Key management messages
Dear colleague
On
18 August 2015, we submitted our improvement plan to Ofsted and the Department
for Education as required under the framework for the ‘Inspection of services
for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care
leavers’. This followed the Ofsted inspection which took place for Devon County
Council in February and March this year with the report being published on 12
May 2015.
The Devon Children’s
Improvement Plan sets out our ambition to get to ‘Good’. It builds on the
recommendations for improvement from the Ofsted inspection under the Single
Inspection Framework, the LGA Peer Reviews (October 2014 and February 2015),
and ongoing activity such as findings from audits and feedback from children,
young people and families, and has been developed involving partners,
staff, Members, scrutiny, and senior managers in Devon County Council.
The plan supports relevant
themes of the new Devon Children, Young People and Families Plan ‘My Life, My
Journey’ which is under development through the work of the Devon Children,
Young People and Families Alliance and involved substantial engagement with
children and families through a series of consultation events last autumn.
A “busy person’s” summary
has been developed online called the Children's
Improvement Plan Outcomes Summary, which lists the key outcomes the plan will deliver over
the coming year. Alongside the online summary you will be able to download the
full 36 page plan ‘Devon Children’s Improvement Plan 2015/16’, from the website
soon. This is updated monthly and
will be refreshed throughout the year, as new areas of work emerge. The current
full
plan dated 19 August 2015 can be viewed here.
Please
refer to the most up-to-date Children's Improvement Plan summary and
information online:
https://new.devon.gov.uk/childrens-improvement-plan/
Newsletter Live training - new dates
The topics to be covered this
autumn are:
- Special
Guardianship
-
The Modern
Slavery Act 2015
- Care Leavers
Financial Policy
Book your place now.
Improving
the lives of children and young people in Devon – a guide to how it all fits
together
New arrangements are now in place around the
roles and responsibilities of the key children’s strategic groups, and how they
will work together and share information on their work. (PDF version)
Children’s Services and Child Protection Workforce Plan 2015/16
The plan is now available online.
It sets out the actions that will be taken during 2015/16, with support from HR, to continue the work to improve the deployment, management and development of the workforce within the Children’s Services and Child Protection Service.
The plan has been informed by the Ofsted inspections, recent Peer Reviews and DfE feedback, the Workforce Planning and Capacity Plan 2014-17 and the evaluation of recruitment, retention and performance management interventions undertaken during 2014/15. It can be found on The Source.
Our Family Group Conferencing service receives accreditation
Devon's Family Group Conferencing (FGC) service is based on the belief
that families can usually find their own solutions to the difficulties they are
facing, and that children and young people have the right to have their
families fully involved in planning for their future.
The accreditation is a significant achievement and
important national recognition of the high quality of work being delivered in
Devon.
Developing our social work academy
Within the academy we will be providing up to
four work experience placements for young people in care / care leavers 16+ and
view this as part of our corporate parenting responsibility.
Full implementation is still planned for September
2015, find out more.
click to enlarge Virtual School Team
Virtual school update
Many individual young people in care do well
at school. However, as a group, Children in Care do not perform as well as their
peers.
The Virtual School aims to work with schools,
foster carers and other services to close this attainment gap. As part of
this work we monitor the educational outcomes for all Children in Care on a
termly basis. Read the update.
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