As part of the Quality Assurance Framework in the Safeguarding Unit, after each Child Protection Conference and Looked after Child Review meeting, the Chairperson completes an online audit tool.
For the Child Protection Conference, the audit tool focuses on the following practice areas:
- Engagement with the Child and Family prior to conference
- Quality of Reports presented
- Overall Quality of Child Protection Work
For the LAC Review Meeting, the online audit tool focuses on the following practice areas:
- Engagement with the Child and Family prior to the review meeting
- Quality of Reports presented at the Review meeting
- Attendance at the Review meeting
- Was the Care Plan being progressed and meeting the child’s needs
A highlight report is completed by the Safeguarding Unit, the report is presented to the Head of Service, Service Managers meeting and at the Section/ Team Managers meeting.
The highlight report identified areas of good practice and areas for improvement.
In relation to Child Protection, the department has been able to identify the following good practice areas
- The general quality of social worker reports for conference was good.
- The quality of the reports from Health Authority for conference are consistently of a good quality with detailed content.
- Engagement with Children and Young People at case conference was improving
The timeliness of conference reports being shared with the Safeguarding Unit was identified as an area for improvement.
In relation to the LAC review process, the audits have identified the following good practice areas:
- There continues to be evidence of good levels of engagement with the Child/ Young Person at the Review Meeting. Views are recorded at the meeting.
- Improvement in relation to timeliness around permanency planning
The audit reports have identified areas of improvement to be made in relation to attendance of partner agencies at LAC reviews. The Safeguarding Unit have met with the respective Senior Managers in these agencies to look at ways of improving attendance.
The highlight reports also provided quantitative data and the number of cases where the Escalation Policy has had to be followed.