Agenda item

To consider the report of the Service Manager for Strategic Partnerships.

The Portfolio Holder for Children, Education, Skills and Early Help presented the report to the committee.  The Executive Director for People (Children) set out a summary of the comprehensive Self-Evaluation of Children’s Services to support preparation for the Ofsted inspection of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers.

The Corporate Director for Commissioning and Partnerships highlighted that the report set out the services strengths and areas for development.  The report also identified the next steps for the service, and these included:

·       Ofsted recognised the challenges around the support provided for care leavers and the service had addressed all issues that Ofsted had recommended be focused on.

·       A Care Leaver Delivery Board was in place to drive through improvements.

·       A Strengthening Services Plan was in place supported by a multi-agency Board.

·       Transformation Plans had been considered by People & Health Overview Committee and it was suggested that scrutiny may want to review and see the impact of the transformation plan in the future.

·       It was hoped that this report would help members to shape future scrutiny arrangements.

Councillors considered the issues arising from the report and during the discussion, the following areas were covered:

·       Welcomed the detail set out in the comprehensive report.

·       The additional provision/support for the rise in cost of living going forward and concerns about staff being able to cope with this additional workload. In response, the Executive Director confirmed that the council was already seeing families struggle due to extra costs. But staff provision was in place.

·       Campaigning for families to take up their entitlement of free school meals.

·       Officers were seeing more complexed needs and not necessarily more requests.

·       Members were advised that the average case load was 15 with a handful of officers who had cases in the low 20’s.

·       There was no retention problem within the service, but a movement of officers across teams, where they wanted to try new challenges.

·       Concerns expressed regarding framework providers for residential care and value for money; also, the review of the provision for children and young people who are disabled. In response, the Portfolio Holder advised that the service must deliver good or excellent provision for the county’s young people and that applied to the fabric of the building.  He indicated that he appreciated that young people may like and be happy with the provider, but the property in question did require some significant capital investment going forward.

·       The Executive Director also highlighted the significant growth in in-house provision this year.

·       Officers were congratulated on the work at the Harbour and Mockingbird project.

·       Members acknowledged the value of early intervention.

·       In respect of Children Protection plans, what were the key drivers that would determine whether support was stepped up or stepped down? The Executive Director advised that children protection was an edge of care activity that needed to be looked at closely. Current plans had been externally audited to ensure that the right children are on a plan.

·       This has driven the families and safeguarding projects.

·       In response to a question about the impact of 0-25 birth to 25 settled adulthood and a new way of working, there will be a new service design and the focusing on importance about talking across services, discussing the child’s whole life.  Including supportive programmes for employment, transport, and the visibility of children with disabilities and SEN.

The Chairman thanked officers for the report and welcomed the useful discussion that was held.