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.

33.1     In accordance with the County council’s code of conduct the following declarations were made:

33.2     Cllr Burgess declared a personal interest as a member of Crawley Borough Council, under agenda item no 6.

33.3     Cllr Cherry declared a personal interest as being a Governor at the Burgess Hill Academy, and also a leader of Burgess Hill Town Council, under agenda item no 6.

33.4     Cllr Cornell declared a personal interest as governor at Manor Green College in Crawley, under agenda item no 6.

33.5     Cllr Dabell declared a personal interest as his daughter is the headteacher of Baldwins Hill Primary School in East Grinstead, under agenda item no 6.

33.6     Cllr Mercer declared a personal interest as a governor of St Andrews, Nuthurst, and the chair of the Orchard Hill College Academy Trust, which has Brantridge School in West Sussex, and as Cabinet Member for Horsham District Council under agenda item no 6.

33.7     Cllr Sparkes declared a personal interest as member of Worthing Borough Council, under agenda item no 6.

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.

34.1     No urgent matters were raised.

The Committee is asked to agree the minutes of the meeting held on 15 November 2023 (cream paper).

35.1     A member said that whilst the minutes were accurate they did not reflect the robust debate on the issue of SEND.  The Chairman agreed that some wording be added to this effect.

35.2     Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting held on 15 November 2023 be approved as a correct record with the above amendment, and that they be signed by the Chairman.

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

36.1     Resolved – That the Committee notes the responses to the recommendations provided from recent meetings but asked that:

36.2     The first full item on page 14 be dealt with as two distinct items.

36.3     The survey shared by the Parent Carer’s Forum be reviewed by the Business Planning Group for consideration as to whether it should be part of the scrutiny of the SEND Improvement Plan.

36.4     The Committee be reassured that lobbying of Government on funding continues and that they be kept updated.

36.5     An update be provided to the Committee on support for young carers.

Report by Director of Children, Young People and Learning.

The Committee is asked to assess the progress of the Quality Assurance and Auditing work since the last full report to the Committee in December 2021.

37.1     The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Learning and Skills, Cllr Russell, introduced the report highlighting that it was the latest report to focus on actions since the full Ofsted inspection and it outlined the commitment, focus and drive to get the service on to a good grading and then, in time, outstanding, through the implementation of the Continuous Practice Improvement Plan. 

37.2     The members of the Committee asked questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows.

37.3     Officers agreed to reflect the work by the scrutiny committee in the governance process in future reports. It was highlighted that the work was also externally scrutinised by the Department for Education (DfE) who ask very similar questions to the Committee. 

37.4     Consistency is the biggest challenge around compliance and the service provided.  A key area for focus is increasing the voice of the child and the family, moving towards family feedback.  Feedback from the Children in Care Council (CiCC) and Care Leaver’s Advisory Board (CLAB) had led to a change in the language used and would feed into future quality assurance audit activity.

37.5     Initially the audits looked at compliance and have now moved on to looking at the quality of assessments, with the number of audits increased to 50 randomly selected cases a month.  The Ofsted framework tool is used for gradings.  The results are reviewed by the Performance and Assurance Action Board, team meetings, directorate leadership meetings and key themes are shared with stakeholders at multi-agency meetings.  Any audit graded as Inadequate is moderated by a head of service and a reflective conversation takes place with teams within five working days.  The case will be re-audited after six weeks (previously 12 weeks) to ensure purposeful change is happening. The auditor reviews the statutory documentation, additional information collected on a child’s record, the journey over the last six months, as well as a framework of questions and other tools, such as the Bright Spots survey, to gather information. 

37.6     The most common theme amongst complaints received was communication with families.  This was being worked on to ensure that families have contact details for social workers and embedded co-ordinators.  Customers can often be happy that work is progressing, but the system shows a case as overdue because the final response letter has not been sent.  Overdue responses are escalated to the heads of service to understand why there has been a delay or support a response being sent.

37.7     Whilst previously audits had been regarded with some suspicion by staff, a culture change within the service had meant they were now regarded as a positive process and that was helping with staff recruitment and retention, slowing down turnover in front facing social worker teams and had become part of the package to staff.

37.8     Children are prepared for the Bright Spots Survey through information shared by schools, social workers and PAs.  Support from an independent person can be given to children who need it to complete the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

Report by Director of Children, Young People and Learning.

The Committee is asked to assess the County Council’s approach to school place planning as set out in the draft Planning School Places Document 2024.

38.1     The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Learning and Skills, Cllr Russell, introduced the report highlighting the challenges in forecasting requirement for sufficient school places impacted by fluctuating birth rates, shifts in parental preference, academy schools setting their admissions levels, new housing developments moving areas of habitation, migration and delays in the building of new schools.

38.2     The members of the Committee asked questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows.

38.3     The impact of previous reviews of school provision had not been assessed although they were overseen by Ofsted and there had been no indication that arrangements had been inappropriate.  A member was concerned that the qualitative outcomes of organisational changes, in terms of the experience of children and attainment, is not looked at.

38.4     Committee members asked officers to ensure there were clear, widely promoted, communications for parents and pupils included in the Planning School Places document and on the County Council website, particularly for areas where it was known there was pressure on school places and pupils might not get any of their preferred options, including clear information around the transport implications of attending a school further away.  The challenges in Southwater area last year and the increase in a preference for co-educational places was acknowledged.  Schools and the County Council have encouraged parents and carers to visit a wider number of schools to see what they could offer their child.

38.5     Committee members also felt that local county councillors should be informed of any areas where high numbers of parental preferences were not met before school places were issued.  They felt briefings by district and borough areas would be useful.  Officers advised that there had been briefings to the County Local Committees in previous years and officers would be happy to provide briefings at meetings of a similar format.  Members also wanted to be more involved at an earlier stage of the Planning School Places process so that they could feed in local knowledge.

38.6     Members felt that those who had not received any of their preference school places should be given the priority for an independent appeal of the decision before those who had been given a chosen preference option but still chose to appeal.  Officers agreed to investigate the legal implications of this request. 

38.7     Members asked for more information on alternative provision to be provided in the document to confirm if there are sufficient placements and if not, how long a pupil might need to wait for a placement.  Action: Officers agreed to supply some further information to the Committee on how this experience might be for a family and what resilience is built into the provision. 

38.8     Members were assured that accurate information was held on children who elected to be home educated.  Children missing from school are regularly monitored and could lead to elective home education (EHE) arrangements being established.

38.9     The County Council does not hold information on how many children in West Sussex attend independent  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

The Committee is asked to agree its draft 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.

39.1     The Committee discussed the Work Programme, and it was agreed to ask the Business Planning Group to:

39.2     Review progress on the Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing of Children and Young People.

39.3     Review the decision on the consultation on the relocation of Jessie Younghusband Primary School, the expansion of St Anthony’s School and proposed Catchment Area Changes.

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.

40.1     There had been no requests 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 28 February 2024 at 10.30 am at County Hall, Chichester.  Probable agenda items include:

·       Performance and Resources Report – Quarter 3

·       Early Years Strategy

Any member wishing to place an item on the agenda for the meeting must notify the Director of Law and Assurance by 16 February 2024.

41.1     The next meeting would be held on 28 February 2024 at 10.30am.