Agenda item

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 and Director of Finance with the Department for Education later in March to look at further ways for them to help with funding and would report back to the Committee. 

·       The underspend caused primarily by vacancies in the school crossing patrol team had been a problem for many years.  Work continued to fill crossing patrol posts and any support Members could give when liaising with communities, governors and teachers would be most welcomed.

·       The predicted overspend on Dedicated Schools Grant: High Needs Block would be partly relieved by working on reducing places in the independent sector and increasing specialist places in the county including support centres and bidding for a SEND free school.  A significant increase in numbers of children with EHCPs has been seen across the country and a 7.5-8% annual increase was predicted.  Actions to reduce the pressure on the DSG had resulted in the creation of 486 additional placements through extra classrooms in mainstream schools, and further capital investment had been allocated in the Capital Programme to further increase SEND placements and reduce the reliance on independent placements.

·       Projects in the Capital Programme were being delayed because contractors were withdrawing bids due to the price increases caused by the Covid pandemic.  This meant the procurement process had to be repeated causing a delay in projects.

50.6     The Chairman thanked the service for the report and the answers to questions raised on it.

50.7     Resolved – That the Committee:

1.   Recognises the importance of the SEND review and Education White Paper and requests to be provided with detail on the implications for the County Council, once it has been published.

2.   Requests to be kept updated on the SEND capital projects that are being explored to reduce pressure on placements, given the continued rise in EHCPs, so that any potential future scrutiny can be considered.

3.   Requests to be advised on the outcome of the meeting of the Director of Children, Young People and Learning with the Department for Education in relation to SEND pressures that is taking place later in March.

Children and Young People

50.8     The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Cllr Russell, introduced the item which she felt was a positive report. Improvements that had taken place and those still underway were building the solid foundation on which to build a stable workforce.  She reflected that there were still areas that presented a financial challenge, and they remained the centre of focus, such as the high number of children with complex placements needs and the tough climate of recruitment.

50.9     The Director of Children, Young People and Learning reported there would be two Ofsted inspections coming up in March focussing on Youth Justice and Children We Care For.   

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

·       Members expressed concern that 30% of Early Help plans closed with outcomes not met (performance measure 2) and asked what could be done to ensure cases were not closed until outcomes were met.  The Committee were told that there were various reasons plans were closed with outcomes unmet eg children going in to social care, families did not engage or did not wish to continue with process.  The level of re-referrals was reported as being low at 6% and had been declining over the last year and escalation into social care was just 16%.  On occasion Early Help plans were opened in error and staff training was taking place to address this.

·       The Journey to Independence Group had met multiple times and there were now specific named contacts in Job Centres to support care leavers. The care leavers NEET RAG rating was 2% off attaining an amber rating and the aspiration would be to improve further (performance measure 8).  The difficulty was that not all care leavers were in a position to access employment or training.  The Participation and Engagement team were developing two apprenticeship roles ringfenced to care leavers and district and borough councils were well engaged and interesting opportunities were arising on vocational training and education.

·       The 10% target for stability of children looked after placements was reported to be a national target (performance measure 7).  The service were currently below the national benchmark but were driven to improve on that.   A higher level of scrutiny by the Entry to Care Panel was resulting in better placements.  The Committee welcomed this news and hoped to see continued improvement in this area in future reports.

·       Members raised whether more investment should be considered for the Child Protection and NEET Care Leavers areas to help drive forward performance.  The Director of Children, Young People and Learning confirmed that £300k would be invested into the care leavers service over the next year which would provide further support for housing, employment and caseloads.  The introduction of the Family Safeguarding Model on 1 February 2022 would also impact on performance around Child Protection.

·       The delay in registration by the regulator (Ofsted) for Children’s in-house homes that resulted in a slower than anticipated increase in occupancy was due to the impact of Covid on Ofsted being able to carry out inspections (creating a backlog).  To ensure effective use of resource, the service expect residential homes to have an 85%-90% occupancy, with three of the six Children’s homes already reporting at this level.  Brightstar and Breakwater were expected to reach the target by the end of March and Blue Cove (3 bed home) by the end of quarter 1 2022/23.  The delay in the phase 2 work at Orchard House was complex and the Assistant Director (Corporate Parenting) agreed to update the Committee outside of the meeting.

·       The Committee were concerned to note the increase in the social care staffing gap and that this was a regional and national issue.

·       Under risk 72 the Assistant Director (Corporate Parenting) reassured the Committee that at that point no children 16 years or under were placed in unregulated placements.  The Assistant Director agreed to update the Committee on the position with unregistered placements.

50.11  The Chairman thanked the service for their good work and acknowledged that there was still much further to go.  He wished the service the best for the upcoming Ofsted inspections.

50.12  Resolved – That the Committee:

1.   Highlights performance measure 8 (Percentage of NEET care leavers) and performance measure 9 (Positive outcomes on Child Protection in 12 months) and the need to focus on these.  The committee were pleased to hear of the extra resources for these and agreed to monitor the ongoing performance through the PRR to see if performance improves as a result of the additional resource.

2.   Welcomes that on Performance Measure 7 (Stability of placements for children we care for) the service is being more ambitious on the national target and will continue to monitor progress through the PRR to see how this further improves.

3.   Requests that future reports include the number of children and young people that the percentages represent for performance measures where this is appropriate.

4.   Requests that in the next Children First report an update on social care staffing levels is included.

5.   Asks that the financial implications of the Early Help Redesign are included in the report on the implementation of the new model when it comes to Committee for scrutiny.