Agenda and minutes

The Committee’s membership is set out below:

Cllr Baldwin

Cllr Burgess

Cllr Cherry

Cllr Dabell

Cllr Cornell

Cllr Evans

Cllr Hall

Cllr Linehan

Cllr McGregor

Cllr Mercer

Cllr Smith

Cllr Sparkes

The Committee is asked to elect a Chairman for 2023-24.  If the election is contested, a secret ballot will be held in accordance with Standing Order 2.17.

1.1        Cllr Linehan was proposed for the position of Chairman for one year by Cllr Hall and seconded by Cllr Sparkes.

1.2        Cllr Smith was proposed for the position of Chairman for one year by Cllr Cornell and seconded by Cllr Mercer.

1.3        A secret ballot was held which was won by Cllr Linehan by eight votes to four.

1.4        Resolved – that Cllr Linehan is duly elected as Chairman of the Children and Young People’s Services Scrutiny Committee for a period of one year.

The Committee is asked to elect a Vice-chairman for 2023-24.  If the election is contested, a secret ballot will be held in accordance with Standing Order 2.17.

2.1        Cllr Baldwin was proposed for the position of Vice-Chairman for one year by Cllr Evans and seconded by Cllr Sparkes.

2.2        Cllr Mercer was proposed for the position of Vice-Chairman for one year by Cllr Cherry and seconded by Cllr Cornell.

2.3        A secret ballot was held which was won by Cllr Baldwin by eight votes to four.

2.4        Resolved – that Cllr Baldwin is duly elected as Vice-Chairman of the Children and Young People’s Services Scrutiny Committee for a period of one year.

Report by Director of Law and Assurance.

The Committee is asked to review the membership of the Business Planning Group in view of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman appointments.  For the last year membership has been Cllr Linehan (Chairman), Cllr Baldwin (Vice-Chairman), Cllrs Cornell, McGregor and Mercer. 

3.1        Resolved – that the Committee appoints the following members to its Business Planning Group: Cllr Linehan, Cllr Baldwin, Cllr McGregor, Cllr Mercer and Cllr Cornell.

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.

4.1        In accordance with the County Council’s code of conduct the following declarations were made:

4.2        Cllr Smith declared a personal interest as the parent of a child who has been through the Early Help Service, under agenda item 8.

4.3        Cllr Dabell declared a personal interest as his daughter is the headteacher of Baldwins Hill Primary School in East Grinstead under agenda item 9.

4.4        Cllr Mercer declared a personal interest as the chair of the Orchard Hill College Academy Trust which has Brantridge School in West Sussex under agenda item 9.

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.

5.1        No urgent matters were raised.

The Committee is asked to agree the minutes of the meeting held on 1 March 2023 (cream paper).

6.1        A Member asked that in minute 47.9 their suggestion be noted that the setting up of an SSC unit would be better at Downsbrook Junior School as it was a larger school site.

6.2        Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting held on 9 March 2022 be approved as a correct record, subject to the amendment as reflected in 6.1 and signed by the Chairman.

The Committee is asked to note the responses to recommendations made at the previous meetings of the Committee.

7.1        The Committee noted the responses to revised responses to the recommendations provided from recent meetings.

7.2        Cllr Mercer confirmed he would continue as the Committee’s representative on the SEND Strategy Board.

7.3        Members asked that the responses be returned to the next meeting as there had not been sufficient time to look at the revised document.

Report by Director of Children, Young people and Learning.

The Committee is asked to assess the impact of the first year of implementation of the new Early Help Model (implemented January 2022). 

8.1        The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Learning and Skills, Cllr Russell, introduced the report which she felt gave a positive picture of the redesigned service which had been implemented in January 2022.  She reported that initial challenges with recruitment had been resolved, that there was now good morale amongst staff and that the Ofsted inspection comments had endorsed the new service.

8.2        The Committee heard from Mrs Dickens, Assistant Principal at Midhurst Rother College and Designated Safeguarding lead.  Mrs Dickens reported that the College had a Dedicated Schools Team (DST) worker who was available to discuss incidents or situations and how best to deal with them.  They welcomed that from September the DST worker would be based in the school one day a week.  The College worked in a collaborative way with the DST worker to make decisions or referrals. The DST worker also helped to support sessions, family meetings, home visits and provided tailored support to young people and their families. 

8.3        The DST worker spends time in school with pupils running workshops on issues such as keeping safe on-line and health relationships, as well as supporting pastoral staff. 

8.4        Mrs Dickens reported that DST workers were also working with primary feeder schools to help the transition of pupils to secondary school. Half-termly meetings were held to discuss new students, concerns and review progress of those pupils already being worked with.

8.5        Staff from the College had attended a DST training day which had provided helpful tools which were being used in the school.

8.6        Members asked Mrs Dickens if there were any areas where she, or her colleagues across the county, felt there could be improvement or development and were advised that schools would always welcome more support, particularly in dealing with things earlier, but that the service was hugely supportive and the introduction of the DST over the last year had made such a difference.

8.7        Mrs Dickens responded that where families do not give consent to being involved, the school continued to work with the student in school, but having consent gave the best support for the whole family.

8.8        Members of the committee asked officers questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows.

8.9        Early Help is a non-statutory service. Ofsted comments suggested the service was good making a positive difference to children’s lives.  The service has been on a journey since the redesign was implemented and there is a clear practice improvement plan.  A key element for improvement is the time children wait to receive the service.  This was a national issue and in later 2022 the County Council had seen an improvement in the numbers of unallocated cases and waiting times had been reduced.  Officers would be happy to speak with Members who had individual reports of where the service was not meeting expected standards.

8.10     Referral rates into the service were 43% from schools, 18% self-referral, 15% from the Police and 11% from health professionals.  The proportion  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Report by Director of Finance and Support Services.

The Committee is asked to examine the Council’s corporate performance, finance, savings delivery and business performance for the services within the remit of this Committee for the period January to March 2023.

Children and Young People

9.1        Members of the Committee asked officers questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows.

9.2        The numbers of external placements for children we care for had flatlined over the last three years and were at a level they would be expected to be at.  The cost pressure was caused by the complexity of need increasing and a national lowering in capacity of mental health and youth justice provision. A lack of sufficiency in the market had led to a dramatic rise in costs and sometimes the Service had to resort to unregistered care options.  These two elements were a national issue and Government reforms in social care were suggesting regional care co-operatives.  The service would be pressing the Government to look at the supply side as well as commissioning.  Covid and the cost of living crisis had also had an impact, particularly where providers had closed down provision.  This had been reflected in the dip in Performance Measure 7 – Stability of children looked after placements – where a national provider had discontinued its work closing 27 homes and withdrawing 100 beds from the market.

9.3        Performance Measure 8 - Support for care leavers to achieve aspirations – The percentage of care leavers in employment, education or training had increased but still one in three were not covered.  This could be due to health needs or vulnerability and the figure is in line with statistical neighbours.  Members asked if the County Council could offer an apprenticeship role within the authority for care leavers to help fill vacant posts.  The idea was supported by officers who advised that the Care Leaver’s Advisory Board were taking this idea forward as part of the local offer for care leavers.

9.4        Performance Measure 9 – Positive outcomes on child protection in 12 months - The County Council’s numbers were shown broadly in line with the increasing national average, where previously they had been higher, and more recent data showed even better progress.  The emphasis of the Family Safeguarding Model was to provide support to families to make the changes needed which would result in a reduction in the number of child protection plans

Learning and Skills

9.5        Members of the committee asked officers questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows.

9.6        The Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) recovery plan contains a range of initiatives including employing an external organisation to help, agreement to triage cases to get them done in appropriate timescales and the release of funding to schools when assessments reach 20 weeks, where there is confidence that the child going through the assessment will lead to an EHCP. Members welcomed this and would appreciate seeing some data on this at a future meeting.

9.7        Work was underway in preparation for the upcoming SEND Area Inspection with an improvement plan being prepared, governance being reviewed, and an independent Chairman being sought. A Government sponsored initiative, Delivering Better Value, had opened up a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Committee is asked to agree its work programme (Appendix A) in accordance with the scrutiny checklist attached (Appendix B) and highlight any further possible items for future scrutiny.

The Committee is also 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.

10.1     The Chairman reported that responses to the outcome of the Children’s Services inspection report would be reviewed at the September meeting and any matters for scrutiny could be added to the work programme following that discussion.

10.2     The BPG were asked to consider reviewing the Capital Programme as a potential item for future scrutiny, to assess the progress of the Education Capital Programme to increase SEND places, as well as the opportunities to meet needs for children we care for placements.

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.

11.1     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 13 September 2023 at 10.30 am at County Hall, Chichester.  Probable agenda items include:

·       Family Safeguarding Model

·       Performance and Resources Report 2023-24 – Quarter 1

Any member wishing to place an item on the agenda for the meeting must notify the Director of Law and Assurance by 31 August 2023.

12.1     The next meeting would be held on 13 September 2023 at 10.30am.