For Performance Management to be possible, LCS must be utilised consistently throughout the council. There must be good operational processes in place with consistent application, and all staff must know how and where to record their information in LCS. Managers must understand the reports, produced from the system, and should be fluent in using the specific reports relevant to their areas of practice, and understand what to do with the reports. Business Intelligence must have a full understanding of these processes and data recording practices and will use this knowledge to develop standard reports for use throughout the council. Without uniform recording, the reports generated will be inaccurate and inconsistent and it will be impossible to identify teams that need additional support, spot trends, plan services effectively, and ensure vulnerable children and families are protected How data is used -throughout the County Council and wider system for Children's Services: Managers should be able to understand this flow of information and be able to explain this to teams they manage as part of explaining the importance of their role in the process. OFSTED Inspection data in Annex A A national standard data set taken from LCS which OFSTED uses to make judgements of services Sector Led Improvement (including peer reviews and challenge) Comparison studies, visits and peer assessments of the service. Data from LCS informs sector led improvement. Cabinet Committee on Performance Improvement (CCPI) – County Council level CCPI reviews reports on performance and is chaired by the Leader of the Council and attended by elected members
Report Content area Purpose What managers do with the performance data Contacts data The Purpose of this report to give statistical data regarding all the contacts coming into the front door service The report allows comparisons to be made with statistical neighbours and predict volumes and consider capacity and thresholds Contact outcome breakdown by team member, including to NFA etc. The purpose of this report is to enable outcomes to be recorded showing what the outcomes are for children. This report enables us to track that support is being provided to children when a case is closed and to consider team performance and activities. Ethnicity The purpose is to enable us to have a greater understanding of our population in Lancashire. Enable reporting and identify any gaps in recording Source of contacts The purpose of this report is to be able to have an understanding of who is referring to the front door service This report enables us to identify who is referring and in what numbers i.e. Police, NWAS and Time from contact coming in to stepped down or going on to referral The purpose of this is to ensure timescales are being met Managers to consider any trends or themes so they can then address team performance. Status of contact on receipt compared to completion status The purpose of this report is to identify outcomes for children from contact This report enables an understanding of the actions taken on cases to consider best practice and team performance. Repeat contacts in 12 months (Annex A list) broken down by agency The purpose of this report is to understand which agency is continually referring This enable managers to consider trends from agencies and to try and understand repeat contacts. Assessment reporting Report Content area Purpose What managers do with the performance data Assessments data Provides data for PIMMS
CIN plan duration broken down by time bands (CIN open for more than 12 months and more than 2 years specifically requested by Ofsted) Workshop clarified timescales as: CIN plan open for 3 months, 6 months, 12 months and over 12 months. To ensure that CIN plans do not drift beyond the period planned and plans are reviewed and updated in a timely way Managers should analyse cases to identify drift or to anticipate drift, identify plans due review, and ensure plans have involvement and the review is updating plans appropriately. To identify cases which require a decision on step-up or step down as part of exit strategy to take place within a six month period Outcome of CIN case (step up / step down) / reason for closure To ensure that cases are escalated or de-escalated in line with the continuum of need and cases are managed at an appropriate level of risk, recording the reasons for closure Manager should analyse individual cases with regard to the quality of the assessment, interventions, planning and review. By looking at trends within their team and identifying whether there are appropriate levels of understanding of the risks, which are being managed in particular cases. The analysis of the manager should fit into the overall departmental analysis in terms of the understanding of risks and thresholds. For example through feeding into the PIMS meetings Time taken to allocate from C&F to CIN: date between outcome of C&F and date allocated to a CIN team To ensure that there is no delay between the process of assessment and delivery of interventions/services Manager should analyse the report to ensure that is minimal delay between the completion of the assessment and the start of the plan, in order to reduce the risk of escalation by prompt preventative action. Managers should act on cases where delay is identified, record the reasons and actions to rectify the situation Repeat CIN plan in last 12 months To ensure that interventions are effective and do not lead to recurrent plans being necessary or escalation required. To verify that quality and accurate assessments are undertaken which confirm the level of risk/need. To reduce the number of repeat plans Use the report to identify cases and prompt discussion with team members relating to the accuracy of the assessment and the possible reasons for a repeat plan being necessary. Review the step down process to identify issues and to enable the adjustment of fresh plans. Use the report to assess the risks associated with cases, the nature of the intervention and its appropriateness and to seek to avoid delay in needs being met.
Repeat CIN plan in last 2 years To ensure that interventions are effective and do not lead to recurrent plans being necessary or escalation required. To verify that quality, accurate assessments are undertaken which confirm the level of risk/need. To reduce the number of repeat plans Use the report to identify cases and prompt discussion with team members relating to the accuracy of the assessment and the possible reasons for the repeat plan being necessary. Review the step down process to identify issues and to enable the adjustment of fresh plans. Use the report to assess the risks associated with cases, the nature of the intervention and its appropriateness and avoid delay in needs being met. List of children with a plan but without a case summary (case note type) Identify cases with incomplete records as the case summary provides a pen picture of the case for managers to gain an overview Managers to ensure that minimum expectations are understood by all staff, explain the importance of this and maintain a culture in which this is undertaken as a matter of course. S 47s and Strategy Discussions reporting Strategy Discussions data Provides data for PIMMS Strategy discussions including police, health and education To ensure that Strategy Discussions are complaint with "Working Together" guidance and include partner agencies Managers to ensure that all staff understand the minimum expectations regarding multi agency participation and accurate recording of agency involvement in Strategy Discussions Strategy discussions with managerial oversight in previous 7 days To ensure that Strategy Discussions have management oversight within 7 days Use the report to identify Strategy discussions that require management oversight and action these Strategy discussions held within 24 hours of decision to hold a SD To ensure that Strategy Discussions are complaint with "Working Together" guidance and are held within 24hrs of the referral. Managers to ensure that all staff understand the requirement to hold a Strategy Discussion within 24hrs of the referral, and ensure a timely response to concerns of significant harm to children.
Pre- meeting report completed within 2 days of conference date. With a list of 'no'. To ensure that SW report is shared with family and the IRO has had sight of the report 2 days prior to the conference to ensure they are aware of issues in advance. It will highlight where a conference may need to be adjourned unnecessarily due to failure to complete a report on time. The report can be used to alert managers to poor practice /performance within teams Both IRO and Practice Manager should be aware of which cases have not had a pre meeting report and use this report to follow up with SW the reasons for delay on cases. Managers should take action with SW whose reasons for delay are not acceptable. Managers can use this information to look at which reports haven't been done and those that have been done which allows managers to pre-empt possible delays and a lack of partnership working with parents and other agency partners. Children Looked After reporting CLA data Provides data for PIMMS % of visits in time To ensure that children who are Looked After are visited within the statutory timescales, to comply with minimum statutory requirements Review the report and if a child has been identified who has not been visited, the manager to ensure a visit is undertaken immediately by the allocated worker or duty worker. The manager to record the reasons for the visit not being completed within timescales on LCS. If a particular allocated social worker is not undertaking work within timescales repeatedly then this should be addressed as part of the performance management process. To ensure that SWs are discharging their responsibilities as a corporate parent Visits due within 7 days The purpose of the report is to ensure that any child who is Looked After is visited within 7 days from making the order or placement The manager to ensure that children in our care are visited within the timescale expected or immediately once delay is
the allocated worker and a date arranged immediately. SDQ - rewrite of existing report to incorporate new process and be turned into a management report in excel format IROs Care Leavers reporting Care Leaver cohort Provides data for PIMMS Number of care leavers This is in order to see how many in the cohort of care leavers we have and monitor fluctuations To be used at Pimms Number with a pathway plan To identify the number with a pathway plan compared to the number of care leavers. To ascertain whether pathway plans are being completed Pathway plan up-to-date This gives an indication of outstanding work and non compliance This would be used at PIMMS meetings and for TM to monitor performance of staff and support to care leavers Last contact with care leaver time band breakdown To ascertain whether we are keeping in touch with care leavers in line with regulations and understand the reasons why not Managers can use this to identify good and poor practice, whether keeping in touch arrangements are being implemented and welcomed by the care leavers. Low numbers would indicate a need to find more creative ways of engaging care leavers. This can be used by both the Team and Senior managers Eligibility category breakdown Managers can check the cohort of care leavers within their team and service to check its correct in terms of eligibility. Managers can use this information to ensure that the right support package and pathways are being utilised according to eligibility criteria. To be used by team and senior managers to look at resource allocation and spend as well as the composition of their care leaver population