The Independent Reviewing Service Manager provided a report to Corporate Parenting Committee in line with the Independent Reviewing Officers Guidance (Wales) 2004. The report covered the period April 2020 to March 2021, just as the pandemic started and this presented a number of challenges across the Council.

The Independent Reviewing Service Manager explained that the Independent Reviewing Service had had some real successes within that time. They were able to keep a very high level of compliance in terms of Child Protection Case Conferences and Looked After Children reviews. The  IRO’s chaired/reviewed 195 Initial Child Protection Case Conferences between April 2020 and March 2021 compared to 235 in the previous year. A total of 518 Review Child Protection Case Conferences between

April 2020 and March 2021 were convened compared to 595 in the previous reporting period and 1,159 Looked After Child review meetings were held between April 2020 and March 2021 compared with 1,191 the previous reporting period. They had to take on a completely new way of working, utilising new technologies to ensure that everybody who participated in conferences and LAC reviews could take part. She was pleased to report the level of compliance in terms of those meetings and that COVID had not stopped consultation.

The Independent Reviewing Service Manager explained that Conference Chairs consulting with children who were party to a Child Protection Conference was an area they were working to improve. They successfully overcame various challenges to enable parents to take part in all conferences and LAC reviews and often had to be quite pragmatic and think outside the box. They were now undertaking all midpoint reviews across the board for all care experienced children as per the standards, and that was an achievement as not all local authorities had been able to do that. The Independent Reviewing Officers continued to undertake quality assurance exercises after every single meeting to provide a wealth of information to identify what was outstanding and help the Team Manager to make sure that they were aware of what work needed to be done. The number of children on the Child Protection Register and those that were looked after, fluctuated over the period but did remain stable. It was lower at the date of the meeting than it was in that period but pleasing to see that the numbers had not increased. Another real positive was that they had managed to significantly reduce the number of children that had been on the Child Protection Register for over 18 months which at its highest had been 44 children but it was currently 8. Various processes had been implemented to bring the figure down and it was really positive and not just due to the Independent Reviewing Service but due to Team Managers, the Principal Officer and everybody working together to really move the cases on.

The Independent Reviewing Service Manager explained that there were various new processes in place to ensure coordinated working and she was working very closely with the Safeguarding Officer looking at ways that they could develop their escalation of concerns process and that was working well. They had greater use of case mapping and family group conferencing supporting families and helping to bring those numbers of children on the register for a long period of time. Also over the same period, the Independent Reviewing Service received no complaints and they had managed to maintain stability in the team.

The Independent Reviewing Service Manager explained that there was a full time Team Manager, four full-time and four part-time IRO positions. In this period one part-time IRO has been on maternity leave. The service had experienced higher levels of sick leave compared to the last report and this had a significant impact on IRO caseloads and the use of agency IROs. They had one agency member of staff that had been really helpful and they had agreement for two additional posts currently being advertised.

The Independent Reviewing Service Manager concurred with the comments made by the Group Manager, Placements and Provider Services about the work of the reunification workers. There was a new process in place to get them involved at an earlier stage when a placement had been identified as being unstable and that was working well.

The Independent Reviewing Service Manager explained that in terms of figures, as a comparison from today to the period covered by the report, the LAC population was 375 and the number of children on the Child Protection Register was 173, the lowest it had been for a very long time

The Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and future Generations was pleased to see that the Conferences had taken place and asked if this was an opportunity to bring them forward and if the service was more or less efficient. She also asked what partners contributed and if relationships had improved.

The Independent Reviewing Service Manager replied that the timescales were set out in legislation and they did not bring them forward but they ensured that they were within the timescales. If the risk had reduced then they could bring them forward. They had not seen a difference in terms of efficiency but it was quite rigid in terms of legislation. Partnership working had improved and they made sure all the agencies were fully onboard.

The Chairperson was pleased to hear about hybrid working and asked if the team had enough time to process the information in between. 

The Independent Reviewing Service Manager replied that they had talked at length about the importance of reflecting and with 2 more IRO’s in the teams, there would be more opportunity to check in, to reflect, offload and discuss.

The Chairperson thanked the team for working above and beyond on traumatic and complex cases.

The Leader said he was pleased to see the action points were green. He was aware they were under acute pressure at the moment and pleased to see additional capacity and asked what action they would be taking in terms of safeguarding children. There were areas where they needed to make rapid improvements and was there anything they could do to help. He asked for information regarding the process from the first point of contact. 

The Independent Reviewing Service Manager replied that a case would come to MASH and  a decision would be made if a Child Protection Conference had be convened and she would be informed of this. She would do a quick audit to look at the suitability of that case and if there were immediate concerns  she would discuss them with the Team Manager, Social Worker and the Chairperson. The first audit started at that point when they checked if all the steps had been followed correctly and if not they would address it. They would then do an outline child protection plan which was crucial in ensuring that the case was going to progress in the right way. The reviewed guidance was important in terms of the role of the Chairperson and put a lot more emphasis on the Chairperson, tracking and monitoring. There was also a very good escalation process in place thanks to the Principal Officer, Case Management. If she or the Chairperson escalated concerns to him, he would work with other people to map out a course of action. He had consultations with the social worker and sometimes the team manager to look at why some cases were stuck and then would take action to move them on. This had been fundamental in moving cases and bringing down the number of children on the Child Protection Register.

The Corporate Director for Social Services and Wellbeing stressed that the essential role of the IRO service was to provide quality assurance for their practice, and that was a real safety net in terms of the challenges around child protection and safeguarding work to ensure the service was stable, well led and managed.  They were increasing capacity in the service because it was critically important that the caseloads in the IRO service were closer to the level of best practice. She paid tribute to the Independent Reviewing Service Manager in terms of the work that she had been doing to support some of the challenges they had.

The Chairperson added that she was really encouraged to hear that there would be an IRO following a child. One of the biggest criticisms of children's social work was that they changed the social workers too often and would have to start all over again which could be very disruptive.

RESOLVED:             The Corporate Parenting Committee noted the report and the IRO Service Action plan