Agenda and minutes

No apologies for absence 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.

Councillor Thacker declared a personal interest in Item 7, Peterborough Carers Strategy and Action Plan Update as she was a member of the following groups: Transitions Group, NHS Forum Group and Learning Disability Partnership Board.

The minutes of the meeting held on 20 September 2010 were approved as a correct record subject to Alistair Kingsley being added as present.

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 informed the Committee on how the Children’s Trust set out to meet its outcome of Making a Positive Contribution.  The Director of Children’s Services introduced three young people who had been employed through the Future Jobs Fund and had been working on a project which had looked at the impact of poverty in Peterborough.  The Director informed the committee that he would take questions on the whole report and then spoke in further detail on the child and family poverty aspect of the outcome including giving a short presentation.  The Child Poverty Act had gained Royal Assent on 25 March 2010 and had placed a number of duties on Local Authorities to reduce child poverty. In Peterborough 25.3% of children lived in poverty compared to 16.4% in the East of England and 21.6% nationally.    22% of these children lived in families who were not working but 29% of these children lived in families where either one or both parents were working but on a low income.  In determining and tackling child poverty there were several themes that needed to be taken into consideration:

•          Vulnerable Groups – newly arrived families, ex-offenders, young people 16+, black and minority ethnics (BME), families with a disability (child or parent), lone parents, lone parents, mental health issues, teenage parents, elderly, young couples, HIV

•          Vulnerable Lifestyles – substance misuse, at risk of homelessness, rough sleepers, anti-social behaviour and offending, worklessness or broken employment, domestic violence and abuse, not in education, employment or training (NEETs), gangs

•          Vulnerable Settings – houses of multiple occupation (HMOs), deprived areas, children in care (CiC), private rented accommodation, temporary accommodation, rural locations, hidden populations, households with limited aspirations / work modelling

•          Vulnerable Moments – redundancy, birth, change of tenure, job loss, eviction, moving home, re-possession, release from prison, moving into work, take up of new accommodation, family breakdown, bereavement, change in income levels, point of diagnosis, exams (i.e. GCSEs)

A draft Child Poverty Strategy would be presented to the Committee for scrutiny in March 2011.

The young people attending gave a presentation on Poverty in Peterborough which was a snapshot of their views through a series of photographs.  The photographs depicted areas of Peterborough through a young person’s eyes that represented poverty in Peterborough.  Alongside the pictures they had written the following captions:

• Poverty is not having the means to have a basic standard of living
• Not having enough – the lack of basic things for people, could cause them various types of health issues
• Poverty to me means not being able to provide basic resources for you, your family or area
• Not having the money to make educated choices beyond daily survival
• Poverty is the inability to afford necessities and fully integrate with society

Observations and questions were raised around the following areas:

·         Did you think that people did not know about the coping strategies and support services available to them?  Child poverty was not just about the children  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Helen Edwards, Solicitor to the Council introduced the report which was presented to the Committee for consultation.  Members were advised that the Policy was not recommending a new policy but was confirming the practice that was already established and in place.  It was clarified that the report had incorrectly stated that the Cabinet meeting would be held on 8 December but should have stated 13December.  Members were asked for their views and comments on the policy prior to being presented for adoption at Cabinet.

Observations and questions were raised around the following areas:

·         Had any software packages been considered for use across the Council for translation into different languages?  Some work had been done in Children’s Services on this but it would not help with face to face interpretation.  The biggest single area of spend was in the Children’s social care area and much of that was in relation to court processes and documents.  Translation by software packages would not be of an acceptable standard for use in court processes.  All directorates were looking at reducing the costs where possible by using web based packages where appropriate.

·         The report mentioned ‘without being in breach of its statutory duties’ but it also said that we were not legally obliged to have a policy and this seemed a contradiction in terms.   There was no legal obligation to have a policy in place however it was not possible to seize the provision of translation and interpretation costs without being in breach of statutory duties.  All directorates were aware of the statutory duties they were under and it differed in every case.  It would be very difficult to list all of the statutory duties as there were so many. It would not be possible for us not provide translation and interpretation services at all otherwise we would not be able to fulfill a number of statutory duties across the council services.

·         It would be useful to have a breakdown of what had been spent in past years and what it had been spent on.  This would provide clarity as to how the figure of £154,000 was arrived at.  That could be provided.  It did vary from year to year and no Director had a specific budget for translation and interpretation therefore the spend was kept to a minimum. 

·         What would happen if we refused to supply an interpreter? What action could someone take against the Council?  It would depend on the circumstances but in the worse case scenario if we refused to provide an interpreter for a case in the court we would be found in breach of duties to assist  the court with enquiries.  There were a lot of cases where we provided translation and interpretations services for our own purposes and not for the benefit of the customer.  For example helping people understand how to use the three bin system, making sure people got all the benefits they were entitled to, children’s services cases.  As a council we had committed to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Executive Director of Adult Services presented the report and explained that the report was in response to a request made by the Committee a year ago to return with an update on the progress made with the implementation of the 2009-2011 Peterborough Carers’ Strategy.

Members were advised that the performance indicator to which all Local Authorities were measured against was NI 135 which measured the proportion of carers receiving a service as a percentage of clients receiving community based services.  Peterborough exceeded its target for 2009-2010 with a figure of 34.3% against a target of 32%.  That percentage represented 1829 carers who had an assessment with a follow up service. The target for 2010-2011 was set at 36% and the performance as of September 2010 was 32.14% with the expectation that the target would be achieved by the end of the year.   Members were advised that progress on the action plan had been driven by key work streams, involving partners to deliver the overarching objectives of the strategy which were:

• Staff training to help them understand, respect and work with carers as expert partners
• Engaging carers in the planning, commissioning and managing of services
• Engaging with hard to reach carer groups
• Developing a greater range, diversity and volume of services
• Supporting carers to get back into employment
• Young carers
• Developing appropriate support services for carers
• Meeting carers needs for emergency respite care
• Provision of emotional support to carers to support them in their caring role
• Providing information, support and advice
• Using information on un-met needs of carers to improve outcomes
• Carers and the adult social care personalisation agenda

The Carers’ Awareness Programme was ongoing and there had been a growing number of carers identified.  The Carers’ Partnership Board had been running for over a year and was thriving with some very good work achieved. More choice into social care had been introduced and more work was still needed to support carers to get back into employment.  Work with black and minority groups had started and would continue to develop. Considerable work had been done on the Young Carers’ Strategy and there was a new provider in place for delivering the Young Carers Service.  Numbers registered with the respite service had continued to increase. The carers leaflet had been re done. It was estimated that there was approximately 15,000 carers in Peterborough with about 3,000 giving a substantial amount of time caring for someone.  The hospital discharge pack was currently being piloted at the hospital.  The National Carers’ Survey had indicated some favourable results for Peterborough.  An area that the Carers’ Partnership Board identified for further work was the availability of breaks to support carers; development of which had been impacted by the Primary Care Trust’s financial situation. 

The Carers’ National Strategy was currently being refreshed by the new Government and there had been some high profile changes including the cessation of funding for the Caring with Confidence Course. A watching brief would be kept on the proposed changes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Executive Director of Children’s Services presented the report which detailed the progress made in addressing the recommendations made by Ofsted following their inspection of Safeguarding and Children in Care services.  He advised that the full action plan requested at the last meeting would not be available until January 2011 as it was being presented to Government in December and therefore could not be presented to the Committee before then.

Observations and questions were raised around the following areas:

·         Members felt that it was a positive report with significant progress.  It was noted that the social worker vacancy rate was still improving and Members wanted to know if the target would still be achieved by March.  The Assistant Director of Safeguarding, Families and Communities responded that they were still on target and there had been a lot of recruitment activity.

·         When recruiting from other countries were the checks made equivalent to the Criminal Records Bureau Check in this country? Checks were made but related to UK jurisdiction. Their employment history, carer or academic history would also be checked to ensure there were no gaps and a check made to ensure that they were the person they said they were.

·         Could a progress report on the escalated issues from the last report be brought to the next meeting?  Yes.

ACTION AGREED

1.         To note the progress made in addressing the recommendations made by Ofsted following their inspection of Safeguarding and Children in Care services; and

2.       That the next report includes progress made on the escalated issues reported in August 2010, which were:

·         % Children subject to a child protection plan for a second or subsequent time

·         % Children with Disability allocated to a worker; and

3.        That the report includes the Full Action Plan.

The report provided the Committee with a response to the issues raised at the Scrutiny Big Debate held on 4 February 2010 at Peterborough College of Adult Education which looked at how vulnerable adults and children were being supported.  Members were satisfied with the responses but requested that when publishing the document on the internet that a link to the ‘Living my Life’ webpage on the NHS Peterborough website is provided within the document.  Members concluded that officers had provided a comprehensive response to the issues raised and that no further action was required unless further issues were raised in response to the publication of the document on the website.

ACTION AGREED

That officers provide a link to the ‘Living my Life’ webpage so that it may be incorporated into the response to issues document prior to being published on the Peterborough City Council website.

The latest version of the Forward Plan, showing details of the key decisions that the Leader of the Council believed the Cabinet or individual Cabinet Members would be making over the next four months, was received.

Members noted that there was a key decision for the termination of the transitions service contract with the YMCA and wanted to know if the service was going out to tender for another provider.   Members were advised that this related to a service provided through a specific transitions grant from the Government.  This grant had now ceased and therefore the contract had to cease.  Transitions work continued even though the grant had stopped.

Members wanted to know if a transitions officer was still in place.  There was an 8 – 19 service where people continued to work on transitions in conjunction with parenting co-ordinators. There was also a transitions panel that meet regularly.

ACTION AGREED

To note the latest version of the Forward Plan.

The Work Programme was considered for 2010/11.

ACTION AGREED

To confirm the work programme for 2010/11.

Monday 24 January 2011