Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Fower.

At this point Members must declare whether they have a disclosable pecuniary interest, or other interest, in any of the items on the agenda, unless it is already entered in the register of members’ interests or is a “pending notification “ that has been disclosed to the Solicitor to the Council.

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 November 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 Cabinet Member for Community Cohesion and Safety presented the report to the Committee which informed them about the proposed Inspire Peterborough programme.  A short presentation was given which highlighted the following information:

·         Inspire Peterborough Vision statement: To increase the choice of disability sports and to invigorate and inspire disabled people to have better life outcomes through, sport, physical activity and volunteering.

·         What Inspire Peterborough was and what it would do.  A charitable organisation that would through close community links become the:

–        First point of contact for anyone interested in disability sports

–        Signpost to opportunities, advice and information

–        Bring together local sports providers and venues under a unified ‘brand’

–        Support clubs to develop pathways to success

–        Bid for funding, increase capacity and improve facilities

–        Provide opportunities for those wishing to improve their physical and mental health and well being

–        Provide volunteering opportunities for able bodied and disabled people

–        Encourage and enable competitive sporting opportunities locally and throughout the region

Benefits to sports providers:

•        To be part of a city-wide movement

•        Access to specialist advice, support and funding opportunities leading to upgraded facilities

•        Unified branding and marketing

•        Increased business opportunities and higher footfall

•        Creating a local and regional network

Benefits for participants and their families:

•        Improved physical and mental health

•        Creating the opportunity to take part in competitive games

•        Building confidence

•        Social opportunities

•        Pathways to success

•        Respite and sibling support

•        Increased sense of achievement

Benefits to Peterborough:

•        Tackling inequalities

•        Creating strong and supportive communities

•        Delivering substantial and truly sustainable growth

•        Helping people to live more healthy and sustainable lives

How this would be achieved:

•        Establish a charitable body associated to DIAL Peterborough

•        Establish a shadow board to include representatives from PCC, DIAL, PCVS, Living Sport, Public Health, PCC – Neighbourhoods, Vivacity, Ward Councillors, RNIB and Armed Forces.

•        Bring people and partners together under one single brand and access point

•        Dedicated project management and support

•        Co-ordinated funding, volunteering and marketing

•        Access to national bodies

The project was being seed funded by the Cohesion Board and donations through the Community Leadership Fund.  It has also been supported by the City Council through some officer time to kick start the initiative.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         Had the proposed programme model been used anywhere else?  Members were informed that the model had not been used anywhere else and government bodies had advised that it could be used as a pilot scheme and rolled out elsewhere if successful.

·         How would the programme be funded long term?  Members were informed that legacy funding was being sought.  Big lottery funding was available which matched the programmes objectives and the Cabinet Member therefore felt confident that funding would be available but it would take some time before it was received.  The main concern was to continue with setting up the programme before that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services provided the Committee with an update on the progress that had been made on her portfolio since her last report to the Committee in July 2012.  The report provided information on the following areas:

·         Children’s Social Care

·         Duke of Edinburgh Award

·         Connecting Families Programme

·         Residential and Respite Homes

·         Medium Term Financial Strategy

Members were informed that the council had recently agreed to take part in the Eastern Region Peer Safeguarding Health Check.  This had taken place and the Peer team had provided feedback confirming the outcomes of the Health Check which had been positive.  It showed that the organisational and cultural change that had been implemented as part of the improvement programme was beginning to be reflected in frontline practice.  Many strengths had been highlighted and some areas for further development or consideration and been mentioned.  It had been recognised that considerable progress had been made by the council over the past year.

An Ofsted inspection of the councils fostering service had taken place during October 2012 and had been judged as adequate.  It had been noted by the inspectors that progress had been made and identified many strengths in Peterborough.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         Members were concerned that the fostering service had been judged as adequate and sought confirmation that everything was being done to continually improve the service.  Members were advised that it had been a particularly unsettling year and that there were new Ofsted arrangements in place which had been quite severe.  The Cabinet Member had been pleased to maintain adequate under the new Ofsted inspection arrangements but confirmed that she was not complacent and aspired to improve the judgement.  Ofsted had advised that some outcome areas had bordered on good.

·         Members noted that there were still a number of management posts that were covered by temporary staff but that there had been considerable interest in the posts that had been advertised.  Members were advised that recent recruitment to middle management posts had gone well through a recent campaign.  There had been nineteen applicants fifteen of which had been strong.  Out of those fifteen the following appointments had been made; Head of Service for Referral and Assessment, Head of Quality Assurance and Service Manager for Looked after Children and Disability.

·         Members noted that the report had not contained an update on the Children’s Centres and wanted to know if things had settled down since the transfer to the new providers.  Members were informed that there had been no further complaints and things were beginning to settle down.  The Assistant Director, Strategy, Commissioning and Prevention advised Members that one of the challenges that the new providers had faced was to decide on the priorities and how things could be delivered differently from  the Children’s Centres with the money provided.  The use of volunteers was being looked at.

·         The Chair commented that she had applied to be a volunteer and that the application pack had been complex and requested  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The report provided the Committee with an update on the development of the Overarching Multi-agency Prevention and Early Intervention Strategy.  The Head of Commissioning, Specialist Services gave a short presentation on the Prevention and Early Intervention in Peterborough Strategy.  Key areas covered in the presentation included:

·         A comprehensive needs analysis found the following key findings:

o        Peterborough child population was increasing rapidly with the biggest increase being the 0-4years age range

o        Child population was becoming increasingly diverse

o        Child and maternal health an issue

o        Emotional and mental health resilience

o        Significant achievement gap for EAL

o        School attendance an issue at some schools;

o        Tendency for children’s difficulties to be medicalised, for example in relation to Special Educational Needs;

o        Teenage pregnancy, NEET and alcohol and/or substance misuse, vulnerability to sexual exploitation;

o        Parenting and parenting support deficits

·         Some Key Priorities

o        Supporting holistic assessment of need through CAF;

o        Developing nuanced range of evidence based family support services;

o        Supporting effective partnership working through the MASGs

o        Improving accessibility to services through community volunteering

·         Some Key outcomes:

o        Improved educational attainment and parental aspiration;

o        More families supported without requiring escalation to social care;

o        Children safeguarded as they are stepped down from CSC interventions;

o        Reduced expenditure on specialist services allowing continuing investment in prevention

·         Accountability for Delivery:

o        In most cases, existing delivery groups had responsibility for ensuring delivery;

o        A small number of new delivery groups would be established;

o        Those groups would report into a new overarching Prevention & Early Intervention delivery group which monitors overall progress;

o        Final progress monitoring is through the Children and Families Commissioning Board.

            Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         Members noted that the presentation had highlighted that there was a disproportionate number of children in special schools with English as an Additional Language (EAL) compared to those in standard schools. Was this because there were not sufficient resources in standard schools to deal with those children.  Members were informed that there had been a significant increase in Special Schools of children with EAL.  More work needed to be done around those statistics but it was likely that a large proportion of the cohort were children with behavioural, emotional and social difficulties. The Assistant Director, Strategy, Commissioning and Prevention advised that she was aware through the Peterborough Location Support Panels that there were a number of children in special schools where behaviour was the issue and was often linked to language and their inability to express themselves. Some of those children may not have been in school in their own country until a very late stage.  There were some volunteer workers who spoke the same language as the parents who were working with them to try and address those issues. 

·         The strategy mentioned the ‘Outcome Star’ for parents. Members sought clarification as to how this method differed to current practice.  Members were informed that it was an evidence based model developed by parents, practitioners, people and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The report provided the Committee with an overview and update on the work around reforming the Local Authorities education function and in improving outcomes for children with SEN through the development of an effective strategy for the future.  Since last reporting to the Committee in November 2012 significant work had been undertaken looking at best practice, the situation in Peterborough and interventions that would have the most impact upon outcomes of children and young people.  Seven key themes had been identified to work on for the Education Strategy.  There was a particular focus on establishing a School-to-School Partnership that was cost effective, successful in delivering outcomes and run by schools for schools from which the LA could confidently commission services.  The LA would be a partner in this partnership.  A draft Education Strategy would be brought back to the Committee in March 2013. 

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         Members noted that school improvement had not been mentioned as part of the core team within Children’s Services required to deliver services which were high priority to the council.  Members were advised that school improvement would be part of the School-to-School Partnership.  There would always be a role for the LA to provide school improvement.

·         Members wanted to know what a school based “training centre” was as mentioned in the report.  Members were advised that this was focused around giving staff in schools support to do the work they needed to do.  There were certain schools in the city that had highly developed expertise in dealing with English as an Additional Language.  Their expertise could be shared across the city in the provision of a school based “training centre”.

·         Some Members felt that more emphasis should be placed on filling the gap for further and higher education within the city.

Members were informed that significant work had been undertaken in the last year in understanding the delivery of SEN provision across the city.  The work was now being developed into a strategy to see the direction of travel for this group over the next five years.  Having the correct provision in place was key to ensuring an effective SEN strategy.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         Members were concerned that Peterborough had more children with statements than similar authorities and felt that some children might have been statemented unnecessarily.  Members were advised that from April 2013 there would be a number of changes to the way schools and special educational needs (SEN) would be funded. There would be a new formula to generate a notional SEN budget for each school and funds would no longer be provided based on statemented hours.  This would reduce the number of statemented children as there would be more targeted funding.

·         Members sought assurance that children with statements attending standard schools would have the necessary resources to support them.   The Assistant Director for Education and Resources assured Members that adequate funding would be put in place under the new funding regime.

·         Members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

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 November 2012.   Highlights of the report were:

·         Strong performance continued on timeliness in the referral and assessment service. 97.1% of initial assessments had been completed within 10 days and 85.9% of core assessments completed within 35 days.

·         The underlying figures for completion of core assessments in October had shown deterioration to 70% completed on time. This was mainly in the long-term teams and was largely due to chasing down the numbers incomplete out of timescale.

·         There had been significant improvement in the recording of visits to children with a plan with 94% on time and statutory visits to looked after children with 97% on time.

·         The Head and Heart recruitment advertising campaign continued to be successful.   The current social work vacancy rate was 10.7.  The campaign was being refreshed with regard to the recruitment of team managers.

·         Quality and timeliness needed to continue.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         Members sought assurance that the timeliness of core assessments would continue despite the dip in October.  Members were informed that the dip in timeliness had been due to several factors like concentrating on getting the quality right and also there had been some churn in the team managers.  The Executive Director of Children’s Services advised that she was looking into this.  Members were also advised that whilst progress had been good there was still a long way to go with the improvement plan.

·         Members sought assurance that there would be no cuts in funding for the improvement programme.  The Executive Director of Children’s Services assured members that although Children’s Services would have to consider budget cuts along with other service areas the Council were committed to the improvement programme and no cuts would be made if it jeopardised the programme.

ACTION AGREED

The Committee noted the Safeguarding Improvement Plan and the progress that had been made since the last report in November 2012.

The Committee received the latest version of the Council’s Notice of Intention to Take Key Decisions, 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 Notice of Intention to Take Key Decisions

Members considered the Committee’s Work Programme for 2012/13 and discussed possible items for inclusion.

ACTION AGREED

To confirm the work programme for 2012/13 and the Senior Governance Officer to include any additional items as requested during the meeting.

·         Refreshed priorities and Children’s Services Improvement Plan to be presented at the March 2013 meeting.

Monday 21 January 2013 – Joint Scrutiny Meeting of the Budget