To consider the Looked After Children Annual Health Report for the period 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014.

The Panel considered a report from the Director of Nursing and Quality NHS Bedfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group (BCCG) describing the achievements, progress and challenges of the Looked After Children (LAC) health service in meeting the health needs of Central Bedfordshire’s children and young people in care and care leavers during the period 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014.  Key developments for 2013/14 were also detailed in the report.

The Chairman advised Members that the author of the report, the Designated Nurse for Looked After Children, was unable to attend the Panel due to illness and so the Assistant Director Children’s Services Operations would present highlights of the report on her behalf.

The Assistant Director drew Members’ attention to the following issues:

·         The large increase in out of county placements and the delays or poor quality experienced by many of the children and young people with their Review Health Assessments due to the level of service provided by the external health providers.  In response the BCCG had reviewed the commissioning arrangements for 2014/15

·         The working hours of the Designated Nurse had been increased from 0.6 whole time equivalent to full time.  Whilst this represented an positive development the Designated Doctor’s working hours remained at four hours a week which failed to reflect both the service demand and the need for clinical leadership

·         A short questionnaire (the Health Assessment Service User Questionnaire) had been developed by the Designated Nurse for children and young people to complete to provide feedback on service provision

·         Mental health support was not as strong as it should be and service provision was being recommissioned    

·         Partnership development of a Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) Pathway which had been finalised in September 2013.  Though the Questionnaire had revealed that LAC were mainly happy and settled improvements were still required compared to the Central Bedfordshire’s statistical neighbours.

The Assistant Director Children’s Services Operations concluded by stating that the report was, overall, positive with good working between teams and good communications.

A Member stated that the six monthly Review Health Assessments for LAC failed to meet the required deadlines and she queried whether it would be possible to improve GP’s assessment rate to overcome this issue.  In response the Head of Corporate Parenting explained that there had been significant improvements in this field to the extent that the Central Bedfordshire stood at 94.7% in 2013/14 in comparison to the statistical neighbour average in 2012/13 of 86.3%.  The Chairman requested that the Panel’s thanks be formally recorded for this improvement and in its coordination.

The Vice-Chairman referred to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and the time taken to refer LAC with mild to moderate mental health issues to appropriate services.  In response the Head of Corporate Parenting acknowledged that difficulties existed with regard to timescales but assured the meeting that alternative provision would be used if necessary.  The Assistant Director Children’s Services Operations added that the Early Intervention Children Looked After Service (EICLAS) was commissioned to provide an early intervention service but a new contract was due to be issued and it was anticipated that the new service provider would provide significant improvements.

Further comments and queries followed.

NOTED

the Looked After Children Annual Health Report for 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014.