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Agenda item

Edge of Care Services

Minutes:

The Group Manager Family Support presented a report which updated Cabinet Committee Corporate Parenting on the work of Bridgend County Borough Council’s Edge of Care Service.

 

He explained that the Edge of Care Service is a multi-agency, intensive intervention team consisting of 24 staff from a range of professional backgrounds including:

 

  • social workers;
  • a mental health nurse;
  • a health visitor;
  • a specialist substance misuse worker; and
  • family support workers.

 

He provided further background on the specialist teams within the Edge of Care service which included Connecting Families, Baby in Mind, Integrated Family Support Service, Rapid Response, Dads’ Support Team and the Rise team. Further information was at section 3 of the report.

 

The Group Manager Family Support highlighted the positive outcomes of the edge of care service in that over the last five years it has been successful in preventing over 92% of the children they support from entering the care system consistently year on year. Since April 2020, edge of care services in Bridgend, with relatively small resources, have supported 827 children and their families, and over 94% have been prevented from becoming care experienced (this data excludes any data on Rise). Table 1 of the report provided a breakdown of these figures each year.

 

The Leader welcomed the report and asked in relation to the Rise service had any feedback been provided on the impact of this service, albeit that it was a new service. The Edge of Care Services Team Manager explained that there was no feedback as of yet from the six families that we were currently working, however there was feedback from professionals which had been positive and had allowed care to be provided at a faster rate than what would have been possible without the service.

 

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing highlighted the importance of the needs assessment and how that provides the details we need as an authority to provide effective services. She added that the child protection register was at an all time high in Bridgend and that the review of their operating models was an important piece of work going forward which included edge of care services as part of that review. She also added that the WCCIS system can be further utilised in driving performance and this was something that also needed to be looked into.

 

The Chief Executive stated that the financial settlement for next year looks challenging and this further highlighted the importance of ensuring the services we were delivering and investing in were as effective as they could be. He asked for further information on the independent review that was taking place and what details could emerge from that as it was important to understand the challenges we face and how best we deal with them.

 

The Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing explained that the IPC had been appointed as an improvement partner, the first piece of work that they had been commissioned for was review our front door arrangements and the report on this was being considered today by the Corporate Management Board. The next staged was to look at how we operate in localities which will look at unprecedented contacts into the council, unprecedented levels of need which was currently being managed through the Child Protection register. These reviews will help us better understand what improvements were needed from an operations standpoint.

 

RESOLVED: That the Committee:

 

  • Considered the contents of the report; and
  • Considered the continued investment identified in further developing the proven service models.

 

Supporting documents:

 

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