Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Benton, Councillor Elsey and Alistair Kingsley.

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.

            There were no declarations of interest or whipping declarations.

The minutes of the meetings held on 14 November 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 Commission.  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 report provided the Committee with a review of the educational achievement of children in care, who were the responsibility of the City Council wherever they were educated.  Peterborough City Council was responsible for 320 children who were in Public Care. Of those 240 were of statutory school age. The Council was also responsible for young people who had recently left the care system. Ten of this group were completing Higher Education Courses. There were also 32 children from other Local Authorities who were educated in Peterborough schools and colleges. The educational achievement of those children was supported by the Virtual School for Children in Care. In addition to promoting educational achievement, the Virtual School was also responsible for improving the wider opportunities offered to children in care, for participation activities and for the management of the Children in Care Council.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         The report states that “The results achieved by Peterborough Children in care reflect favourably with the national average result…”   Is this the case, given the KS2 results show our average attainment for Children in Care ( Level 4 English and Maths) at 20% vs the National Average of 46%.  Members were advised that maths had always been a problem in Peterborough.  Compared to statistical neighbours Peterborough did not perform as highly as in the other indicators quoted in the report where Peterborough was often second.

·         For KS4 5A*-C English and Maths shows 10% vs the National average of 12.8% for children in care.  The number of children in care was a small cohort of 29 it was therefore a disproportionate number and if one more child  achieved the grade this would take the City over the national average percentage.

·         Do our statistical neighbours also have small cohorts?  Members were advised that this was usually the case and that the average number of children was 30 to 40 but in the larger authorities that would be higher.

·         Why was the decision made to rebrand the Education Team, for Children in Care as Peterborough Virtual School for Children in Care?  What were the costs associated with this and was it really needed given the financial challenges we face?  Members were informed that rebranding had been necessary.  Three years ago the concept of the Virtual School was not wildly recognised since that time most Local Authorities had recognised the Virtual School and felt that the name  Education Team for Children in Care had given the wrong message.  The new name helped when working with other authorities as it was something they understood.  A reorganisation of the team was currently being undertaken to look at what the team does and how it could be done better.

·         The report highlights that there would be a reduction in staff.  How will this impact on the service provided.  The staff had been reduced from four advisory teachers to two. The current consultation would assess what level of staff would be needed to ensure the educational attainment  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The purpose of the report was to provide Members with an update on the nature and characteristics of poverty within the city and to outline the effectiveness of action planning to support local families in moving out of poverty.  Members were reminded that there was a Statutory Duty to work collectively, as equal partners, to do everything possible to reduce child poverty.  To ensure, as far as possible, that today’s children did not become tomorrow’s poor adults.  Childhood experiences laid the foundations for later life and there was a desire to make that experience in Peterborough as positive as possible.   Members were advised that growing up in poverty could damage physical, cognitive, social and emotional development and could affect what was achieved in adult life.  While some children who grew up in low income households would go on to achieve their full potential, many others would not. 

The Lead Officer for the Child Poverty Agenda advised Members that when comparing statistics with statistical neighbours there were two different ways of recording the data and it had not been recorded the same way across the organisations.  The statistics were based on the income agenda but poverty was about far more than income.  Poverty was not an identity but was an experience that families went through.  A Poverty Needs Assessment had helped to identify what the priorities would be.  Four different groups of poverty had been identified:

• Vulnerable Groups e.g.  lone parents, teenage parents, newly arrived families
• Vulnerable Lifestyles e.g. NEET’s, Rough Sleepers, risk of homelessness, obesity
• Vulnerable Moments e.g. birth, redundancy, family breakdown, debt, new home
• Vulnerable Settings e.g. deprived areas, rural locations, temporary accommodation

            Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         Some Members had attended the recent Poverty Conference which had been held at the Fleet in Peterborough and wanted to know if there had been any initiatives that had been captured from the Conference that could make a difference to Peterborough.  There were at least thirty potential projects which were currently being scoped to see which were the most viable. 

·         Members were concerned that with the forthcoming Benefits Reform the national average wage would drop and that some people who today may be considered in poverty may not be identified as such under the new Benefits Reform.  Members were informed that one of  the ways that this might be addressed would be by working with the welfare benefits teams to do some projections as to what might happen and then sending a brief out to all services to help them identify potentials that may not have already occurred.  This would help identify families who potentially may fall into poverty and those who are already in poverty but there situation would be worsened.

·         Members wanted to know if the Poverty Team were in contact with the Operation Can Do team.   Members were informed that they had been working together.

·         Why is child poverty in Peterborough higher than in the East of England region and rising year on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Executive Director of Children’s Services introduced the report.  The report informed the Committee on progress that had been made on the Children’s Services Improvement Programme which had been put in place following an Ofsted Inspection in August 2011.  The improvement would be driven by three key elements:

·         The Children’s Services Improvement Programme

·         The Core Strategy which focused effort on what  must be  prioritised

·         The leadership of Members and officers in delivering the required changes

The Improvement Plan had been constructed under six key themes which would support sustainable improvement over the next twelve to eighteen months.

The key themes were:

Theme One: Providing confident leadership across children’s services

Theme Two: Putting in place effective front-line practice

Theme Three: Creating an organisation fit for purpose

Theme Four: Strengthening partnerships to make a difference

Them Five: Becoming the employer of choice in the region

Them Six: Robustly managing performance

The core strategy of the Improvement Plan would focus on tackling those areas of greatest risk first.  This would include ten core tasks which would cover increasing the number of social workers, putting in place effective front-line practice and strong leadership across Children’s Services.

The Chair thanked The Executive Director of Children’s Services and the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services for the progress made so far with the Improvement Plan.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         The report states that additional staff will be brought in to reduce the number of unallocated cases.  We have been advised that this has been a priority over the last year, should we have confidence that this is achievable, and why?   Members were advised that there had been a history in the service for bringing in extra staff to clear the back log then the staff would go and have to return when there was a back log again.  This meant that there had not been enough staff in place to deal with the work load.  This was now being addressed and there would be enough staff put in place for the amount of work therefore taking the number of staff from 71 to 81.  That would mean that there would be enough capacity to deal with any new work coming in and going forward once all the posts had been filled.  Additionally there would be a specialist team of social workers  in place for six months to deal with the work that accumulated over the previous six to nine months.  Members were advised that there was no quick fix.

·         Will Legal Services be able to cope with the extra work coming through?   Legal Services would be able to up scale their response as long as Children’s Services could give them reasonable notice.  The Executive Director of Children’s Services did not feel that there would be much additional work and that in the future dealing with families much more effectively and quickly should ease the burden on Legal Services.

·         How can you assure us that once you have improved Children’s Services and a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

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.

Members considered the Committee’s Work Programme for 2010/11 and discussed possible items for inclusion.

ACTION AGREED

To confirm the work programme for 2010/11 and the Scrutiny Officer to include any additional items as requested during the meeting.

Monday 12 March 2012

12 March 2012