Agenda item

The Chair introduced Diane Hart and Ivana La Valle who are leading the research on Outcomes for Children’s Social Care. They outlined the work they have undertaken to develop a new outcomes framework for children’s social care services. The intention of the project is to offer local authorities a more meaningful way of measuring the quality and impact of their service than is currently available, potentially supporting the LGA CYP Board’s Bright Futures call for local and national government to develop a better understanding of ‘what works’ and ‘what good looks like’ for children’s services.

Diane stated that key findings show that Assessments of Children’s Social Care Services (CSCS) performance is based mainly on what is easy to measure (e.g. processes), rather than changes in the lives of children in need and their families, and there is a scarcity of quantitative indicators that have been used to systematically and ‘objectively’ measure quality and link it to positive outcomes for users.

Ivana explained that the ways we can understand how CSCS can make a difference to children and their families is through three overarching questions:

1.    Are CSCS keeping children safe?

2.    Are CSCS supporting children to achieve their educational potential?

3.    Are CSCS supporting the health and wellbeing of children in need?

Without the use of different data, a robust assessment of CSCS performance cannot accurately collect ‘meaningful data’ to answer these three overarching questions.

The approach undertaken in this research would use: cross-section data, longitudinal data, proxy data and data directly taken from feedback from users.

Ivana La Valle explained that the next steps include the outcomes framework being ‘populated’ with some existing outcome indicators and they plan to test the outcomes framework and indicators with service users in local authorities, ADCS, Performance and Improvement Leads, DfE and Ofsted.

The new outcomes framework will be published in July 2019.

The following points took place in a discussion with members:

·         The importance of data to make it more meaningful was welcomed by all members as a step in the right direction in order to capture a more robust assessment of CSCS performance. Diane Hart explained that the biggest challenge is DfE still have data that they require and that they will have to take a more gradual approach in collecting this more meaningful data.

·         It was raised that many organisations discuss the complexity of these measurements, but these measurements already sit in the troubled families’ framework and therefore may provide a good starting point for issues regarding data sharing.

·         Regarding keeping record and tracking longitudinal data, it can pose an issue because of the length of time required for this type of study. Diane Hart said that they hoped this would be part of the next step of this project.

The Chair expressed her gratitude to Diane Hart and Ivana La Valle for speaking to the Board and urged members to feedback further comments or suggestions through officers to take back to the advisory group.

Decision:

The members noted the research presented to the Board.