Agenda and minutes

At the Chair’s invitation, the Corporate Director for Children’s Services provided the Committee a brief overview on the outcome of the OFSTED Inspection.

The Corporate Director drew Members’ attention to the Cabinet Report attached as an appendix to Agenda Item 7: Children’s Summary of Performance 19/20 Quarter 1 outturn data position, which contained more detail. He was pleased that OFSTED judged the Council’s services for children relating to early intervention and prevention along with protection to be good. The inspection did report that the services to support children in care and care leavers require improvement. Overall, the positive news is that OFSTED saw good quality work l, which means that children and families in Swindon can have confidence in the support and services the Borough provides.

In response to OFSTED’s recommendations, Officers have nearly completed updating and revising the improvement plan so that it can be implemented. While the plan will address the whole service, it will focus more intently on addressing the needs of children in care and care leavers.

The Council is still working closely with colleagues at Essex County Council to strengthen its SMART plans and targets that will have be implemented across the whole safeguarding partnership to be effective. On the advice of inspectors, Officers have commenced working with the London Borough of Bromley to support improvements in the Care Leavers Team. OFSTED recommended this Council as an example of best practice for supporting care leavers from which we will learn from to improve our support to care leavers in Swindon .

The Chair congratulated the Corporate Director Children’s Services and his Department for progress made and the positive OFSTED findings.

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 and non-prejudicial declaration of interest in respect of agenda items 5 (Committee Sub-Groups), 6 (Schools Performance Update) and 7 (Children’s Summary of Performance 19/20 Quarter) as she worked for Ridgeway School.

Councillor Bazil Solomon made a personal and non-prejudicial declaration of interest in respect of agenda items 5 (Committee Sub-Groups), 6 (Schools Performance Update) and 7 (Children’s Summary of Performance 19/20 Quarter) in his capacity as a part time teacher.

No public questions were received before or during the meeting.

To receive the minutes of the meeting held on 3^rd July 2019.

Resolved: – That the minutes of the meeting held 3^rd July 2019 be confirmed and signed as a correct record.

The Head of Skills, Employment & Lifelong Learning and the Service Manager -  quality assurance and review, participation Officer submitted a joint reporting setting out proposals to address the Committee’s previous recommendations. 1) To establish a cross-party Overview and Scrutiny working group to help more young people access education, employment and training and 2) to enhance the Overview Scrutiny committee’s engagement with children and young people.

The Head of Skills, Employment & Lifelong Learning invited Members to review Terms of Reference for the proposed post 16 Education, Employment and Training outcomes sub-group, attached as an appendix to the main report, to consider the suggested time over which the sub-group will function, and to agree its membership. The officer set how Swindon Borough Council was focused on improving all education and training outcomes, an ambition that is set out in its supported employment strategy. The purpose of the sub-group would be to enlist the key stakeholders to provide specific support. Once established, the sub-group would define the desired outcomes, develop plans and bring forward new recommendations. The sub-group would meet every two months until March 2020.

It was made clear at the meeting that in order for the Council to achieve its targets Members would have key roles in both offering robust challenge as well as support. As a consequence of this scrutiny, Members would have greater confidence in the work being undertaken. With regard to possible membership, the Chair of the Growing the Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee has informed officers that Councillor Jim Robbins had volunteered to represent that Committee on this sub-group.

Councillors Bishop, Courtliff, Ibitoye, Martin, Shelley and Solomon asked a range of questions to which the Head of Skills, Employment & Lifelong Learning and the Corporate Director, Children’s Services responded:

1)   Was this subgroup also covering those who fell out of mainstream education? 

Response: This element focuses  on those young people either who are 16 to 18 and have a statutory requirement to engage with learning, or who are care leavers or SEND up to the age of 25, for whom the Council has a specific duty. The purpose of the subgroup is to generate more capacity to assist young people through building more relationships with the business and community sectors. It is anticipated that the members of the sub-group can help with access to work experience and opportunities for young people.

2)   Is this about guiding people to apprenticeships? 

Response: While that is suitable for some young people, others need different coaching and support to determine what possibilities exist or to overcome barriers that are preventing them from entering employment. 

3)   What number of young people is involved and why may school governors be unaware of the problems? 

Response: Of the care leavers aged 19-21, 57% are in education, employment or training and the target is to raise that to 75% by 2022. This is an ambitious target and was recognised by OFSTED as such. Officers agreed to review the training offered to governors to recommend that they  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

(Oral)

The Chair informed the meeting that a full report would be brought to the Committee when the validated data are available as some schools are still in the process of challenges and validating data. The Chair requested that officers add an item to the Committee’s work programme so that the Committee Officer can include it on a future agenda.

The Director of Children’s Social work introduced the report, which contained information used by Ofsted in the recent inspection. The Director drew Members’ attention to a number of key points including:

·        That the government has extended finance for the Troubled Families project by a year to March 2021,

·         The Family Intervention Service, which was  launched in September, is functioning well with none of the cases that were transferred from social care having to be referred back. This indicates that the Council has the correct selection criteria, it was noted that this will be checked and tested through monthly audit.

·         More work needs to be done to train and support partner organisations as Swindon is still an outlier for the high number of contacts through the Front Door. There is a better balance so that children are protected without issues always being framed as safeguarding.

·         As a consequence of Officers’ work, the number of Child Protection Plans was falling and this trajectory was expected to continue. However, Members were advised that this figure was susceptible to change because of demand.

·         It was noted that the Council is working closely with Essex in order to learn and implement best practice, within the Youth Offending Team.

Councillor Howard reflected on the outcome of the Serious Case Review and noted that officers and partners were learning the lessons from it. Councillors Howard and Shelley, asked a series of questions to challenge officers, to which the Director of Children’s Social Work and the Corporate Director, Children’s Services responded.

1)   Could officers state the causes behind the reduction in the number of first time entrants? Is this pattern different to other councils? Could officers provide details of how many of those who went through the Youth Restorative Justice Intervention Board’s processes subsequently became offenders?

Response: Officers elaborated on the Early Help work the Council undertakes, the work with families, and the multi-agency working. However, officers cautioned Members by clarifying and explaining that this downward trend may not be sustained. Officers undertook to submit a report to the Committee on the impact of the Youth Restorative Justice Intervention Board, including the details requested to permit scrutiny, and the Committee Officer was asked to add this to the work programme.

2)   Could officers provide details on how many young people being selectively home educated have SEND? Was there a correlation between the number and parents believing that schools were not adequately addressing their children’s needs? 

Response: information will be circulated for Members to read and challenge after the meeting.

3)   Given the acknowledgement of the problems moving foster placements can cause, could officers consider the number of changes in each child or young person’s social workers?

Response: Officers agreed that a change of social worker can have a detrimental impact on a child and accepted the challenge of noting this impact for future reports.

4)   Would there be a report to this Committee on the Early Help Strategy? Response: Officers confirmed that there would be a report.

Resolved:  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

With the consent of the meeting along with officers’ assurances that there were minimal changes from the report initially circulated, the Director of Children’s Social Work presented the report, informing the Committee that it had largely been superseded by the OFSTED inspection.

The Director of Children’s Social Work drew Members attention to the actions undertaken to improve social work practice, which OFSTED had found to be good. The report also set out how OFSTED was complimentary about the operation of the MASH and the strength of practice to help and protect children, which was a consequence of the work with partner agencies to improve compliance and on-going action to improve staffing. The report set out the Council’s ambition to progress from a rating of “good” to “outstanding” and Members’ were invited to review and challenge the actions that would be necessary to achieve this.

Councillors Shelley welcomed the progress to achieve good but expressed a reservation that the Committee’s task group on this area had ceased. Councillor Shelly challenged officers on what steps were being taken to improve children’s experiences in care and as care leavers. In particular, what was being done to ensure there were adequate local placements, especially for older children? The Director of Children’s Social Work acknowledged this challenge and assured the committee that the two service commissioners were relentless is seeking to find placements as close to Swindon as possible, providing it was in the child’s best interest. Officers were requested by Councillor Shelley to provide regular reports to this Committee so that work in this area could be scrutinised and challenged.

Resolved: -

1)   That the improvements are being made and successes achieved.be recognised along with the methods being used to achieve them.

2)   That the areas of concern identified in the meeting that require further scrutiny and investigation be brought back to the Committee as soon as practicable.

The Committee considered a report by the Chief Legal Officer on the results of the work programme consultation and the suggested priorities for the work for the Municipal Year, 2019/20.

Resolved –

1)   That the report be noted.

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

3)   That Councillors Courtliff, Cllr Solomon, Cllr Ibitoye and Cllr Parry from this Committee along with Cllr Robbins from the Growing the Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee be appointed to the Improving post 16 Education, Employment and Training outcomes sub-group. 

4)   That Councillors Parry and Shelly be appointed to the “task and finish” Engagement with Children and Young People sub-group.