Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Rush and Councillor Nawaz.  Councillor Peach was in attendance as substitute for Councillor Rush.

There were no declarations of Interest or whipping declarations.

The minutes of the meetings held on 22 April 2013 were approved as an accurate record.

There were no requests for Call-in to consider.

The purpose of the report was to inform the Committee of the impacts of Welfare Reform and the work that had been undertaken through the Peterborough Community Assistance Scheme to tackle poverty and destitution. The Head of Neighbourhood Services advised Members that the report was being presented very early on in the progress of work and confirmed that there was also work being done on the unintended consequences of welfare reform, e.g. shoplifting and domestic abuse. The subject would need to be kept under review for some time as many of the reforms would not happen for several months to come.

Officers in attendance with the Head of Neighbourhood Services gave a presentation on the work they were doing to help mitigate the impact of Welfare Reform.

Peterborough Job Centre

Julie Coleman, Relationship Manager for Peterborough Job Centre, Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) advised Members that her work involved supporting the Local Authority and the DWP to work together for the roll-out of Welfare Reform. This had included coordinating provision; providers, employers and partners. There were approximately 6500 people currently claiming Job Seekers Allowance.  The job centre had being going through welfare reform for the last sixty years. The first part of that was the Social Fund Reform, followed by council tax changes, housing benefits, under occupancy and the next step would be the July benefit cap.  Part of the work had been to prepare all the partners of the voluntary and support organisations by holding awareness sessions.

Care Zone & Peterborough Food Bank

Sharon Keogh, Social Engagement Manager for Kingsgate Church advised Members that Kingsgate Church had been running the Care Zone Project which offered emergency furniture for people in crisis.  They were also the lead agency for the Peterborough Food Bank.

Care Zone was a project that had been set up twelve years ago by Kingsgate.  It typically served people who were leaving hostels who have been homeless or victims of domestic abuse. The scheme was driven by public donations. They only took referrals from agencies and they relied on those agencies’ professional assessments. Last year Care Zone had supported 2010 people and in the first eight weeks of the project they had 130 new referrals.

Food Bank was set up in October 2012 with the purpose of supporting people with emergency food. This followed the Trussell Trust model of food banks and was a partnership between a number of local churches. The scheme was driven by public donations. There were seven distribution centres placed strategically across the city and were open from Tuesday to Saturday.  They were run by volunteers who offered both signposting and food. The volunteers had received training from CAB so that they could offer people the correct support and help them find other agencies if necessary. In the first eight weeks of the project 572 food parcels have been distributed.

Citizens Advice Bureau & Peterborough Community Assistance Scheme (PCAS)

Keith Jones, Chief Executive, Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) in Peterborough informed Members that he was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Head of Neighbourhood Services introduced the report which provided the Committee with an update on the progress being made relating to the development of alternative play provision.   Members were informed that the project was live and therefore subject to change. Children’s Play Services had been subject to review over a number of years. In the medium term financial plan of 2010 it was identified that savings should be made from the Play Service but the savings had never been realised. In 2013 further savings were identified. The total savings therefore made the continuation of the staffing of Children’s Play Services unviable. The contribution that Play Services had made to the community had always been acknowledged. In order to recognise this contribution during the half term period there would be opportunities for individual play centres to hold celebratory events and record the history of Play within those centres. Commemorative books had also been created which allowed staff to take away an enduring memory of their work. Many of the centres had delivered targeted activities to children and clear action plans had been put in place for any children who were in receipt of targeted support.  A presentation was then delivered on what work has been done since the decision was made and what plans there were for the future including exploring the potential use of the buildings with communities.  A range of options for each building was being looked at which included outright ownership; long lease; short lease; and a license. The Council was keen to support the communities and build community infrastructure with the buildings.

The work so far had focused on three key themes: Place, People and Business. Looking at place involved the condition of the building, the location and what funding would be required to make the building fit for purpose. Looking at people involved ensuring the community would have the capacity to run the service the building would be used for. The business model involved looking at whether the building could become more generic in terms of the service it would offer. Structural and condition surveys would be completed. There was a commitment to enter into a license agreement by the end of June for all eight centres. This meant there would be a group license to operate and run each centre; even if the future was as yet undecided.

It was clarified that Families First would not be replacing Children’s Play Services but would at least provide the option for play in the relevant areas. ‘Families First’ could be offered as a support package to those communities who wanted to continue to deliver play.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         Members asked how long support would be provided by Neighbourhoods and Children’s Services to community groups. Members were advised support would be provided to the community groups as long as it was needed. It was noted that this was about more than just the future use of Play Centre buildings; but rather about  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Executive Director of Children’s Services introduced the report which provided the Committee with an update on the Children’s Services Improvement Programme and included the refreshed Delivery Plan.  Members were informed that it had been announced that Children’s Services had been lifted off the Improvement Notice and thanked Members of the Scrutiny Committee for their involvement and work on reaching the target. Work on improvement was ongoing as it was about sustainability and the Executive Director confirmed that performance had been sustained so far.

·         Referrals had remained steady and the rolling rate for the year had dropped due to early interventions work taking place.

·         Re-referrals had markedly decreased and this had been a trend for the last few months.

·         Performance of Initial assessment time scales within 10 working days remained good up to May.

·         There were 11.2 fulltime equivalent vacancies; but there were 8 social workers waiting to start and 4 who were due to leave.

·         Child Protection plans were above target at 270, although this dropped to 244 in May.

·         Looked After Children had increased and this was predominantly to do with a number of young people in the system who were displaying risky behaviour and large sibling groups.

·         The Children and Families Joint Commissioning Board held its first stakeholder event for Early Interventions activities on the 22nd April. The event was a showcase of the Early Prevention and Intervention Strategy, feedback from the Safeguarding inspection and a presentation of children’s priorities going forward.

·         There would be ongoing scrutiny from the Improvement Board and Scrutiny Committee in order to maintain the improvement going forward.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         Members congratulated the Executive Director and Staff in Children’s Services on the lifting of the Improvement Notice.

·         Members asked all to recognise that even with the Improvement Notice being lifted it was important for the Committee to ask constructive and informed questions to continually challenge the service.

·         Members asked what the major challenges were going to be in the next six months. Members were advised of the following challenges: recruiting and retaining high calibre staff, ensuring additional resources were mainstreamed and that the service worked within budget and that Early Prevention and Intervention work remained on track.

·         Members asked for clarity on the timescale on seeing fruition on the new staff coming on board; what are the reasons for difficulty in recruiting good team manager posts and how had the recruitment campaign been refreshed. Members were advised that the new starters would be on board between one and three months due to notice periods. The recruitment of Team Managers was a national challenge. Peterborough had done very well in this respect comparatively speaking. A factor contributing to this problem was the growth in social work agencies. Local Authorities could not compete with the kind of salary levels agencies could provide and this provided a constant challenge. The service had held high standards for an applicant; which contributed to the delay in recruiting good Team Managers. It was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The reportprovided the Committee with an update on the work of the Children’s Services Improvement Programme Scrutiny Task and Finish Group and the progress it had made since it was established in November 2011. It was noted that this report has been read and all agree that it was a good report and the group would continue. It was suggested that people who were not actively taking part in the Task and Finish Group be approached to ask if they would like to continue. If they did not wish to continue others Members could be found who would like to take part.

ACTIONS AGREED

The Committee agreed that the Senior Governance Officer would contact members of the Task and Finish Group to confirm if they wished to continue on the group.

The Senior Governance Officer introduced the report which provided the Committee with:

·         a review of work undertaken during 2012/13 and recommendations made

·         the terms of reference for the Committee and

·         a draft work programme for 2013/2014 for consideration

The Committee considered the report and decided that there were no recommendations from last year that required further monitoring.

Members requested the following items be added to the work programme:

·         Reorganisation of schools in Peterborough.

·         Development of the University in Peterborough

·         Key Stage 1 and 2 Validated results to be presented in November and Key Stage 4 Validated results to be presented in March 2014.

·         All other items on the draft work programme to remain.

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

Monday 22 July 2013

The meeting began at 7.00pm and ended at 9.20pm