Decision details

The Panel considered the 2011/12 Annual Report of the Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) for Children’s Social Care which set out the work of the IRO Service over the period 1 September 2011 – 31 March 2012.

The report identified a number of areas of good practice and highlighted areas for development within the service for looked after children. These included:

• 100% of the 170 Looked After Children reviews were carried out within the statutory timescales. This was the second consecutive year that all reviews were conducted on time.
• Child participation in reviews had risen to 100% compared with 97.1% in 2010/11.
• The Child Participation Development Officer now sat within the same team as the IRO service, creating increased opportunities for joint working.
• As a consequence of the changes to the Short Break Statutory Guidance in May 2010 there were now fewer children who met the criteria for Short Break Care.
• An increase in the recruitment of local Foster Carers had enabled more children to remain in the local community.

Following further discussion, the Head of Performance Management and Governance agreed:

• to circulate information regarding the number of children who no longer meet the criteria for Short Break Care.
• to consider the inclusion of negative as well as positive comments in future reports.