Agenda and minutes

Members and officers must declare any pecuniary or personalinterest in any business on the agenda. They should also make declarations at any stage such an interest becomes apparent during the meeting. Consideration should be given to leaving the meeting if the nature of the interest warrants it.  If in doubt please contact Democratic Services before the meeting.

46.1     In accordance with the County Council’s code of conduct, Cllr Mercer declared a personal interest as the Chair of the Orchard Hill College Academy Trust.

Items not on the agenda which the Chairman of the meeting is of the opinion should be considered as a matter of urgency by reason of special circumstances, including cases where the Committee needs to be informed of budgetary or performance issues affecting matters within its terms of reference, which have emerged since the publication of the agenda.

47.1     No urgent matters were raised.

The Committee is asked to agree the minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2022 (cream paper).

48.1     Cllr Cornell asked that under minute 41.6, first bullet point it be noted that the view reflected the views of the officers and the majority of Committee members but not the views of some headteachers visited by Committee members.

48.2     Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2022 be approved as a correct record, subject to the amendment as reflected in 48.1, and signed by the Chairman.

The Committee is asked to note the responses to recommendations made at the 12 January 2022 meeting.

49.1     The Committee noted the responses to the recommendations made at the meeting on 12 January 2022.

Report by the Director of Law and Assurance, setting out the finance and performance position as at the end of December 2021.

The Committee are asked to examine the Council’s corporate performance, finance, savings delivery and business performance for the services within the remit of this Committee and make any recommendations for action to the relevant Cabinet Member.

50.1     The Committee considered the report by the Director of Law and Assurance (copy appended to the signed minutes), which set out the Council’s corporate performance, finance savings delivery and business performance for the services within the remit of this Committee from September to end of December 2021.

Learning and Skills

50.2     The Cabinet Member for Learning and Skills, Cllr Nigel Jupp, introduced the item welcoming the return of full graded Ofsted inspections for schools which had resumed in September 2021 and reported that there had been some examples where schools had made considerable gains despite the impact of Covid over the last few years. He also reported that he was pleased that the proportion of young people not in education, employment and training (NEET) was provisionally at its lowest level for a number of years and on target to meet the Council Plan targets and that the level of Personal Education Plans (PEPs) was at an all-time high.

50.3      The Cabinet Member referred to the Red, Amber, Green classifications (RAG) on the performance measures and reported that most cases were moving upwards.  The risks arising were continuations of what had been seen in the past year including home to school transport and dedicated school grants.

50.4     Under the Capital Programme the Cabinet Member highlighted the some of the red RAGs had been caused due to the national issues around contractor availability and prices as a result of the pandemic.

50.5     Members of the Committee asked questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows:

·       It was expected that Ofsted would be tougher on their scoring of key stage 4 examinations.  However, this year would be a transition year back to full examination arrangements in 2023.  It was advised that the target in measure 21 would be reviewed, hopefully upward, and recalibrated as schools phased back to normal exams.

·       Students supported by PEPs were reviewed termly in discussion with the pupil and school.  The PEPs were linked with Pupil Premium Grant to enable additional support.  For those approaching 16 years of age, work took place on pathways to the next steps, and work with those under 5 years old helped with transition and readiness for school.

·       Welcomed the direction of travel in performance measure 30 (Percentage of those that are NEET). It was confirmed that support was available to the NEETs through a post-16 team funded by the Council and European Social Improvement Grant. They worked closely with students who have left the system without pathways offering individual support.

·       There was no indication of when the Government White Paper on Education might become available, but it was expected would pick up a number of major issues, including relationships between local authorities, academies and a free school and funding for special education needs (SEND), particularly following the increased age to 25 years of age in 2015 with no additional funding.  The Director of Children, Young People and Learning reported she would be attending a meeting with the Chief Executive  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50.

Reports by the Executive Director of Children Young People and Learning.

51.1     The Committee received two reports from the Director of Children and Young People (copies appended to the signed minutes).

This item updates the Committee on the key developments and progress made on the Children First Programme since the last Committee meeting. 

52.1     The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Cllr Russell, introduce the update report highlighting that March would be a busy month for the service with the upcoming Ofsted inspections and awaiting the feedback from the Department for Education on the report by Children’s Commissioner on trust status as well as business as usual and continual progress.

52.2     Members of the Committee asked questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows:

·       The Committee raised concern over the performance on child protection statutory visits (80%).  The Assistant Director (Safeguarding, Quality and Assurance) advised that the service measured every 10 days, however the statutory timescale was 20.  At 20 days the figure would be 95%.  There were also some recording issues when the data was pulled two days into the beginning of a month when visits might not have been written up from meetings late in the month.  If the service were not able to see children, other agencies were asked to assess and report back.  The same reporting issued existed for statutory visits for children we care for.

·       The quarterly Quality Assurance report updates on audit and quality assurance activity.  The Assistant Director (Safeguarding, Quality and Assurance) agreed to share the quarterly report with Committee members.

·       The engagement and participation of young people is being focussed on with the development of an engagement plan which would be published soon and shared with the Committee Members.  A smart phone app would be produced for children we care for in West Sussex and those placed at distance to feed into discussions.  The Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Children in Care Council (CiCC) and 6 ambassadors had been involved in developing policies for children we care for and youth participation rates were the highest they had been for many years.  The Cabinet member encouraged Corporate Parenting Panel members to get involved in CiCC meetings and functions to increase communication.

52.3     The Chairman thanked the service for the report and reminded members that there would be Corporate Parenting training session for Members in April.

52.4     Resolved – That the Committee noted the report and:

1.   Welcomes the ongoing progress of the Children First Programme and the continued pace of improvement.

2.   Requests that the Quarterly Quality Assurance report is shared virtually with the Committee as and when it is available.

3.   Highlights Child Protection and Children We Care For Statutory Visits performance as important areas of improvement, and will continue to monitor performance through these reports.

4.   Is pleased to hear of the ongoing work with the Voice and Participation Team and requests to be included in the circulation of the new Voice and Participation Engagement Strategy.

This report outlines the proposals for Phase 2 of the Fostering Service Redesign.  The Committee is asked to scrutinise the proposals and provide any recommendations to the Cabinet Member prior to a decision being taken.

53.1     The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Cllr Russell, introduce the proposal for Phase 2 of the Fostering Service Redesign, phase 1 having been addressed in April 2021.  She reported that this phase of the redesign was designed to offer more local in-house foster placements, to different cohorts of children with a varying range of needs, a much stronger offer of remuneration, support and respite and to improve retention rates, increase the social care workforce and reduce caseloads and make West Sussex a provider of choice. 

53.2     The Assistant Director (Corporate Parenting) outlined the headlines by saying that previous under-investment by the County Council had resulted in children being placed in out of county fostering placements.  The status quo needed rebalancing before transformation could begin.  The development of a Business Intelligence Hub would allow the service to focus on areas not done so in the past by producing analytics of patterns and trends.

53.3     Members of the Committee asked questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows:

·       The Business Intelligence Hub would be able to run targeted campaigns to recruit new foster carers in areas such as BAME, younger carers and LGBT+. Currently communications were shared online and Members could support by retweeting and reposting these.  Children seeking asylum needed quite specific cultural supports and any support from Members to find foster carers in a wider range of cultures would be gratefully received.

·       It was hoped the ratio of in-house foster carers to external foster carers would improve dramatically to maybe a 60-40 split.

53.4     The Chairman thanked the service for the report and the ambition and quality of the work.

53.5     Resolved – That the Committee:

1.   Welcomes the ambition and quality of the report and fully supports the proposals to increase the number of inhouse foster carers.

2.   Highlights the importance of focussing on recruiting foster carers from a wide range of backgrounds to ensure there are suitable placements for all our children and welcome that this is part of the proposals.

3.   Recognises the role of members in communicating fostering opportunities and will continue to share these on social media within their communities.

4.   Will monitor the impact of the proposals through the Quarterly Performance and Resources Report.

The Committee is asked to agree its draft work programme (Appendix A), which reflects the outcome of the discussions at the Committee’s Business Planning Group meeting held on 2 February 2022, in accordance with the scrutiny checklist attached (Appendix B).

The Committee is asked to review the Forward Plan entries relevant to its remit (Appendix C) and consider whether it wishes to enquire about any of the forthcoming decisions within its portfolio.

54.1     The Committee agreed the draft work programme and suggested the following:

·       That the Children First update on 8 June 2022 include information on staffing numbers.

·       Quality Assurance be at least an annual update as part of the Children First Update.

·       The Early Help Service – review of new model scheduled for early 2023 should include financial data.

·       That joint work with the Health and Adult Services Scrutiny Committee be the way to explore areas for scrutiny on mental health and emotional wellbeing of children and young people.  However, Committee Members indicated that a more public-facing briefing note on the subject should be considered.

54.2     The Chairman thanked the Councillors who were working to gather evidence for the Task and Finish Group on Needs Assessments and EHCPs.

54.3     No items were raised from the Forward Plan dated 28 February 2022 for further scrutiny.

There have been no requests for call-in to the Scrutiny Committee within its constitutional remit since the date of the last meeting.  The Director of Law and Assurance will report any requests since the publication of the agenda papers.

55.1     There had been no request for call-in to the Scrutiny Committee within its constitutional remit since the date of the last meeting.

The next meeting of the Committee will be held on 8 June 2022 at 10.30 am at County Hall, Chichester.  Probable agenda items include:

·       Children First Improvement update – To focus on feedback from the Ofsted monitoring visit and preparation for next; Commissioner’s report to the Secretary of State and the transformation programme risk register.

·       Draft Education and Skills Strategy

Any member wishing to place an item on the agenda for the meeting must notify the Director of Law and Assurance by 23 May 2022.

56.1     The next meeting would be held on 8 June 2022 at 10.30am.