The Children's Social Care Cabinet Panel met in September to discuss the Children's Social Care performance report for Quarter 1, the annual complaints and compliments report, the Children's Services recruitment, retention and workforce, and the Household Support Fund 7. The panel noted the reports and provided comments.

Children's Services Recruitment, Retention and Workforce

The panel discussed the annual workforce report, which focused on qualified social work staff and residential staff. The report highlighted national pressures on the availability and supply of qualified social workers and residential children's home staff.

Key points raised:

• National Benchmarking: Hertfordshire benchmarks well nationally, but faces challenges in safeguarding and children looked after services.
• Retention: Retention is a greater challenge than recruitment. Exit surveys show that leavers want improved work-life balance, less pressurised workloads, and higher pay.
• Initiatives: A range of initiatives are in place to address recruitment and retention, including branding, social work training, post-qualification support, wellbeing support, and a retention strategy.
• Skill Mix: The council is increasing the skill mix in its workforce, using social workers where only a qualified social worker will do, and bringing in other practitioners where families have other needs that can be met in other ways.
• Educational Psychologists: Councillor Chris Lloyd, Vice-Chairman of the Health Scrutiny Committee, raised concerns about the pressures on educational psychologists and suggested writing to the government again.
• LGR: Councillor Fiona Thomson, Deputy Leader, Conservative Group, expressed concern that Local Government Reorganisation¹ might cause experienced personnel to re-evaluate their positions.
• Diversity: The panel were pleased with the diversity of the workforce, with those from ethnic heritage backgrounds making up 19.2%.
• Harassment: 10% of respondents indicated they had experienced harassment, bullying, discrimination or abuse in the last 12 months.

The panel noted the report and the actions being taken to manage workforce pressures.

Household Support Fund 7

The panel discussed the spending plan for the Household Support Fund (HSF) 7, covering the period April 2025 to March 2026. Hertfordshire has been allocated £10.8 million for this period, a 12% reduction compared to previous rounds.

Key points:

• Objective: The fund aims to provide crisis support to vulnerable households with energy, food, water, housing costs, and preventative measures.
• Programmes: The spending plan includes supermarket food vouchers for families, winter essentials support, welfare assistance scheme, support for food banks and energy, support for homeless people and survivors of domestic abuse, vouchers for pensioners on low income, vouchers for care leavers, and increased capacity for financial and debt support.
• HAPPY Programme: The government has confirmed three-year funding for the Holiday Activity & Food Programme (HAPpy), which provides holiday activities and food to children eligible for free school meals.
• Herts Card: The Herts Card, which provides discounts to families receiving free school meals, has over 10,444 families signed up.
• District Councils: Each district and borough council will receive £90,000 for food and energy support.
• Care Leavers: Councillor Fiona Thomson asked for clarification about support for care leavers, as there was some ambiguity between the report and the table.
• Crisis and Resilience Fund: The government is introducing a new Crisis and Resilience Fund, and details are expected by the end of the year.

Due to the funding reduction, some provisions have been reduced or eliminated, including vouchers during half terms and funding for care leaver events. Concerns were raised about the impact of these cuts on vulnerable residents.

The panel noted the report.

Children's Services Annual Complaints and Compliments Report

The panel reviewed the annual report on compliments and complaints for Children's Services for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.

Key findings:

• Compliments: There was a 74% increase in compliments, highlighting the good work of officers and teams.
• Representations: The annual number of representations increased by 5% to 1,184.
• Response Timescales: 68% of complaints were responded to within the agreed timescales, a decrease of 12% from the previous year.
• Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO): There was a 17% increase in complaints received from the LGSCO, with 37% having some fault identified.
• Main Themes: The main themes of complaints were about workers, delays in responding/communication issues, dissatisfaction with care plans/assessments, casework unactioned, quality and standard of service, and dissatisfaction with specialist setting/provision.
• SASH: Councillor Anthony Rowlands, Executive member for Children's Social Care, asked for an explanation of the increase in complaints regarding the Specialist Adolescent Support Hertfordshire service (SASH).
• Communication: Councillor Fiona Thomson raised concerns about communication and asked how it is being addressed.
• Staff Support: Councillor Chris Lloyd asked what support is given to staff when a complaint is not justified or when a complaint is justified.

The panel noted the report.

Children's Social Care 2025/26 Quarter 1 Performance Report

The panel reviewed the performance report for Quarter 1 of 2025/26, covering the period April to June 2025.

Key measures and trends:

• Statistical Neighbours: Paul Dryden, Service Manager (Performance), explained how statistical neighbours are calculated, providing context for performance comparisons.
• Referrals: Referrals accepted into children's social care have increased compared to the previous year and pre-pandemic levels.
• Child Protection Plans: The number of children subject to a child protection plan has increased, but Hertfordshire remains in the top quartile nationally.
• Children Looked After: The overall number of children looked after has increased.
• Placement Stability: There has been a reduction in the number of children looked after with three or more homes, putting Hertfordshire back in the top quartile nationally.
• Education, Employment or Training: The number of care leavers aged 17 to 21 in education, employment or training has increased to 55%.
• Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs): Councillor Mark Pope noted that the performance for issuing EHCPs in time was improving but still adrift of the target milestone.
• Family Friendly: A question was raised about whether all departments are family friendly.
• 11 to 5 Hubs: Councillor Dee Hart asked about improving attendance at the 11 to 5 hubs.
• Independent Residential Children's Homes: Councillor Nigel Bell, Leader, Labour Group, raised concerns about the rising costs of independent residential children's homes.
• Kinship Care: Councillor Mark Pope asked if the increase in kinship care has had a financial effect on the council.

The panel noted the report.