Submission - Performance Management - Children, Young People, Education and Skills - 2 July 2021

19-21 Broad Street | St Helier Jersey | JE2 3RR

2 July 2021

To Deputy Inna Gardiner

Chair of Public Accounts Committee

Sent by email: I. Gardiner @gov.je  

Dear Deputy Gardiner

Public Accounts Committee Review of Performance Management

Thank you for the recent opportunity to join the Committee to answer questions about the Department's approach to performance and estates issues. Mr. Posner and I found the engagement both constructive and helpful and we appreciated the advice that arose out of the consideration of a number of the questions posed.

Colleagues and I have, subsequently, given consideration to the follow-on questions posed in your letter of the 19th May, 2021 and I am pleased to set out below the further responses from the Department.

1. The PAC note the breadth of the CYPES directorate which comprises multiple services; all of which comprise a high level of complexity:

Education

Further and Higher Education Youth Services

Children's Social Care

Early Help

CAHMS

Skills and Lifelong Learning

2. A number of initiatives set out in the Departmental Operational Business Plan for 2021 (pages 12-14) span several years and are listed as projects - can you please explain what milestones will be achieved in 2021 against each of these?

1. Discrimination Law, Safeguarding and Regulation of Care
   1. Contractors on site – April 2021
2. Replacement Assets and Minor Capital

• Asset replacements for the Culinary Arts Department comprising of full-time Culinary Arts and Hospitality and Tourism programmes.
• Development of interior courtyard into sensory garden.
• Replace existing soft play surface in reception/nursery outside learning area, to ensure safe provision for children using this space.
• Across various schools - site security improvements.
• Replacement panic alarm systems at both the Primary and Secondary school sites,
• Improvement work to a school office.
• Regeneration of children's play area.
• Trim trail in playground.

1. Hall Lighting.

101. School 3G Pitch replacements
     1. Ongoing projects throughout 2021 and beyond.

5. School Field development - Grainville, St John
   1. St John construction start September/October 2021.
   2. St John works complete March 2022.
   3. Grainville plans developed December 2021.
6. Mont a l'Abbé extension
   1. Construction to begin October 2021.
7. Jersey Instrumental Music Service Premises (Feasibility)
   1. Site confirmed August 2021.
   2. Architectural designs completed and agreed September 2021.
   3. Planning submission October 2021.
8. VCP Replacement School (Feasibility
   1. Pre-feasibility to be complete July 2021.
   2. JPH feasibility study to commence August 2021.
9. North of St. Helier Youth Centre (Feasibility)
   1. Site identified Autumn 2021.
   2. Pre-feasibility to be December 2021.
10. Le Squez Youth Centre/Community Hubs (Feasibility)
    1. Scope confirmed July 2021.
    2. Feasibility by JPH complete October 2021.
    3. Submission to planning December 2021.
11. Rouge Bouillon site review (Feasibility)
    1. Feedback from Property Holdings July 2021.
    2. Finalisation of report July/August 2021.
12. Review of Greenfields (Feasibility)
    1. Home improvements priorities agreed June 2021.
    2. Decision regarding scope and client brief to be provided by CYPES DLT July 2021.
    3. A new milestone of JPH to conduct feasibility once decision has been made.
13. Further Education Campus (Feasibility)
    1. White Paper developed for Further Education strategy to inform project brief - December 2021.
14. Le Rocquier - school & community sports facilities
    1. Concept design to be complete - December 2021.
15. Les Landes Nursery
    1. Submit planning application – July 2021.
    2. Construction start – October 2021.
16. Extend La Moye Hall and 2 additional classrooms
    1. Submitted planning application – May 2021.
    2. Construction start – October 2021.
17. Extension to JCG School Hall
    1. Deferred.
18. JCG and JCP additional music facilities
    1. Submit to building application for approval to bye-laws June 2021.
    2. Tender approved October 2021.
19. JCG and JCP new playing fields
    1. Deferred.

3. There are significant differences to the 2020 business plan and that of the 2021 business plan. What baseline data are you using to measure performance for the department?

It is important to note that whilst business plan activities can – and should – change as they are successfully implemented, this doesn't automatically mean that any or all of the performance metrics need to follow suit. The change in activity often reflects the requirement of a new or further development designed to add impact to a core set of key outcomes that need a sustained focus over time.

To support the Department's understanding of the impact on its business plans, it has recently implemented a CYPES Performance Dashboard to review activity data, resources, quality and outcomes measures across the Department. In the first iteration of the CYPES dashboard, the data includes the Departmental KPIs as listed in the business plan, as well as more detailed activity data from the Children & Families Hub, Children's Social Care, Early Help, CAMHS and Education. The dashboard will develop over time. Some services have several years' worth of baseline data on key metrics, and in other areas the data is very much in development and we will be setting baselines over time.

The use of management information is most established in Children's Social Care. There is a detailed monthly service level dashboard for the Senior Leadership Team, underpinned by weekly child-level data for each of the teams. There are also daily dashboards available for team managers, so there is a real focus on the use of data. In Children's Social Care we measure performance against benchmarking data from our family of statistical neighbours and against England as a whole. We also use historical trend data to understand current performance. The service benefits from having a solid understanding of where the challenges lie and what's working well.

The CYPES Informatics Team was brought together in January 2021. Informatics resources have not previously been spread equally across the Department and in some areas the data is less developed than in others. We have recently secured dedicated analytical support for Skills Jersey and the Jersey Youth Service. We have also recruited a Data Quality Analyst who is due to join us in August. We will have a focus on high quality data for decision making across the Department. The intention is to develop dashboards for each Senior Leadership Team during 2021 and begin to roll out team level dashboards across the rest of the Department.

It's recognised that the Department's KPIs are skewed towards Children's Social Care, particularly on those indicators that can be updated monthly. As we improve the visibility of data from each area of the Department, we will revisit the list of KPIs to ensure that it is a more balanced view across the Department for 2022.

4. The Executive Response to the C&AG Report on Management Information in Education stated that a new set of performance measures had been developed and analysis was to take place by Quarter 2 2021, has this been done?

• If so, what are the results and the learning?
• Why were new performance measures needed?
• What is the current status of the accepted recommendations targets from the Management Information report?

In short, yes. A CYPES dashboard was developed for the 2021 business plan and is now reviewed monthly by the CYPES Performance Board. The CYPES Informatics Team has been brought together to satisfy the growing need for management information across the Department. This increased appetite for data is part of the natural development of the way in which services are managed. This picture will be familiar across Government. Inevitably, as the Informatics team becomes embedded, we will develop a much wider dataset to underpin decision making across the Department.

The analysis of these measures will be an ongoing piece of work. The CYPES Performance Board gives the Departmental Leadership Team the opportunity to review a wide range of Departmental data in one place for the first time. The first iteration of the dashboard, in June, highlights the continuing impact of the pandemic, with concerns around the increasing demand for mental health and wellbeing support for children. Challenges in schools include increases in Records of Need, Jersey Premium and pupils with English as an Additional Language. Some positive themes arise from the data such as the growth in Early Help activity and the associated reduction in cases within Children's Social Care, which means that children are receiving the right help at the right time.

There are ten recommendations from the C&AG report to be delivered by CYPES and it is expected these will be fully delivered by the end of 2021.

5. How does the Senior Management Team utilise the customer feedback policy overseen by CLS? What consideration is being given to how feedback is used to improve your performance/service?

As part of our Quality Assurance Process all complaints and compliments entered in the Customer Feedback Management System are reviewed by our complaints officer who reports on themes and outcomes to our monthly performance meetings. We will on occasion be led in our audit activity if complaints we receive indicate a particular area or team we need to focus on. Our investigating managers are encouraged to identify learning needs for individual staff or teams as part of their response to service users. An example of this is within Children's Social Care, where the Principal Social Worker manages the Quality Assurance and Learning and Development Manager in the service so is aware of the need to link training to lessons learned from comments from our service users.

We also use reflective supervision or group discussions to tease out issues where service provision needs to be developed, for example for older children with learning disabilities who also have mental health needs. We will then link with our colleagues in commissioning.

6. The Departmental Operational Business Plan for 2021 (pages 30-33) sets out your performance measures. Data is available from 2016, but where is the performance report for 2020?

The performance data for 2020 was included in the Annual Report and Accounts, and measures have been shared with colleagues in SPPP as part of the Jersey Performance Framework (for publication). In some instances, it is not be appropriate to report 2020 data in the same way that we have reported in previous years. For example, GCSE grades for 2020 were not comparable with previous years as the final grades were based on Centre Assessed Grades rather than exam results. Some of the teacher assessments were not collected or moderated in 2020 due to school closures resulting from COVID-19.

Work is ongoing with Web Services colleagues to develop a performance update on the Children's Social Care webpage on gov.je. We intend to publish regular datasets with a narrative that is transparent, and accessible, for members of the public to understand our performance. The intention is to repeat this work with data from across the Department later in the year.

7. How many vacancies are left within the Target Operating Model?

1. How soon can we expect these to be filled by?

There are currently nine vacancies for roles which were created as part of CYPES Target Operating Model (TOM). A number of these vacancies have arisen as a result to resignations after the TOM was established in September 2020. Some vacancies are in different stages of the recruitment process, others are not yet advertised. The expectation is for these vacancies to be filled by Q4 2021.

2. Which Virtual School senior roles were created as amendments to the TOM?

The Virtual School supports the education of our most vulnerable children, those who are looked after. In the UK, the Virtual Head Teacher is a statutory role. A Virtual School was not in place in Jersey and this was a significant concern of the Care Commission that inspected Jersey's Social Care provision in 2019. There was a strong recommendation that a Virtual Head be appointed with appropriate staff resources to support them.

The role of Virtual Head and an Assistant Virtual Head have been agreed as part of the TOM.

8. What were or are the implementation dates for TOM2?

1. What role does "establishing the future shape of the Department" play in the TOM2 process?

TOM 2 (up to Tier 4) was established in September 2020. TOM 3 (Tiers 5 and 6) will be rolled out through individual service redesign projects within the CYPES portfolio along with the Education Reform Programme and other projects/programmes of work.

2. What specific support are you receiving from People and Corporate Services to help determine and coordinate CYPES' functional and service reviews?

People and Corporate Services (PC&S) are working with the Department to understand the CYPES demand on PC&S resource in 2021 in order to successfully support the service reviews. Specifically, the work aims to:

• Develop a prioritisation table for review by CYPES DLT.
• Sequence the demand in line with the prioritisation table and DLT requirements and show this in the form of a high-level plan.
• Highlight any dependencies either internally with the service reviews or externally across Gov.

The next steps for CYPES is to work with P&CS to identify resource requirements aligned to the service review plan, the Education Reform Programme and business as usual. Once this has been complete P&CS will continue to provide support specifically around:

• OD design.
• Job design and job evaluation.
• Data collation.
• Impact analysis.
• Staff and union engagement and consultation.
• Workforce planning.
• Recruitment and implementation planning.
• System configuration.

3. What feedback is provided to your department's responsible Ministers and Assistant Ministers? What steer do they have on these areas, including Business Support services?
4. What influence do responsible Ministers and Assistant Ministers have on functional services reviews?

The delivery of the TOM and functional reviews are led by the Director General. Updates are provided to the Ministerial Team at appropriate times, including a review of the proposed structure, job roles and synergies to be created both with and external to CYPES. Keeping the Ministerial team updated in this way ensures proposals align with the Minister's ambitions for children and young people and that the proposed new structures support both Government and Departmental strategies. Proposals where employees are affected are taken to the States Employment Board for agreement and sign-off before progressing. They are also presented to the relevant Scrutiny Panels. The Council of Ministers is also advised of changes.

5. We note that the current position of Minister for Children and Education has been taken under the wing of the Chief Minister. How will this impact the influence and steer you may otherwise receive from the designate Ministerial post?

A new Minister for Children and Education was appointed on 29 June. A full briefing on the proposed functional reviews for CYPES will be provided to the new Minister at the earliest opportunity. Since the Chief Minister assumed ministerial responsibilities for children and education, I have had regular 1:1 meetings with the Assistant Minister for Children and Education, who in turn is able to escalate any issues to Chief Minister.

9. How does the central CYPES informatics team work to ensure that each service within CYPES is represented accordingly by the data collected on it? How do you separate out good performance between, for example, nursery-level and further education? a. How will new reporting arrangements within the central CYPES informatics team influence departmental decision making?

The structure of the CYPES Informatics Team is shown below. Each analyst is the informatics lead for specific areas of the Department and will be responsible for working with colleagues in the business to ensure their data is represented accurately and meaningfully within their own areas and in the wider departmental reporting.

Wherever possible we will endeavour to develop service specific targets/thresholds using benchmarking, practice standards and other guidance from subject specialists. For example, in CAMHS, thresholds are informed by the NHS benchmarking project. In Social Care, we use the Children's Services Analytical Tool from Ofsted, the Local Authority Interactive Tool and local Practice Standards. Due to differences in legislative arrangements we also need to ensure that any benchmarking comparisons with other Local Authorities are appropriate.

New reporting arrangements in the department will increase the presence of data. The Commissioning Insight Manager role is about to go out to advert. The successful applicant will be key in developing our use of data to support the Department's approach to commissioning and service redesign. A holistic view of data across the Department will support our understanding of the gaps and overlaps between services, as well as providing a more detailed view of management information at service level.

b. Will data collected be used to help influence overlapping departments, such as HCS?

We are keenly aware that children's lives are represented within departments across Government, and the CYPES Informatics Team fully intends to work with our established network of analytical colleagues to share and blend datasets where we have the appropriate governance to do so. We are currently in the process of recruiting an analyst to work between the HCS and CYPES Informatics teams to support CAMHS in developing its use of management information. This role is important in supporting the service to run effectively, and it will support the current mental health strategy work with data that enhances our ability to provide earlier. The new role will also help us to understand how children accessing CAMHS might also feature across other parts of the department such as Social Care or Inclusion.

We are working with colleagues in Skills Jersey and Customer and Local Services to ensure that we use data effectively to identify and offer support to young people who are not in education, employment and training. We are also working with States of Jersey Police colleagues to address the numbers of children who are reported missing from home and in the development of a Youth Justice dashboard that promotes a child-focused approach from all partners working in this area.

10. How are CYPES' Design Principles represented through the data and feedback collected on the department? What methods are in place to ensure that they influence decision making and performance management?

CYPES is continuing to seek to embed the One Government design principles when developing new services. This includes starting with the customer, delivering the right services, collaborate to get better results, thinking digitally and designing for the future, not just for today. The collection of feedback and data is one part of the commissioning cycle, which identifies where services work or do not work or where there are gaps which need addressing. Performance management is a key part to this, and it is through the establishment of the CYPES Commissioning function and the CYPES Informatics team that the department is in strong position to ensure resources are targeted to where there is need.

1. One of your aims is to get basic social care practice right and develop an effective practice model and toolkit – what mechanisms to you have in place to respond and learn from feedback from children, families and partner agencies

This is a key aspect of the Quality Assurance Team's work: we seek feedback from service users and partner agencies on specific aspects of our work and have multi-agency reflective supervision to gather information on how we can best support vulnerable children and families.

We seek feedback from Foster Carers as well as other partners on how well our model of restorative practice is working to support families. We are in the process of re-launching Mind of My Own', which is an App which encourages children to message their social worker directly about concerns and we can monitor and gather responses to these messages in terms of timeliness and outcomes.

We recently surveyed partners and staff on how they felt about re-connecting after the COVID suspension of in person Child Protection conferences and are taking this on board in planning how we manage this process.

2. Please can you give some specific examples of your work to develop and enhance partnership working with statutory, voluntary and private providers.

Partnership working is crucial to CYPES' commitment to be a commissioning minded department.

The development of the short break offer for children with disabilities provides an example of partnership working with statutory, voluntary and private providers. The redesign of children's short breaks commenced with a workshop that brought together statutory, voluntary and private providers and the Parent Carer Forum to consider how to build capacity to promote inclusion and provide more opportunities for children. The Youth Service and the Child Development team also ran workshops with children and young people to find out their views. Informed by this work, draft proposals went out to public consultation at the end of 2018 with a survey for all stakeholders and a series of drop-in engagement events open to parents, professionals working with children with disabilities and current and potential short break providers. The public consultation informed the new short break model and commissioning intentions.

The provider market place in Jersey was extremely limited but through proactive partnership working between Government and community and voluntary sector providers, over the last three years the short break offer has developed to provide inclusion support, and targeted weekend, after school and school holiday provision in addition to specialist individual support through a blend of Government and community and voluntary sector provision with a private provider about to join the approved provider framework. As a result, more families are being supported with their children having the opportunity to participate in fun activities with their peers. The bi-monthly Activity and Inclusion meeting chaired by the CYPES commissioning team provides a forum for all stakeholders to share good practice and learning and develop innovative ways of working together to continue to further strengthen the short break offer.

A further example is provided below.

The development of the draft Children and Young People Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Strategy and the new model of care was co-produced over a period of fifteen months, with extensive input and direction from a wide range of stakeholders including statutory, voluntary and private providers, parents and children and young people. Four parent and carer stakeholder engagement events took place between November 2019 and January 2020. A workshop was held with Youthful Minds (Mind Jersey) on the 24 February 2020. Subsequently, a wider stakeholder workshop took place on the 25 February involving over 100 people, with me opening the event. This workshop provided attendees with the opportunity to contribute to the policy development process from the beginning. Input was sought on the important elements for inclusion in the draft vision, and key issues that should be addressed. The feedback and input received was of very high quality and plentiful and has informed the development of the vision and action plan included in the draft strategy.

The global pandemic and the island's response in 2020 meant that work was delayed on the strategy development. However, we have now been able to consider the impact of the pandemic on children and families and what that means for our service planning. We held a second face to face event on the 23 to the 25 September, where there was an opportunity to present an early draft vision of the key themes and to further develop the model of care with partners. The third and final workshops were held online between the 27 and 29 January 2021. The workshops were supplemented by a lead from different agencies taking forward meetings and discussions with a wide range of stakeholders on specific points during the strategy development process. In addition, three surveys were developed, a children and young person's version, a parent and carer version and a professional survey. In total there were over 450 responses to these surveys. Feedback from these surveys have informed the future proposed model of care.

11. What measures have you implemented to help reduce siloing' within your department?

A key principle for the CYPES department is that services work together to improve the lives of children and their families. Officers in CYPES are committed to making this happen and our Departmental Leadership Team (DLT) has recently undertaken sessions with Team Jersey to commence the process of developing a People and Culture plan. This plan will centre on the CYPES Premium', a term we are starting to use within our DLT to describe the added value derived from CYPES being greater than the sum of its parts. We have a further session booked with members of the department Senior Leaders Group (Tier 3 managers) in July and following this we will develop a timeline for the development of the plan.

As an example of the CYPES premium approach, it is departmental policy that no programme or project can be commenced until the initiation document has been signed off formally by the Department Leadership Team (DLT) and formally recorded in and monitored through Perform at monthly programme board meetings.

12. Please could you provide a timeline of future Functional Service Reviews and implementation periods for future iterations of the Target Operating Model.

The timeline for future functional services review is due to be signed off by the Departmental Leadership Team (DLT) at its meeting of 6 July. It will then be presented to the Minister. Following this a copy of the timeline can be presented to PAC for information.

13. There are numerous strategies in place at any one-time, what mechanisms do you use to ensure they all work together at a departmental and divisional level?

The Common Strategic Policy (CSP), along with the Children's Plan provides an overarching strategic Framework for CYPES to operate within. The Department Business Plan is the central strategic document for CYPES, which links upwards to the CSP, Government Plan and Children's Plan and then outwards to the different operational plans within services.

A good example of this is Children's Social Care's Our Plan', with key deliverables identified in the Department Business Plan. Furthermore, the Departmental Business Plan identifies the reviews or future strategies either in development or to be developed in the future, for example the Inclusion Review or Education Reform Programme. The CYPES Programme Board monitors individual projects within the overall CYPES programme and the six-monthly monitoring of the Government Plan and interim reviews of the Department Business Plan provide further opportunities to review progress.

14. How do the Chief Minister and Assistant Minister(s) influence and oversee the resourcing and response to recommendations within the Recommendations Tracker?

Updates to the Tracker are provided to the Ministerial team as and when required. This is dependent on the recommendation and whether additional resourcing or policy changes are necessary or whether updates are provided for information. Regular updates on progress towards the recommendations discussed at Departmental Leadership Team meetings informs future updates to the Ministerial Team.

15. How is the impact of COVID tracked for recommendation tracker blockages?

COVID has had an impact on the delivery of the recommendations contained within the Tracker. This commentary is reflected within the Tracker and when required a reassessment of target dates is undertaken.

16. How is information on feedback from recommendations collated and examined to identify ways of improving future engagement?

Communication about the progress of recommendations has been undertaken with both the Departmental Leadership Team (DLT) and Senior Leaders Group (SLG). This has centred on the creation of a central CYPES Informatics Team, creation of central CYPES Management Information Dashboard and the development of information analysis and reporting through the CYPES Performance Board.

17. When will the CYPES Management Information Dashboard become available?

1. How will the Dashboard be improved over time? What feedback mechanisms will be used to facilitate this?
2. How often do CYPES Informatics team report to you?

The first iteration of the CYPES dashboard is available from June 2021 and will be reviewed by the CYPES Performance Board on a monthly basis. Regular engagement with the Departmental Leadership Team and Senior Leadership Teams will inevitably lead to the growth and development of the dashboard over time, particularly as the team develop close links with those areas of the Department that haven't previously featured, such as Skills Jersey. The ambition for the dashboard is that the focus extends to cover a broader range of quality and outcomes measures so that we can regularly assess the extent to which the Department is making a difference to children's lives.

18. You note in your responses that CYPES is a large and complex department. How does the Business Continuity Management Plan attempt to acknowledge this and provide actions that fulfil the criteria required by each department?

CYPES has developed a framework outlining roles and responsibilities for Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and Risk Management across each of the four directorates. This framework is linked to the overarching CYPES Business Continuity plan. To further acknowledge the complexity and scale of the Department a process of continuous review of the overarching Business Continuity plan and time sensitive activities is undertaken by the Business Continuity Lead and/or Business Continuity Deputy .

A variety of actions and processes have been integrated to ensure Business Continuity criteria are fulfilled by each directorate. Business Continuity leads have been identified in each directorate and act as a point of support and guidance for the teams.

The CYPES Governance team supports, advises and liaises with the Business Continuity Leads (and third parties) to ensure relevant actions, cascades and processes are in place to maintain business operations. Reviews of inter-departmental plans are regularly undertaken and monitored, with feedback and site-specific guidance and training provided. Also, monthly review meetings take place with the corporate BCP and Risk leads.

19. How will you update your Business Continuity Management Plan following the COVID- 19 pandemic to account for other potential crises?

a. How will you use the lessons learnt log' to help facilitate change and improved response management within CYPES' wider remit?

Following the Covid-19 Pandemic a Business Continuity Planning (BCP) template is being developed to enable a standardised approach across Government. Training to assist in understanding business continuity, how to utilise business continuity plans effectively and cascading to the parties for the relevant support in the event of crisis is being provided and integrated within Departments.

The lessons learnt log, feedback from key stakeholders and internal reviews have informed the development of the Department's continuous improvements plan. This learning is being integrated into both BCP and risk plans, specifically focussing on time sensitive activities, training, standardising of templates and monitoring/auditing.

Risks from the lesson learnt log are included on the Department's risk register. These are updated and monitored weekly and reviewed at the Department Leadership Team (DLT) on a monthly basis. Recommendations from the corporate BCP internal audit will be included in the department high- level improvements plan.

We have learnt that Departments and Services that operate with transparency and open communication have inherent advantages when events require quick actions to react and reshape. Therefore, clear plans facilitate a two-way communication process across the Department, enabling clear, expert and pragmatic responses to be tailored for potential Covid-19 and other situations as

they arise.  

20. What were the key takeaways from the latest colleague engagement survey for your department when it came to leadership and communication? What steps are you taking to improve in these areas?

The key findings for CYPES show that:

• The overall employee engagement figure for CYPES was 52%, slightly lower than the Government of Jersey result of 53% (NB the engagement rate is different from the response rate).
• Colleagues are committed to and proud of the work that they do.
• There's a strong sense of team, with people caring for one another and being supportive.
• There's more to do to make sure that we get the balance right in health and wellbeing.
• We also need to do more to support continuous professional development, especially in generic areas, such a leadership and management skills.
• The survey shows that in CYPES managers share important knowledge and information and overall, the feedback around managers was very positive.
• We need to consider the context around the time of survey was conducted because the organisation was leading and communicating in very different ways that we had done previously

The Department is in the process of disseminating the Be Heard survey results, firstly from the Department Leadership Team to the Senior Leaders Group and then to individual teams. The Department is committed to the development of a People and Culture Plan and the development of an action plan to address the key findings of the survey.

21. What are your department's top five risks? How do you reduce/mitigate them?

Risk 1: Children Social Care

The risk that if Children's Social Care do not have a sufficient and effective workforce to meet the demand on services then this could result in either a delay in being able to deliver the services needed or poor practice in safeguarding vulnerable children.

Mitigation – Assurance Framework

• Children's Strategic Leadership Board established and co-chaired by the Chief Minister

and Minister for Children and Education.

• Prioritisation of children in the Common Strategic Policy and Government Plan.
• Jersey Care Commission ensures regular inspection of safeguarding effectiveness of children's social work services by an independent inspectorate (OFSTED) and inspection of children's homes.
• Safeguarding Partnership Board co-ordinates work to help safeguard children more widely, headed-up by an Independent Chair.
• Care of Children in Jersey Review Panel established by the States Assembly to scrutinise progress.
• Operational oversight groups in place that monitor open cases to ensure safeguarding is managed appropriately.
• Business Continuity Plans in place.
• Workforce planning and recruitment.
• Draft workforce plan and updated recruitment strategy for social workers.

Risk 2 – Children Social Care

Matching and the number of children's homes: Currently the Children's Homes are now at capacity and the current needs/ mix of young people and children, will make it difficult for other children to be placed in the same home without compromising the care of the children.

Staffing: Ensuring the correct ratio of staff to children and homes.

Mitigation

• Providing emergency provisional and 'pop-up' care settings for those requiring it. However, this provision is not sustainable long term due to staffing requirements and is outside

regulations.

• Recruitment for two additional registered managers is being sought via an off-island employment agency, either using our existing licences or through acquiring additional licences from the Population Office.
• We are prioritising the establishment of our new 3 bed Therapeutic Children's Home but this is likely to take at least 3 months.
• Additional prioritising of the development of our Intensive Fostering Service (IFS). We are pleased to confirm that we now have two IFS placements, and we are working to a third. Further IFS placements will take at least 3-4 months to come online.
• Current development of IFS that will be able to reduce the number of C&YP going into residential homes.
• Current residential improvement plan in development, including key recommendations from the independent children's homes association.
• Ongoing recruitment of residential childcare officer to supplement and support existing workforce, we have also increased the budget for this workforce for 2021.
• Our leaving care service is also operational and through the work with their personal advisors, we are supporting more and more care leavers to transition from being in care to living happy and independent lives.

• All homes will have a dedicated residential manager to help with operations and daily management.
• Ensuring a stable staff team; recruiting to the acting up positions and making these permanent. Recruitment of 0-hour contract staff to mitigate risk in the short term.
• Current work ongoing to ensure mapping of residential staff against each home and sufficiency planning.

Risk 3: Information Security in Education

Information Security and integrity of the information system infrastructure (for curriculum network). This may result in unauthorised access to data, inaccurate data or untimely delivery of data, or loss of integrity in the application systems that support the organisation business processes.

Mitigation:

• Mobile device management - automated once certificates and enrolment is in place.
• ISP - online assessment window for example - resilient feed, diversity routed, bandwidth requirement, cached on island, online assessment on pipe.
• Core central switch - shares infrastructure - fibre connection from router to network.

Risk 4: La Sente – Education

Adequacy of Site: Concerns around Safeguarding (both staff and pupils), Health and Safety, support staff (caretaker), pupils absconding from both sites, traffic management.

Reputational Damage: Media have been extremely critical of the buildings and lack of therapeutic provision.

Mitigation:

• Following internal reviews and risk profiles a high-level improvements plan is being developed.
• Funding is found to ensure there is appropriate caretaker support to deal with the health and hygiene issues so that staff can retain their core functions.
• Safeguarding: external support with buildings risk assessments and risk assessments relating to policy and capital funding to be put in place to make necessary adjustments as a result of recommendations.
• Media: Support required to build the school website and support with a comms and marketing campaign to bring a positive image back to the school.
• Aggressive behaviour: better multi-agency working with both students and families to improve provision against needs, respite where required for families who are struggling and more timely response to key services. Continued training and investment in staff development.
• Head Teacher reports some changes in curriculum provision to include a nurture approach is showing positive early signs of engagement for some individuals in Key Stage 4. Staff focused on Nurture training in their recent INSET Day.
• Funding to support activities that will result in improved levels of engagement. Engagement of other services, including police.
• Request for CCTV and site visit by health and safety management, review of policies and procedures.
• Changes to the front door for improved safe access and egress.

Risks 5: Children Social Care

Increase in the number of children placed in specialist provision including off-island placements. Ongoing restructure (TOM 1 and 2); vacant posts arising out of recruitment freeze impact on service delivery across the early help.

SEND system leading to an increase in the number of children requiring a statutory (RON) response and/or being placed in specialist setting

Tension between the competing priorities of standards and inclusion creating additional pressure across the education system in particular with the 11-16 population.

Possible budget reductions leading to a reduction in the wider, whole system offer for vulnerable children.

Mitigation

• There must be a properly structured four-tier system designed to meet the needs of all young people in Jersey. This should be the result of whole system redesign which ensures effective, multi-disciplinary working arrangements are in place. This should sit within a mandatory whole system practice framework (i.e. JCF).
• Staff to be developed and confident in their ability to assess and support children with complex needs - as part of this there should be access to structured, high-quality CPD.
• Robust policies and procedures (linked to the principles of a JSNA; commissioning arrangements) to be put in place and implemented.
• A greater and stated whole system commitment to vulnerable children reflected in strategic planning and operational delivery.
• The ED/VSH role has developed significantly and has ensured a greater focus on the LAC population
• In house, whole system CPD offer has been further developed - however this needs to sit within a wider CPD offer and vacancies within IEI mean that some courses cannot be delivered. 3
• JCF framework and training schedule established/ being delivered.
• Early help identified as a key priority across the system - if successfully implemented this will prevent children escalating and requiring specialist / statutory (and high cost) interventions.
• On island specialist placements are extremely limited across the ED system (MAL; La Sente; ARCs). Sufficiency planning is required to respond.

22. Stepping back from all the detail, how do you know whether you have delivered on the elements of your mission statement to make a positive difference, every day, to the lives of all children, young people, their families and carers", etc.?

The deceptively simple answer is a combination of the following:

• By analysing the feedback from children, young people, families and their advocates and champions;
• By monitoring the Performance Dashboards (Department and Directorate levels) to ascertain progress against outcomes;
• By analysing the reports of peer reviewers, regulators and inspectorates; and
• Through the challenge and support of various governance boards: Scrutiny, Council of Ministers, Children's Leadership Board, etc.

23. Looking forward to the next five years, which areas of performance management and performance enhancement are most important for your Department? What would success look like in these areas?

The development of a more sophisticated Performance Dashboard that is a truly balanced scorecard of all the key outcomes that most need improving or enhancing for children, young people and families.

This supported by a fully resourced Informatics team able to produce child, communities of interest and population level data that supports individual service and strategic decision-making and investment. This team to contribute to and benefit from a Government-wide commitment to a dynamic Jersey Strategic Needs Assessment.

Conclusion

I hope that I have been able to address all your supplementary questions but, if there is more information you require, or additional clarification, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Yours sincerely

Mark Rogers Director General

Government of Jersey - Children, Young People, Education and Skills 19-21 Broad Street | St Helier | Jersey | JE2 3RR

T: +44 (0)1534 449486

E: m.rogers@gov.je

W: www.gov.je

PAC Performance Management Review  Terms of Reference

1. To examine how Target Operating Models (TOMs) have been implemented throughout departments and assess their effectiveness in improving performance management.
2. To assess the effectiveness of the Recommendations Tracker in delivering improvements to public service throughout departments.
3. To determine the progress of the implementation of the Jersey Performance Framework as a way to measure and monitor improvement to Islanders' lives and support Common Strategic Priorities.
4. To consider whether performance assessment, reporting and monitoring methods (such as TOMs, the Jersey Performance Framework and the Recommendations Tracker) demonstrate improvements in decision-making, good governance and value for money.
5. To examine the effectiveness of performance management processes of senior officers within the Government of Jersey (CS grade 12 or equivalent and above), including:

• a. Reviewing how performance management is implemented, measured, and monitored;

• b. Examining the transparency and effectiveness of the States' Employment Board's assessment, monitoring and reporting of the Chief Executive's performance, during the outgoing Chief Executive's tenure and determining whether it is fit for purpose.

• c. Assessing how improvements to the performance management process will be embedded and applied to future Chief Executives;

• d. Determining the resilience of performance management processes for the CEO, Directors General and Senior Officers, including the robustness of measures such as succession planning, long-term illness cover, deputising responsibilities, and emergency contingency planning.

6. To examine how improvements to the performance management process within Government of Jersey and non-Ministerial Departments will be embedded and applied to future senior employees.