West Sussex children looked after aged under 18
This measure looks at the number of children who are looked after within Children Social Care in West Sussex. This means that some children are in foster placements and a few children are placed in residential care homes.
In order to know how well we are doing we measure ourselves against authorities in relation to the number of children in care per 10,000 population of children. The measure includes children in foster placements and residential care homes
Further information about child protection plans and child protection conferences can be found on the West Sussex Safeguarding Children Board website, which can be accessed by clicking on this link: SCP - Safeguarding Children Partnership
March 2021 performance
There has been a three month
downward trend in respect of the number of children in care.
Children subject of
pre-proceedings processes are tracked monthly to ensure they are not subject
of drift, a number of care proceedings have concluded with placement with
family members, and there has been a significant reduction in the number of
children coming into care under voluntary arrangements, which is likely to
reduce further following the introduction of the entry to care panel planned
for June.
Actions
An
entry to care panel is to be established over the next three months to add
further scrutiny and robustness around decisions for children to enter care to
make sure they are in the right placements.
We will also be reviewing our arrangements and processes in respect of children entering care under s20 as we currently have higher proportions than our statistical neighbours.
A Care Proceedings Action Plan has now been developed to provide greater management oversight and to ensure proceedings are completed in a timely way and that children are not in care for longer than they need to be.
A new Access to Resources panel is currently being trialled to ensure the right children are entering care and that appropriate parallel planning is under way where children can return home.
Partnership work is being commenced with Hampshire to improve our approach to permanence planning to facilitate children being placed with permanent carers more quickly, included where the care plan is adoption and special guardianship. This will reduce the time children spend in the care of the local authority. Permanence panels are being established to track permanence planning and the timeliness of achieving permanence. The panels will commence in March 2020.
As identified in the Children First Practice Improvement Plan improvements are required in assessment and care planning to ensure children receive appropriate help and support. Actions include:-
- Embed Signs of Safety to ensure a consistent practice model for all practitioners. Training of staff has commenced.
- Quality Assurance Framework updated with a collaborative approach to case file auditing to promote a learning culture to improve the quality of social work practice.