TORBAY SCUMBAGS BAD OFSTED REPORT. WE WATCHING YOU

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/local-authorities/torbay



Inspection of safeguarding and
looked after children services
Torbay
Inspection dates 13-24 September
Reporting inspector Pat O’Brien HMI
Age group: All
Published: 22 October 2010
© Crown copyright 2010
Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk
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Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 1
Contents
About this inspection 2
The inspection judgements and what they mean 2
Service information 3
The inspection outcomes: Safeguarding services 5
Overall effectiveness 5
Capacity for improvement 5
Areas for improvement 6
Outcomes for children and young people 8
The effectiveness of services in taking reasonable steps to ensure that
children and young people are safe 8
The effectiveness of services in taking reasonable steps to ensure that
children and young people feel safe 9
The quality of provision 10
Leadership and management 15
The inspection outcomes: services for looked after children 24
Overall effectiveness 24
Capacity for improvement 24
Areas for improvement 25
Outcomes for children and young people 26
The quality of provision 32
Leadership and management 34
Record of main findings: 37
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 2
About this inspection
1. The purpose of the inspection is to evaluate the contribution made by
relevant services in the local area towards ensuring that children and
young people are properly safeguarded and to determine the quality of
service provision for looked after children and care leavers. The
inspection team consisted of three of Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI),
one additional inspector and one inspector from the Care Quality
Commission. The inspection was carried out under the Children Act
2004.
2. The evidence evaluated by inspectors included:
􀂃 discussions with children and young people receiving services, front
line managers, senior officers including the Director of Children’s
Services, the Chief Executive of Torbay Care Trust, the Chief Executive
of Devon Partnership Trust, the Associate Director of Nursing and
Midwifery (South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust) and the
Chair of the Local Safeguarding Children Board, elected members, and
a range of community representatives;
􀂃 analysing and evaluating reports from a variety of sources including a
review of the Children and Young People’s Plan, performance data,
information from the inspection of local settings such as schools,
Torbay Hospital, local health care services and day care provision, and
the evaluations of a serious case review undertaken by Ofsted in
accordance with ‘Working Together To Safeguard Children’, 2006;
􀂃 a review of 50 case files for children and young people with a range of
needs. This provided a view of services provided over time and the
quality of reporting, recording and decision making undertaken;
􀂃 the outcomes of the most recent annual unannounced inspection of
local authority contact, assessment and referral centres undertaken in
May 2010.
The inspection judgements and what they
mean
3. All inspection judgements are made using the following four point scale.
Outstanding (Grade 1) A service that significantly
exceeds minimum
requirements
Good (Grade 2) A service that exceeds
minimum requirements
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 3
Adequate (Grade 3) A service that only meets
minimum requirements
Inadequate (Grade 4) A service that does not meet
minimum requirements
Service information
4. Torbay lies on the south coast of Devon and contains the towns of
Torquay, Paignton and Brixham. It has 27,342 children and young
people under the age of 19 years. This is 20.4% of the total population
in the area. The proportion entitled to free school meals is 15.7%
Almost all of the population is White British with only 1.2% of the
population from minority ethnic groups. The proportion of pupils with
English as an additional language is well below national figures. The
largest minority ethnic group is Polish, with a long established
community in South Devon.
5. The Torbay Children’s Trust has been established since 2005. Its
structure was reviewed after the current Director of Children’s Services
(DCS) took up post in January 2009. New arrangements were put in
place consisting of a Children’s Trust Delivery Board, with a very wide
membership drawn from the key statutory agencies including Torbay
children’s services, Torbay Care Trust, the police, schools, probation and
representatives from the voluntary sector. The Delivery Board reports to
the Children’s Trust Commissioning Board comprising a small group of
the key statutory resource holders. Torbay Safeguarding Children Board
(TSCB) is chaired by an independent chair and brings together the main
organisations working with children, young people and families in Torbay
to deliver safeguarding services.
6. Commissioning and planning of health services are carried out by Torbay
Care Trust NHS (TCT), which is the local Primary Care Trust. The main
provider of acute hospital services is South Devon Healthcare NHS
Foundation Trust (SDHFT). Learning disability and Child and Adolescent
Mental Health Services (CAMHS) are provided by Torbay Care Trust NHS
in conjunction with Torbay Borough Council children’s services. Inpatient
CAMHS is provided by both NHS Plymouth and NHS Somerset.
Adult mental health services are provided by Devon Partnership Trust.
7. Children’s social care services have 59 fostering households and no local
authority children’s residential care homes. Residential services and
additional foster placements are commissioned from registered and
approved independent providers. Community-based social care services
are provided by one intake team, one family intervention team, one
permanency planning team, one care to community team supporting
care leavers and an accommodation service covering fostering, adoption
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 4
and private fostering. Other family support services are delivered
through seven children’s centres, one family centre, a number of
targeted multi-agency projects and a range of specialist projects
delivered through the voluntary sector.
8. At the time of the inspection there were 185 looked after children. They
comprise 40 under five years of age, 133 children and young people of
school age (5-16) and 12 looked after young people between ages 17 to
18. The council and its partners support 144 care leavers
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The inspection outcomes: Safeguarding
services
Overall effectiveness Grade 4 (inadequate)
9. The overall effectiveness of the council and its partners in safeguarding
and promoting the welfare of children and young people in Torbay is
inadequate. There is no track record of achieving continuous
improvement in service provision and outcomes. Serious deficiencies in
the quality of social work practice were identified by external consultants
commissioned by the council over 14 months ago and it was concluded
that the arrangements for protecting children at risk of harm were not
consistently safe. This was reported to the Children’s Trust Boards, the
TSCB and elected members. Actions were taken to resolve the difficulties
based on a detailed improvement plan. Nevertheless the unannounced
inspection of contact, referral and assessment arrangements undertaken
by Ofsted in May 2010 also identified serious concerns regarding the
quality of practice which left children and young people at risk. While
further improvements have been made to some key processes and
systems since May 2010, this has not yet led to improved outcomes for
children and young people.
10. Overall, progress in achieving improvements is too slow and some
children and young people are still being left at risk of significant harm.
In some cases examined by inspectors, immediate risks of harm to
children and young people had not been identified; in others where risks
of harm had been identified there were long delays in completing section
47 child protection investigations. As a result, appropriate steps had not
been taken to safeguard the children leaving them at risk. In some cases
the well-being and safety of children and young people already subject
to a child protection plan were not monitored effectively as there were
long gaps in social work visits. The strategic boards responsible for
driving forward and delivering children’s services have not embedded a
culture of performance management across the partnership. Quality
assurance systems are not sufficiently developed at either strategic or
operational levels to ensure consistent performance monitoring of service
delivery and outcomes for children and young people.
Capacity for improvement Grade 4 (inadequate)
11. Capacity for improvement is inadequate. The council and its partners
have clear and appropriate plans to improve the quality of safeguarding,
but the evidence of impact is limited. Despite some improvements to
processes and systems, performance in key areas of safeguarding has
deteriorated. Action has been taken to improve capacity and capability
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 6
but there is a heavy reliance on temporary staff both in key senior
management positions and in operational posts. This does not provide
the stability needed to ensure improved performance. Caseloads for
some social workers are too high and affect the quality of safeguarding
and child protection work. The training needs across all staff working
with children and families are not sufficiently identified to inform training
plans and training take up is not robustly monitored. A systematic
analysis of staffing capacity within the children’s social care service has
not been completed. Within the health community, analysis of staffing
capacity has been undertaken in both community provider services and
in the acute trust. This has resulted in clear action plans, for example the
Torbay Hospital accident and emergency department has plans to
provide more trained children’s staff. Health visiting capacity is being
increased through the support of a staff nurse and nursery nurses, four
of whom are undertaking their health visitor training. However it is too
early to measure the impact on the lives and service provision for
children and young people.
Areas for improvement
12. In order to improve the quality of provision and services for safeguarding
children and young people in Torbay, the local authority and its partners
should take the following action:
Immediately
􀂃 Ensure that all referrals are responded to appropriately, that risks to
children and young people are consistently identified, and that
section 47 child protection investigations are undertaken promptly
and thoroughly and lead to immediate steps to ensure children and
young people are safeguarded where necessary.
􀂃 Review the reasons for the significant deterioration in the timeliness
of initial child protection conferences and take appropriate action to
improve this performance.
􀂃 Ensure that assessments are completed within expected timescales,
that all assessments are informed by historical information including
previous involvement with other local authorities, and that
conclusions and recommendations regarding future action are based
on a clear, critical, considered and well balanced analysis of the
identified risks and needs.
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 7
􀂃 Continue to improve the quality of management oversight and
ensure that the quality of management decision making is based on
evidence, focused on outcomes and recorded clearly on case files.
􀂃 Ensure that supervision is used effectively to make certain that staff
are held accountable for their work and appropriately supported and
challenged.
􀂃 Ensure that children and young people are always seen within the
agreed timescales, that their views are sought and clearly recorded
and if they are not seen alone, that the reasons for this are made
clear.
􀂃 Improve the tracking system for monitoring allegations against
carers and staff working with children and young people and ensure
it is effectively implemented.
􀂃 Introduce children in need plans and ensure they are focused on
outcomes and regularly reviewed by managers.
􀂃 Ensure full engagement in Multi-Agency Public Protection
Arrangements by children’s social care.
Within three months
􀂃 Complete a robust analysis of social work capacity within the intake
and family intervention teams to ascertain the number of social
worker posts needed to enable cases to be effectively progressed
and ensure that plans and activity for the recruitment and retention
of social workers are further developed and adapted to deliver
additional capacity if needed.
􀂃 Ensure that the Torbay Safeguarding Children Board develops and
implements a work plan and introduces a multi-agency quality
assurance framework to improve its focus on outcomes.
􀂃 Ensure that the findings from case file audits across agencies are
regularly collated and are included in performance management
reports to senior managers within the council, elected members and
the Torbay Safeguarding Children Board and that immediate action is
taken to resolve any identified practice issues and/or the underlying
reasons for these.
􀂃 Ensure all child protection plans are clearly focused on outcomes.
􀂃 Implement quality assurance of assessments completed under the
common assessment framework, and ensure outcomes are evaluated
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 8
collated and reported to senior managers in the council and in
partner agencies.
􀂃 Ensure representation from health and education in the Missing
Children’s Forum and establish clear links, accountability and
reporting mechanisms to senior managers and boards.
􀂃 Ensure that the take up of safeguarding training across all agencies
is carefully monitored and reported on, that gaps are identified and
addressed, and that training needs analyses are completed to inform
training plans.
􀂃 Ensure that actions arising from serious case reviews are all
implemented within the identified timescales.
Within six months
􀂃 The Torbay Safeguarding Children Board to raise its profile across
agencies and the public in Torbay, to ensure its role in holding
agencies to account and driving improvement in safeguarding is
understood.
􀂃 The voluntary sector to implement an effective communication
strategy to ensure that all voluntary agencies are made aware of the
work of the Torbay Safeguarding Children Board and know how to
communicate with it.
Outcomes for children and young people
The effectiveness of services in taking reasonable
steps to ensure that children and young people are
safe Grade 4 (inadequate)
13. Children’s services and their partners are failing to ensure that children
and young people at risk of significant harm are safe. Serious
weaknesses within child protection systems have been known for over 14
months, but until very recently there has been a lack of pace in effecting
improvement. The TSCB has strengthened its accountability
arrangements but its profile is still too low across the partnership and it
is insufficiently focused on driving improvement in safeguarding
outcomes for children and young people.
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 9
14. The accident and emergency (A&E) department of the hospital in Torbay
provided by the SDHFT has a good system in place for identifying any
child or young person attending for whom there are safeguarding
concerns. This system operates across all sites in the locality where
emergency or urgent care can be received in the area to enable staff to
identify and safeguard children and young people. The waiting area in
A&E, however, has no specific or protected area for children; although
there is a marked out play area, there remains a risk to their safety,
especially when the area is at its busiest. Currently, there is limited and
inadequate provision for the examination of children and young people
who may have been victims of sexual assault. The health partnership has
plans to resolve this aiming to provide a full and sustainable service by
March 2011.
15. A number of successful council wide and multi-agency initiatives have
been set up to promote the safety of young people, such as the youth
homelessness panel and Operation Staysafe, which works to identify and
provide early intervention to vulnerable young people who are out on the
streets unsupervised late at night. The recent development of the sexual
health service is helping to educate and protect young people from risky
and inappropriate behaviours. However, it is too soon to see its impact
on the teenage pregnancy and termination rates. The development of
the council’s targeted mental health service in schools is also working to
improve the mental and emotional well-being of young people; again, it
is too early to see the impact of this service
16. Schools inspected by Ofsted in 2009/10 were all found to be at least
satisfactory for safeguarding, and one was outstanding. Children’s
services commissioners of placements for looked after children make use
of Ofsted inspection reports and carry out additional checks to ensure
that placements are of good quality.
The effectiveness of services in taking reasonable
steps to ensure that children and young people feel
safe Grade 3 (adequate)
17. The effectiveness of services to ensure that children and young people
feel safe is adequate. The views of children and young people have been
sought on a wide range of issues by the council and its partners, and
there is good evidence of impact. For example, the development of the
Children and Young People’s Plan was based on widespread consultation
through school surveys and meetings and a specific consultation event,
‘Our Bay Our Say’. There is evidence of the outcomes from this
consultation influencing the identified priorities. Young people have also
influenced the design of youth facilities and the location of access points
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 10
for services. Young people had good input into the design and
presentation of the Healthwize shops in the bay, which provide universal
and targeted health promotion and advice to children and young people
to enable them to be aware of, and how to manage, the risks
18. Most children and young people responding to surveys and spoken to by
inspectors said they felt very or quite safe in school and in the area
where they live. Young people are generally happy living in Torbay, have
good friends and someone to talk to when worried. Young carers are
well supported through a service commissioned from a voluntary sector
agency and gain confidence from the service that they receive.
19. Young people, led by members of the Youth Parliament, have been very
effective in securing low cost bus travel for 16-19 year olds in the
evenings and they are passionate about their work to improve awareness
among all young people of sexual health and of what to do if they are
being bullied.
20. Case files and assessment and planning documents do not demonstrate
that children and young people’s views are consistently obtained and
taken into account. It is not always possible to tell if social workers have
seen young people alone where appropriate to do so. As a result, it is
not possible to determine if these children and young people feel safe.
The quality of provision Grade 4 (inadequate)
21. Overall the quality of provision in safeguarding services is inadequate. At
the instigation of the DCS an independent review of safeguarding
practice within children’s social care services in Torbay was undertaken
and presented to the TSCB, the Children’s Trust Commissioning Board,
the Children’s Trust Delivery Board, the Commissioning Officers Group,
Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Cabinet in June 2009. It
concluded that the arrangements for protecting children at risk of harm
in Torbay could not be judged consistently safe for all children. This
remains the case. Children and young people at risk of significant harm
are not being effectively safeguarded. A number of cases examined by
inspectors raised concerns about the progress of child protection section
47 investigations and about the quality of assessments and management
oversight. Inspectors found cases where children and young people had
been left at risk of harm for some considerable time. Recent
improvements to processes and systems have been implemented;
management oversight is beginning to improve, cases are transferred
appropriately between teams and the backlog of unallocated cases from
earlier in the year has been allocated to social workers. Thus far, the full
extent of the concerns within these recently allocated cases is not yet
known by the council.
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 11
22. The quality of service responsiveness, including complaints, is adequate.
Clear and appropriate guidance criteria on thresholds for access to
children’s social care services are in place and agreed with partners.
Professionals have been trained in understanding and applying
thresholds in line with the guidance and have ready access to advice
from children’s social care services and from common assessment
framework (CAF) mentors when they are unsure if thresholds are met in
individual cases. The co-location of the named nurse for the Torbay Care
Trust within children’s social care services also facilitates this discussion.
In a small number of cases, when agreement has not been reached and
concerns remain, named professionals in health and other agencies have
made use of the escalation procedure to resolve issues; however this has
not worked successfully in every case. The planned introduction of the
multi-agency safeguarding hub involving children’s social care services,
health and the police is intended to further facilitate and promote a
timely and comprehensive multi-agency response to referrals.
23. Although the children’s services electronic recording system has been
installed at A&E at SDHFT, lines of communication between A&E services
at SDHFT and children and young people’s services do not always work
well to enable full sharing of information where there are possible
concerns about a child’s safety.
24. Professionals, including midwives, health visitors, school nurses and
teachers, are very positive about the use of the CAF. Staff across all
agencies have been trained in using the framework and 130 staff have
been trained as lead professionals. Health practitioners say they would
benefit from more training. The temporary appointment in 2008 of four
CAF mentors who will finish in 2011 has helped to develop confidence in
the use of the CAF. However attempts to introduce the eCAF system
were unsuccessful in 2009, hampering service development. There is no
process in place to audit the quality of CAFs and no systematic approach
to evaluating outcomes and improving practice.
25. Communication between partner agencies at strategic and front line
levels is well established. There is a strong multi-agency commitment to
tackling domestic violence and effective partnership work to support
multi-agency risk assessment conferences (MARAC). Within health there
has been the development of specialist midwife and health visitor posts
to work with families affected by domestic abuse and they attend MARAC
meetings regularly. The impact of these posts is yet to be formally
evaluated. Police report that there have been no homicides linked to
domestic abuse in the last three years. The level of repeat MARACs is
low. Despite this, the support of social care services to multi-agency
public protection arrangements (MAPPA) is insufficiently robust. Twenty
per cent of MAPPA meetings did not have representation from children’s
social care services which had an impact on information sharing and
follow up actions.
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 12
26. The outcomes of complaints regarding children’s social care services are
analysed to identify learning points for individuals and for the service.
Themes and issues arising from complaints are reported to the senior
management team and these are used to focus on improving key areas
of service delivery such as case management. The overall number of
complaints received is relatively small; nevertheless, some have been
subject to a delay in response. The council is aware that it needs to
ensure that service users have accessible information on how to make a
complaint and work has already been carried out to raise awareness
among front line managers of their responsibilities in handling
complaints.
27. The local authority designated officer is effective in ensuring that
agencies are aware of their statutory responsibilities and the training
provided is highly valued. Timeliness in the completion of the process of
allegations management is relatively slow and the tracking system for
monitoring allegation-handling is insufficiently robust. As a result, it is
not always clear if all the appropriate and identified actions have been
completed to ensure children and young people’s safety.
28. The quality of assessment and direct work with children and families is
inadequate. The response to referrals is not timely although there has
been some very recent improvement. The council is aware that referrers
are not routinely informed of the outcome of the referral, and plans are
in place to address this. Strategy discussions are not consistently timely
and minutes of discussions are not always added promptly to files, which
delays completion of subsequent documents. Health professionals report
they are not routinely included in relevant strategy discussions. As a
result, opportunities are missed for them to be involved in discussing
health concerns and the potential need for child protection medical
examinations which may identify further injuries and protect children and
young people from further harm.
29. In some cases examined by inspectors, risks to children and young
people had not been appropriately identified leaving them at risk of
significant harm. In other cases examined, section 47 child protection
investigations had been instigated but not been completed or progressed
effectively; this means that the risks to these children and young people
were not thoroughly assessed. There are very long delays in undertaking
and completing assessments. At the time of the inspection, 142 initial
assessments and 255 core assessments had not been completed within
expected timescales. Performance on both indicators is deteriorating,
and most notably in the timing of core assessments. Local data indicate
that 67% of initial assessments are being completed within 10 working
days and only 28% of core assessments are being completed within 35
working days. Arrangements for transferring cases of children with child
protection plans from other areas to the children’s social care service are
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 13
not sufficiently robust and some cases have been subject to considerable
delay leading to further risk of harm for children.
30. The quality of assessments is too variable. Too many assessments are
insufficiently thorough and include very limited analysis of the findings.
Files examined by inspectors indicated that historical concerns are not
always considered as part of the analysis of the case. Schools and health
professionals, including school nursing and health visiting services and
the newly implemented family health partnership, are usually involved in
assessments and multi-agency core groups with individual children.
31. A small sample of some recently closed cases showed that two cases had
been closed despite a poor quality initial assessment. All cases are being
allocated to qualified workers, although some agency staff are being
allocated child protection cases without sufficient training and some
cases have been allocated to a number of different social workers over a
short period of time. This has led to some young people and their
families losing confidence in the service and choosing not to engage with
social workers. Some caseloads within the intake and family intervention
teams are still too high and this is affecting the quality and timeliness of
casework.
32. Effective multi- agency working is ensuring that young people at risk of
homelessness are assessed promptly. They receive good support and are
accommodated if appropriate.
33. Arrangements to identify and trace missing children are adequate. There
is good multi-agency working through the missing children’s forum
between police, housing and Checkpoint, a voluntary agency working
with vulnerable young people and children’s social care services to
identify and follow up children and young people who go missing. There
are however no health or education representatives. Separate
arrangements are in place to identify and follow up children missing from
education. While these arrangements are adequate, they are not linked
to the wider work on missing children. Similarly, health services have
good access to national tracking data to track missing pregnant women
to safeguard the unborn child, but this information is not shared with the
missing children forum. This limits the breadth of work and its
effectiveness in identifying and linking risks. The forum makes good use
of statistical analysis and seeks user feedback which is then used
effectively for service development, such as work to prevent sexual
exploitation and promote a greater understanding of risk in the locality.
There are, however, no clear mechanisms for reporting its work to the
wider partnership. The process of return interviews by Checkpoint has
been modified in response to feedback from young people.
34. Health partners have recently re-designed targeted services, for example
sexual health and drug and alcohol services, to enable increased
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 14
accessibility and service responsiveness to meet the needs of young
people. While they have not been formally evaluated, there are examples
where they have made a difference in the lives of individual children to
assist them to make and maintain healthy lifestyles. CAMHS have been
redesigned and report no waiting list for access to the service; the
experience of other professionals indicates however that this is not the
case. The service has yet to be audited and data analysed to
demonstrate that it is providing a timely service that is meeting the
needs of children and young people. Services for children and young
people with a disability are provided through a multi-agency team which
works well together to provide support and education to carers and to
enable young people to have a voice. There are short or no waiting lists
for specialist therapeutic support and equipment is provided within
reasonable time frames.
35. Case planning, review and recording within the children in need service
are inadequate. The timeliness of initial child protection conferences had
previously been in line with similar authorities. However, at the end of
August 2010, only 18% of initial child protection conferences were taking
place within 15 working days of the decision to instigate a section 47
investigation. Health professionals prioritise attendance at case
conferences with either the particular case practitioner or the named
nurse/midwife attending. General practitioners (GPs) do not fully engage
with this process although they supply brief reports when given sufficient
notice.
36. Reports for child protection conferences by social workers and partner
agencies are not routinely shared with families until the day of the
meeting, which means that children and families are not fully prepared
for the conference. There are no current children in need plans on files,
making it difficult to ensure that children in need work is appropriately
focused on outcomes, properly progressed and well managed.
37. Most child protection plans are adequate and clearly describe the actions
to be taken and by whom. Outline plans are produced at the initial
conference and are completed at the first core group, chaired by a
service manager. Not all plans, however, are sufficiently outcomefocused
and some plans show evidence of drift. Almost all child
protection review conferences are held on time. Core groups take place
more regularly, although there are considerable delays in sending out
minutes. Visits by social workers are not always carried out to the
frequency agreed in the child protection plan and some case notes do
not reflect whether visits were announced or unannounced or whether
the child was seen alone where appropriate.
38. Although the frequency of supervision has improved and many files do
have evidence of recent case discussion, this has not yet led to improved
outcomes for children and young people. Actions arising from case
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 15
supervision do not consistently include timescales and accountabilities,
and some decisions are not progressed in a timely way. In too many
cases, record keeping is incomplete or of poor quality, so it is not clear
what action has been taken to safeguard children. Chronologies are not
being consistently maintained on all cases. Following a recent serious
case review, supervision within the healthcare community has been
increased; more child protection supervisors are in place and regular and
planned supervision has been implemented as well as ensuring access to
ad hoc advice to support staff taking appropriate actions to safeguard
children and young people.
39. The council has only recently taken robust action to improve child
protection processes and systems. Action planning has been in place
since June 2010 to follow up any concerns identified by child protection
co-ordinators about individual cases brought to child protection
conferences and this is starting to hold managers to account. Records
are also being maintained of when conference reports are shared with
families and of how young people’s views were sought. However, until
August 2010 records were not systematically kept of whether the child’s
view was sought or whether the child was seen alone. Cases where child
protection plans have lasted for more than two years are also now being
scrutinised, as are repeat plans. This examination has shown that there
is a need for clearer, measurable objectives in plans. The impact on
outcomes of this increased attention to child protection activity cannot
yet be judged.
Leadership and management Grade 4 (inadequate)
40. The leadership and management of services to safeguard children and
your people are inadequate. Ambition and prioritisation are inadequate.
While the Children’s Trust arrangements provide an adequate framework
for the council and key partners to work together to safeguard and
promote the welfare of children and young people, the impact of the
Trust is poor and not all children and young people are consistently
safeguarded. The importance of safeguarding children and young people
is recognised at both strategic and operational levels across all agencies
and partnership working at the Children’s Trust Commissioning Board is
well established. A wide range of partners are involved in the Children’s
Trust Delivery Board, but maintaining consistency of representatives
remains a challenge. The work of the Trust is well communicated to all
staff working with children and families through consultation and
partnership events and a monthly newsletter. The profile of safeguarding
children and young people has been raised across health and social care
in the last year through learning from serious case reviews. This included
children services providing six best practice seminars for 86 members of
staff. Nevertheless, not all professionals within the health community
understand the role of the Children’s Trust. While the Children’s Trust
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 16
Boards, TSCB and elected members recognise the serious deficiencies
and challenges, they are not successfully driving the pace of change
needed.
41. One of the seven key priorities identified in the Children and Young
People’s Plan 2010-13 is to ensure that all children and young people are
protected from abuse and neglect and feel safe and supported in their
families and communities. The plan is based on very wide consultation
with children, young people, the public, professionals, statutory and
voluntary agencies across Torbay, and a comprehensive needs analysis
using local and national data across outcomes and across agencies.
Priorities are clearly set out with key actions and timescales showing
what needs to be done to achieve them and appropriate targets against
which to measure progress.
42. Following a recommendation from the DCS the council commissioned an
external review of children’s social care between March and April 2009
which reported in June 2009. The review identified serious deficiencies in
the overall quality of social work services to safeguard and promote the
welfare of children and young people, concluding that the arrangements
for protecting children at risk of harm in Torbay could not be judged
consistently safe. An improvement plan was developed to tackle these
issues. Led by the DCS a range of actions was taken to tackle the
difficulties including changes to key personnel, improvements in staffing
capacity, continuing professional development, policies and procedures,
case recording and partnership governance arrangements. However,
despite these efforts progress has been too slow. Many of the issues
identified by external consultants in their report in June 2009 were still
concerns at the time of the unannounced inspection of contact, referral
and assessment arrangements in May 2010. Similar concerns are also
identified in the findings from recently completed serious case reviews,
which relate to practice in 2006. Case files examined by inspectors in this
inspection have also found serious practice failings in some cases,
leaving some children and young people at risk.
43. The council recognises that changes are needed to improve the quality
and impact of children’s services. A major transformation programme
designed to improve the delivery of services to children, young people
and their families has been developed and a new structure for the
delivery of front line services is being introduced. The DCS is also the
People Commissioner for the council and as such has responsibility for
community safety, communities, and for the commissioning of adult
social care services in Torbay. Following the unannounced inspection of
contact, referral and assessment arrangements in May 2010 it was
decided that as a temporary measure, the DCS should focus solely on
children’s services to drive the improvement needed. The senior
management team has been temporarily strengthened through the
appointment in April 2010 of two headteachers, both from schools
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 17
judged outstanding by Ofsted, as Heads of School Leadership. This is
resulting in improved engagement by schools in working with vulnerable
children.
44. The DCS has demonstrated very strong commitment and resolution to
drive improvement and transform children’s services to ensure the
consistent provision of quality services for children, young people and
their families. This drive is also now apparent across the senior
management team and managers and staff at all levels. A
comprehensive safeguarding improvement plan has been developed and
difficult decisions have been made to tackle identified issues of capacity
and capability. Significant changes within the senior management team
within children’s services, including the appointment in May 2010 of an
interim Executive Head for Children’s Specialist Services, have led to
recent improved progress. The pace of change has now gained
considerable momentum and there is recent evidence of improved and
tightened systems and processes. The impact of these changes,
however, is not yet embedded and areas of significant weaknesses in
social work practice are still evident, leaving some children and young
people at risk of harm.
45. The Mayor and elected members show genuine concern for the welfare
of children and young people in Torbay and demonstrate strong
commitment to, and support for, children’s services. The lead member
for children and young people and the children’s champion for
safeguarding are well informed by the DCS about the ongoing concerns
regarding the quality of practice which is affecting outcomes for some
children and young people. The Mayor and elected members have
contact with children and young people through visits to schools, youth
groups and consultation meetings and understand the issues that are
important to them. The Mayor and elected members ensure that the
impact of council-wide budget reductions and constraints are minimised
as far as possible and have allocated additional resources to children’s
services to promote improvement. Health partners are equally committed
to safeguarding priorities and have ensured budgets have been
protected for service provision and savings made in other areas of the
health economy.
46. The overview scrutiny committee takes an active interest in the
performance of services for children, young people and their families. It
receives regular performance information and reports from the DCS on
the progress being made to tackle the identified issues of
underperformance and poor practice. It has scrutinised a range of
services and the impact of those services on children and young people,
for example young people and alcohol misuse. Health partners do not
consistently engage effectively with the scrutiny process.
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 18
47. Information is generally shared appropriately across the partnership and
is underpinned by information sharing protocols. A joint commissioning
strategy has not been developed and joint commissioning arrangements
are not in place. There are however, examples of services across the
broad safeguarding agenda, such as the family intervention project, the
sexual health team and CAMHS, being jointly planned and funded.
48. A culture of performance management and evaluation is not well
established across the partnership, including health partners, but is
developing. A Children’s Trust scorecard has been drawn up from the
performance measures detailed in the activity plans for each of the
priorities of the Children and Young People’s Plan 2010-13 which
facilitates the monitoring of progress for the boards. The Children’s Trust
Commissioning Board has a strong focus on monitoring progress against
priority areas.
49. A wide range of detailed performance management information is
collected and reported to senior managers in children’s social care
services and the boards, but until recently insufficient use was made of
this information to secure improvement. Very regular performance
overview reports provide up to date, detailed and clear information on
key performance indicators against the agreed targets. Managers in
children’s social care receive daily activity reports to support them in
managing their services, providing them with up to date information on
performance in some areas against expected practice. Good use has
been made of external consultants to appraise the quality of services and
identify shortfalls and challenges. Appropriate action plans are in place to
address the identified issues, but the implementation of actions has been
too slow.
50. The practice of case file audit has not been established within children’s
social care services. There is no programme of themed audits and no
systematic case file audit programme in place. This is a very significant
gap in the performance management system and leaves senior
managers, elected members and partners without an assessment of the
quality of case work practice and its impact on improving outcomes for
children and young people. This gap is recognised and the development
and implementation of a comprehensive audit programme is well
advanced. Performance management across all Health Trusts is limited
and information collected is not used to measure service performance
and impact and outcomes for young people in order to identify areas for
improvement.
51. The findings from case file audits undertaken in partner agencies are not
routinely reported to boards. Audits undertaken of the pre-selected cases
examined by inspectors were accurate, thorough and identified
appropriate action required in some cases to keep children and young
people safe.
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 19
52. Despite these recent measures to improve outcomes for children,
performance across a number of safeguarding performance indicators
has deteriorated. There are very long delays in completing core
assessments and the timeliness of initial child protection conferences has
fallen significantly, reflecting the pressure of the increased child
protection activity in Torbay.
53. Multi-agency workforce development is at a very early stage. A children’s
workforce development board involving children’s services, health, police
and the voluntary sector has very recently been established to develop a
strategy and plan. The effectiveness of workforce planning and
development across agencies is variable. Some agencies have identified
capacity issues and have taken appropriate steps to resolve these. For
example, the police have recently increased the number of dedicated
officers in the child abuse investigation unit working in the Torbay area
and Torbay Care Trust has taken action to improve capacity of health
visitors. The school nursing service has a small vacancy rate and
provides a good service. The voluntary sector consortium is in the
process of mapping the very wide range of voluntary agencies and
beginning to identify resource deficits.
54. Despite additional social worker, manager, family support and
administrative posts being created in 2009 and 2010, children’s services
have experienced pressure on social work capacity over the past year
due to a combination of increased demand for services, a significant
increase in child protection work, and recent difficulties in recruiting. The
lack of performance management and robust and effective management
oversight have contributed to this. An analysis of the current needs of
the service is at an early stage. Appropriate steps are taken to support
the recruitment and retention of social workers, for example four
unqualified staff members within children’s social care services are
sponsored each year to undertake social work training. A market
supplement is being paid to social workers to ensure their salaries are
competitive and an advanced social worker grade has been introduced to
recognise the skills and experience of social workers and help to retain
them in practice. In the interim, the number of social workers and team
managers has been increased through the appointment of temporary
agency staff and additional administrative staff, and community care
workers have been put in place to support social workers. This is
appreciated by staff and is beginning to support them in progressing and
recording their work. However, despite the added capacity, caseloads for
many social workers remain too high, affecting the quality and timeliness
of intervention and support to children and young people.
55. Training across services for staff working with children and families is not
well co-ordinated and monitored. Agencies gather information on
training activity but not all agencies or the TSCB monitor the take up and
cannot report if staff have received the appropriate level of training. Not
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 20
all agencies have returned fully completed training needs analysis to
inform the TSCB multi-agency training plan. Some professionals in the
health community report difficulties in accessing level three multi-agency
safeguarding training. Children’s services have recently commissioned
training to meet the need to improve the quality of assessments by front
line practitioners and their managers and to ensure it is more outcomefocused
and evidence-based. Training across health trusts has been a
high priority in the last year, and while numbers trained across the trusts
have improved, there are still some significant gaps. Reports highlight
the need for protected training time and improved recording of training
to ensure staff have the appropriate knowledge and skills to protect
children and young people.
56. Managerial oversight in children’s social care services is not sufficiently
robust. The frequency of supervision is being monitored and has very
recently improved; however, social workers have not been consistently
receiving supervision. The variable quality of supervision is recognised by
the council and all managers have received supervision training. It is too
early to establish the impact of this on casework practice. Not all staff
have received an annual performance review.
57. Safe recruitment processes are well embedded across agencies and are
implemented appropriately. Voluntary agencies, health care staff and
schools are well trained and supported in meeting recruitment
requirements.
58. The quality of user engagement is adequate. Children and young people
and their parents and carers have a wide range of opportunities to
participate in planning for universal services, and for some targeted
services. The priorities identified in the Children and Young People’s Plan
2010-2013 were developed following widespread consultation with
children and young people and parents and there is clear evidence of
children and young people’s views influencing the priorities identified.
Children and young people produced a version of the plan to make it
accessible for their peers. There are many examples of children and
young people being involved in the planning and the delivery of services.
Three thousand young people were consulted about the MyPLACE
project and a group of young people are involved in the development of
this project. Young people manage the Youth Opportunity and Youth
Capital Funds and show a good understanding of the needs of vulnerable
children and young people in allocating funds.
59. Young people elected to represent Torbay in the United Kingdom Youth
Parliament hold annual events with young people and elected members
to enable an exchange of views and identify issues of concern for young
people. They have planned and executed a successful campaign to
reduce bus fares for young people to support them in accessing leisure
activities in the evenings. Plans are well advanced to bring together
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 21
representatives from the wide range of youth groups to form a Youth
Forum to support wider consultation, participation and influence. Looked
after children and young people are involved in interviewing staff in
children’s social care services. Across the health partners, there is
evidence that the views of the children and young people have had some
influence in service provision but all trusts acknowledge this is work in
progress.
60. Parents completing the Triple P Parenting Programme have provided
valuable feedback on the programme. Some have been involved in
consultation on priorities and others have been involved in planning and
delivering training for managers. A parents’ forum for parents of children
with disabilities is well established and parents are involved in planning
services. Parent Advisory Boards are in place in all children’s centres and
their views have led to changes in service delivery. Parents were
involved in a pilot evaluation of some children’s services through a
mystery shopper scheme and there are plans to roll this out.
61. There is limited information on the participation of children and young
people in their child protection conferences. Some individual young
people are supported to share their views at their conferences. However,
there is no systematic process in place to enable children and young
people to influence safeguarding and child protection planning
processes.
62. TSCB meetings take place regularly with improved attendance by senior
managers from health and other key agencies. Members are clear about
their responsibilities and the independent chair holds them firmly to
account for their attendance, contribution to meetings and the actions of
their individual agencies. Progress has been made in improving the
Board’s structure and processes following a review by external
consultants, although not all the identified improvements have been
achieved. The Board has not developed a work plan for the current year
and its capacity to operate effectively is adversely affected by the lack of
a business manager and insufficient administrative support. A business
manager has very recently been appointed.
63. The ability of the Board to establish how effectively children and young
people are safeguarded is hampered by the limited performance data
made available by partners. The Board receives regular performance
reports against key performance indicators from children’s services but
not from other agencies including health. A multi-agency performance
framework is being developed. None of the partners report to the Board
on the findings of case file audits within their agencies, which means
that opportunities are lost to find out about the quality of front line
practice across agencies.
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 22
64. The profile of the TSCB among voluntary sector agencies and across
some health services is too low. Not all agencies understand the Board’s
role and although the voluntary sector is represented on the Board, there
is no established communication strategy in place to ensure that the
wide range of agencies are kept informed of its work.
65. The implementation and progress of actions arising from serious case
reviews are reported by agencies and monitored by the TSCB. However,
there have been delays in completing all the identified actions within the
agreed timescales. Members have had to account for these delays to the
Board. Two serious case reviews have been completed and a third is
being undertaken. One serious case review has been evaluated by
Ofsted and was judged as adequate; the second is currently being
evaluated. Information from the findings of serious case reviews has
been widely disseminated to staff across all agencies.
66. The effectiveness of services in considering the impact of, and
promoting, equality and diversity is adequate. There are significant
pockets of deprivation in Torbay and the negative impact of living in
poverty on the outcomes for children and young people is well
recognised. Tackling poverty is one of the seven priorities in the Children
and Young People’s Plan and there is strong commitment to achieving
this ambition. The relevant diversity and equality strategy, policy and
procedures are implemented effectively. A range of equality impact
assessments have been produced.
67. The council and Health care partners are committed to developing
greater understanding of equality and diversity issues in a changing
demographic make up. Data on the ethnicity and religion of children and
young people are collected and analysed and the diversity of its residents
is celebrated. Consideration of equality and diversity is not sufficiently
evident in all case files and in assessments. This has been recognised by
senior managers within children’s social care and training is underway to
improve understanding of these issues. Health care professionals also
recognise the need for more training to embed good practice in this
area. Interpreters are available by telephone and good use is made of
this facility but the use of personal interpreters is variable. While there is
satisfactory use of interpreters to facilitate meetings, they are not always
available for follow up visits with young people or in health settings.
There is also limited availability of this service provision in the
emergency department of the acute trust and in the minor injury units,
where young people and their families access emergency or urgent care.
68. Language schools provide an important input to the local economy and
the Youth Service has developed a programme to enable local young
people and young visitors from Europe to enjoy leisure pursuits together.
This has improved mutual understanding and helped to reduce tensions.
There are some good examples of effective work focused on children’s
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 23
centres using Estart data for members from travellers’ groups, Turkish
and Kurdish parents and members of the Chinese community. Feedback
from groups has led to changes in provision to reflect working patterns.
Young people who are lesbian, gay and bisexual are supported well
through the KUSHBAI group and a male sexual health worker. Within the
community health provision there is an identified health visitor who
focuses on the needs of travelling families and evidence of good work
was seen in improving health outcomes for specific children in this
group. Effective work is undertaken to encourage children and young
people with learning difficulties and disabilities to enjoy leisure facilities
with able bodied children. The ‘Buddy Days’ have been effective with
three undertaken during.
69. Value for money is adequate overall. The Audit Commission judged the
council as adequate in all of the areas covered by its assessment in
December 2009. A wide range of early intervention and support services
is commissioned by the council. There is evidence to demonstrate the
positive impact these projects have on the lives of individual children,
young people and their families. There is also some evidence of the
longer term savings these projects will bring. For example the Family
intervention Project (FIP) set up in October 2008 has worked with 36
families and 125 children in order to reduce anti-social behaviour, youth
crime and homelessness. An independent evaluation of seven families
working with FIP has shown that the project has averted estimated costs
of over £450k based on the historical cost across all services of previous
intervention with these families.
70. The use of budgets within children’s services is well scrutinised by
elected members, with good consideration of the impact that investment
is having on improved outcomes and good attention paid to the impact
of resource constraints on safeguarding. Commissioned services are
reviewed to ensure they provide value for money and that they are
delivering services in line with priorities. Budgets are regularly reviewed
and money is appropriately targeted at emerging priorities, for example
funding was agreed and secured to increase the social work
establishment in December 2009 and further additional capacity is
currently being funded. Nevertheless, some children and young people
are not effectively safeguarded and are at risk of significant harm.
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 24
The inspection outcomes: services for looked
after children
Overall effectiveness Grade 3 (adequate)
71. The overall effectiveness of the looked after children service is adequate.
The council and partners meet their statutory requirements for looked
after children and young people and can demonstrate improvements in
some outcomes for looked after children, for example improved long
term placement stability, reductions in exclusions and outstanding
outcomes for care leavers. Outcomes in fostering services are judged
good and outcomes in adoption services are judged satisfactory by
Ofsted. Performance indicators are used effectively to identify areas for
improvement, but social work practice is not yet quality assured through
audit though this is planned. Overall there are sufficient staffing
resources across agencies to deliver services for looked after children
and young people. All are allocated to qualified social workers, but not all
vacancies are filled and there is a heavy reliance on temporary staff
leading to some children and young people having a number of changes
of social worker. A systematic analysis of staffing needs has not been
completed. The overall timeliness of health assessments is adequate but
there are delays for children under five years old and the quality of
health plans is variable. The capacity within health to meet the needs of
looked after children and young people is inadequate and is under
review. The knowledge, learning, skills and understanding of staff and
carers are generally good and commitment to improving outcomes is
strong. Changes in council commissioning practices have improved the
quality and choice of independent placements. The supply of in-house
foster placements is insufficient to meet individual needs.
Capacity for improvement Grade 3 (adequate)
72. The capacity to improve looked after children’s services is adequate.
Statutory requirements are met. Corporate parenting is established but
under developed. There are, however, examples of effective multiagency
planning which are contributing well to improving outcomes. The
council has a track record of improved outcomes for looked after children
and young people and examples of services being developed or reshaped
to improve provision. The views of looked after children and care leavers
contribute to evaluating the effectiveness of some provision and inform
service improvements but there is no systematic approach to ensuring
that the views of all looked after children and young people are captured
to inform and influence service provision. The development of leadership
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 25
roles within the virtual school provides a good foundation for
improvement in educational achievement for looked after children and
young people. Funds are allocated to activities most likely to be effective
and regional commissioning ensures value for money. Financial planning
ensures sufficient capacity to deliver priorities.
Areas for improvement
73. In order to improve the quality of provision and services for looked after
children and care leavers in Torbay, the local authority and its partners
should take the following action:
Immediately
􀂃 Improve the quality of health assessments and ensure they are
undertaken in a timely way for all looked after children and young
people.
Within three months
􀂃 Implement effective transition arrangements to adult health services
for young people with long term physical conditions moving towards
adulthood.
􀂃 Complete a robust analysis of social work capacity within the
permanency planning team to ascertain the number of social worker
posts needed to ensure that work with looked after children
continues to be effectively progressed and changes of social worker
are minimised as far as possible, and ensure that plans and activity
for the recruitment and retention of social workers are further
developed and adapted to appoint to vacancies and deliver additional
capacity where needed.
􀂃 Complete an analysis of the reasons for the comparatively high
numbers of looked after children and young people and take action
to tackle any identified issues.
􀂃 Develop and strengthen the Corporate Parenting Board to make it an
effective multi-agency partnership driving the corporate parenting
agenda.
􀂃 Review the reasons for the underperformance in short term
placement stability and the difficulties in recruiting local foster carers
and implement a plan to address this.
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 26
􀂃 Implement an independent visitors’ scheme and ensure children and
young people who might benefit from this are appropriately
identified and referred.
􀂃 Strengthen the membership and the impact of the Children in Care
council and establish systematic opportunities for all looked after
children and young people and care leavers to give their views and
influence service provision.
􀂃 Develop further restorative justice measures to ensure that looked
after young people do not develop a criminal record as a result of
their behaviour in their placements.
Within six months
􀂃 Improve the capacity of the designated doctor and nurse roles to
enable them to fully meet the health needs of looked after children
and young people and ensure they report regularly on progress and
outcomes.
Outcomes for children and young people
74. Health outcomes for looked after children and young people are
adequate. Performance against national indicators shows that the
timeliness of health assessments is in line with the national average.
However not all health assessments are completed in a timely manner,
particularly for children under five years old, and the quality of
assessments is variable. There is insufficient recording of follow up on
health needs from previous assessments and records do not identify
actions being taken to meet the identified health needs. Torbay Care
Trust has taken immediate action to review the assessments of children
under five and supplied assurance that the health needs of a specific
case examined by inspectors are being appropriately addressed. The
limited capacity of the designated doctor and nurse to meet the
demands is recognised. Review health assessments are more timely for
children and young people aged five and over through the school nursing
service. Immunisation rates and dental checks are better than the
national average.
75. Innovative, accessible and targeted multi-agency services have been
implemented in the last year to meet the health needs of young people
in relation to their mental health and well-being, sexual health and risky
behaviours, midwifery and teenage pregnancy, including intensive
support for adolescent parents and for those young people who misuse
substances. These services have the capacity to meet the needs of all
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 27
young people including those who are looked after and care leavers but
it is too early to measure their impact. The effectiveness of intervention
and support to meet the health needs of care leavers is variable. Senior
managers are aware of this and are currently reviewing service provision
and training needs.
76. Arrangements for the smooth transfer to adult health services of young
people who have long term physical conditions are limited, with few joint
appointments or introductions to adult physicians at the local hospital
(SDHFT), and no preparation for the young people. Transition for young
people with mental health problems is well managed by a transition
worker post employed by the Torbay Care Trust. This role includes the
delivery of three planned sessions working with the Devon Partnership.
There has been no annual report on the health of looked after children
and young people from the designated health professionals since April
2009. The last report identified the need to improve the timeliness and
quality of assessments; action taken by the designated professionals has
not resulted in service improvements.
77. For young people placed out of Torbay there are clear systems in place
to ensure their health needs are met. However, it is not clear if these
systems are followed to ensure that all young people are receiving an
appropriate service.
78. Staying safe outcomes for looked after children and young people are
adequate. There is a range of services to prevent family breakdown and
to support children to remain at home where it is in their best interests.
The recently established multi-agency diversion from care panel checks
that all appropriate preventive measures have been taken before
agreeing to a child becoming looked after, but it is too early to measure
its effectiveness.
79. Children and young people benefit from effective multi-agency working
in the development and implementation of their care plans. This is
particularly strong in respect of the care to community service for care
leavers. Professionals across all agencies understand their responsibilities
towards looked after children, young people and care leavers, and are
actively engaged in a variety of panels such as the multi-agency resource
panel which allocates funding to meet individual needs. Statutory
reviews of care plans are held in a timely manner, however social
workers do not always complete reports prior to the review so they
cannot be shared with children and family members in advance. The
permanency planning team has introduced core group working to ensure
plans are effectively progressed.
80. Arrangements for monitoring care placements are good, including those
outside the local area. Children services commissioning officers make use
of Ofsted inspection reports and pay unannounced visits to all
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 28
commissioned and in-house placements, speaking to the young person
thus helping to ensure their safety and well being.
81. There are insufficient foster placements to meet local need. As a result,
through the use of formal exemptions the number of children in some
foster homes sometimes exceeds their agreed number of placements.
This places additional pressure of all members of the household. Extra
support is put in and there is no evidence of increased breakdown of
these placements. Only three exemptions were in place at time of the
inspection, all of which were short term. Published data as at March
2009 show that 19% of looked after children and young people are living
more than 20 miles away from Torbay. However local data for
2009/2010 show that only 10.7% of newly looked after children were
placed more than 20 miles away. Young people moving to independence
are encouraged and successfully supported to remain in their foster
placements. Some foster placements are converted to supported
lodgings to maintain stability for the young people. A successful
‘contract’ carer scheme is in place for adolescents with challenging
behaviour and complex needs. Efforts have been made to increase
kinship care, but with limited success to date.
82. At the end of 2009, short term stability of placements was worse than
the national average and recent local data indicate a slight deterioration.
The long term stability of placements has improved over the past three
years as a result of targeted action and recent local data show that it is
currently above the national average for 2009. A good range of
measures is provided to support placement stability. Specific support is
provided to assist foster carers and children and young people during
periods of transition between schools as it was recognised that this can
be a time of stress on placements. This service is available to all looked
after children and young people, regardless of length of being looked
after and following a successful pilot, mainstream funding was identified
to support it. Other measures designed to support stability include a
supported workbook programme for the young person and carer,
therapeutic groups for separated siblings, as well as practical and direct
support for carers and birth children.
83. Joint working between children’s social care, the police and voluntary
agencies effectively support children missing from care. However, this
group does not have representatives from health and education, thereby
missing opportunities to share information and further improve
effectiveness. Health partners are aware of their lack of engagement in
this area and are looking at ways to ensure they identify the
professionals most appropriate to make a meaningful contribution.
84. Enjoying and achieving outcomes for looked after children and young
people are adequate. Looked after children and young people receive
appropriate support in order to enjoy and achieve. Overall however,
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 29
attainment is below that of looked after children and young people in
similar areas and nationally. All schools have designated teachers and
understand their responsibilities. Partnership working between schools,
the Heads of School Leadership, the virtual headteacher and the looked
after children advisory teacher is well embedded. Designated teachers in
schools for looked after children spoke positively about the improved
support provided to them. Specific support is made available to foster
carers and children and young people during periods of transition
between schools as it was recognised that this can be a time of stress on
placements. Children and young people educated outside of Torbay are
monitored appropriately.
85. Young people in Key Stage 4, including those who are looked after, have
access to a wide-ranging universal curriculum which meets their needs
and interests. Imaginative provision is available involving vocational
courses at a special school, outdoor education placements, South Devon
College and independent providers. Vulnerable young people including
those who are looked after are well supported in their emotional and
social development through the Thrive programme and younger children
through the Pegasus Centre. The recent implementation of the targeted
mental health service provides specialist and focussed work in schools to
individuals through primary mental health workers and educational
psychologists.
86. The trend in attainment of looked after children at Key Stage 2 shows
steady improvement in English with the results in 2009 above those of
similar areas and national figures for looked after children and young
people. Results for mathematics are less positive, with the trend below
statistical comparators and the national average for looked after children.
In 2009, 80% of Year 6 looked after pupils made the expected progress,
given their starting points. The achievement of Year 11 looked after
students is below that of looked after students in similar councils and
nationally although the cohort size is small. In 2009, 56% of looked after
young people achieved at least 1 GCSE grade A*-G or equivalent
compared with 65.6% for all looked after children in England and the
latest data from the council show a similar result for this year. No looked
after students gained five or more 5 GCSEs at grades A*-C including
English and mathematics in 2008 and 2009. However, latest figures
from the council show a modest improvement to 6.3% this year better
than the national average for looked after children and young people for
2009 of 4.8%.
87. The headteacher of the virtual school makes good use of data to
measure attainment of pupils and is developing this to track individual
progress. Designated teachers monitor the progress made by looked
after children and young people closely and provide intervention
strategies when underachievement is detected. Students have personal
education plans which are regularly reviewed. A sample was recently
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 30
reviewed by the Head of Secondary School Leadership and appropriate
plans are being developed to improve their quality.
88. Attendance rates for looked after children are broadly in line with those
of similar authorities following an impressive improvement in 2009,
although the numbers of children involved are small. Exclusion rates
have fallen significantly over time. No looked after child has been
permanently excluded since 2005/06. Fixed term exclusions rates for
looked after children and young people have been falling and now stand
just above the figure for all children in Torbay and are impressively in
line with all children nationally.
89. Looked after children and young people have satisfactory opportunities
to develop their interests and skills outside of school. Children and young
people are given high priority for places on play schemes, including
specific facilities for those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.
Personal education allowances are used effectively to develop looked
after children’s skills, interests and abilities across a range of sporting,
cultural and recreation activities. There are no additional concessions for
looked after children in corporate leisure provision.
90. Opportunities for looked after children and young people to make a
positive contribution are adequate. A Children in Care council is well
established and has a small, committed core group membership of
looked after children and young people. This is well linked to other user
groups for young people. They have held events to gain the views of the
wider looked after population but there is no process in place to ensure
these views are obtained in a systematic way. Some services are being
changed as a result of children’s views. For example, in response to
feedback from children and young people a dedicated mobile number is
available to contact the permanency planning duty service. Elected
members have developed a Pledge setting out their commitment to
looked after children. The Children in Care council was not involved in
this development, but they have produced a young people’s version.
91. A small number of looked after young people have been trained to take
part in interviews for staff and have undertaken this role with great
maturity. There is now a commitment to incorporate this in more
recruitment processes. Young people have delivered ‘total respect’
training to a number of staff and elected members, but planned delivery
to include foster carers is currently on hold as the young people do not
have the time to undertake more training at present. The high quality
magazine ‘Out of the Blue’ is produced by a small group of young people
and mailed to looked after children and young people over 10 years old
and a wide range of professionals. Children and young people are well
supported to enable them to be involved fully in all aspects of production
of the magazine. This gives them an important opportunity to develop
confidence and skills.
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 31
92. Statutory reviews are held on time with generally good participation from
other agencies. Participation by young people at their reviews is
monitored and is good; over 94% of children and young people
participated in their reviews over the past two years. Children and young
people who have recently become looked after are contacted by the
advocacy service to inform them of the service and assist them in
enabling their views to be heard at reviews if required. A number of age
appropriate tools are used which capture well the views of younger
children who are unable to speak for themselves in their review.
93. There is effective partnership working to prevent youth offending among
the looked after young people. Very low numbers of looked after young
people become involved in offending and this is well below the national
average. Most of the young people who have acquired a criminal record
have done so as a result of being prosecuted for criminal damage or
assault occurring in their placements and this has been appropriately
identified as an issue for resolution. In one case, a restorative justice
approach has been successfully adopted which prevented a young
person placed in foster care outside Torbay being detained in custody.
94. Outcomes for care leavers in achieving economic well-being are
outstanding. Very high numbers of care leavers are engaged in
employment, education and training. Since 2006 this has shown
substantial improvement and in 2009 was 93%, well above the
comparative figure for care leavers in similar councils and nationally and
is in line with the national figure for all young people at age 19. The
Torbay Universal Curriculum involving schools and independent providers
ensures a wide range of vocational opportunities is available to meet
needs and interests. There are very high aspirations for care leavers,
who are very successfully encouraged and well supported to progress to
higher and further education. Currently ten looked after young people
are undertaking university courses.
95. Care leavers are very well supported. Comprehensive pathway plans are
in place and are well adapted to meet individual need. Care leavers with
complex needs are well supported, including those living both within and
outside the authority, and those in acute care and living in community
living situations. There is evidence of well planned multi-agency
transition arrangements to adult social care services for young people
with severe learning difficulties and/or disabilities. The number of care
leavers living in appropriate accommodation is very high at 93.3% and
better than the national average of 83%.
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 32
The quality of provision Grade 3 (adequate)
96. The quality of provision is adequate.
97. Service responsiveness is adequate. Services are developed in a timely
way to adapt and meet the changing needs of the looked after children
population. For example, contract fostering is being extended for the 10-
12 year age group and, in response to feedback from children and young
people, respite for contract carers is now provided at their home so that
children and young people do not have to move when carers are away.
98. The council has worked hard to ensure that workforce issues, including
the difficulties it faces in the recruitment of qualified social workers and
the increasing size of caseloads, have not adversely affected the quality
of outcomes for looked after children and young people and have
provided additional support from unqualified and administrative staff.
The negative impact on health service provision for looked after children
of the limited capacity and lack of backfill/cover for the designated
doctor and nurse for looked after children roles has been recognised and
is under review.
99. The number of complaints relating to looked after children and young
people is low and just over half of the looked after children and young
people surveyed said they did not know how to make a complaint.
Training has been provided to social work staff to improve awareness of
the complaints process, but its impact is not yet evident. Issues
identified in complaints are identified and reported on and measures are
put in place to improve practice. Work has been carried out with foster
carers to raise their awareness of the system for referring and managing
allegations against carers. The advocacy service is well regarded and
readily available on request. However, during the inspection it was not
clear that all young people are aware of this service. There is no
independent visitors’ service for children and young people who do not
have any contact with their birth family. This is a significant gap which
the council recognises and work is beginning to address this.
100. Comparative data are not available to assess the timeliness of children
placed for adoption as the number of children adopted from Torbay is
very small. Local data however, show good performance in the
proportion of looked after children and young people adopted with year
on year increases over the last three years. The work of the council’s
adoption agency was inspected in November 2009 by Ofsted and was
judged to be satisfactory. Adoption plans for individual children are
tracked and effective action has been taken to speed up adoption
placement processes. The council’s fostering service was inspected by
Ofsted in November 2007 and was judged to be good. Foster carers are
committed and feel well supported to provide good quality care. Foster
carers report that, while allowances are received in a timely manner,
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 33
there are long delays in receiving payment for additional expenses. This
issue remains unresolved. The mandatory training programme is
reported to be of high quality and there is ready access to specialist
training to meet need. A rolling programme about attachment theory and
application in practice is delivered by Children’s Services to foster carers,
adoptive parents and staff to enable them to better understand and
meet the needs of children and young people.
101. Close working between various managers allows for creative responses
to meet children’s needs, for example in promoting sibling contact.
Effective arrangements are in place to commission good quality
placements that are carefully monitored and engagement in regional
commissioning has improved both quality and choice.
102. The quality of direct work and assessments with looked after children
and young people overall is adequate. It is well embedded in the work of
the permanency planning service with longer term looked after children
and young people. However, when children and young people first
become looked after, the quality and timeliness of assessments are too
variable. The numbers of looked after children and young people are
comparatively high and processes for ensuring that children and young
people only remain looked after as long as necessary are not sufficiently
robust. In one case examined by inspectors, there has been unnecessary
delay in revoking the care order for a child who has been safely placed
at home for over eight years. In another case there has been a delay in
carrying out planned life story work with a young person and gaps in
social work visits. Some children and young people have had a number
of different social workers though others have clearly benefited from a
sustained relationship with their social worker. The quality of direct work
with care leavers is particularly impressive. The views of children and
young people are routinely sought and inform their assessments and
planning. In one case examined by inspectors, good observations of a
pre-verbal child were used to inform the assessment.
103. The quality of case planning, reviews and recording is adequate.
Independent reviewing officers demonstrate good skills and professional
knowledge, and are confident in challenging weak practice. They are
focussed well on improving outcomes. The quality of plans for looked
after children are generally adequate. They are informed by updated
assessments, and appropriate actions are identified and implemented to
progress them. Plans are regularly reviewed in accordance with
regulations
104. Most looked after children benefit from timely and appropriate care
planning. However, in some cases examined by inspectors, parallel
planning is insufficiently developed to ensure permanency is achieved
within a timescale appropriate to the age and needs of the child. Records
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 34
are generally up to date in the permanency planning service and the
leaving care service.
105. The quality of supervision and management oversight is adequate. The
frequency of supervision has improved and the case files of looked after
children and young people show evidence of management oversight. The
quality of the recording of supervision is, however, variable and the
rationale for decision making is not always explained clearly. There is no
clear system of supervision for designated health professionals.
106. All children are allocated a suitably qualified worker and visits are mostly
undertaken at least in compliance with statutory requirements. However,
children are not always seen alone.
Leadership and management Grade 3 (adequate)
107. Leadership and management are adequate. Ambition and prioritisation
are adequate. Targets for improving outcomes for looked after children
are included in local area agreement targets and in the Children and
Young People’s Plan. Elected members are committed to improving
outcomes. The Scrutiny committee has examined the stability of
placements and the numbers of looked after children and young people.
Understanding of corporate parenting responsibilities is not well
embedded in the authority. Steps are being taken to improve this and all
elected members have now received training in corporate parenting. The
Corporate Parenting Board has been established for some time, but it
has a low profile and is not providing strong leadership. Membership of
the Board is not sufficiently wide ranging and does not include other
council departments and health. The Corporate Parenting Strategic Plan
is in the early stages of development.
108. The annual report for the Care to Community Service for care leavers
demonstrates achievements, good needs analysis, understanding of
current challenges and risks, clear priorities and planning for the future
The ambition for and priority afforded to care leavers to determine and
reach their goals by the service is outstanding and leads to outcomes
that narrow the gap between young people who are looked after and
other young people.
109. The appointment of two Heads of School Leadership has encouraged a
sharper focus on meeting the needs of looked after children and young
people. Ambitious targets are set for looked after children through the
school improvement partners, and progress of young people is
monitored within schools. At the operational level, staff across all sectors
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 35
understand their responsibilities to looked after children and there is
good multi-disciplinary planning and working for individual children.
110. Evaluation, including performance management, quality assurance and
workforce development, is adequate. There is tight financial
management and careful monitoring of external placement, ensuring
effective use of resources. The number of looked after children and
young people has remained fairly stable since 2006. The ratio of looked
after children and young people to the number of children in the local
population at 70 per 10,000 is consistently higher than the national
average of 55 per 10,000. There is no up to date robust analysis of the
underlying reasons for this. A wide range of performance data is
available and there are examples of data being used to target areas of
underperformance. However, this is not always used as effectively as it
could be. There are no systematic quality assurance and auditing
procedures in place, but a framework has been developed and auditing
has recently commenced. Processes to ensure safe recruitment exceed
statutory minimum requirements.
111. Morale in the permanency and care leaving teams is good and staff have
confidence in managers. All looked after children and young people are
allocated to a qualified social worker. Some looked after children and
young people benefit from having the same social worker for a number
of years. However, staff turnover and use of temporary staff have led to
some children experiencing a number of changes. This is mitigated by
the continuity and consistency provided by the independent reviewing
officers and by placement stability for those in long term placements.
Vacant posts have resulted in increased caseloads in the looked after
children’s service, but additional support services have been provided to
reduce pressure, for example community care workers undertake some
direct work with young people. A systematic analysis of the social work
capacity required to provide an effective service has not been
undertaken.
112. The quality of engagement with looked after children and young people
is adequate. They had good opportunities to contribute to the
development of the Children and Young People’s Plan and influenced the
priorities identified. Consultation and involvement of children and young
people in their individual care planning are good and can be seen in
decisions about their care through reviews and planning. Young people’s
wishes are documented and acted upon, and help inform their future
planning. Health assessments and reviews examined by inspectors
appropriately record the views and involvement of children and young
people. There is clear evidence of the involvement of young people in
preparation of the children’s version of the Pledge, and some examples
of services being changed in response to the views of children and young
people. However, regular and systematic opportunities for looked after
children to be involved in strategic processes have not yet been
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 36
developed. Consultation with foster carers is well established and has
helped to shape provision and support for them and the children and
young people for whom they care.
113. Partnership working for looked after children and care leavers is
adequate. Professionals at all levels across agencies understand their
responsibilities to looked after children, young people and care leavers.
There are many examples of effective multi-agency groups leading to
improved outcomes for looked after children, young people and care
leavers. Regional joint commissioning of placements has improved choice
and quality of care. Partnership working to provide a universal curriculum
has been effective in meeting the needs and interests of potentially
disaffected young people. The Corporate Parenting Board is not well
developed and some multi-agency planning groups struggle to engage all
partners. Health services acknowledge their lack of engagement in both
the Missing Children’s Forum and the Corporate Parenting Board and are
working to identify appropriate roles for this engagement.
114. The promotion of equality and diversity for looked after children and
young people is adequate overall. Evidence shows that in most individual
cases of looked after children, young people and care leavers, the
ethnicity, cultural and religious background of the child or young person
is taken into account and influences the assessment and case planning.
There is generally satisfactory use of interpreters to facilitate placement
and review meetings, but this facility is not available for all home visits.
Young people seeking asylum are appropriately identified and supported.
115. Value for money for looked after children and young people is adequate
Effective work has been undertaken to ensure that the costs of foster
care are known and monitored closely. This information is scrutinised by
senior managers and elected members as part of the monitoring process.
However, there are insufficient local foster placements to meet the need
resulting in increased use of more expensive external placements. The
closure of the council’s only children’s home has led to effective
redistribution of resources. Torbay is part of a regional commissioning
consortium and the economies of scale of this arrangement mean that
the local authority has a wide range of providers who have been quality
assured across the consortium. Processes for commissioning placements
with independent providers have a clear focus on individual children’s
needs and expected outcomes from the placement. Regional
commissioning arrangements have resulted in more young people with
challenging or complex needs having suitable foster placements, thus
reducing the number of children in more costly residential care. Looked
after children’s educational outcomes are generally below that found for
similar children nationally. The proportion of care leavers in education,
employment or training is well above national figures and this represents
very good outcomes in response to the managed investment in targeted
services.
Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 37

Record of main findings: Torbay
Safeguarding service

Overall effectiveness Inadequate

Capacity for improvement Inadequate

Outcomes for children and young peopleChildren and young people are safe: effectiveness ofservices in taking reasonable steps to ensure thatchildren and young people are safe Inadequate

Children and young people feel safe: effectiveness of
services in helping to ensure that children and young
people feel safe
Adequate

Quality of provision Inadequate

Service responsiveness including complaints Adequate

Assessment and direct work with children and families Inadequate
Case planning, review and recording Inadequate

Leadership and management Inadequate

Ambition and prioritization Inadequate

Evaluation, including performance management, qualityassurance and workforce developmentInadequate

User engagement Adequate

Partnerships Inadequate

Equality and diversity Adequate

Value for money Adequate

Torbay Inspection of safeguarding and looked after children 38
Services for looked after children
Overall effectiveness Adequate

Capacity for improvement Adequate

Outcomes for looked after children and care leavers
Being healthy Adequate

Staying safe Adequate

Enjoying and achieving Adequate

Making a positive contribution Adequate

Economic well-being Outstanding

Quality of provision Adequate

Service responsiveness Adequate

Assessment and direct work with children Adequate

Case planning, review and recording Adequate

Leadership and management Adequate

Ambition and prioritisation Adequate

Evaluation, including performance management, quality assurance and
workforce development
Adequate

User engagement Adequate

Partnerships Adequate

Equality and diversity Adequate

Value for money Adequate