Blackburn with Darwen – own targets missed

Blackburn with Darwen Council has missed three of its own performance targets.

Blackburn with Darwen Council has missed three of its own performance targets.

They are for:

the percentage of completed Occupational Therapy (OT) assessments started within 28 days;
the percentage of Safeguarding Adult enquiries triaged within one day; and
the net total of new foster carers to include, recruited or approved along with those who have resigned.

The failures are revealed in a report to Blackburn with Darwen Council’s executive board on Thursday on the authority’s Corporate Plan Performance in Quarter 3 2025-26 by its leader Cllr Phil Riley.

It shows that of 44 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at the end of Quarter 3 (December 31) 28 measures were rated Green (on or above target); eight measures were rated Amber (not currently on target); three measures were rated Red (significantly below target); one measure was informational and therefore a target is inappropriate; and four measures could not be assessed this quarter as data were not available.

A special exception report on safeguarding adults revealed that only 70 per cent of Safeguarding Adult enquiries were triaged within one day over the three-month period against a target of 90 per cent.

The report said: “This KPI seeks to stretch the council and its partners to achieve performance within one working day, exceeding the five-day timescale for undertaking a strategy discussion as indicated in the multi agency policy.

“Quarter 3 continues to observe increasing numbers of concerns being reported into the department – a general increase which has been observed throughout the year.

“In Quarter 3 of this financial year, there has been an average of 225 safeguarding concerns received per month. This increase has meant that some strategy discussions are taking longer than the one working day stretch target.

“That is not to say however, that those cases requiring immediate responses are not being progressed the same day.

“Although the core team has been fully staffed since September 2025  increased safeguarding activity has created additional service pressures and affected performance against the KPI target.”

Regarding fostering the council saw no increase in households in the three months against a target net increase of 14.

The exception report said: “In Quarter 3, two fostering households were approved and two fostering households resigned. As a result, the total number of foster carers has remained the same.

“Since April 2025, a total of six fostering households have been approved and 11 have resigned, meaning the total number of mainstream fostering households currently remains 65.

“There are currently 12 new households in assessment.

“We remain on track to approve 14 households; however, the number of fostering household resignations means that we may not meet the overall target of 84 fostering households.”

On OT assessments just 54 per cent started within 28 days against a target of 78 per cent.

The report said: “Delays in accessing OT assessment mean that some residents have longer waits to access specialist support and related interventions,

“Within the service, we have an established Waiting Well process which mitigates the impact of delays.”