Growth and development.pdf

• the educational environment for looked after children has been developed through use of aneducational psychologist to advise foster carers, the involvement of library services, andcomputer installations.The Council has established a planning group for new arrangements for care leavers, and hasappointed a throughcare manager. An information pack is being designed and staff anticipate theneed for intensive packages for a few care leavers where a multi agency approach will be crucial.Managed by Community Services, the new Whitdale Centre will have a community focus,encompassing Social Work, Education, Health, Surestart, and voluntary Housing staff workingtogether on the one purpose built site. The Surestart Team provides a number of services forindividuals and groups in the community addressing the needs of young families. The IntensiveSupport Team provides a crisis response service to reduce the number of children looked afterand accommodated in foster and residential care.Planning for children’s services is led by Education, Social Work and Health CommunityPlanning group, and there is also elected member, voluntary and user involvement in theForum. Investment in Early years includes family centres, Bookstart, and support for voluntarysector (e.g. First Step Enable Nursery).4. Performance: Criminal JusticeKey ActivitiesNumber of social enquiry reports submitted to the courts 517 596 52.8 3during the yearNumber of community service orders made during the year 152 104 9.2 4The proportion of social enquiry reports reported to courtwithin target time2000-2001 QuartileProportion of social enquiry reports submitted to the courts 99.5 2by due dateThe time taken to complete community service orders1999-20002000-2001Average length of community service (hours) for orders 106 4completed during the yearAverage hours completed per week 1.8 42000-2001per 10,000QuartileThe rate of social enquiry reports submitted to courts during 2000-2001 was relatively low.A relatively high proportion was submitted by the due date. The number of community serviceorders made was less than in the previous year and the rate is lower than in many otherauthorities. The average length of orders is shorter than in many other authorities but the orderstake longer to complete in West Lothian, with an average of only 1.8 hours completed per week.In providing criminal justice services, West Lothian forms part of a grouping with Edinburgh,Mid Lothian, East Lothian, and Borders. The grouping is developing a common approach tomonitoring and evaluation, although the current lack of IT integration will need to be overcometo make this a reality. The Council is working on the development of a criminal justice moduledesigned to meet operational management needs and Scottish Executive requirements. Theintention is to develop common data standards based on the material developed by the ScottishSocial Care Data Standards project.270