UPDATE NO 358 28 June 2019

SESLIP Consultants’ List – We are hiring

We are looking for consultant support in the delivery of the Regional Improvement Plan 2019-20 and similar activities in subsequent years. 

We now wish to make additional appointments to our list of suitably qualified freelance consultants who are available on an “as and when” basis to support one or more of the activities of the programme.

In order to be considered for addition to the list, you must respond to the advertisement now live on the SE Shared Services e-sourcing Portal, with reference ESCC – 026578 

Please pass this opportunity on to anyone you think might be interested and qualified. Closing date is 1pm Thursday 4 July.

Education Data Group – 4th July 2019

One of the priorities identified in the Regional Improvement Plan is “Development work to scope education data benchmarking, to be produced by the end of December 2019”. Daryl Perilli of Brighton and Hove has agreed to lead the conversation about how we might tackle this task.

Daryl is convening a first meeting to discuss priorities on 4th July. If you would like to propose someone to attend the group please tell Daryl (contact details below).

National Assessment and Accreditation System (NAAS)

The DfE have published a wide range of documentation on the National Assessment and Accreditation Sysytem (NAAS). It includes a toolkit, information about and examples of practice simulations.

A list of early adopter sites includes Hampshire and West Berks in the South East.

DfE Review of Children in Need

The DfE have reviewed support for children in need of help and protection to help understand why their educational outcomes are so poor and what further support they might require. The work considers children who need the support of a social worker.

They have developed evidence to understand: what makes a difference to the educational outcomes of children in need and what works in practice to improve those outcomes. The full review is here.

Change to compensation arrangements for survivors of violent crime

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced an amendment to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012 for England and Wales to scrap the ‘same roof’ rule which meant that survivors of violent crime, including child sexual abuse, could not receive compensation if they lived with their abuser. 

The change follows a recommendation made by the Independent Inquiry for Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in 2018. Anyone who was previously denied compensation under this rule may make a new application. The full report is here.

What Works for Children’s Social Care: Intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS) Review

WWFCSC has published a review of Intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS). The services are used to support families with children at risk of entering care. This review looked at evidence from 33 studies from the UK, Canada and the USA. 

Findings include: the risk of a child experiencing an out-of-home placement was reduced by 49% 2 years after the intervention compared to children in the control group; and providing a service within 24 hours of referral is crucial to the effectiveness of the intervention. The full review is here.

Complex LAC Project

There will be a project meeting for the Complex LAC Project on Wednesday 17 July 2019 – venue somewhere in London. Because all 19 authorities in the South East are now involved, we will need to restrict attendance to 2 people per authority. 

Please contact Rosemary Perry – details below – to arrange your places.

UASC Specific Outcomes Star – Launch 10th July 2019

Launch of UASC Specific Outcomes Star (10 July 2019 10.00-15.30 IOM 297 Euston Road) –  The Outcomes Star is an evidence-based tool that supports and measures change when working with people (children and adults). The South East Strategic Partnership for Migration in partnership with Triangle and Pathways to Independence UK has worked develop an outcome star for use specifically with UASC. The work has been grant funded by the Centre for Controlling Migration and this includes provision for training and licencing costs for all South East Authorities. 

The event is for managers leading work with UASC and more information about the event or the South East Strategic Partnership for Migration contact Roy Millard at South East England Councils – roymillard@secouncils.gov.uk – 01304 872186. The work of SESPM is funded by the Home Office. 

DfE Call for Evidence: Children’s homes workforce. Closes 27 August 2019

The DfE have launched a call for evidence on Children’s Homes Workforce, and invites views on:

• establishing professional registration for roles in children’s homes
• existing approaches to regulating the children’s homes workforce

Responses will inform the DfE’s thinking on where improvements could be made so children in children’s homes receive high-quality care in a safe environment.

The consultation closes on 27 August 2019. Click here for further information

Succession Planning – Needs Analysis

Over the coming months SESLIP will be working with the Staff College to carry out a piece of research about succession planning for senior leadership roles in Children’s Service across the South East. This work is designed to complement a piece of work being undertaken nationally by the DfE which will focus on aspirant DCS’s. Our project concentrates on those who may be interested in second tier roles. 

Your help is needed to ensure the region gets the maximum benefit from this research, please could you assist us by identifying heads of service/service managers and other 3^rd tier roles who would be willing to take part in the online survey and/or the telephone interviews.

Please can you forward names and email addresses to Mark Evans (contact details below).

Data Tools Survey

This is a project we are undertaking with the What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care, the Christie Foundation, and Social Finance Digital Labs. East Sussex, Brighton & Hove and Bracknell Forest are initially involved in this project. We are interested to find out what tools have been created by LAs, what they are used for, and how far they have spread to other LAs. We have a pretty broad definition of ‘tools’ – anything the sector has created to do analytical or data management tasks and which can be used repeatedly.

Well known examples would be the ChAT, the East Sussex Annex A Child Selector or the Medway LAC 903 Statistics Predictor tool.

We are hoping to find out a bit more about what tools get created, what barriers exist to maintaining and sharing them, and what people might like to see developed in future.

The first steps in this are a survey and colleagues from the What Works Centre and Social Finance have been talking directly to some DCSs. If they get in touch, please take the call and please try to help them help us share better practice across the region.

For more information please contact Alastair Lee (details below).