proforma: equality impact assessment · web viewsanctions – due to attitudes in care homes, young...

Equality Impact Assessment [Equality and inclusion for all wishing to access the Children’s Services statutory complaints process]

Directorate Children’s ServicesFunctional Area Strategy and CommissioningAssistant Director Responsible for EIA John MacilwraithFunctional Area of EIA or Proposal Children’s Services Statutory Complaints

Aims of the EIAPurpose of the EIA To assess the effectiveness in which the Children’s Services statutory complaints

procedure can be accessed and utilised by service users, or those eligible to make representations on their behalf.

Summary of findings Reviews to be carried out of existing complaints materials and mechanisms for making a complaint. Young people who are looked after within the county will be asked to participate to ensure that new material is age appropriate and effective.

Continue to raise awareness to ensure that complaints promotes a positive learning culture with staff and carers, and that the process is understood in order to support children and young people in confidently making complaints.

Continue to raise awareness of complaints with children and young people to enable them to have confidence in the process and know how to make a complaint,

Improve monitoring arrangements for equality issues, using data collected to create quarterly reports for identifying issues and possible areas for improvement.

Cumbria County Council Equality Impact Assessment Proforma June 2011Children’s Service Version

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Improve accessibility to the complaints process for those who may find it difficult, in particular those with ethnicity and disability characteristics, as well as young people who may need additional support.

Scope of the EIA: One directorate Cross directorate Outsourced

organisation

One directorate

Phase 1: Gathering information List examples of background information that you think are relevant. If carrying out an assessment of a proposal this section should include the data used to establish whether the proposal has an impact.

Type of information FindingsOfsted inspection of safeguarding and looked after children services – Cumbria County Council (April 2012)

The Ofsted announced inspection conducted during 10–20 April 2012 found that “There is an established complaints process, appropriately managed independently from children’s services. However, not all looked after children and young people know how to make a complaint. Those that have made a complaint are informed about the advocacy service provided by NYAS and case files showed that several young people had used this. There are regular quarterly reports to the senior leadership team and the corporate parenting board which cover performance and learning from complaints. Appropriate changes were made to reporting systems during 2011 to ensure learning themes are collated, although these will not be reflected until the next annual report is published.”

The following was identified as an immediate action following the inspection:

“ensure that all looked after children know how to complain and how to access advocacy services”

The findings from the inspection and related action are a key driver for Cumbria County Council Equality Impact Assessment Proforma June 2011Children’s Service Version

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improving accessibility to the complaints process. A detailed improvement action plan is currently being drawn up which will be incorporated into the wider post-inspection directorate improvement plan.

Statistical data from Respond database and Quarterly and Annual reports

There are approximately 105,800 0-18 year olds living in Cumbria, of which just over 500 are ‘Children Looked After’ (0.5%). Of the 115 statutory complaints received between 1 April 2010 and 31 March 2011, only 17 (14.8%) were made by young people.

Findings from the project report ‘Why are there minimal complaints from children and young people in care?’

The Quality Assurance and Improvement Team hosted a student intern placement between September 2011 and January 2012. One of the projects carried out by the student intern was a study on why are there minimal complaints from children and young people in care.

The report objective was to find out why children and young people in care don’t complain very often and how to improve the complaints process as a result of the findings. It is important for the local authority to understand what can be done to ensure that children and young people who are looked after have their voices heard and that any concerns about their care and welfare can be raised accordingly.

Meetings with appropriate professionals were conducted as part of the report methodology. Those who participated included the Safeguarding Board Manager, Partnership Development and Participation Officers, residential care home workers, Team Manager for Review and Conferencing, and Locality Manager for Learning Disabilities and Learning Difficulties. Focus groups were also held with young people from ‘The Grange’ and Overend Road residential homes.

Findings from the report Confidentiality - the majority of young people in care feel that their

complaints end up out in the open, and think that taking a complaint to Children’s Services completely negates any hope of confidentiality.

Sanctions – due to attitudes in care homes, young people believe that complaining about someone that they live with or are often in contact with


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to Children’s Services is the same as “kicking off” and they believe that this will result in them ending up in the same situation as before, or worse, resulting in things like being left out of group activities, or being spoken to with an unpleasant attitude.

Lack of confidence – it is also true that a lot of young people in care think that the complaints process is unlikely to make a difference, and they believe that it will more likely to cause trouble due to fears over confidentiality and the sanctions that may be imposed, which links back to my previous two points.

Resolutions – leading on from the point about the lack of confidence that the young people feel when it comes to the complaints procedure, the young people also do not believe that they will get the resolution that they want from making a complaint, which makes them less likely to make one at all.

Lack of understanding – it is also clear that there is a clear lack of understanding when it comes to the complaints procedure. This lack of understanding means that young people often believe that they are using the procedure when they make a complaint to NYAS, and it also means that even if a young person does use the complaints process, they are often unsure of things like the timescale of a complaint, which can result in a lack of confidence in the procedure.

Issues resolved via IRO’s – through my research it has became clear that often problems that a child or young person may have, are resolved via an IRO. This means that problems which may have became fully fledged complaints are resolved quickly without the need for the complaints procedure.

CLA review process – young people that attend the CLA review process do not often make complaints after it, this shows the importance of the CLA review and also how successful it is with regards to resolving any problems that children and young people may have.

Lack of consultative groups – the lack of a consultation group like Action 4 means that it is more difficult to get the young people’s opinions, and also impacts upon the young people’s understanding of the complaints process


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as well as limiting their understanding of what resolution to expect if they make a complaint.

Communication – the lack of communication between the young people and Children’s Services can often mean that they feel isolated; this further increases their lack of confidence in the complaints procedure.

Summary of report recommendations1. That the young people are supplied with a number of sealable envelopes

with their welcome pack and the welcome pack should be given a few weeks after they enter the care system so that they are more settled into their surroundings. Also young people should be reassured that if they make a complaint about someone that they live with, the person will not be aware of this, this should increase the level of confidentiality in the complaints process.

2. Meetings could be held with the members of staff so that they could be taught that receiving complaints from young people is not a bad thing, and that the complaints received only help them to improve.

3. A member of the complaints team attending some of the meetings that NYAS hold with the young people.

4. More information on advocacy to be given to the young people. 5. A design that is friendlier for young people is needed for the complaints

leaflet; This has now been acted upon and small credit card sized information booklets are being rolled out which allow for all of the information to be compacted down, making it easier for the young people to understand as well as easier for them to carry around.

6. Send a member of the complaints team to a forum for the foster carers so that there awareness is raised of the need to advise young people on complaints.

7. A new consultative group be formed to replace Action 4. This has now been acted upon and a new consultative group is being created in the near future, which should mean that the young people have a greater understanding of the complaints procedure.

8. A member of the complaints team visits any young person wishing to Cumbria County Council Equality Impact Assessment Proforma June 2011Children’s Service Version

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complain to improve communication.9. This report and the research that it contains is given to DLT and also the

Corporate Parenting Panel so that they can analyse the findings that have been made and look into whether or not the recommendations should be followed.

10. The complaints team to make an annual visit to residential homes in Cumbria to raise awareness of the complaints process and also to listen to any comments or concerns regarding the process.

NYAS quarterly reports NYAS have a contract with Cumbria County Council to ensure that high quality, independent advocacy services are made available to looked after children, young people leaving care, and children in need. This also includes those who are intending to, or making a complaint under Section 24D or Section 26 of the Children Act 1989.

During the period 1 April to 31 December 2011 NYAS received 38 referrals to provide advocacy support to children and young people. Of these 21 were male and 17 were female. This included 9 referrals for young people registered as disabled.

The following is a breakdown of the number of occasions residential care homes have been visited by a NYAS residential visiting advocate.Name of unit Number of

visitsOverend Road 14Sedbergh Drive 12Hawthwaite House 11The Grange 10Huntley Avenue 11Hart Street 12

Referral ages during the period range from 3 years to 18 years, the highest number being received from the 14 to 17 age group.


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Approximately 20% of young people are accessing the formal complaints procedure. NYAS believes that this is primarily because, with their support, young people are able to resolve their issues, and the feelings aroused by dissatisfaction with a particular service, at an early informal stage. Some young people have expressed wishes to explore making a formal complaint, although the issues were resolved outside of the formal complaints procedure.

All young people receive a feedback form from NYAS. During this period nine forms were returned, all rating the service provided by NYAS as either 10 or 9 out of ten, and stating that they would recommend the service to another young person.Relevant priorities have been identified as:

To continue awareness raising sessions with all local authority teams in order to increase the opportunities for young people to access advocacy.

To continue to increase IBA referrals through attendance at social work and IRO team meetings.

Further publicise the service to younger children, older young people leaving care, out of county placed young people, and those in residential units/short term breaks.

Continue working with Participation Officers in the localities. Make contact with Connexions Leaving Care Group with a view to raising

awareness of services available to young care leavers. Attend Foster Care Steering Group Meetings on a regular basis. Liaise with appropriate staff to ensure leaflets about NYAS and a Letter from

NYAS is sent to all children and young people in foster care in Cumbria and information about NYAS sent to their carers.

County Participation and Consultation meetings to be attended by NYAS with consent of young people.

Obtain contact details of private foster care providers in Cumbria. Letter from NYAS to all Looked After Children to be included in information

sent by IROs prior to every LAC review.Cumbria County Council Equality Impact Assessment Proforma June 2011Children’s Service Version

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NYAS to attend County Residential Unit Managers Team Meeting to talk about the service.

Statutory guidance ‘Getting the best from complaints’

The Children Act 1989 Representations Procedure (England) Regulations 2006 was introduced on 1 September 2006. The new regulations require all local authorities to follow revised procedures in relation to children’s social care complaints.

Key principles of the procedure are to ensure that children and young people who make representations have their concerns resolved swiftly and, wherever possible, by the people who provide the service locally. The complaints procedure should be a useful tool for indicating where services may need improving. It is a positive aid to inform and influence service improvements, not a negative process to apportion blame.Local authorities are required to develop a listening and Learning culture where learning is fed back to children and young people who use services – and fed into internal systems for driving improvement. The same listening and learning culture should shape wider opportunities for working in partnership with children and young people, such as individual reviews and systematic quality assurance. It should give children and young people opportunities to tell the local authority about both the good and bad experiences of the service.

The statutory guidance states that:

Children and young people frequently worry that the details of their complaint might be given to other people who do not need to know about it. Privacy and confidentiality are vital in ensuring that there are no ‘come backs’ on children and young people. Therefore details of a child’s personal complaint should not be put into a complaints book that others can read.

Children and young people who have difficulty reading, writing or speaking English, should have a suitable method of communication available to them in order that they can express and follow progress of their complaint in full. This might include large print, translation or other formats. Where complainants


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have special needs or within specific community groups then the local authority should meet the complainant to explain any reports in person.

For people with special needs, such as learning disabilities, sensory or physical impairment or with mental health problems, the complaints manager should liaise closely with the authority’s specialist teams and relevant voluntary bodies to ensure that the complainant is able to express their complaint in full. The child or young person should have confidence that the authority can provide as thorough consideration as for any other service user.

Local authorities, where possible and appropriate, ensure that they ask the complainant to define their own ethnic origin, gender, any disability and age. It is important that authorities seek to identify: an accurate picture of use by ethnic origin, age, gender, sexual orientation

and disability; where take-up or use could be improved or reviewed; a base-line for planning, target-setting and measuring change; that it is accessible equally to all sections of the community; whether any distinct needs exist amongst members of minority groups, for

which special provision may be necessary; and that it does not inadvertently discriminate against any particular group.

Equality Needs Assessment 2012 http://www.intouch.ccc/elibrary/Content/Internet/535/609/5999/40941184957.doc

Phase 2: Impacts From the evidence above use this section to identify the risks and benefits according to the different characteristics protected by the Equality Act.

All/general: Any issue that cuts across a number of protected characteristics Issue Positive Impact or benefits Negative impact or risks Action Required


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http://www.intouch.ccc/elibrary/Content/Internet/535/609/5999/40941184957.doc

http://www.intouch.ccc/elibrary/Content/Internet/535/609/5999/40941184957.doc

Compliance with Equality Act 2010

NYAS have been recently awarded a new contact to deliver IVS. Equality Lead for Children’s Services is currently working with NYAS around their policy and practise to ensure full compliance with Equality Act.

- Equality and Diversity Lead working with NYAS to ensure full compliance with Equality Act 2010.

New Complaints Leaflet

Design a complaints leaflet suitable for Children and YP. This will be compacted in size making it easier for C & YP to carry around with them.

Ensure C & YP with literacy or disabilities have access to same information and clear route to make a complaint.

- Small information booklets being rolled out.

- Ensure information on advocacy services are included in complaint materials.

- Review existing CLA complaints materials and mechanisms.

- Review the design and content of complaints materials with input from CLA.

Confidence to make a complaint for CLA

Sealed envelopes given to C & YP once in the care process. This allows more confidentially in the process.

Children with literacy problems, disabilities or EAL may have problems with this process.

- Raise the profile of Equality and Diversity with NYAS and care home staff to ensure no C or YP is excluded from this process.

Improving diversity profile of complainants

Provide a greater understanding of who complainants are. This provides a better ability to adapt and improve the process.

Without appropriate data we are unable to monitor the profile of complainants.

- Develop equality and diversity flyer to be distributed with complaint evaluation form from July 2012 to maximise the return of


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data. - Work with Equality Lead

for Children’s Services in reviewing complaint evaluation form.

- Equality form to be reviewed corporately by the Equality Network.

- Explore options for maximising the gathering of feedback – i.e. by letter or phone.

- Make necessary changes to Respond database to enable better screening of equality issues.

- Monitor equality issues quarterly with Equality Lead for Children’s Services and report any issues accordingly to appropriate managers.

Disability and health and wellbeing: All forms of disability recognised under the Disability Discrimination Act including sensory impairment, mental health, learning disabilities, mobility related conditions, conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, asthma. This also covers any impact on health and well beingIssue Positive Impact or benefits Negative impact or risks Action Required

Sensory and learning disability groups

- Signposting to advocacy services- e-Form completion by member

of staff either in local offices or

- Publicity materials are not available in formats suitable for people with a

- Ensure staff and NYAS have access to Guidance for Children’s


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need to be able to access the complaints procedure.

with the complaints team.- Variety of methods for making a

complaint – phone, email, in person, in writing.

- NYAS advocates support young people with learning disabilities.

- Supporting complainants who find reading and/or writing a challenge by listening to their concerns and completing the e-form on their behalf. Requesting their feedback on the accuracy of the completed form, verbal confirmation if necessary.

- Stage 2 complaint investigations only commence once the complainant has discussed the detail of their complaint with the investigating officer and signed a written clarified complaint.

visual impairment.

NYAS received 38 referrals 9 of these were children were registered disabled

Services Staff on Using Interpreters and Translators and understand procedures to access the services.

Profile of children with SEN

78.5% of primary school children have no special educational needs (SEN);81.1% of secondary schools pupils have no (SEN)

2.6% of Children aged 0-16 are entitled to disability living allowance;3.4% of primary and secondary school pupils in Cumbria have a statement of Special Educational Needs

Mental Health problems

In Cumbria, approximately 6,500 young people aged 11 to 19 years have a mental health disorder and there were 1,126 hospital


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admissions due to self-harm among 15 to 24 year olds between 2003 and 2007. Rates of self-harm admissions were significantly higher in Cumbria compared to England overall, and were nearly four times higher in the most deprived areas of the county compared to the least deprived.(Source: Coming of Age 2011)

Gender, Transgender and Marital Status Issue Positive Impact or benefits Negative impact or risks Action Required

Number of referrals from NYAS

17 referrals from NYAS were from females21 referrals from NYAS were from males

- Monitor data to capture any changes or trends relating to gender and flag up any concerns.

Gender profile of children receiving social care services

45.9% of children receiving social care services are female

52.7% of children receiving social care services are male

- Monitor data to capture any changes or trends relating to gender and flag up any concerns.

- Will be looked at as part of functional EIA for children and families exploring the social care function.


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Ethnicity: All ethnic groups including Asian, Black, East Asian and white minority ethnic groups, including Eastern Europeans and Gypsy and Travellers. Issue Positive Impact or benefits Negative impact or risks Action Required

Communication may be difficult for any person wishing to complain where English is not their first language.

Leaflets have standard CCC translation for most commonly used foreign languages.

Access to Interpreter and translation services if required.

Telephone interpretation service available if urgent.

May be delays accessing translation services.

- Ensure all staff have access to the Guidance for ‘Children’s Services Staff on Using Interpreters and Translators’, any communication on the service and they know who to contact.

Advocacy for BME groups

Established Advocacy Service for BME people operates from Barrow but has outreach surgeries in Maryport, Windermere, Carlisle and Penrith. There is also 21 dual language advocates.

- Ensure staff can guide BME clients to advocacy service if required.

Sexual Orientation: including heterosexual, gay, lesbian and bisexual peopleIssue Positive Impact or benefits Negative impact or risks Action Required

No issues identified

Age: Where a person is at risk of unfair treatment because of their age groupIssue Positive Impact or benefits Negative impact or risks Action Required

Children and young people may need an

- Contract with NYAS for advocacy services, including regular visits to residential care homes, fostering

Age range 14 – 17 have the highest number of NYAS referrals.

- A member of the complaints team to attend a number of


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advocate to access the complaints process. Children and young people who are ‘looked after’ have a statutory right to access advocacy support.

forums and team meetings.- Contact details for NYAS sent out

to young people making a complaint.

- NYAS leaflets, posters and merchandise distributed via social care teams.

- Positive promotion of advocates with all children and young people.

- Young people are actively encouraged to make their own complaints with the support of an advocate.

Approximately 20% of YP are accessing the formal complaints procedure, NYAS believes this is primarily with their support, YP are able to resolve their issues and the feelings aroused by dissatisfaction with a particular service at an early inform stage.

meetings that NYAS hold with young people.

- Ensure that more information on advocacy is given to young people.

- Develop an Advocacy Charter with CiC Council.

- Introduce advocacy materials (Charter and NYAS publications) to CLA, foster carers and staff through CiC Council, Residential home visits, staff briefings and family visits by social workers.

- Monitor age ranges of complainants and flag up any concerns.

- Address any issues arising from the Children in Care Council (CiC) and foster care forums.

- Review sufficiency and effectiveness of NYAS service for April 2013 recontracting.

- Work closely with commissioners to


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ensure EIA issues are built into commissioning process, contract specifications and monitoring

Children and young people in either foster care or local authority residential care may find it difficult to complain about their care for fear of reprisal or reprimand from their adult carer(s).

- Positive promotion of the complaints procedure in person and with written information, ensuring that children and young people are aware of their right to make representations about their care.

- Visits to residential homes by the complaints team to reassure and encourage young people about the importance of making a complaint if they are unhappy.

- Staff training to embed a positive complaints culture and the importance of complaints in developing and improving services.

- Young people generally use the Independent Reviewing Officers to resolve concerns about their care.

- The majority of children and young people who are looked after by the local authority are in foster care placements. Accessibility to promote complaints with these children and young people is much harder than with those in residential care homes.

- Hold meetings with residential home staff members, to raise awareness of the positive aspect of complaints helping to improve services.

- Staff from the complaints team to visit residential homes annually to raise awareness of the complaints procedure with CLA.

- Attendance at the foster care forums by the complaints team to promote the value of complaints.

- A member of the complaints team to visit a complainant so the complainant doesn’t feel isolated.

- Address any issues arising from the Children in Care Council


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(CiC) and foster care forums.

- Benchmark against other LAs for good practice.

Children and young people who are ‘looked after’ may have concerns about confidentiality if they make a complaint. Issues raised may be shared with others due to the need to safeguard children and young people.

- Visits to residential homes by the complaints team to reassure young people about the importance of making a complaint if they are unhappy.

- The majority of children and young people who are looked after by the local authority are in foster care placements. Accessibility to these children and young people is much harder than those in residential care homes.

- Supply young people with sealed envelopes to ensure appropriate confidentiality when making a complaint and to reassure them that if they complain about a member of staff, they will remain anonymous.

- A member of the complaints team to visit a complainant so the complainant doesn’t feel isolated.

- Address any issues arising from the Children in Care Council (CiC) and foster care forums.


Lack of understanding of the complaints procedure and

- Positive promotion of the complaints procedure in person and with written information.

- Regular visits to residential homes by the complaints team to

- The majority of children and young people who are looked after by the local authority are in foster care placements. Accessibility

- Review existing CLA complaints materials and mechanisms.

- Review the design and content of complaints


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what to expect when making a complaint.

reassure young people about the importance of making a complaint if they are unhappy.

- Distribution of age appropriate complaints information for young people, including CLA in foster care, residential schools and other residential units.

- Training for frontline staff working with ‘looked after’ children and young people.

- Inclusion of complaints information included in packs for children and young people entering care.

- Young people generally use the Independent Reviewing Officers to resolve concerns about their care.

to these children and young people is much harder than those in residential care homes.

materials with input from CLA.

- Distribute complaints materials to all CLA, including hard to reach groups i.e. out of county, residential schools.

- Attendance at foster care forums by the complaints team to promote the value of complaints.

- Hold meetings with residential home staff members, so that they can be taught that receiving a complaint helps them to improve.

- Staff from the complaints team to visit residential homes annually to raise awareness of the complaints procedure with CLA.

- Raise awareness of complaints for CLA with other relevant professionals – IROs and schools.

- Address any issues


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arising from the Children in Care Council (CiC) and foster care forums.

- Gather feedback from CLA on usefulness of complaints information and process.


Religion/belief: all faiths including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and non religious beliefs such as HumanismIssue Positive Impact or benefits Negative impact or risks Action Required


Socio-Economic Status: This can include people on low incomes, as well as issues around rural and urban deprivationIssue Positive Impact or benefits Negative impact or risks Action Required


Community Cohesion: This is where a decision or a change to services may risk creating tensions between community groups in a local area. Issue Positive Impact or benefits Negative impact or risks Action Required



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Phase 3: Action PlanningBased on actions raised in the action required box aboveArea for further action

Actions proposed

Lead officer When Resource implications

Outcome

To improve the effectiveness with which the Children’s Services statutory complaints procedure can be accessed and utilised by service users, or those eligible to make representations on their behalf.

As detailed in the ‘Action Required’ column above.

Amy Holliman/Claire Thomson

- Inclusive complaints process available.

Documents appended to the Equality Impact Assessment:

Quality Assurance and EIA completionDate completed April 2012 Lead officer Claire

Thomson/Amy Cumbria County Council Equality Impact Assessment Proforma June 2011Children’s Service Version

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HollimanHave staff been involved in developing the EIA? Allyson Carty,

other staff involved with complaints

Have community organisations been involved?Date of next refreshSigned off by Director/Assistant Director John

Macilwraith


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