Agenda and minutes

The Chair reminded Members of the need to declare any known interests in any matters to be considered at the meeting.

Councillor Barbara Parry made a personal, non-prejudicial declaration of interest in respect of Agenda item 30 (Children’s Performance Summary) on the grounds of her employment by the Ridgeway School.

Councillor Carol Shelley made a personal, non-prejudicial declaration of interest to Agenda item 30 (Children’s Performance Summary) in her capacity as governor of Swindon Academy.

No public questions were asked or submitted for this meeting.

To receive the minutes of the meeting held on 28^th November 2018.

Resolved -That the minutes of the meeting held on 28^th November 2018 be confirmed as a correct record.

·         To receive and approve the terms of reference of Children's Health, Social Care and Education Overview and Scrutiny Committee sub-group.

·         To review the minutes of the Children's Health, Social Care and Education Overview and Scrutiny Committee working group meeting on 19^th December 2018.

            The Chair submitted a draft copy of the Terms of Reference for the Children's Health, Social Care and Education Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Group for the Committee’s approval.  She also submitted the minutes of the sub-group’s first meeting held on 19^th December 2018 for the Committee’s consideration.

          In response to a challenge regarding the timescale of the recruitment drive for permanent social workers, the Director of Children Services confirmed that this would be launched nationally by February 2019. 

            Resolved – (1) That the Terms of Reference for the sub-group be approved.

            (2) That the minutes of the sub-group’s meeting be noted.

            The Project Manager, Swindon Ten to Eighteen Project, submitted a report detailing the Committee on performance and key issues relating to youth participation, Swindon Youth Council, Thought Tank (special educational needs & disabilities participation group) and outreach participation work.  He explained that the Youth Participation contract was coming up for tender with the current contract ending in April 2019. 

          The Project Manager drew particular attention to the following points:

a)    The “Pupils Voice Survey” conducted between the Youth Council and the Swindon Challenge Board identified pupils in need of help to improve English and Mathematics enabling better outcomes for their GCSE grades.  This was a positive outcome of a joint piece of work with Swindon Challenge Board.

b)    The Youth Council’s success at promoting mental health awareness through their displays at the World Mental Health Day Event held at The Wyvern Theatre, Swindon.

c)    The effective partnership between the CCG and Youth Council resulted in a successful NHS Mental Health Trailblazer bid bringing an additional £1.2 million resource over 2 years to be used to support young people.  This will enable young people needing mental health support to access services more easily and to suggest where they would like to receive their services.  The model is school focused.

d)    The spread of work undertaken by Thought Tank included a) support provided to officers around the Council’s SEND and Transitions work, b) trialling ‘Planning Live’ events for young people entering into the transition period, enabling them to better benefit from adult services, c) the successful Transitions Roadshow’ consultation enabling young people to run their own roadshows, d) designing and understanding  a ‘High Needs Implementation’ Survey together with the Swindon SEND Families Voice , e) the creation of a short film to highlight the importance of children and young people with SEND participating and being consulted in all areas that affect them and f) the rewording of the “Survey Monkey” questionnaire regarding SEND High Needs Implementation Support to ensure young people are able to understand and complete it. 

            In response to challenges and questions by Members, the following information was provided:

·        Youth Council membership included young people from a range of minority groups and also included Looked after Children.  This ensured there was challenge and scrutiny of the effectiveness of the services provided by internal and external stakeholders for these groups of children.

·        Differentiation between the previous contract successfully bid by STEP in 2011 and the new contract currently out for tendering.  Members noted the strong and positive relationship with STEP that has resulted in effective work undertaken by the team for the benefit of young people in Swindon. 

          Resolved – (1) That the report be noted.

            (2) That the Director of Children Services be requested to circulate a copy of the new contract currently out for tender before the next meeting of the Committee. 

            (3) That the Committee continues to support the work of the Swindon Youth Council, Thought Tank and the agenda of wider Swindon youth participation.

            (4) That the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

            The Principal Officer for Health and Wellbeing, Children, Families and

Community Health, and the Children’s Commissioning Lead, Swindon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) submitted a report providing an update on performance and key issues relating to Targeted Mental Health Services.

Ms Gill May, Executive Nurse at NHS Swindon CCG, introduced the report and explained that it captured the work of the TAMHS and CAMHS services together with the work commissioned by the CCG.  The Executive Nurse and the Principal Officer for Health and Wellbeing referred to a) the success of the Trailblazer initiative that had positively impacted the TaMHS and CAMHS services in terms of demand, with children getting at the right place at the right time following collaboration with schools; b) information on the recently published NHS long term plan which reflected a stronger emphasis on young people with mental health issues; c) how the CCG demonstrated the level of assessments being undertaken; d) the increased demand for TaMHS services and that this was expected to plateau as ‘Trailblazer’ services are taken up by schools; e) TaMHS processes with Council colleagues to reduce the waiting list, how it was monitored and financial funding appropriately targeted; f) how the CCG, as a commissioner, was holding the CAMHS team to account over the low percentage of assessments carried out within four weeks and g) how the CCG was supporting CAMHS through a recovery plan to improve their services.

            Following the introduction of the report, the Executive Nurse, together with the Head of Children, Families and Community Health, responded to the members’ challenge and questions and where clarification was sought.  Members heard:

·        That referrals were made through a variety of sources including schools, GP practices and other professionals within the Health Service ensuring effective and timely mental health provision.

·        That the breakdown of the CAMHS referral data as reflected in 3.19 of the report did not include the number of assessments held in schools.

·        That there was no benchmarking data available for the TAMHS service to allow comparison with other Local Authorities.

·        That TaMHS and CAMHS prioritise Looked After Children and all those presenting with life threatening conditions. The Committee heard that for out of hours support, a Hospital Liaison CAMHS Nurse was located at the Emergency Department (ED) in Great Western Hospital.

·        That through the Trailblazer initiative, further early intervention training will be offered to schools, with implementation from December 2019.

·        That school budgetary constraints were not deferring a high number of schools buying into CAMHS and TaMHS traded services and engaging with the Trailblazer initiative. The Committee heard that the Trailblazer initiative would change how the TaMHS and CAMHS work with schools, would strengthen local service provision and communication.

·        That whilst the majority of children started treatment within 18 weeks of referral to CAMHS, those on the waiting list were offered support through a range of resources including a counselling service.  The Committee further heard that the CCG regularly requested an audit of cases to ensure no children were at risk  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

The Head of Education submitted a report setting out how well Swindon children and young people had performed in their public assessments in primary and secondary schools. It highlighted where there have been improvements in performance and where there had been declines in standards. The Head of Education advised that the data included provided a measure against national averages and information on attendance and behaviour which could be an indicator of pupil and school performance. The Committee noted that the report reflected the work of the Swindon Challenge Board since its establishment in March 2017.

          In response to challenges and questions by Members, the following information was provided:

·        That positive support by parents given to children during their early years resulted in better developmental progress as the children get older. 

·        Members challenged the Key Stage 1 results.  It was confirmed that these were positive for the future and were generally impacting Key Stage 2 figures, where there was higher attainment particularly in Mathematics.  The Committee heard that demographics and social-economic factors should not be a barrier to higher achievement.

·        That as part of the Ofsted inspection regime, schools indicated on their website how pupil premium funding was being allocated and the impact this was having. School audits undertaken by the Local Authority also focused on this, with particular emphasis on disadvantaged pupils.

·        Members challenged the most recent dataset regarding school’s performance.  They were advised that these were provisional and based on Ofsted reports published, local knowledge and status changes on GIAS (Edubase replacement). The Committee heard that when schools became academies, they had to wait until the next inspection regime before their Ofsted grades could be changed. They further noted that with the assistance of the School Performance Board and the Referral Support Centre, most schools needing improvement had made considerable progress. 

·        That early indications show that the recruitment of three Higher Education Learning Officers (HELOs) to work with schools and young people had been positive.  The Committee heard that due to the effective partnership with Oxford Brooks University, good practice was being cascaded across all schools to the benefit of young people.

·        Members challenged the exclusion dataset. It was noted that the number of permanent exclusion for secondary schools went down last year; both secondary and primary schools figures were still causing concern.  Members heard about the involvement of the Swindon Challenge Board in assisting schools, resulting in positive outcomes where the number of fixed term exclusions went down and the number of days young people were excluded was considerably reduced.  Members were encouraged to see a direct impact of the Swindon Challenge Board on reduced exclusions.  Members also heard about the involvement of Mr Tom Bennet, Government Behaviour specialist, who had already spoken to all headteachers and would be running a course for senior leaders in March 2019. Further information available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/behaviour-in-schools

            Resolved – That the report be noted.

The Committee considered a report by the Interim Director of Law (Interim Monitoring Officer) on the results of the work programme consultation and the suggested priorities of the work for the Municipal Year, 2018/19.

Resolved – (1) That the report be noted.

            (2) That the work programme be updated to include items recommended by the Committee:

·         Progress Report on the Special Educational Needs and Disability inspection undertaken in December 2018.

·         A joint report from Youth Offending Team, Youth Engagement and U-Turn to give the Committee a greater insight into the work they do, how they work together and the outcomes they achieve both individually and collaboratively.