Meeting documents

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Beryl Ezzard, Susan Jefferies and Mike Lovell.

Councillors are required to comply with the requirements of the Localism Act 2011 regarding disclosable pecuniary interests.

§     Check if there is an item of business on this agenda in which the member or other relevant person has a disclosable pecuniary interest.

§     Check that the interest has been notified to the Monitoring Officer (in writing) and entered in the Register (if not this must be done on the form available from the clerk within 28 days).

§     Disclose the interest at the meeting (in accordance with the County Council’s Code of Conduct) and in the absence of a dispensation to speak and/or vote, withdraw from any consideration of the item.

The Register of Interests is available on Dorsetforyou.com and the list of disclosable pecuniary interests is set out on the reverse of the form.

There were no declarations by members of disclosable pecuniary interests under the Code of Conduct.

To confirm and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 19 January 2017.

The minutes from the meeting held on 19 January 2017 were agreed and signed.

(a)   Public Participation

(b)   Petitions

Public Speaking

There were no public questions received at the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 21(1).

There were no public statements received at the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 21(2).

Petitions

There were no petitions received at the meeting in accordance with the County Council’s Petition Scheme.

To receive an oral update from the Director for Children’s Services.

The Director for Children’s Services advised members that the report from Ofsted regarding the recent SEND Inspection had yet to be published.  Officers had responded to the draft report in respect of accuracy and were now awaiting publication details.

The Director highlighted particular issues that had been raised during the Inspection including the delays on the completion of Early Health Care Plans (EHCPs).  In the light of this the Committee had received a report on this at its last meeting on 19 January 2017.  Also the Joint Strategy was highlighted by Ofsted as an issue and the Director confirmed that work on this would be given priority.  A particular area of concern for Ofsted was also that parents felt they were not receiving enough feedback and were also not aware of the Local Offer, so it was felt more work was needed in this area.  The Director assured members that many strengths had also been identified during the Inspection.

Following a concern from a member about the relationship with and support for schools in respect of what they delivered, the Director advised that overall Ofsted had very little comment in that specific regard, however, they did mention that an area to be strengthened was that of quality assurance.  More work would be done to support schools with annual reviews but local or specific issues had not been reflected in the report.

Noted

To consider a report by the Collison Reduction and Traffic Engineering Team, Highways.

Members considered a report by the Project Engineer from the Collision Reduction and Traffic Engineering Team which explored the factors that contributed to road traffic collisions in order to understand the ‘story’ behind the population indicator ‘Number of people killed or seriously injured on Dorset’s roads’.

The Project Engineer picked out the key points from the report and highlighted areas that he felt could be influenced.  Members’ attention was drawn to section 6.3 of the report which included the key lines of enquiry to help aid members’ discussions.

One member commented that he was not content with the killed and seriously injured (KSI) targets and felt the problem appeared to be with the user groups, he felt it would be better to look at accident blackspots to ensure they didn’t happen again.   He was concerned about children being knocked over by lorries/cars.  The Project Engineer advised that there was a lot of monitoring and data available on the different highways and noted that there was a lot of work being done in schools to reinforce the road safety messages.

Following a discussion about KSI targets, one member noted that there had been a lot of work done to address accident blackspots but she felt it was now more about ensuring that the road network was safe.  She was particularly concerned about driver behaviour and especially elderly drivers and felt more work with GPs and lobbying of MPs was needed.  The Project Engineer advised that the CCG were keen to see what they could do to help in this respect with their work with the Health and Wellbeing Board.

The Assistant Director – Design and Development advised members that in respect of the Children’s agenda he had just received the health profiles for Dorset which noted that there were 47 children killed or seriously injured between 2013/15 and questioned why Dorset was higher than the average for England.  The Project Engineer undertook to look into this further outside of the meeting.

In response to a question about accidents on trunk roads, the Project Manager advised that these tended to vary year on year but accidents on trunk roads did tend to be more serious due to the higher speeds and the type of traffic on these roads.  It was also noted that there was no real increase across the summer months as a result of holidaymakers.

The Group Manager for Governance and Assurance reminded members that targets were there simply to provide a baseline upon which to measure.

One member drew attention to the contributory factor analysis section in the report which showed that the top three factors all related to driver error.

The Director suggested members consider the top 2/3 areas they wanted to concentrate on and to then show as an authority what difference has been made.

It was suggested that the physical conditions of the highways and people being distracted appeared to be the two main areas.  The Group Manager for Governance and Assurance noted that educational awareness  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

(a)   To consider the Work Programme for the Safeguarding Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

(b)   To consider and approve the draft Initial Scoping report for the proposed Inquiry Day into the key challenges in Domestic Abuse

(c)   To identify any further areas for scrutiny.

The Committee considered its Work Programme and gave consideration to the inclusion of a number of items which had been discussed earlier in the meeting. 

The Group Manager for Governance and Assurance advised members that it would be for the new Committee, following the elections in May 2017, to decide what it wished to focus its attention on.  He made reference to the 3 measures/outcomes that would be helpful for the new Committee to focus on.

The Strategic Lead for Safeguarding and Quality – Adults, presented members with a scoping proposal for the Inquiry day relating to the key challenges in Domestic Abuse.  One member felt it would be helpful to invite a representative from the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) to the event.

The Director highlighted the need to include the impact on children under the aims of the day and for Children’s Services to be a key contributor to the day.  In this respect one member suggested listing a generational cycle as an outcome to be included.

The Strategic Lead for Safeguarding and Quality – Adults advised members that she aimed to meet with the Chairman and colleagues from Children’s Services prior to the Inquiry Day to ensure all areas were covered.   It was planned to be a full day and would include a working lunch.  The Director suggested that Mary Taylor, Designated Safeguarding Manager – Children’s, should also be part of these discussions and undertook to forward the information on to her.  She added that the Children in Care Council had young people on there who would be prepared to talk about their experiences which would be very helpful for members to hear.

One member made reference to a recent Inquiry Day he had attended for the People and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee which he had found very useful and felt it was important to advertise it early to ensure as many members attended as possible.

The Strategic Lead for Safeguarding and Quality – Adults also provided members with an update on the progress of the newly formed Pan Dorset Domestic Abuse Strategic group and their action plan.

Resolved

That the Committee’s Work Programme be updated accordingly.

To answer any questions received in writing by the Chief Executive by not later than 10.00am on 10 March 2017.

No questions were asked by members under Standing Order 20(2).

To consider passing the following resolution:

To agree that in accordance with Section 100 A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the public from the meeting in relation to the business specified below it is likely that if members of the public were present, there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in the paragraphs detailed below of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act and the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information to the public.

Resolved

That in accordance with Section 100 A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the public from the meeting in relation to the business specified in minute 23 as it was likely that if members of the public were present, there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act and the public interest in withholding the information outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information to the public.

To consider an exempt report from the Chairman of the Dorset Community Safety Partnership. The report was considered by the Community Safety Partnership on 16 February 2017.

The Committee considered an exempt report which was originally presented to the Dorset Community Safety Partnership and covered two actions for the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) Delivery Plan.  An overview of some of the youth related concerns/hotspots was also provided for members’ information.

The Chairman from the CSP, Cllr Kerby, attended and welcomed any discussions to ensure people received the support they needed.

Following a discussion about anti-social behaviour members felt it would be helpful to have further knowledge and understanding about how the Police recorded specific incidents.  Cllr Kerby undertook to arrange a meeting outside of the Committee with a Police presence to help in this regard.

One member suggested it would be interesting to see if there was any evidence that any increase in anti-social behaviour was as a result of the closing of youth centres.  The Director commented that her service was now reaching more children as a result of targeted youth provision and agreed that the data from the CSP and data from relevant directorates needed to join up.  This would form part of the Family Partnership Zones work and members would receive further information shortly regarding the geography of the zones.

Following a discussion about a ’community trigger’ the Assistant Director – Design and Development advised it could be about a small number of people in an area committing a lot of anti-social behaviour incidents.  Cllr Kerby advised that the CSP were looking for support from mental health colleagues and possibly colleagues from the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

One member highlighted the transition from care in Children’s Services to care in Adults Services was improving but some issues still tended to arise.  The Director commented it was more about understanding people’s individual stories, a starting point in order to get some greater analysis in respect of trends about what was being described.  She likened it to a ‘turning the curve’ exercise and activity through the CSP would be a good starting point.

The Chairman of the CSP undertook to report back to this Committee for further support at a later date.

Resolved

1. Cllr Kerby to convene a meeting to include the Police to help with the understanding of the recording of anti-social behaviour incidents.

2. Cllr Kerby to report back to the Safeguarding and Overview and Scrutiny Committee for further support at a later date.