The Group Manager IAA Service and Safeguarding submitted a report, that detailed the work undertaken by the Independent Reviewing Service between April 2022-March 2023, in line with The Independent Reviewing Officers Guidance (Wales) 2004.

The report set out the legislative framework that governs the work undertaken by the Independent Reviewing Service.

She explained that primarily, the Independent Reviewing Officer’s (IRO) role is to ensure the child’s care plan is appropriate and meeting their developing needs and, that they challenge any issues of delay in achieving the objectives of the care plan and/or any issues of delay. The role has a strong emphasis on quality assurance and challenging the local authority when they are not satisfied in areas of decision making.

The IRO’s in Bridgend also undertake the chairing of Child Protection Conferences, where their role is to ensure professionals make important decisions based on evidence and safeguarding procedures. Most importantly explained the Group Manager IAA Service and Safeguarding, the IRO Service must ensure the child’s voice is central to decision making and that they are informed of their rights and their circumstances.

There is a strong focus on qualitative data in the annual report and compliance rates, but also, strengthened processes and how the service has met the annual plan objectives.

The report further considers how the service has responded to increased demand and rising numbers of children subject to the Child Protection registration and what is being done to reduce this figure.

The report also sets out the improvements made in relation to the child’s voice being central to decision making and how the significant increase in referrals to advocacy are supporting this.

The Group Manager IAA Service and Safeguarding stated that the updated Annual Plan could be read at the final section of the report in Appendix 1 to the covering report, and this highlighted the aims for the next reporting period.

Appendix 1 therefore covered the work of the IRO service from April 2022 to March 2023. The report contained performance information in respect of the statutory reviewing of children who are Care Experienced, including children with plans for Adoption and Young People with Leaving Care LAC/Pathway Plans (under 18) by Bridgend County Borough Council. It also included information on children subject of a child protection plan and reviews of these plans at Child Protection Case Conferences.

This report further included information that related to regulatory requirements in respect of resolution of case disputes, IRO caseloads, participation and consultation of young people in their Reviews, challenges and achievements in the reporting period, and service priorities for 2023-2024.

The Group Manager IAA Service and Safeguarding outlined, that as described in the report the IRO’s chaired/reviewed 406 (51% increase) Initial Child Protection Case Conferences between April 2022 and March 2023 compared to 200 the previous year. A total of 659 Review Child Protection Case Conferences (RCPC) between April 2022 and March 2023 were convened compared to 508 (23% increase) in the previous reporting period. All RCPCs were held within the statutory timescales. In this reporting period, 1,125 Care Experienced review meetings were held between April 2022 and March 2023 compared with 1,159 the previous year. This reduction is mainly as a result of greater placement stability.

She explained that following each meeting the IRO completes a quality assurance audit.  The Audit is available to the Social Worker and the Team Manager to notify them of outstanding work/actions.  The audit supports the IRO in the tracking of the case and supports the identification of good practice and areas for improvement.  The audit also supports the Team Manager when carrying out supervision with the Social Worker.

Previous work had been undertaken to improve the consultation document for children and young people. However, very low response rates were still experienced. The introduction of Microsoft Teams has enabled a greater number of young people to attend their meetings, particularly their Care Experienced Review meetings. The introduction of Signs of Safety will place much greater emphasis on participation and it is expected that this will be reflected in the data.

The report did highlight a significant increase in referrals for advocacy which supports and captures the voice, wishes and feelings of the children and young people worked with.

The IRO service continues to work with the safeguarding teams, education, the Health Visiting services, School Nurses and Midwifery Services to improve practice around child protection conferences. The next stage is to work at improving the quality of Looked After Children reviews on a multi-agency basis. The IRO Service Manager in this period has facilitated training on the Wales Safeguarding Procedures and partner agencies are included in the roll out of the Signs of Safety practice model and the training for this.

The Group Manager IAA Service and Safeguarding, assured that  continuous service improvement is always sought after and as such the IRO Service aims to continue to have a greater impact in terms of improving the quality of the lives of care experienced children and young people.

She also gave a power point presentation on the Independent Reviewing Service Annual Report for the above period, giving a resume for the benefit of Members, of the key points that came out of this, some of which are highlighted above.

The Chairperson thanked the Group Manager IAA Service and Safeguarding for the report, which she felt made for excellent reading. She then opened up the meeting for questions and these together with the responses of Officers can be located via the following link

RESOLVED:                                 That the Corporate Parenting Committee noted the report and the IRO Service Action Plan.