The target for 2014/15 (annual measure) for the percentage of children looked after on 31 March who have had three or more placements during the year was 9.5% (lower is better). Conwy’s actual performance for 2015/16 was 10.6%, as 18 children out of a total of 170, had moved placement twice or more during the year.

Stability of placements is quantified through the performance indicator SCC/004 “The percentage of children looked after on 31 March who have had three or more placements during the year.” The target is 9.5%. (Lower is better).

Conwy’s actual performance for 2014/15 was 11.4%, as 18 children out of a total of 158, had moved placement twice or more during the year.

For 2015/16, performance improved to 10.6%, (18 children out of 170).

Some of the placement moves which have counted against us for the purposes of the indicator are; between Residential Placements and Secure Units, rehabilitation plans back to parents or friends/family, bringing children back into “in-house” Foster Care, and moves from high-cost residential placements to Glan yr Afon; all of which were deemed to be in the child’s best interests.

Detailed analysis of 2015/16 data reveals a large number of young people with high level and complex needs. The majority of children in care in Conwy have stable placements. Of the 138 children in Foster Care placements[1] in 2014/15, 113 remained in the same placement throughout the entire year, 20 had one placement move, and 4 had two placement moves. Only 1 had three moves.

A ‘Placement Strategy 2015-18’ has been developed which includes recommendations to monitor placement moves and breakdowns in a more robust and analytical manner.  The data will be reviewed on a regular basis with additional qualitative data to be provided by Team Managers as to why moves have taken place.

[1] This excludes those in Kinship care. A kinship carer is an adult who is looking after the child or children of a relative or friend on a full time basis.

The target for the percentage of young people formerly looked after with whom the authority is in contact, who are known to be engaged in education, training or employment at the age of 19 is 55%.

This is measured by SCC/033(f) “The percentage of young people formerly looked after with whom the authority is in contact, who are known to be engaged in education, training or employment at the age of 19.”

In 2014/15 the target figure was 55%.  We achieved 64%. (9 out of 14 Care Leavers)

The figure for 2015/16 was 54.17% (13 out of 24 Care leavers), which is below target but within the tolerance level.

It should be noted that as the numbers are so small, just one or two cases can affect the percentage drastically.

Performance in this area had been highlighted by CSSIW in the past, and Conwy put together a comprehensive action plan to address the difficulties.

This included collaboration with:

• Career’s Wales (Requested a TRAC officer to be dedicated to Care Leavers)
• Llandrillo College (Monthly monitoring meetings)
• the ‘Let’s Get Working’ programme, and
• Conwy’s Education Department
• HR providing work opportunities and apprenticeships
• Regular NEET panels to ensure that we keep up to date with developments.

Cohorts of future Care Leavers are now being monitored closely and the monthly panels are helping to improve performance in this important area.

Work to enhance recruitment of Foster Cares has progressed internally with a specific Foster Care recruitment project which has led to the development of a new marketing, recruitment and retention strategy. Progress is also being made on a regional level.

Fostering in Conwy has been re-branded, with new imagery, booklets, web pages, social media channels and promotional videos. It is hoped that the new campaign will attract 15 new Foster Carers annually.

Regionally, there have been developments around sharing capacity across the region, particularly around marketing, recruitment, assessment, agreement around fee structures, and support for Connected Persons (A relative, friend or other person connected with a child. The latter is someone who would not fit the term ‘relative or friend’, but who has a pre-existing relationship with the child.”)

Timeliness of initial assessments has decreased overall during 2015-16, however, there is improvement during the year on a quarterly basis. 

An initial assessment is defined as a brief assessment of a child referred to social services with a request for services to be provided.  Performance is monitored by the statutory measure “The percentage of initial assessments completed within 7 working days”. The target for this measure is 80%.

2013/14	2014/15	2015/16
82.1%	79.2%	76.1%

Whilst the performance during 2015-16 has seen a drop, we can see an overall trend of improvement across the year.

Q1 2015/16	Q2 2015/16	Q3 2015/16		Q4 2015/16
65.2%	80.7%	82.5%		77%

The steady improvement in performance can be attributed to the detailed action plan implemented across the Service.

This measure is linked with SCC/006 – “decisions made on referrals within 1 working day”. Any delay on initial decision making, has an inevitable impact on the chances of completing the assessment within 7 days. Actions taken include:

• Capacity was increased to ensure swift decision making on referrals Assigning additional staff helped to reduce the risk of delays
• Monthly monitoring meetings were held with the Head of Service, to continually monitor the performance
• Regular audits conducted by the Quality Standards team identified good practice and led to action plans to address development needs

Part (b) of this indicator – ‘SCC/042(b) – the average number of days taken to complete Initial Assessments which were greater than 7 working days’, also demonstrates an improvement in performance. The average number of days taken to complete an Initial Assessment is now back down to 10 days (as opposed to 16 days at year-end). This also suggests that practice is improving with reduced delay in completing the assessment process.

We have improved upon our core assessment performance to date compared to last year, and have consistently exceeded the target in every quarter.

A core assessment is required to be completed within 35 days of the need for one being identified when Section 47 enquiries are initiated, when a child becomes looked after or when the initial assessment has identified that a further, more detailed assessment should be undertaken.

SCC/043(a) The percentage of required core assessments completed within 35 working days. The locally agreed target is 75%.

Performance regarding core assessments has consistently exceeded the target figure through 2015-16.

Q1 = 81.0%, Q2 = 88.5%, Q3 = 79.4% Q4 = 82.7%

Although we are exceeding the target with this measure, we wish to improve further.

The majority of assessments which took longer than 35 working days to complete, were only a couple of days out of timescale. This will be monitored closely over the next reporting period.