Agenda and minutes

Apologies had been received from Councillors Harper, Sanders, Saltmarsh and Shearman and Brian Opie, Parent Governor Representative.  Councillor Elsey was in attendance as substitute for Councillor Harper, Councillor Kreling was in attendance as substitute for Councillor Sanders, Councillor John Fox was in attendance as substitute for Councillor Saltmarsh and Councillor Murphy was in attendance for Councillor Shearman.

At this point Members must declare whether they have an interest, whether personal or prejudicial, in any of the items on the agenda. Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.

Declarations of interest were received from Councillor Murphy who declared that he was an elected Governor of Peterborough and Cambridgeshire Foundation Trust and was also a resident who lived next to Vawser Lodge.  This declaration was with regard to the Forward Plan of Key Decisions item 10 on the agenda where there was mention of Vawser Lodge.

The minutes of the meetings held on 21 March 2011 were approved as an accurate record.

The decision notice for each decision will bear the date on which it is published and will specify that the decision may then be implemented on the expiry of 3 working days after the publication of the decision (not including the date of publication), unless a request for call-in of the decision is received from any two Members of a Scrutiny Committee or Scrutiny Commissions.  If a request for call-in of a decision is received, implementation of the decision remains suspended for consideration by the relevant Scrutiny Committee or Commission.

There were no requests for Call-in to consider.

The Executive Director of Children’s Services introduced the report and then presented a video to the Committee about the Needs of the City.  The video put into context the needs of children and young people across the City.  Key points of the video were:

• The population of Peterborough had grown by around 40,000 people in the last 30 years.
• The current population was estimated at 171,200 people of whom 44,300 were aged 0 to 19.
• England was divided in to 32,482 super output areas and each area was ranked according to their index of child deprivation score where 1 was the most deprived. One part of Dogsthorpe was in the 10% most deprived areas of the country and was ranked 297.  However one part of Orton Waterville was in the 10% most affluent areas of the country and was ranked 31,884.
• Child poverty was determined by families:
  • suffering high levels of worklessness
  • living in deprived neighbourhoods
  • living in Cities where local economies lacked quality of life
  • living in Cities with a legacy of low attainment and low skills
• 24% of Peterborough Children were living in poverty, this equated to around 8000 children.
• 94% of pupils living in the City Centre were from ethnic minority background yet in Barnack it was 5.3%.
• 27% of pupils had English as their second language compared to 16% in 2005.  This meant that over 8000 children and young people in our schools did not have English as their main language.  There were 99 different languages spoken in Peterborough schools.
• On average 169 young women become teenage mothers every year.
• Currently there were 300 children in care.
• Seven years ago 2% of the Peterborough school population were Eastern European, it was now 9%.
• 1.2% of children in Peterborough had multiple or complex disabilities which equated to approximately 514 children.
• There were around 2400 young carers aged 5 to 16.
• The average in-house foster placement cost £240 per week. On average there were 138 foster carers at any one time totalling £33,120 per week.  In comparison an agency placement cost £767 per week.  Due to the high level of needs the top five residential placements cost £1,205,568 per year.
• During 2009/10 - 5,130 15 to 24 year olds were screened for Chlamydia compared to 3,500 in 2008/09.
• 66% of young people receiving substance misuse support had alcohol as their primary substance.
• Young people surveyed felt that:
  • 64% of girls aged 15  wanted to lose weight compared to 35% of 15 year old boys
  • 18% of secondary school pupils surveyed, believed cannabis was safe when used correctly
  • 35% knew someone personally who took some form of drugs
  • 23% said they were uncomfortable talking to their doctor
  • The top three things young people worried about was school work and exams, the way they looked and career decisions
• Despite the challenges Peterborough had many successes:
  • In 2010 87% of children in Peterborough had accessed dental services in the last two years compared to 70% nationally
  • 43% of babies aged 6-8  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The report was an annual report that informed the Committee about the statutory complaints process and referred to complaints presented by or on behalf of ‘children in need’ or ‘looked after’ children meaning those children who were in receipt of social care services.  Understanding the nature of complaints was critical in understanding the quality of the service.  It formed part of the continuous improvement framework for social care.  The process of complaints in terms of timeliness and response and how that was adhered to was important for a number of reasons.  An early response meant you got a more satisfied customer and greater potential of getting the right service in response to the need and it also helped to sort out any deficiencies within that service.  In July of last year it was decided that complaints would be dealt with corporately and a simple guide was also produced for Managers on how complaints should be dealt with.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

•           In the report there were 31 complaints about staff attitude and conduct, what did this mean. Staff attitude could be anything from someone who did not reply to a telephone call, or did not turn up when they were expected or if someone had not liked what was said to them.

•           When the complaints process moved across to the corporate team how much of the change potentially in the statistics related to being directed to the new team.  Was there a correlation between complaints about staff attitudes and lack of specific skills from staff now receiving these complaints?  The complaints were being recorded much more accurately and this had resulted in an increase.  It was not clear if this was because people were less happy with the service or the fact that the response was more robust.    It had been recognised that staff had not been sufficiently trained in dealing with complaints and last December the Local Government Ombudsman was brought in to train all team managers.  A quick guide was produced to support this training.

•           When complaints are frozen due to legal proceedings how long can these take to resolve.  This was not a common occurrence and often the issues of the complaint were dealt with during the court proceedings.

•           What percentage of staff reductions did you have in the last financial year and would this have attributed to an increase in complaints.  The complaints that were covered in the report related to an area where there had been an investment in staff not a reduction.

•           Were most of the complaints simply about responding in time?  The complaints process was a statutory process and one issue was about the impact of how quickly complaints were responded to therefore customer needs were being enforced in staff.

•           In the report six children had complained about accessibility.  Was this due to excess of beaurocracy involved in the complaints procedure or because they were not actually aware that they could challenge the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The report provided information on the work undertaken by the Committee during 2010/2011 and recommendations made.  The Committee were asked to identify items for monitoring during 2011/2012 and any new items for the work programme.

Items identified for inclusion into the work programme were:

·         Child Poverty Strategy

·         Educational Attainment of Minority Groups and New Arrivals

·         Provision of School Places for early years foundation and secondary school

The Chair suggested that Education Attainment could be the theme for the Committee for the coming year.

The Committee received the latest version of the Council’s Forward Plan, containing key decisions that the Leader of the Council anticipated the Cabinet or individual Cabinet Members would make during the course of the following four months.  Members were invited to comment on the Plan and, where appropriate, identify any relevant areas for inclusion in the Committee’s work programme.

ACTION AGREED

The Committee noted the Forward Plan and agreed that there were no items to bring to the Committee.

Monday 11 July 2011, 7.00pm

The Senior Governance Officer advised the Committee that she had identified that there was a clash of meetings on the date of the next scheduled meeting which was 11 July 2011.  The committee agree that the meeting should be rearranged to a more suitable date.  The Committee agreed to this change and asked the Senior Governance Officer to arrange this and inform the Committee as soon as possible.