Subject:

Brighton & Hove City Council

Children Young People & Skills Agenda Item 12

Committee

Subject: 2021/22 Families, Children and Learning Performance Report

Date of meeting: 12 September 2022

Report of: Executive Director of Families, Children and Learning

Contact Officer: Daryl Perilli

Daryl.perilli@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Justin Grantham

Justin.Grantham@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Ward(s) Affected: All

FOR GENERAL RELEASE

1. PURPOSE OF REPORT AND POLICY CONTEXT

1.1 The report sets out a summary of the performance of the Families, Children and Learning (FCL) directorate and provides an overview of business and improvement plans for the year ahead.

2. RECOMMENDATIONS:

2.1 That committee note the current performance of the directorate.

2.2 That the committee note the business and improvement plans for the year ahead.

3. CONTEXT/ BACKGROUND INFORMATION

How we collect and report on performance information in Families, Children & Learning

3.1 The FCL Performance and Quality Assurance Framework is part of the Brighton and Hove City Council Performance Framework.

3.2 Along with other directorates in the Council, FCL manage a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) and directorate, service and team level business plans setting out key actions over the coming year(s).

3.3 The FCL Performance Board meets quarterly and has oversight of a wide set of 42 KPIs, Directorate Plans, performance against FOIs and MP / member enquiries, EIA Completion, Internal Audit Recommendations, a service user / customer feedback report, a SEND Performance Dashboard, Children’s Social Care Performance reports, a Schools Causing Concern report, and a Quality Assurance briefing. Exceptions reports are requested for both good performing areas and areas where there is poor performance. These reports ensure performance is challenged, learning is captured, and improvements are made.

3.4 There are links to other Board meetings within the Directorate including the SEND Partnership Board, Corporate Parenting Board, Adolescent Board, Education Partnership and Brighton and Hove Safeguarding Children Board. These boards all have datasets which enable them to scrutinise the work of FCL within their specialist area. In addition, FCL produce data sets and reports to Health and Wellbeing, in regard to Children and young people’s mental health and Community Safety Partnership Bard in regard to youth offending.

3.5 Within FCL each branch has its own data sets, at both a management/operational level and a strategic/SLT level. Each SLT review their data sets monthly to ensure delivery to the service plans and wider objectives. The FCL Performance Board oversees these reports strategically.

3.6 Due to the nature of the work, there is also considerable external oversight and scrutiny of services. A number of services across FCL, including Social Work, SEND, BHISS, Education and Substance misuse are required to submit data returns to either the Department for Education (DfE) or the Department of Health (DfH), further detail in 3.9 below. The Ofsted, HMIP and CQC inspection frameworks encompass a number of services within the directorate, with both Social Work and The Youth Offending Service being the focus of specialised inspection of these areas of work (and recently judged to be Outstanding by HMI probation), while the BHISS service and ru-ok are included in Ofsted and CQC inspections.

3.7 Ofsted request copies of service performance management reports as part of their inspection frameworks. In addition to the inspection framework there is an annual conversation with Ofsted, where FCL leaders have to evidence to Ofsted the work and improvements made over the previous year, across social work, education and SEND, as well as showing areas identified for improvement. Alongside this, FCL work with the Local Government Association and invite in Peer Reviews, most recently a Peer Review on Early Help in January 2020, alongside being part of the South East Sector Lead Improvement Programme. Through this programme we are linked to two other local authorities and provide each other with Peer challenge.

External requirements of performance reporting

3.8 Ofsted request copies of performance management reports as part of their inspection frameworks. They also use a Children’s Services Analysis Tool (ChAT) to analyse our children’s social care data and performance.

3.9 All Local Authorities are required to submit statutory returns to the Department for Education (DfE). These include:

· The SSDA903 return collects information about children who are looked-after by local authorities during the year ending 31 March; and for those who have recently left care, information as to their whereabouts on their 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th or 21st birthday.

· The children in need census covers all children who are referred to children’s social care services even if no further action is taken. This includes children looked after (CLA), those supported in their families or independently, and children who are the subject of a child protection plan.

· The Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board (ASGLB) data return collects information about children in the adoption process and (prospective) adopters and children who cease to be in care due to a special guardianship order being granted.

· Ofsted annual fostering data collection. Local authority (LA) fostering agencies and independent fostering agencies (IFA) are required to submit data about foster carers, recruitment and capacity of providers.

· The school census collects individual school characteristics and pupil records from all state-funded schools in England, 3 times a year.

· The annual school workforce census is a statutory data collection which collects data on all teaching and support staff in regular employment.

· All Youth Offending Teams submit a quarterly case-level submission to the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (YJB)

Brighton & Hove City Council requirements of performance reporting

3.10 FCL are key partners in the Council’s performance management framework and follow the requirements on reporting as set out within the framework and above. These include the need to maintain directorate and service business plans, corporate and directorate KPIs and to consider other areas of the framework such as budget management, audit recommendations and workforce data. We cover these topics either in our quarterly performance board meetings or our directorate management team meetings.

Performance summary of 2021/22 and our improvement plans

3.11 Appendix 1 provides a summary of performance for the previous year. Some of our performance measures (timeliness of Strengthening Family Assessments, completion of Education, Health & Care plans and % of schools who are judged good or outstanding by Ofsted for examples) are compared with national performance rates. Some (number of children being home educated and how many of our foster carers are ‘in-house’ for examples) are ones where we monitor the trend and consider what further work or intervention is needed in those areas depending on what the data is telling us.

3.12 The performance of our critical KPIs is steady currently although we are never complacent and strive for improvement in most areas. We also work hard to steady areas that have had a great deal of improvement in recent years, to ensure that good performance is maintained.

3.13 The FCL directorate business plan sets out the vision and direction of travel for the service provision from 2021 to 2024.

3.14 The vision with our directorate plan is that we work as one Families, Children and Learning directorate and with others in the city delivering safe and whole family services, improving outcomes, developing inclusive and accessible provision, and developing our staff.

3.15 The business plan details key areas of action for the directorate over the coming years. From improving and maintaining our ‘business as usual’ through to our significant change programmes such as the Early Help review, developing a Disadvantage Strategy for families, develop and implement an Anti-Racist schools strategy, deliver an environmental education programme, expand support in the city for autism children and deliver year one of the agreed SEND Strategy.

3.16 We also have separate and more detailed improvement plans for specific areas of work. One example of this is around our Ofsted improvement action plan, also detailed in a separate paper at this committee meeting.

3.17 We are always looking for new ways in which to record, report and analyse on our performance data. One new area we are developing is the use of Microsoft Power BI. The FCL Performance Team has started to deliver performance reports using that, which provides users with interactive visualisations and business intelligence capabilities. This can lead to greater understanding of what the data is telling us and more creatively and freedom on how we can share performance data.

4. ANALYSIS & CONSIDERATION OF ANY ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS

4.1 Our Performance and Quality Assurance Framework has been recognised as an area of good practice by Ofsted and LGA Peer Challenge teams. “Regular, comprehensive performance reports enable senior leaders to monitor performance against key performance indicators. This is supported by learning from quality assurance audits, ensuring a focus on practice at monthly performance meetings, corporate parenting panel and the Children, Young People and Skills committee.” Ofsted, July 2018.

“Performance support is excellent, with good systems and staff to support them. We were impressed with the integration of performance staff into senior management discussions and the opportunity to use performance staff to facilitate interrogating data at these meetings. Your performance team has established a system whereby instant performance reports are available at all levels on demand. Your numerous performance reports and the ability to get information live and across levels and issues is excellent. We saw good use of this performance data at all levels of the organisation.” LGA Safeguarding Peer Review September 2016

5. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & CONSULTATION

5.1 The FCL directorate plan covers the significant change programmes and projects either in train or planned for the years ahead. These separate areas of work will be subject to detailed community engagement strategies as required. For example, the plan sets out how the SEND Strategy will be further implemented. During development this was subject to detailed community engagement activities and feedback loops continue to be built into the strategy review arrangements. Another area of work currently in development is the creation of a strategy to support families at risk of disadvantage. This work will include a thorough community engagement plan.

5.2 There are also various ways in which we routinely ensure that service user voice is captured, and this is a further way in which communities can influence the strategic and operational work of the directorate. For example, the Corporate Parenting Board has representatives from the Children in Care council who have access to the Corporate Parenting Board Performance Dashboard and can therefore be part of the discussions on service improvements and to celebrate achievements.

6. CONCLUSION

6.1 It is a requirement to record and report on some of the datasets described here. There are internal and external expectations on that. Ofsted and others have highlighted our best practice in this area.

7. FINANCIAL & OTHER IMPLICATIONS:

Financial Implications:

7.1 There are no direct financial implications arising in this report.

Finance Officer Consulted: David Ellis, Accountant, 31/08/2022

Legal Implications:

7.2 In providing information which sets out a summary of the performance of the Families, Children and Learning (FCL) directorate the Committee is able to consider indicators as to whether and how the authority is fulfilling statutory and regulatory duties to children and families. Section 10 of the Children Act 2004 places a duty on local authorities and certain named partners (including health) to co-operate to improve children’s well-being.

Lawyer Consulted: Natasha Watson Date: 30.8.22

Equalities Implications:

7.3 Much of the work of the directorate focusses on those most disadvantaged within the city. This involves recording and reporting on data around protected characteristics groups. This data informs both how we deliver our business as usual functions, via Equalities Impact Assessments and our significant change programmes such as implementing the SEND Strategy and any future changes to our school admissions arrangements.

7.4 Sustainability Implications

By having a good grip on performance widely across the work of the directorate, it enables FCL leaders to understand how stable service areas are, both ones delivered by the council and those we commission. This means that issues in service delivery (such as staff capacity) can be identified and rectified at an earlier stage, if it is within our abilities to do so. This helps support sustainable and stable service provision across the city and for the families that need support the most.

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION

Appendices:

1. Summary of FCL Corporate and Other Key Performance Indicators 21/22

2. Detailed list of FCL monitored KPIs 21/22

3. Summary of FCL directorate plan 2021/22

4. Definitions of the KPIs given in appendix 1

Appendix 2 Detailed list of FCL monitored KPIs 21/22

Detailed separately.

Appendix 3: Summary of FCL directorate plan 2021/22

FCL directorate plan - summary of end of 2021/22 performance
Directorate Plan action	End of year RAG rating
Objective 1 Take a whole family approach to support safe and stable lives
Deliver an outstanding social work and care service to keep children safe and to avoid escalation in need	Amber
Support post-16 and adults with skills and employment progression and support the city employment and skills plan and support women, disabled people and BME groups to achieve their full potential	Green
Objective 2: Improve outcomes for disadvantaged and vulnerable people by promoting independence, resilience and learning
Support families to enable children with SEND to be independent and resilient	Amber
Support families to enable Adults with LD to be independent and resilient	Amber
Work with partners to meet the needs of children & young people with emotional well-being and mental health needs	Green
Deliver against year one objectives within the SEND Strategy 2021-2026 (Corporate Modernisation) to protect and improve special educational needs services and provision within the city	Green
We will continue a programme to reduce the attainment gap for disadvantaged children including ‘continuing the successful Every Child a Reader programme and Maths programme’. This program will be adapted as to take into account Covid 19 and catch up now required	Amber
Coproduce, design and implement a citywide strategy to support children, young people and families at risk of disadvantage	Green
Develop in partnership with music and arts service Brighton Dome, the role of arts, music, theatre and cultural learning in the city’	Green
Develop and co-deliver an environmental education programme and promote outdoor education, particularly for those who are disadvantaged	Green
Support families to enable Adults with LD to be independent and resilient	Amber
Support the city’s early years and childcare providers, including our children’s centres, nursery schools and nursery classes to ‘provide high quality early years services and sufficient, accessible high-quality childcare	Green
Deliver an outstanding social work and care service to meet the needs of adults with LD and to avoid escalation in need	Amber
Undertake the Early Help Review (FCL Modernisation) and deliver the Supporting Families Programme	Green
Objective 3: Provide high quality and inclusive education, SEND and employment support and early years, social care and youth provision
Collaborate with education institutions and businesses to plan for future skills needs and increase the take up of apprenticeships	Green
To deliver SEND services in line with the SEND Code of Practice and associated timescales	Green
Develop and implement a school organisation strategy to ensure appropriate education provision is provided in the city, ensuring alignment with the disadvantaged strategy	Green
Implement the Holiday Activities and Food Programme for free school meal children (Aged 4-16)	Green
Continue the work of the Education Partnership to coordinate and improve educational provision	Green
Support continued improvement in the city’s schools and maintain strong Ofsted ratings	Green
Support equalities programmes in schools to address discrimination	Green
Maintain services, including out of school services, for children with additional support needs or from disadvantaged groups including children with learning disabilities, and physical disabilities	Amber
Develop and implement the Anti-Racist schools strategy	Green
Continue our extensive services for children in care and work to attract, support and retain foster carers	Green
Expand support for autistic children and young people in the city	Green
Maintain services for LGBTQ young people and ensure sexual health services and mental health support are delivered at youth centres across the city	Green
Give young people a stronger voice in future services	Green
Ensure that transition services are in place to support young people moving into adult services and that they are integrated	Green
Deliver an improved and high-quality Home to School Transport Service for vulnerable children and young people	Green
Protect funding and review youth services across the city to improve coordination and establish a central youth hub (FCL Modernisation)	Red
Explore procurement activity around city school meals contract	Green
Objective 4: Develop and engage with staff and stakeholders to deliver good quality services and change within the directorate and across council services
Directorates to work proactively to understand, engage with and respond effectively to the city’s diverse communities and its changing demographic	Green
Directorate to actively support the corporate aim of diversifying the workforce at all levels, recruiting and retaining staff from all the city’s communities	Amber
Deliver on a directorate wide performance and quality assurance framework to ensure that safe and effective services are provided	Green
Explore the introduction of a workload agreement to give teachers and professionals more time to teach	Amber
Support provision of food support to children, young people and families	Green
Develop a framework for Care Leaver Accommodation for young people aged 16+ (FCL Modernisation)	Green
Ensure service users and stakeholders voice informs service delivery	Green

Appendix 4: Definitions of the KPIs given in appendix 1

Indicator	Branch	Polarity (high is good, low is good or trend)	Definition
% of early years registered childcare providers are judged to be good or outstanding by Ofsted	Education & Skills	High is good	Includes all registered settings, including childcare on non-domestic premises, on domestic premises and childminders
% of schools are judged good or outstanding by Ofsted (Corporate - Council)	Education & Skills	High is good	These figures do not include new schools awaiting their first ever inspection, independent settings and non-maintained special schools, which Ofsted has a duty to inspect
Number of pupils educated at home	Education & Skills	Trend	Elective Home Education (EHE) is where the parent has taken responsibility for the education of their child or children. The LA responsibility is to ensure that there are no children not receiving an education.
The combined figure for the percentage of young people aged 16 – 17 who are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) and the percentage of those whose NEET status is not known [Quarterly YTD excluding September and October]	Education & Skills	Low is good	The current year to date combined figure for academic age 16 and 17 year olds not in education, employment and training (NEET) and for those whose status is not known. (September and October are excluded from this figure because they are statistically unreliable).
% of children placed in foster care that are placed in-house	Safeguarding & Care	High is good	The percentage of children who are placed in foster care that are placed with in-house foster carers, excluding kinship carers. Children allocated to the Specialist Community Disability Service as children with a disability fall under the remit of Health, SEN and Disabilities
Strengthening Family Assessments - % completed in 45 days (Corporate - council)	Safeguarding & Care	High is good	Under the Children Act 1989, local authorities are required to provide services for children in need for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting their welfare. Local authorities undertake assessments of the needs of individual children to determine which services to provide and what action to take. Statutory guidance ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ was revised in 2013 giving local authorities more flexibility when assessing children. Previously local authorities carried out an initial assessment within 10 working days and (where needed) a more in-depth core assessment within 35 working days. Local authorities now have the flexibility to carry out a single continuous assessment within 45 working days.
Number of children in care (Corporate - council)	Safeguarding & Care	Low is good	Under the Children Act 1989, a child is looked after by a local authority if he or she falls into one of the following: is provided with accommodation, for a continuous period of more than 24 hours; is subject to a care order; and is subject to a placement order.
Number of first time entrants (FTE) to the youth justice system	Safeguarding & Care	Low is good	First time entrants are defined as young people (aged 10 – 17) who receive their first substantive outcome (relating to a reprimand, a final warning with or without an intervention, or a court disposal for those who go directly to court without a reprimand or final warning)
% of EHC Plans issued within 20 weeks including exceptions (Corporate - council)	Health SEN & Disability	High is good	Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans for children and young people aged up to 25 were introduced on 1 September 2014 as part of the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) provisions in the Children and Families Act 2014. From 1 September 2014, any children or young people who are newly referred to a local authority for assessment are considered under the new EHC plan assessment process. Exceptions are when EHC plan production timescales overlap with school holiday periods, causing delays outside of control within the service.
% of people with a learning disability in employment (Corporate - city)	Health SEN & Disability	High is good	This performance indicator is a snapshot of people of working age who are in receipt of social care services and have learning disability as their primary support need. These are the people furthest from the labour market (i.e. people with the highest social care needs).