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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY J.A. HILTON OF ST. HELIER
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 28TH MARCH 2017
Question
Further to the Independent audit of the quality of front line practice and management', undertaken between May and July 2015 in respect of the Children's Service, and the recommendations arising from the four phases of that audit, will the Minister advise which, if any, of the recommendations were adopted and state what criteria will be used to measure performance and the outcome of those recommendations to ensure that a difference is made to the lives of children in the Island?
Answer
The four audits that considered a small sample of practice ranged from entry to the service through to considering the circumstances of looked after children. All of the recommendations of the audits were accepted and were incorporated into the Children's Service improvement programme.
Completed actions include:
- The permanent establishment of the post of team manager in the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)
- MASH manual and guidance in place
- Staff training and development
- Strengthened management oversight of decision-making
- Development of a child's single assessment and plan
- Performance indicators in place for child protection
- Significant number of cases reviewed and quality assured
- Documentation for looked after children reviewed and further developed
- Pathway plans in place for care leavers
- Permanent independent reviewing officers in place
- Staff receiving regular reflective supervision.
Longer term actions such as the development of a corporate parenting strategy are ongoing across the partnership working with children.
These audits have been part of a broader framework of quality assurance developed in the service and across the range of agencies working with children in Jersey.
The Children's Service is underpinning its improvement work using the framework tried and tested by the Scott ish Care Inspectorate: How well are we improving the lives of children and young people?' This framework is validated by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) and provides a method of measuring outcomes for children. The service will self-evaluate its progress using this framework.
The service has adopted a performance management framework based on Annex A (National Performance Indicators) used in England as well as a number of information management processes to ensure oversight of progress and to ensure a proactive approach is taken to service planning and delivery.
Children's plans are outcome focused and are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time bound) and are reviewed on a regular basis to measure progress. Practitioners use validated tools to measure progress of a child or young person against the outcomes of safe, healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible and included.
The new Children's Service IT system has been commissioned and will provide individual client information as well as a number of business reports. These business reports will include a range of performance reports with the facility to aggregate and collate information on outcomes (target and achieved). This will include quantitative and qualitative outcomes and the development of proxy indicators to measure the wellbeing and protection of children and young people.
The installation of the system is scheduled to start in April 2017 which will include service-wide testing, staff training and incorporating Jersey legislation and policy, with a planned implementation across the Service by the end of 2017.