Agenda and minutes

No apologies were received.

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 12 March 2012 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 gave a presentation to the Committee which informed Members of the key areas covered by Children’s Services.

The following key points were highlighted:

Safeguarding, Families and Communities: Lead Officer - Assistant Director, Sue Westcott

Services provided within this area:

•          Safeguarding

•          Looked after Children

•          Children with Disabilities

•          Fostering

•          Adoption

•          Youth Offending Services

Key Challenges for 2012:

•          Improve safeguarding

•          Increase placement choice and adoptions

•          Strengthen range of targeted preventative services

Education and Resources:  Lead Officer - Assistant Director, Jonathan Lewis

Services provided within this area:

•          School Improvement and Governance

•          Special Educational Needs

•          Attendance, Behaviour and  Pupil Referral

•          Finance, Projects and Workforce Development

•          School Place Planning and Buildings

•          City College

Plus finance, capital and budget monitoring

Key Challenges for 2012:

•          Implement new approaches to transform standards

•          Improve outcomes for children with SEN

•          Improve attainment for vulnerable learners

Commissioning and Prevention: Lead Officer – Assistant Director Wendi Ogle-Welbourn

Services provided within this area:

•          8 – 19 Services

•          Early Years and Children’s Centres

•          Children’s Residential and Respite Care

•          Commissioning prevention and early intervention

Key Challenges for 2012:

Put in place systems that co-ordinate early intervention and prevention services

•          Strengthen the Children’s Trust

•          Set up joint commissioning arrangements with health

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         Members were concerned that as the Council did not run the schools now how they were going to achieve the key challenge of implementing new approaches to transform standards.  Members were informed that the objective was to implement new approaches to transform standards.  There was clarity about why the standards were low but less clarity about the strategies across the school community.  This provided an opportunity to bring a new focus on what could be done and dispense with the things that did not have any impact.  All authorities were being asked to reshape themselves in light of the new legislation.  The statutory responsibility for raising standards still fell within the remit of the Director of Children’s Services and there was a need to ensure collaboration across the city between the local authority and schools.

·         How would the authority refocus to raise attainment?  Members were advised that there was a need to refocus the way the local authority was structured in light of the new legislation. A much clearer strategy was needed around children with Special Educational Needs.  There was also a big issue in Primary Schools regarding inward migration and this needed to be looked at.

·         Do you have any plans to implement a strategy for recruiting good quality school governors?  A good school improvement strategy would look at what was needed to get good school governance in place.  If the local authority could influence the selection and training of governance and provide good support to governors it would improve the process.  The Director of Children’s Services advised that he would bring a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Head of Neighbourhoods introduced the report and advised members that the report provided details of an updated Poverty Reduction Strategy and Action Plan which had been requested by the Committee at a meeting on 16 January 2012.  The Child Poverty Act 2010 required local authorities to combat the causes and consequences of child poverty in local areas.  Peterborough had chosen to deal with Child Poverty by addressing ‘family poverty’.  The poverty reduction objective was part of programme 2 in the Single Delivery Plan – Safeguarding the Most Vulnerable Families.  The Peterborough Strategic Development Plan for poverty reduction and social mobility was continually being refined but activity had started to deliver outcomes in early intervention, financial inclusion and decent homes.  The approach being taken had been three fold:

1.         A short term hard hitting approach around working with targeted families where income may be an issue

2.         Promotion of resilience; looking at skills that can be given to families and building a sense of community and a sense of pride

3.         Developing longer term chances – looking at what sort of jobs needed to be created, what sort of opportunities were needed to help people to get themselves out of poverty.

            The Head of Neighbourhoods went through the seven Strategic Objectives and Key Deliverables of the plan and advised that it would be brought back to the Committee again with further detail for approval.

            Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         The Chair commented on the complexity of the plan and was concerned at how it might be achieved in reality and suggested that each member of the Committee may wish to assign themselves to one of the strands.

·         Who are the members of the Poverty Executive Team?    Members were advised that there had been a need for a  strong sense of leadership from officers within the authority and therefore a small but strong Executive team was pulled together consisting of Adrian Chapman, Head of Neighbourhoods (Chair), Wendi Ogle-Welbourn, Assistant Director of Commissioning and Prevention and Leonie McCarthy, Social Inclusion Manager. 

·         Members commented that there was no indication of the work that was already being undertaken and which objectives had already been started.  There were also no timelines as to when the work would be completed.  The Head of Neighbourhoods confirmed that a lot of work was already being undertaken within the plan and suggested  that a performance dashboard could be created for the seven strands to show the Committee how the plan was progressing.

·         The Child Poverty Act became law on 25 March 2010.  Why had progress been so slow in providing a Poverty Strategy and Action Plan.  Members were advised that it had taken an immense amount of time to capture in one place all of the activity that was going on and there was still more work to do on this.  It was a very complex agenda and the current plan was much more robust.

·         Members commented that there was a clear link between poverty  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Customer Services  Manager introduced the report and explained that the statutory complaints process covered in the report applied to complaints presented by or on behalf of ‘children in need’ or ‘looked after’ children as defined by the Children Act 1989. The complaints process aimed to provide additional safeguards for children and young people and to empower them to express their views about services they received.  The report provided information on complaint volumes and performance.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         The complaints received are up from last year but there is no comparative data.  Could you provide the previous year’s data to compare?  Do you have any national comparatives or bench marking data from neighbouring authorities?   Members were informed that it was difficult to provide the previous year’s data as the reporting process had changed this year and was therefore not comparable.  Work was being carried out with complaint managers from the Eastern Region with regard to benchmarking.  When the information had been collated it could be shared with the Committee.  It may be difficult to compare like with like as some of the other authorities were much larger and had different numbers of children in care.

·         How can officers take confidence in the data and know that there was an improvement if previous year’s data to compare or comparative data was not available.  Members were advised that there was data available from the previous year but not in the same format and not as robust as the current data. This could be provided to the Committee. 

·         With regard to Table 2 in the report.  It states that the average number of days to respond to referral and assessment complaints were 44 when the target was 20 and the average number of days to respond to Children In Need was 30.  Had this improved?  The Director of Children’s Services informed the committee that the report was reporting on last years performance when the referral and assessment team and family support team were chronically under  resourced and struggling to keep on top of their case loads and case work.  The improvement plan was tackling this and current data would show a totally different picture to last year.

·         Members noted that there had been an incremental improvement in response rates and wished to acknowledge the Director of Children’s Services involvement in making this improvement and the support from officers in turning things around.

·         The Head of Customer Services addressed the Commission and also acknowledged the support that had been given to the customer services team from Senior Management in Children’s Services.

·         Members requested further detail with regard to the classification of ‘a child in need’.  The Customer Service Manager advised that she would provide this via email to members of the Commission. 

ACTIONS AGREED

The Commission noted the report and agreed that the Customer Service Manager provide the Committee with the following information:

(i)                  Last year’s data for complaints volumes and performance.

(ii)                Information detailing what the classification was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

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 progress report had been a regular report to the committee and the last update to the committee had been in March 2012.   Members were advised that significant progress had been made against the core strategy and the 10 key steps which focused on tackling those areas of greatest risk first.  Phase Two of the Improvement Programme would focus around seven steps:

1)      Ensure initial and core assessments are completed on time to an adequate quality and  ensure all cases are allocated appropriately

2)      Focus on raising the quality of casework through

                                            i. Implementing the QA framework

                                           ii. Monthly audit programme of case  work

                                         iii. Mock inspection of the contact referral and assessment service

                                        iv. Audits of multi-agency practice

                                          v. Assurance exercise in long-term teams

                                        vi. Develop an “inspection ready programme” to prepare for the next full Ofsted inspection

3)      Put in place a range of preventive services to avoid unnecessary family breakdown

                                            i. Put in place an Access to Services Panel

                                           ii. Commission high level family support

                                         iii. Commission an adolescent intervention service

                                        iv. Improve commissioning of all tier two and three services

                                          v. Strengthen CAMHS and well-being services for young people

4)      Improve care planning and outcomes for Looked after Children (LAC)

                                            i. Audit of care plans for all LAC

                                           ii. Increase numbers of adoptions and Special Guardianship Orders

                                         iii. Improve the supply and choice of adoption and fostering placements

                                        iv. Monitoring of minimum standards:

1.      statutory visits

2.      recording for LAC cases

3.      Improving health care assessments for LAC

                                          v. Early access to CAMHS provision

                                        vi. Monitoring of Personal Education Plan for all LAC

                                       vii. Strengthen voice of LAC in policy procedures and decision making

                                     viii. Mock inspection of LAC service

5)      Strengthen the multi-agency use of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) and the Team around the Child

                                            i. Establish Multi-agency Support Panels (MASG)

                                           ii. Set up monthly monitoring of uptake and outcomes including use of CAF

                                         iii. Strengthen preventive alternatives available at tiers two and three

                                        iv. Put in place a review process for all vulnerable children in MASG process

                                          v. Review CAF access and allocation processes

6)      Put in place a permanent management structure and workforce

                                            i. Restructure divisions and appoint new heads of service

                                           ii. Recruit permanent social workers

                                         iii. Recruit permanent Director of Children’s Services

7)      Improve the impact of partnerships

                                            i. Strengthen monitoring and scrutiny role of Peterborough Safeguarding Children’s Board

                                           ii. Develop a Joint Commissioning Group to replace the Children’s Trust

                                         iii. Set up a Joint Commissioning Unit with the PCT and Clinical Commissioning Group

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         How many permanent social workers do you have in place and how many were temporary.  The Director of Children’s Services advised that he did not have the exact figures  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The report provided the Committee with:

·         a review of work undertaken during 2011/12 and recommendations made

·         the terms of reference for the Committee and

·         a draft work programme for 2012/2013 for consideration

After consideration of the items within the report the Members of the Committee requested that in addition to items already on the work programme the following items should be considered:

• School development programme
• Looked after Children
• Children with disabilities and services provided for them

ACTION AGREED

The Committee agreed that the Senior Governance Officer work with the Chair and Group Representatives to manage the work programme of the Committee and programme in requested items.

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 requested clarification on the Award of a Framework for Temporary Staff for Children’s Services – KEY/04MAR/12.  The Director of Children’s Services provided clarification to Members.

Monday 23 July 2012

Monday 23 July 2012