Agenda item

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 July to September 2022.

30.1     The Committee looked at the Performance and Resources Report – Quarter 2 – July-September 2022.

Children and Young People

30.2     The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Cllr Russell, introduced the report highlighting that the key performance indicators (KPIs) were looking positive but that there remained significant budget pressures.

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

30.4     Measure 1 - Percentage of re-referrals within 12 months – The Head of the Integrated Front Door (IFD) and Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) regularly checks the data and had not to date seen anything to suggest the rating was not appropriate.  Practice partners had also carried out quality assurance activities and had not found any concerns.  It was suggested that a briefing on the changes to the Supporting Families Criteria could be given to the Committee.

30.5     Measure 2 – Percentage of Early Help Plans closed with outcomes met – The 74% target was ambitious, it compared well with the national benchmark but was higher than pre-pandemic.  The drop was partly due to the effect of the pandemic on seeing families rather than staffing pressures, although there was continued difficulty in recruiting alternatively qualified staff in areas such as early help

30.6     Measure 7 – Stability of children looked after placements – The 10% target was out of the total number of children cared for.  The national average is 10% and the County Council was currently exceeding that at 10.1%.

30.7     Measure 8 – Percentage of care-leavers aged 17-21 who are in Employment, Education or Training – The amber RAG rating on the 64.0% target would be on a parr with national benchmarking and exceeding statistical neighbours.  The County Council, as well as supporting various activities, had also ring-fenced two apprenticeship roles in the Voice and Participation team for care leavers. 

30.8     External residential placements – The service acknowledge that there are too many children in external residential placements.  The County Council had approximately 5% more than statistical neighbours, and work had taken place to publish a Placement Sufficiency Strategy and a placement recovery plan – this could be shared with the Committee.  It was acknowledged nationally that there were insufficient residential placements available.

30.9     Children with disability home care and transport costs – Reassurance was given that where there were health-related elements monies would be sought from health organisations which could influence the potential overspend.  Whilst this was happening children were still receiving the support they needed from County Council finances but there was a Disabilities Recovery Plan in place to help deal with pressures on the budget.

30.10  Fostering Allowances Inflationary Pressure – Officers were working with stakeholder groups of foster carers and were confident that, following the recent review of fees and allowances, and the addition to the inflationary uplift, foster carers would be fairly paid for their responsibilities and be supported.

30.11  Cllr Russell thanked the Scrutiny Committee for their questions and comments and said that the leadership team would be happy to answer any further questions outside of the meeting.

Learning and Skills

30.12  The Cabinet Member for Learning and Skills, Cllr N Jupp, introduced the report highlighting that some pressures on the portfolio continued.

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

30.14  The portfolio currently had 47 schemes in the Capital Programme, and with the current increases in costs were facing increased total costs.  Cllr Jupp confirmed it was worrying that if money was pulled forward from projects scheduled in the future that there would not be sufficient funds available for all schemes.  The whole programme would be kept under review going forward.  It was agreed to share details of all the schemes in the portfolio with the Scrutiny Committee.

30.15  Members were pleased at the results under measure 21 GCSE results following the first set of exams since the pandemic but asked what impact measure 27 (percentage standards at end of Key Stage 2) and measure 29 (attainment gap of disadvantaged pupils) would have on future GCSE results.  Officers were able to reassure that schools were now back in a cycle of assessments and examinations that they were familiar with, and much of the support they had given pupils since returning from lock down had meant that for measure 27 current data was showed that the gap had shrunk further.

30.16  With 9 million adults nationally unable to read, meaning some children were leaving school without full literacy, were there figures for West Sussex and what was the approach to adult literacy?  Officers said figures were available and agreed to provide a briefing to the Scrutiny Committee outside of the meeting.

30.17  The Chairman acknowledged on behalf the Committee that most of the measures on pages 53 and 55 were going in the right direction indicating that effective work was taking place.  Cllr Jupp endorsed the comments.

30.18  Resolved – That the Committee:

Children and Young People:

1.   Explores how and if it should look in more detail at further performance data to provide assurance of continued progress on the Children First Improvement Journey.

2.   Sought assurance that the targets for the performance measures are ambitious enough and in line with national and regional benchmarks. 

3.   Asks that the Committee is provided with further details on the Supporting Families Project and the recent change to the criteria and how this impacts on the County Council.

4.   Raises concern on the high number of children we care for in external residential placements and ask that the placement sufficiency strategy is shared with the Committee. 

Learning and Skills:

5.   Highlights the additional spending on the learning and skills capital projects and the pressure that this could cause on the capital budget, and ask to have sight of all the schemes within the Learning and Skills Capital Programme to see how they are progressing. 

6.   Raises concern over performance measure 27, recognising the impact of the covid pandemic and will monitor how this improves when more recent data is available in future quarterly reports.   

7.   Asks for details on the number of adults who are unable to read in West Sussex.