Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from John Thomas and Bryan Allbut.

Councillor Banks – Independent Chair of Orchard and Spring Vale Children's Centre, Evesham

Councillor Duffy – Independent Chair of WANDS Children's Centre, Droitwich

Councillor Oborski – Chair of Wyre Forest Local Children's Trust

Councillor Hopwood – Daughter sometimes works with the NCT

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Head of Legal and Democratic Services in writing or by e-mail indicating the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case 30 August 2016).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/e-mail address below.

Frances Thurlow

Frances submitted the following questions:

·         Can you clarify what the purpose of children's centres are?

·         Does rising levels of children in care mean children's centres failed in their purpose?

·         What % of families with small children use the children's centres?

·         How will the closure of children's centres affect the rates of breastfeeding?

·         How will volunteers maintain services currently offered by children's centres?

Hannah Cooper, Branch Coordinator (volunteer), Malvern Hills NCT

Hannah submitted the following questions:

·         What services specifically for antenatal and postnatal parents will be left?

·         What provision will there be for children 0-2?

·         If the hardest to reach parents aren't accessing Children's Centres as Catherine Driscoll claims then what are the council's plans to meet this need I with their new vision and on a reduced budget? 

Lottie Smith, Worcester Mums Network

Lottie Smith read out a statement on behalf of Worcester Mums Network suggesting that there was no evidence that there would be any benefits from funding cuts to Children's Centres, that there would be an increased reliance by the County Council on the good will of volunteers and that the reductions were political.  Children and families in need of help would not necessarily be identified and would suffer as a consequence.

(previously circulated)

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 15 July 2016 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Derek Benson, Independent Chair of the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Board (WSCB) appointed on 1 April 2016 attended the meeting to present the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Board Annual Report 2015-16.

In September 2015, Diana Fulbrook, then Independent Chair, informed the Panel that WSCB could not be assured of the effectiveness of local arrangements in respect of children in the child protection system.  The quality and consistency of frontline basic practice needed improvement and more work was required in particular areas to ensure children are safe in Worcestershire.

As of 31 March 2016 and now, the view of the WSCB was that it couldn't be assured as to the robustness of the child protection system and that this was clearly a risk for everyone to consider and address. The Board formed this view by taking into account evidence from data, audits, reports and learning during 2015/16. These processes however,  demonstrated that there was a strong commitment to safeguarding children across the WSCB partnership and that safeguarding arrangements were in place, they just needed to be better more co-ordinated to deliver a better service for the children and young people in Worcestershire. Demand for services across the whole system continued to increase and, whilst recognising that improvements had been made to some aspects of frontline social work practice, other practice improvements had not been achieved as quickly as had been hoped at the start of the year.

During 2015/16, the Board's priorities were:

·         Implementation of the Board's Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Strategy

·         Early Help

·         Integrated Family Front Door (FFD) (incorporating the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub ethos)

·         Children's Social Care 'Back to Basics' Improvement Programme

As of August, the key messages from the Service Improvement Board were:

·        LAC and children on a Child Protection Plan were being seen and visited within required timescales

·        Missing children return interviews were now being completed (100%)

·        CSE/Missing children was gaining traction at the FFD and delivering results for young people and efficiencies for staff and partners.

The other issues from 2015/16 worthy of note were that:

·         No Serious Case Reviews were initiated during the year, although a number of cases were brought for consideration.

·         Only a relatively small number of child deaths are found to have modifiable factors. Cumulative data in respect of babies whose deaths were classified as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) suggested that smoking and co-sleeping were often significant factors. In the deaths of unborn or extremely young babies factors such as maternal obesity, smoking, alcohol and other environmental factors were often present in some combination.

·         Learning from Multi-Agency Case File audits (MACFAs) undertaken during the year has informed a number of the Board's priority work streams for 2016/17:

Ø  Voice of the Child/child's lived experience (limited evidence of child's voice being used to inform assessments or decisions)

Ø  Review of safeguarding arrangements for disabled children (some evidence of drift where there were concerns about neglect of disabled children)

Ø  Professional Curiosity and Think Family (half of all cases reviewed had a combination of domestic abuse,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 254.

The Cabinet Members with Responsibility (CMR) for Children and Families and Health and Well-being and the Director of Children, Families and Communities and Interim Director of Public Health were invited to the meeting to discuss the Provision of Effective Prevention Services for Children and Young People Including Optimising the Use of Children's Centre Buildings.

The Panel had previously met to discuss the issue on 17 March and 15 July 2016 and the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Board (OSPB) had considered a call-in of the Cabinet decision of 16 June 2016 on 1 July 2016. (Agenda and Minutes of these meetings were available on the Council's website at:

http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/cms/democratic-services/minutes-and-agendas.aspx

The Chairman of the Panel had subsequently requested further information (detailed in the Agenda report) to enable the Panel to discuss the detail further.

The CMR for Children and Families opened the discussion by explaining that the Consultation had finished but that no decisions had been made whilst consideration was being given to the emerging themes from the Consultation. He believed that the process had been as open and transparent as was possible, there had been considerable discussion and media briefings and that this would continue.

440 responses to the Consultation had been received, the emerging themes were:

·         The universal provision eg Stay and Play

·         Capability of the new leaseholders

·         Specific site concerns

·         Budget reductions

During the discussion, the following main points were made:

·         The purpose of children's centres was to improve outcomes for young children and their families and reduce inequalities, particularly for those families in greatest need of support.

·         Up to 50% of families with small children may use the Children's Centres at any one time.

·         There was and would continue to be a variety of support for breast feeding mothers available in Worcestershire.

·         The number of looked after children (LAC) in Worcestershire had increased over recent years and was currently at approximately 700. Although this figure changed on a daily basis, if the number of LAC continued to increase at its current rate and reached 900, it would be considered a failure for Worcestershire County Council. It was well known that the outcomes for LAC were significantly worse than for those children not in care, it was therefore important to target those most in need to give appropriate support to help reduce the numbers of LAC and prevent children from entering care.

·         At a time of austerity, it was very important to have a joined up approach to delivering services and be clear about what services the County Council and its partners were able to provide.

·         Volunteers working with commissioned providers would continue to be important to service delivery.

·         In terms of addressing concerns about specific Children's Centres, the CMR reassured the Panel that the Council would continue to work with providers.

·         Although the Panel were advised that the Children's Centres hadn't made the impact on reducing the numbers of LAC originally envisaged, it was suggested that evidence to substantiate this had not been provided either. In response, the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 255.