South East Regional Meeting

Regional Leads / Chairs for the SE Region

Alex Sutton | East Sussex County Council | Alex.Sutton@eastsussex.gov.uk

Sharon Martin | Brighton & Hove City Council | Contact: Sharon.martin@brighton-hove.gcsx.gov.uk

Regional Update

The South East region has a well organised programme of regional events with clear lines of reporting to the two elected Chairs. Attendance at regional meetings is good and involves a mix of IRO practitioners and IRO Managers. Increased support from senior managers has helped.

Meetings are held four times a year and have allowed the region to maintain an eye to the impact of the changes to IRO services and to local government children’s services.

Upcoming Events

Unless otherwise stated, all regional meetings are held from 9.30 am (arrival for coffee) and start 10.00 am. We aim to finish by 2.30 pm.

Date: 12 Feb 2015 Venue Bracknell. Liz McAuley to confirm address please. Chair: Alex Sutton.

Date: 14 May 2015 Venue Surrey. Nicola Hale to confirm address please. Chair: Sharon Martin

Date: 20 Aug 2015 Venue Surrey. Nicola Hale to confirm address please. Chair: Alex Sutton

Date: 15 Oct 2015 Venue Surrey. Nicola Hale to confirm address please. Chair: Sharon Martin

Workforce development

There have been some major changes in legislation and guidance this year. The region has discussed many of these, including the implications of the latest findings from research and best practice. For example, we have considered the impact of the changes to adoption legislation and the impact of the Public Law Outline.

The following learning events have taken place in response to local priorities and needs:

South East initiatives

Brighton & Hove, East Sussex & West Sussx have continued to hold a IRO Consortium event three times a year. Its next event is on 15th June 2015 when guest speaker Professor Julie Selwyn will be discussing ‘Beyond the Adoption Order: challenges, intervention and disruption’. There are a few free spaces available for this event. For more information please leave your contact details and a brief message below. Link to Flyer

South East Region Priorities

The South East region is looking to develop an action plan based on its regional priorities and as linked to its national work plan.

1. Understanding recruitment needs and developing standards for recruitment and retention.
2. Defining what constitutes our ‘core business’ and creating the case for greater consistency while also recognising the need to respond to localised pressures.
3. Understanding service pressures and impact on quality of services including what can be done to make a positive difference.
4. Effective involvement of children and young people.
5. Evidencing effective challenge processes to ensure improved outcomes for children and young people.
6. Identifying and developing effective mechanisms for effective permanence planning and tracking to reduce delay and make sure more timely permanence is achieved for greater numbers of children.
7. Understanding what the ‘good corporate parent’ facing very significant financial constraints looks like.
8. Getting a grasp of the impact of judicial systems and processes including PLO processes and case law such as re B-S.
9. Development of an approach to peer mentoring/audit and regional learning and improvement events.

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