UPDATE NO 384 03 January 2020

Complex LAC Project – Friday 17 January 2020 – **Change to the afternoon programme**

The Complex LAC Project is reaching an important stage and we will be holding an event in Central London on Friday 17 January 2020. There will be two parts to the day: 

Part One 9.30-13.30 – DCS and Chief Financial Officers session – We would like to invite a representative group of Directors and Senior Finance Officers to join with the Complex LAC steering group (which includes chief executives from provider umbrella organisations ICHA and NAFP) to a meeting to explore the business case and potential options for more collaborative commissioning across the region. The meeting will explore opportunities for how we could gain better value for the £200+million spent annually purchasing and providing the most expensive looked after children placements.

If you would like to attend this session please contact Mark Evans (details below).

Part Two 14.00-15.30 – SE Looked After Children Film – We have had to change arrangements for the second part of the day as the venue we originally planned to use is not available. We will still have a preview of the film for Directors and other in attendance at the meeting on the 17^th January, but will not be opening up the event to a wider audience as originally planned. This session will include an introduction by Luke Rogers of the Care Leaders and question/answers session. The meeting will take place at the same venue as the main meeting (Broadway House). We will be arranging a screening of the film for the young people who participated and others later in the year. 

Digital Early Help Data Discovery

Alastair Lee (contact detials below) writes

Dear Colleagues

Digital Early Help Data Discovery is a MHCLG funded project which complements the work the SE data network has done on benchmarking early help indicators and takes it a step forward by focusing on what information managers need to support their early help services. 

Please can you invite colleagues with an interest in this area to contact Dalia Zileviciute at Social Finance to find out more.

Dalia has supplied a one-pager introduction to the project, which is available here.

Colleagues will notice that West Berkshire is one of the three councils supporting this project.

For more information please contact Dalia Zileviciute at Social Finance 020 3963 5151

SEND response to “high quality and cost-effective SEND provision”

Tracey Maytas writes,

Following discussion at the last SEND Steering Group it was agreed that the SEND deliverable in the SESLIP Improvement Plan to “collaborate in providing high quality and cost-effective SEND provision” should be refined in order to identify tangible outcomes. The huge impact of education placements in independent, non-maintained specialist (INMS) provision was seen as a priority area, both from the point of view of the long-term inclusion of and outcomes for young people with SEND and the impact on high needs budgets.  

The scoping meeting for this work took place on Wednesday 16 December and was chaired by Nathan Caine, Inclusion and SEND Manager, ESCC. There was consensus that there are areas within this subject where regional collaboration would be highly beneficial. These were:

• INMS Costs
• Quality Assurance
• INMS Contracts
• Monitoring and challenging provision in INMS

Options for regional approaches to these will be taken forward as priority areas. The next meeting of the Group is scheduled for 26 February 2020.

For more information, please contact Tracey Maytas (deatils below).

Developing Models of Social Work Project

Thanks to the Local Authorities that have completed the questionnaire about models of practice being used.  There is still time if you would like to complete the questionnaire.  The returns will be collated in January so that we will have an emerging picture of models being used across the region. The Reference Group will meet on 19 February at the LGA offices in London and start to plan the conference to be held in June. 

For more details of the Developing  Models of Social Work project please contact Diane Williamson (details below)

Developing Quality Assurance Capacity – 11 February

The next meeting of the QA leads will be held on 11 February at the LGA offices in London.  By the end of the meeting the group plans to have a proposal for the agreed common components of a Quality Assurance Framework to be shared with the DCS group.  The group will also start work on developing a shared understanding of “good practice” and what good quality assurance looks like.

A restricted area is being set up on the SESLIP website so that authorities can share Quality Assurance Frameworks, practice standards and audit processes and tools.

For more details of the Developing Quality Assurance Capacit project please contact Diane Williamson (details below)

AD Education Network – next meeting Friday 24 January 2020. Please note the change of date.

The next meeting of the AD Education Network will be on Friday 24th January 2020 – 10.30-12.30.

For more details of this meeting and the AD Education Network activity please click here or contact Chris Owen (details below).

The following dates have also been fixed: 

• 6 March 2020 – Joint meeting with SEND Network with a focus on the inclusion and achievement of vulnerable learners at SEN support
• 5 June 2020                
• 25 September 2020

ASGLB Making Better Use of Data Workshops -31 January and 14 February

The ASGLB is undertaking a review of whether we are making good use of all the data that is already collected in relation to children in care, and in particular with respect to special guardianship and adoption.

To provide a framework for the review, they have drafted a Data Model to provide a structure for their thinking. This is intended to address both adoption and special guardianship with respect to children who are taken into care. 

1. Permanency Planning – are appropriate permanence plans for children in place in a timely manner?
2. Securing Permanency – is permanency achieved for a child without unnecessary delay?
3. Maintaining Permanency – once permanency is achieved, are we maintaining it so that children are able to thrive?

As part of this review ASGLB are running three workshops which will be held at Coram Campus, London WC1N 1AZ on:

• 18 December 2019 (Permanency Planning) – (already held)
• 31 January 2020 (Securing Permanency) – book here
• 14 February 2020 (Maintaining Permanency) – book here

The ASGLB want these workshops to be attended by people who can help them define the Data model as well as those who are familiar with the data currently. For more information follow the links provided above.