LONDON BOROUGH OF TOWER HAMLETS - …

1 1 LONDON BOROUGH OF TOWER HAMLETS The Sufficiency Duty Review October 2016 2 About this Document Title: The Sufficiency Duty Review October 2016 Purpose: This document reviews how the council met its obligations under the sufficiency duty Prepared by: Philip Morgan Group Manager Resources Approved by: Hilary Bull Service Manager Resources Date: 28th October 2016 Version Number: 6 Status: Annual Review Review Frequency: Each calendar year Next review date: October 2017 31. Background The Care Planning, Placement and Case Review ( march 2010) guidance and regulations, which came into force on 1st April 2011, laid out a duty of 'sufficiency' that required local authorities to ensure that, through direct provision or commissioning, a range of placements sufficient to meet the needs of all looked after children are available locally (within the local authority geographical area) or that there is a plan in place to move towards that position.

2 Children s Services set out its plan to meet its duty in this area in November 2011 and has reviewed how it was progressing periodically over the last 5 years. Meeting the duty has been a challenge given the geographical size of the BOROUGH and the housing stock which includes high level of public housing. This review looks at: the key statistics in terms of placements available locally; the plan in place to move towards a position of having sufficient placements locally; review of the 2015 action plan; the Sufficiency Duty Strategy October 2016; and the Sufficiency Duty action plan October 2016. Available locally is an interesting term as this could be defined in a number of ways. For instance children placed locally as opposed to at a distance.

3 Locally could be children placed in the BOROUGH , children placed in neighbouring boroughs, children placed within 20 miles of the BOROUGH . At a distance could be children placed beyond 20 miles. 2. Available locally Looked after children placed in BOROUGH since April 2011 Date In BOROUGH Outside BOROUGH Total CLA Source 01/04/11 74 ( ) 251 325 CPT/Fwi 01/04/12 67 ( ) 225 294 CPT/Fwi 01/04/13 57 ( ) 250 307 CPT/Fwi 01/04/14 68 ( ) 254 322 CPT/Fwi 01/04/15 50 ( ) 223 273 Fwi 01/04/16 69 ( ) 236 305 Fwi 01/10/16 72 ( ) 234 306 Fwi Commentary By the strict measure of children placed in the BOROUGH there has been no meaningful improvement in this ratio since the inception of the sufficiency duty. Looked after children placed in BOROUGH and in neighbouring boroughs since April 2011 Date Including neighbouring boroughs Beyond neighbouring boroughs Total CLA Source 01/04/11 130 ( ) 195 ( ) 325 CPT/Fwi 01/04/12 DNC DNC 294 CPT/Fwi 01/04/13 DNC DNC 307 CPT/Fwi 01/04/14 DNC DNC 322 CPT/Fwi 01/04/15 DNC DNC 273 CPT/Fwi 01/04/16 DNC DNC 305 CPT/Fwi 01/10/16 154 ( ) 152 ( ) 306 CPT/Fwi Commentary - Including our neighbouring boroughs the picture is better.

4 Looked after children placed within 20 miles of the BOROUGH since April 2011 Date Within 20 miles Outside 20 miles Total CLA Source 01/04/11 250 ( ) 75 ( ) 325 CPT/Fwi 01/04/12 DNC DNC 294 CPT/Fwi 01/04/13 DNC DNC 307 CPT/Fwi 01/04/14 DNC DNC 322 CPT/Fwi 01/04/15 DNC DNC 273 CPT/Fwi 01/04/16 DNC DNC 305 CPT/Fwi 01/10/16 279 ( ) 27 ( ) 306 CPT/Fwi Commentary - On this measure we have complied with our sufficiency duty. 3. Plan in place to move towards meeting the Sufficiency Duty Type Date Plan in place Sufficiency Duty November 2011 Yes Sufficiency Duty 6 month review May 2012 Yes Sufficiency Duty annual review November 2012 Yes Sufficiency Duty DMT review February 2013 Yes Sufficiency Duty DMT review march 2014 Yes Sufficiency Duty periodic review march 2014 Yes Sufficiency Duty periodic review May 2015 Yes Sufficiency Duty periodic review October 2016 Yes 54.

5 Review of action plan from the May 2015 sufficiency review Issue Action Outcome Prevention and rehabilitation Implement the Development Plan (move to Mulberry Place and directly link to referral teams) for the Outreach team with the key objectives of diversion from care and rehabilitation from care for teenagers where this is appropriate and safe to do so. Completed. Placement finding Bring all placement finding (in house/external/permanent placement) under one team as recommended in the Fostering Diagnostics review (May 2014). Completed with the exception of family finding for permanency and adoption. In house foster care provision Consider the recent Fostering Diagnostics review proposal options for service structure change with a view to reformulating our recruitment and assessment process; proceed with the Mockingbird project.

6 On-going although the Recruitment and Assessment team has been disbanded and the Mockingbird project is up and running . Hard to place children Undertake an overview of the demand for placements in the CPT team, in particular in relation to hard to place children, with a view to consider the best method to placement find for children who cannot be placed in house. On-going and still problematic with some challenging teenagers. External commissioning Formally sign up with the East LONDON Solutions/North LONDON Strategic Alliance (now called the North LONDON Children s Efficiency Programme) preferred list project for externally commissioned foster placements with the aim of improving placement quality and value for money. Watching brief only. Project has come to an end but was not successful in terms of its key aims.

7 Outstanding children s home Develop an action plan so as to ensure that Norman Grove becomes an Ofsted rated outstanding children home. Norman Grove is currently rated Good by the most recent full Ofsted inspection. Partnership with key stakeholders and feedback Develop a comprehensive evaluation system for key stakeholders to measure the outcome of placements made by CPT. On-going, placement summit took place in the summer. 65. Sufficiency Duty action plan October 2016 Issue Action Early Help Development of the early help hub in order to have: Better early identification of need A clearer pathway to early help services, enabling families and professionals to identify the right services and for access to these services to be more proactively brokered Better information about the need for early help services across TOWER HAMLETS Better information about the effectiveness of early help services A coherent service offer that meets the needs of families effectively Prevention Develop the Pan LONDON social impact bond work to.

8 Ensure high quality interventions with an evidence base approach targeted interventions with lower costs Recruitment Focus on foster care recruitment in TOWER HAMLETS , neighbouring boroughs and Essex in order to: increase local placement options Commissioning Review our whole commissioning process in partnership with the Children s Commissioning Team in order to: improve quality and reduce cost Children s home reconfiguration Review the statement of purpose of the children s home in order to: build team expertise in providing a comprehensive package of support to hard to place teenagers who cannot be placed in family placements. 76. Sufficiency Duty Strategy October 2016 Key principles The key principles of the sufficiency strategy are for the council to: Ensure that a range of placement options are available to social workers when they request a placement from the Children s Placement team (CPT).

9 Ensure that placements are matched to identified needs. The creation of a supportive environment to ensure placement stability. The identification of measurable outcomes in line with the council s Wellbeing Key aims The key aims of the sufficiency strategy are to enable the BOROUGH to: Identify the right placement, in the right place, at the right time and thereby: Allow the child to live near their home as long as this is safe for the child to do so. Minimise any disruption to a child's education or training. Enable the child and a looked after sibling to live together. Meet the particular needs of disabled children. Provide accommodation within the BOROUGH area, unless this is not reasonably practicable and safe to do so. Overall strategy Managing Demand The key task is to make sure that children who need to be looked after are looked after and those who do not need to be looked after are not.

10 The areas of managing demand for placements are: Panels: The Entry to Care Panel and the Joint Commissioning Panel. Prevention through early intervention teams: The Outreach team; the Integrated Pathways and Support team; the CAMHS partnership; the Family Cluster; and the Troubled Families initiative. 8 Statutory assessment: The Assessment and Intervention teams; The Family Support and Protection teams. Managing Supply The key task is to make sure that at the point that there are no in house placements available then there are a range of placements are available to social workers so that an appropriate match can be made in terms of the specific needs of the children. The key team for managing supply is the Children s Placement Team which has traditionally employed a spot purchase method once in house provision has been exhausted.