21 may Loop Newsletter April

Improving LIVES

Closing the April 2021 – Edition 5 Welcome to the fifth edition of our QA newsletter that summarises the findings from recent learning activity and Practice Evaluations across the service during January - April 2021. This edition includes key messages from feedback gathered across the service for this period. Next May - Practice Evaluations (CLA) and the Supervision audit QA Activity June - Update Team Action Plans and analysis of feedback July - Practice Evaluations

What we are doing well Overall families are receiving support that is relevant to their needs and signposting to other specialist support is happening where needed. This is helping them make changes to improve the care of their children. We are making improvements in how we are considering the roles of both parents and more actively thinking about how we can engage non-resident parents. There is some evidence of plans being written in a more positive and strengths-based way, with a greater awareness of the impact of language in our recording.

There is good evidence of positive relationships between practitioners and families, including between foster families and Supervising Social Workers. Many families report that they trust their practitioner, feel supported by them, and generally receive good communication. There is evidence of the voice of care leavers and their identity being clear throughout planning and case records. There are some good examples of responsive supervision that helps guide the focus of plans and ensure that our intervention addresses risks and needs. There are many positive examples of good communication and collaboration between professionals so that everyone can understand how families’ needs and circumstances are changing. Recent Covid Dip Reviews have highlighted that in 92% of the 63 cases the auditor was satisfied that the plan to manage the child’s risks during the pandemic were appropriate. There is ongoing evidence of practitioners using creative ways to try to mitigate risks where face to face visits are not possible.

What ’s happening elsewhere and other updates Last year Route1 Advocacy and Independent Visitors supported 670 children to have their voice heard in various meetings, including Family Group Conferences, PEPs, CLA reviews and CP conferences. Please also think about referring children for advocacy support for Core Groups and CIN Meetings so that children can have their voice heard in these meetings also. There have been some important updates within Route1 Advocacy and Independent Visitors, these include: All children coming into care are offered a meeting with Route1 staff to hear about advocacy services available to them All children with an Independent Visitor receive a monthly newsletter An increased online presence with social media channels and collaboration with local colleges to develop animations to promote the service, these will be available in May. The new Training Programme from the SSCP is now available online and contains a range of new courses running throughout 2021-22, with more courses to be announced shortly. To see what’s on offer go to the training page of the SSCP website.

The good practice process was recently updated. We expect all teams to send at least one example of good practice each quarter to [email protected] using the Good Practice Nomination Form. These examples are reviewed by the CSW team. Check the good practice folder (T:\\Teams\\Good Practice) for recently received nominations, which include evidence of good practice in; risk management, multi-agency working, management impact, representation of the child’s views and lived experience, representation of parents’ views, clear analysis and good use of language. Supervision audit and survey is live and so far we have received 131 responses. Please remember to complete The Supervision Survey 2021 if you have not already. The findings will be communicated in the next Closing the Loop later in the year. So that we can continue to develop practice for unborn children there is a further multi-agency workshop on 24th May at 11am for those who could not attend the December event, and the e-learning will be available in coming weeks. Please check the SSCP website and The Learning Centre for details and share with colleagues who have not yet attended this workshop.

Priorities for improvement 1 Management of transition points Better communication and discussion about expectations is needed to ensure that there is appropriate planning around key transition points, such as changes of placements, education provision, step up/ step downs and change of practitioner. Managing these changes better helps to ensure families do not feel abandoned or unclear about what is happening next. Inviting the right people to multi-agency meetings and holding these at the right times is important to ensure there is opportunity for the whole group to communicate with one another and review the plans in place. 2 Understanding the needs of all the children in the family We continue to see a problem with plans, assessments and case recording not clearly enough addressing the needs and risks for each individual child. It is often a focus on the needs and risks of younger children that is being lost. All teams are asked to make time in their team meetings to share ideas about how they can address this issue before the end of May, sending a summary of their ideas back to [email protected], these ideas will then be shared more widely and reflected in future CPD sessions.

3 Communication with families Too often families report having to chase up workers for information. Holding initial supervisions and multi-agency meetings in a timely way is an important step to ensure that families will be supported to have realistic expectations of services from the beginning, as they often report feeling confused or surprised by timeframes or processes. 4 Making intervention purposeful and avoiding drift Improvements around plans being consistently SMART need to continue to embed, and different plans for children need to be better integrated to ensure that everyone is clear on the outcomes that are being worked towards and what different services are contributing. The CPC team continue to provide support in this area and build on workshops recently delivered in the County Managers Meeting. Supervision also needs to ensure that intervention is purposeful; for example: are meetings and visits being held at appropriate frequencies? Do carers have up to date Personal Development Plans? Do chronologies support an understanding of past history? Is there appropriate placement planning? Are we clear on all the professionals involved and working as collaboratively as possible, eg planning joint visits, inviting the right people to meetings, contributing to risk panels? Are EHCPs reflecting our contributions and challenging this if they are not? 5 Purposeful Supervision Supervisions need to be held at a frequency that is appropriate to the risk and need of the family. Too many supervisions are being held outside the timeframes set out in our Practice Standards. Given the level of risk and pace of change in some families, supervision that is happening less than every three months risks workers managing without the space to reflect and be guided around the interventions they are providing. Managers and leaders also need to ensure that the record is an accurate reflection of what was discussed in supervision, avoiding copying and past- ing information from other documents or previous supervisions.

Listening to families The first quarterly review of themes from feedback from families was completed in March 2021. The focus for this first cycle was children with a recent child in need plan. Families have told us how much they value the support they are offered and the importance of good communication with them and the wider professional group. Families broadly speak positively about the support they have had to improve the care of their children and can see that their strengths and progress is being acknowledged. “for my older child Listening to the experiences of children and families is the support we critically important for guiding service improvements. All teams now need to reflect feedback from families in their received changed Team Action Plan and should be using the Multi-Purpose her life.\" Feedback Form on LCS/ EHM to record feedback. Over the next quarter IROs and CPCs will be focusing on gathering feedback for looked after children who are aged 16-17. Moving forwards Route1 Advocacy and Independent Visitors will also be sharing themes that children share with them around what they value about the services they have received and what they would like to be different.

Fathers are still telling us they feel less listened to than mothers, although we have been making some improvements in this area.

What the data is telling us 6% 6% Outstanding 6% 17% 32 Good 51% 50% 7 Fostering 51% Mainstream Requires improvement 36% 33% 36% Inadequate 6% Practice Evaluations Jan - March 2021 7% Outstanding 7% Outstanding 17% Good 36% 15 FIS Good 33% Requires improvement 57% 57% 36% Requires improvement 50% Inadequate 0% Inadequate 0%

What the data is telling us 6% 2.5% Outstanding 6% 2.5% Good 31% Requires improvement 63% Inadequate 0% 63% 16 FIS 31% 40 45% 50% Mainstream Practice Evaluations Sept – Dec 2020 Outstanding 2.5% 70% Good 45% Requires improvement 50% Outstanding 0% 30% 10 Fostering 36% Inadequate 2.5% Good 70% Requires improvement 30% Inadequate 0% All teams now have access to the Practice Evaluation dashboard which can be used to understand the outcomes of Practice Evaluations.

Somerset County Council County Hall Taunton Somerset TA1 4DY www.somerset.gov.uk 0300 123 2224