"Alarm bells” ring for councillors over missed targets in Milton Keynes children’s services

A report presented to a council committee on Wednesday revealed a failure to hit 17 targets including taking over a year to place some children with carers.

It has also fallen short of targets to find people to adopt and foster children, which members of the committee accepted as being explained by the coronavirus pandemic.

Council opposition leader Cllr Alex Walker (Cons, Stantonbury) said that there was a “lot of red and amber” on performance reports to the scrutiny management committee

He accepted that performance wouldn’t be the same because of covid and did not intend it to be a criticism.

But he added: “There needs to be a route out and there needs to be a journey back to some form of normality, much better performance across the whole of the organisation.”

He added: “One area that is ringing alarm bells for me is children’s services. They are some of our most vulnerable and we need more information about the plans.”

He added that the council’s customer services seem to be “in dire straits” and issues with waste and fly-tipping need to be tackled.

Lisa Beckett, the council’s head of performance and information, said customer services had seen an increase of 33 per cent.

But she said that performance reports could be reflecting that the issues raised weren’t easily dealt with in one phone call.

Chairing the committee, Cllr Keith Mclean (Cons, Olney), said he had seen an increase in councillor casework which he put down to residents being at home, with more time to contact the council.

The council flags up well performing work with green, declining performance with amber, and red for falling short of targets.

Cllr David Hopkins (Cons, Danesborough & Walton) congratulated the council’s director of children’s services, Mac Heath, and his team for the work they are doing.

But he added: “There are genuine causes for concern. We need to refer to the children and young people’s planning committee and take it to the next meeting of the scrutiny committee as an emergency item.

“We should be asking for the director to bring an indication of a recovery plan as best he can. We need to understand where we are going forward.

“I know that Mac has got it all well in hand but it needs data brought to CYP and back to scrutiny management.”

Cllr Jane Carr (Lib Dem, Newport Pagnell South), who chairs the children and young people’s scrutiny committee (CYP), said they have been receiving regular covid updates from Mac Heath.

She added: “I’m grateful to Cllr Walker for raising the issues – a lot of those are nationally reflected as well as locally.

“In terms of recruiting foster carers in the middle of a pandemic: people don’t want people visiting them to be assessed.”

“We are mindful that there are a lot of challenges ahead of us,” she added.