UPDATE NO 330 30 November 2018

2019-20 Regional Improvement Planning

Over 40 delegates attended the self-assessment and peer challenge training event on Friday 30 November. Further information about Regional Improvement Planning and the training materials are now available here.

Isabelle Gregory (contact details below) is arranging catch-up sessions for colleagues who were unable to join the session (Oftsed visits etc). She is also confirming names, times and requirements for the challenge days in February 2019. Please contact her if you have not already done so. 

2018-19 SESLIP Memorandum of Understanding – Consultation Draft 23 November 2018

We have previously agreed that the SESLI Programme will undertake the responsibilities of a Regional Improvement Alliance from 2019-20 onwards. This requires significant changes to our Memorandum of Understanding. A consultation draft has been prepared and you are asked to consider the new provisions for third-party disclosure of concerns or worries about potential service failure; and for data sharing with DfE (see anonymised example here) and others.

Please read the proposed MoU and example anonymised external data sharing sheet and feed back your comments to Richard Tyndall (contact details below). Initial feedback has suggested that the data sharing should be restricted to the 18 indicators agreed at national level, rather than 34 (plus 15 school indicators already available) shown on the sample sheet. There will be a debate about this item at the SE ADCS Branch Meeting on Friday 7 December, when the consultation will close.

Regional Improvement Summit Friday 22 March 2019

After the triad challenge days, SESLIP staff will compile the Regional Improvement Plan for 2019-20, including such activities as regional networks; paired support of asks and offers; coaching; mentoring; Partner-in-Practice referrals; topical peer challenges.

The Plan will be launched at the Regional Improvement Summit on Friday 22 March. Please save this date and encourage you Lead member to also save the date.

The “trial-run” 2018-19 version of the Regional Improvement Plan and v3 of the “asks-and-offers” document are currently available at the DCS-only restricted access page of the SESLIP website (please contact Isabelle, details below, for help with accessing this page).

We are still in the proto-type phase of developing the Regional Improvement Plan and we welcome feedback on these documents as we begin to think about the style and format of the 2019-20 public versions.

Please contact Richard Tyndall (details below) if you have any observations.

Reducing unnecessary criminalisation of looked-after children and care leaver

The national protocol on reducing unnecessary criminalisation of looked-after children and care leavers – The government has set out a new document aimed at encouraging  councils, the police and courts across England to sign up to an agreement aimed at reducing the unnecessary criminalisation of looked-after children and care leavers.

The National Protocol is available here

What Works Centre Analysis of LAC Rates 2012-17

What Works Centre Analysis of LAC Rates 2012-17 

The aim of this study was to inform the intervention research and systematic reviews being planned for the What Works Centre between 2018 and 2020, by exploring local authority variation in the rates of children in care in England. This was done through exploratory analyses of existing local authority-level aggregate data. As well as exploring the factors that are associated with high rates of children in care, this study also explored how and why the numbers of children in care have been changing over the years.

We were particularly interested to explore the changes in the rate of children in care over the last five financial years, between 2012/13 and 2016/17, on the basis that this timing will be more relevant to current policy regimes in local authorities.

The following factors were associated with lower average rates of children in care in local authorities:

• lower proportions of low-income families in the area
• higher expenditure on children in need
• participation in the DfE’s Innovation Programme
• better Ofsted judgements
• higher proportions of social worker turnover

The following factors were associated with an average decrease in the rate of children in care per 10,000 children in local authorities in England:

• a decrease in the proportions of low-income families
• participation in the DfE’s Innovation Programme
• better Ofsted judgements

Extension of Innovation Fund Projects

Successful children’s social care initiatives from the Department for Education’s innovation programme will be extended to more councils across England over the next 12 months, children’s minister Nadhim Zahawi has announced.

Speaking at the National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC) last week, Zahawi said a number of projects tested through the £200m Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme since 2013 are “starting to pay off”, and the DfE is “now in a position to say with clarity what the main features of effective practice are”.

The three projects being extended as part of the budget announcement are:

• Family Safeguarding Hertfordshire, where targeted work with a parents has halved the number of days children in the county spend in care
• Family Valued in Leeds, which uses family group conferencing to keep families together
• No Wrong Door in North Yorkshire, which supports teenagers in care and those on the edge of care

The minister said he is also keen to put in place a national support scheme for directors of children’s services, in partnership with sector groups including the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS).

Public Law Outline Seminar 11 February 2018

Kent County Council have set up a seminar to explore research in relation to the use of the PLO. The event will include contributions by leading academics Professor Judith Masson University of Bristol and Professor Jonathan Dickens (UEA). The brief for the research can be found here.

The seminar will take place at a venue in Maidstone on the 11 February 2019 with a nominal cost per delegate of £25. A flyer with more information is available here.

To book a place or find out more contact SafeguardingAdmin@kent.gov.uk .

AD Education Network – Dates for 2019

Alison Rendle (contact details below) writes

“We have now agreed dates for 2019.  I am in the process of booking our normal venue, and will confirm this in due course.

• 14 December 2018
• 5 April 2019 – full day meeting, joint workshop with SEND network (please note change of date and timings for this meeting – previously scheduled for the morning of 15 March)
• 7 June 2019 – 10.30-12.30
• 13 September 2019 – 10.30-12.30
• 13 December 2019 – 10.30-12.30″

If you would like to find out more about the AD Education Network please contact Alison Rendle (details below).

The Network is co-sponsored by Lucy Butler (DCS Oxfordshire) and Cate Duffy (DCS Slough)

The contact list is on the AD Education Network Page

Diary Dates for 2019-20 Regional Improvement Planning

17 December 2018 – submission of draft 2018-19 self-assessments

late Dec-to-early Jan – SESLIP independent commentary of draft self-assessments (opt-in service, please confirm with Isabelle)

mid-to-late Jan – self-assessments finalised and shared with triad partners

February – triad challenge days – see opposite

late Feb-to-early Mar – SESLIP team draft 2019-20 Regional Improvement Plan

22 March – Regional Improvement Summit

Triad 1 – East Sussex, Surrey and Wokingham on Thursday 28 February 2019

Triad 2 – Kent, Reading and Portsmouth on Monday 4 February 2019

Triad 3 – Hampshire and IoW, Milton Keynes and Slough on Friday 15 February 2019

Triad 4 – Medway, Oxfordshire and Windsor and Maidenhead also on Friday 15 February 2019

Triad 5 – Brighton and Hove, Buckinghamshire and West Berkshire on Tuesday 26 February 2019

Triad 6 – Bracknell Forest, Southampton and West Sussex on Wednesday 13 February 2019

Please contact Isabelle Gregory (details below) for detailed information for these events.

Self-assessments by Monday 17 December and Independent Commentary “opt-in”

Rebecca Eligon, one of the SESLIP consultants, contact details below, has read all the 2017-18 self-assessments shared via the DCS-only restricted access page of the SESLIP website (please contact Isabelle, details below, for help with accessing this page).

This report was discussed at a recent Directors’ meeting and it was decided that we would encourage each authority to choose its own format for producing the 2018-19 self-assessments. Rebecca has some excellent insights into what makes a readable and accessible self-assessment document, and is available for one-to-one consultation with colleagues who are charged with creating these self-assessments. Please contact her direct to discuss the core content; the format; the things to avoid and other top tips.

Part of the SESLIP support for this process will be the offer of an independent commentary on your draft 2018-19 self-assessment, as long as you have contributed a draft by Monday 17 December. This commentary will include a sense-check against the latest data (SESLIP Data Profiles for each authority are available from the DCS-only restricted access page of the SESLIP website) as well as other constructive feedback. This will be timetabled to allow you make any further amemdments ahead of circulation to triad partners in January. This is an “opt-in” process, and Isabelle has written to all DCSs asking them to confirm their choice.

Complex LAC and Edge of Care Project – Progress Report

We’ve had a strong positive response to the project and Lucy Butler, (project sponsor and DCS Oxfordshire) met with Mark Evans and Rosemary Perry recently. Lucy was delighted with the progress and outcomes of the project so far and she will share further detail with colleagues at the SE ADCS meeting on 7 December 2018. 

We have now input completed data from 8 authorities, amounting to 529 cases; we have three more authorities currently dealing with queries, and data from a further authority expected next week.  Once all this data is collected, we will have about 800 cases from which to draw our conclusions, which is very significant in terms of understanding patterns and predicting need for our most complex children. 

Lucy and Mark are due to meet with the DfE later this month to share our methodology and understand more about how the DfE are planning to release funding next year to support the development of regional commissioning hubs.  Lucy is also keen that we use this data to start discussions with providers about the market and how they can be involved in planning for the future.  Both of these will be discussed further with DCSs at the meeting on 7 December.

We are busy planning for the next feedback session in London on 18 January 2019, involving all those colleagues who have participated in the project so far; our initial thoughts are that we will have a feedback document for each authority and also an overall document which starts to build a needs based planning document for future commissioning.

We would like to put on record our thanks for the excellent engagement we have had from everyone involved in the project; we recognise that people are really busy but, in finding to complete the documentation to a high standard, they clearly feel that this is worthwhile exercise which will deliver comprehensive information to help us plan for future service delivery.

For further information please contact Mark Evans or Rosemary Perry (details below).