and Families Committee responsibilities 2.1 In line with the terms of reference outlined in the Scheme of Administration, the Education, Children, and Families Committee is responsible for monitoring and reviewing performance information for the following Ambition Statements from The Plan for North Lanarkshire: 7. Enhance collaborative working to maximise support and ensure all our children and young people are included, supported, and safe. 9. Invest in early interventions, positive transitions, and preventative approaches to improve outcomes for children and young people. 14. Ensure the highest standards of public protection. 2.2 The high-level performance overview in Appendix 1 presents Members with a summary of the latest results for each performance indicator within the remit of the Chief Social Work Officer (Children, Families, Justice, and Integrated Practice). 2.3 The information in Appendix 1 comprises the following: • An ideal direction arrow - this indicates whether a higher or lower figure is the preferred direction of travel. • Measurement unit - for example whether the result is a %, a number, a unit cost (in £), or a ratio. • Performance results for the last four financial years (depending on availability of data) along with the latest year’s target and corresponding RAG status (for indicators where it is appropriate to set targets). • The most recent monthly or quarterly results, along with the corresponding target and RAG status. Note the inclusion of this information is dependent on the measurement frequency of the indicator and availability of data as at the time of reporting. • A trend graph - this captures the direction of travel achieved over the four financial years and includes the most recent monthly or quarterly results where available. • Comments - narrative summarising the current position and providing an explanation for any significant variations in performance. Where applicable, this narrative also highlights the effect of the pandemic on service delivery, e.g., any increase or decrease in the volume of transactions or enquiries processed. 2.4 A large volume of data supports the high-level performance overview in Appendix 1. This is outlined in the latest performance results for Children’s Social Work and Protection Excel spreadsheet which is available through the following link for Members to carry out a deep dive and review and scrutinise each performance indicator further. The Menu on the second tab of the spreadsheet contains built in hyperlinks that automatically take the user to a tab for each performance indicator and therefore provides a useful navigation aid to review the contents of the file. • Latest performance results for Children's Social Work and Protection.xlsx A higher figure is better A lower figure is better Key to RAG status Performance is on target and/or within acceptable thresholds Performance does not meet target and is outwith acceptable thresholds Performance surpasses the target and exceeds expectations
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Current context 2.5 The most recent Children’s Services Plan 2021-23 was published in spring 2021 and is framed around the foundations of the Promise and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Young people were integral to the development of the plan with the Promise Development Team leading on the development of the vision and the Youth Council undertaking a survey focusing on awareness of rights and leading on identification of actions within the plan to promote and embed these rights. 2.6 The task groups supporting the delivery of the plan have been reconfigured in line with the updated priorities with new groups focusing on Voice and Family Support, the Corporate Parenting Task Group evolving into the Promise Partnership Care and a refreshed Mental, Health, Wellbeing and Resilience Task Group. Social Work plays a key role in each of these strands and the council’s Chief Social Work Officer is lead officer for the Children’s Service Partnership and chairs the Improving Children’s Services Group which has oversight of the work of task groups together with the Scaffolding and People elements of the Children’s Services Plan. 2.7 Children’s Social Work is uniquely placed to drive and connect the key strands of work required to support the ambitions of the Promise and the required transformation of systems, outcomes and experience for children and families. This is due to the key statutory role social work plays in supporting children and young people and their families both for children in need and those experiencing or who have experienced care and the underpinning values of inclusion and empowerment alongside a culture of partnership working. This is reflected in two key stands of the Council’s previous Programme of Work supporting the Plan for North Lanarkshire, Keeping the Promise - Care and Keeping the Promise – Support for Families, which although led by social work were built on integrated working across a range of partners. 2.8 New national guidance for child protection in Scotland published in 2021 also frames the delivery of the delivery of the children and families social work service. This updated national guidance places the safeguarding of children and young people within the wider context of GIRFEC and further emphasises the impact of poverty and the role of early family support whilst focusing also on emerging harms including extra-familial harm, the latter a driver for the development of the contextual safeguarding approach in North Lanarkshire. 2.9 It is important to note that the latest data reflected in Appendix 1 of this report is for the period 2020/21 and therefore covers a period heavily impacted by the COVID 19 pandemic. During this period some areas of statutory activity were suppressed, not only in North Lanarkshire, but nationally due to a range of factors including some aspects of harm and need being less visible and the suspension during periods of highest restrictions of non-emergency business in the children’s hearing and court systems. As reflected in the most recent CSWO, demand on children’s social work has since risen with referrals to children and families social work services growing over the past two years and in 2021/22 these were 15% higher than in 2018/19. This appears to reflect an increase in the need for support from children and families within the community. Although further work is needed to fully understand the picture which sits behind this, the change is perhaps unsurprising given the evidence that the pandemic impacted disproportionately on those who already faced the greatest adversities, including on children’s early development and wider wellbeing, and that families are now also adversely affected by the emerging cost of living crisis.
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Performance highlights 2.10 1.1% of the North Lanarkshire’s population (aged 0 to 17) are currently looked after by the local authority. The figures for 2021 show a decrease of 11.9% in the number of young people looked after compared to 2020. National average figures over the same period show 1.3% of children are looked after, with an 8.3% decrease from 2020 to 2021. A focus on family support, strengths-based practice, and integrated working has enabled North Lanarkshire to continue to achieve fewer children looked after per head of population than the national average however it should be noted that the biggest fall over this period, in both North Lanarkshire and nationally, related to children and young people experiencing care at home, with this change in part relating to the impact of the pandemic on children’s hearing system activity. 2.11 The council continues to show year on year improvement in terms of children ‘looked after in the community’. 2020/21 figures show that 96.5% of children experiencing care within North Lanarkshire were looked after in the community in family placements. This compares to 90.3% nationally and a family group average of 88.7%. The council has consistently performed in the top quartile in Scotland in this indicator and the latest results show the council to be ranked at 1. A significant element of this relates to the role of kinship care. 2.12 The need for a safe, stable place to live and ongoing secure relationships is central to a child’s plan. Latest figures show there are 4.4% of children in NL with more than one placement in the last year 2020/21 This compares to 16.8% nationally and a family group average of 13.8%. The council has consistently performed in the top quartile in Scotland in this indicator and has remained ranked at 1 for the last 7 years. This demonstrates the extent of the council’s commitment to maintaining the need to secure and maintain attachments in care planning, while recognising that no two cases will be the same, and each child must be placed in a situation that is appropriate to them. Again, however a level of caution must be applied when considering the fall in moves during this period for children and young people experiencing care in North Lanarkshire when compared with the previous year as again the pandemic had some impact on care planning and for a period on non-urgent moves, including to permanent placements. The exceptionally low figure for this period may not therefore be maintained going forward. Areas of performance requiring improvement 2.13 For this period the gross cost of children looked after in residential based services per child per week was higher in North Lanarkshire than the national and family group averages. This is an area which will continue to be monitored closely as whilst there were some pandemic related cost pressures, for example related to additional cover requirements, and there are also inflationary pressures in this sector, most notably with respect to external placements, the council remains a relatively low user of external residential care. Instead, the primary driver of the jump in costs against this measure appears to have been a temporary reduction in numbers of young people in residential care at the specific point of reporting and the associated rise in unit costs. 2.14 While traditionally the council uses residential care proportionality less than the national average, there has been a subsequent increase in young people in our own children’s houses for three main reasons: - the council’s commitment to providing support to unaccompanied children seeking asylum in a nurturing and safe environment, openness to taking older young people back into care when they need and ask for it, and the growth in continuing care.
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2.15 Following a drop of a third in numbers of children and young people supported in external residential placements over 2018-21 the number has plateaued despite a longer-term commitment to providing support Close to Home. This is due to a range of factors relating both to demand, complexity of need, and the long-term nature and supporting relationships associated with some of these placements. Nonetheless it remains a key priority of the council to ensure increased capacity to support young people with complex needs within the North Lanarkshire community. 2.16 This also drives efforts to recruit more in-house foster carers. While there are currently slightly fewer in children in foster care, the focus on supporting and encouraging young people to remain with their carers for as long as they need means a continued and sustained increase in the use of continuing care, with the effect that some foster and kinship carers are now continuing carers. 2.17 With respect to child protection, a trend over recent years has been the increase in the number of concerns recorded in relation to individual children. Whilst this remains lower than the national average it reflects increased complexity and adversities impacting on children and their families. North Lanarkshire also saw an increase in the number of children and young people who were re-registered on the Child Protection Register over this period. Whilst the primary driver of decisions in this area will always require to be individual circumstances, this is an area where on average performance is below that nationally suggesting further focus is required on support for sustainable improvement in family circumstances and safeguarding including after de-registration. This will therefore be an area which is monitored closely going forward. Next steps 2.18 As noted in paragraph 1.5, the Strategic Performance Framework is supported by a Performance Reporting Schedule. This sets out the arrangements for service, statutory, and Strategic Performance Framework reporting to committee. In this respect the relevant Committee can expect to receive the following in respect of Children’s Social Work and Protection areas of work during 2023/24. Report Description Committee Committee cycle Annual Report of the Chief Social Work Officer The Chief Social Work Officer (CSWO) of each local authority is required to provide an annual report and a standard template for this purpose is issued by the office of the Chief Social Work Advisor to the Scottish Government. The North Lanarkshire CSWO report provides information on the delivery of statutory functions, and performance and improvement activity across the range of social work services over the last year. Education, Children and Families Committee / Adult Care and Social Work Committee Cycle 1 in 2023 reverting back to cycle 4 in 2023 annually thereafter
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3. Measures of success 3.1 Measures of success include: • Regular oversight and monitoring of performance across the organisation to gain assurances in terms of governance and accountability. • Regular review and challenge processes to scrutinise the performance of the council to ensure effective use of resources and that resources are directed in accordance with agreed policy and according to priorities, while ensuring sound decision making and clear accountability for the use of resources in achieving improved outcomes for service users and the local community.  • Performance monitoring, management, and reporting arrangements that support the demonstration of improved performance in local services and outcomes, and the delivery of Best Value. 4. Supporting documentation 4.1 Appendix 1 - High-level performance overview Alison Gordon Chief Social Work Officer (Children, Families, Justice, and Integrated Practice)
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5. Impacts 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality- and-fairer-scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Finance? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People Resources? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact?
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Where the impact identifies a requirement for significant technology change, has an assessment been carried out (or is scheduled to be carried out) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? Managing and monitoring service performance supports the ongoing monitoring of the service’s risk register. 5.10 Armed Forces Covenant Duty Does the report require to take due regard of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty (i.e. does it relate to healthcare, housing, or education services for in-Service or ex- Service personnel, or their families, or widow(er)s)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the provision which has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the particular needs of the Armed Forces community to make sure that they do not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public services.
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Appendix 1 Children’s Social Work and Protection High-level performance overview - as at March 2023 (Note, some indicators with national comparisons are based on a return that records figures as at July each year, for this reason 2021/22 figures will not be available until later spring 2023.) Children’s Social Work and Protection High-level performance overview - as at March 2023 (Note, some indicators with national comparisons are based on a return that records figures as at July each year, for this reason 2021/22 figures will not be available until later spring 2023.) Appendix 1
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