Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Mr B Allbut and Mrs J A Brunner.

None.

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 24 October 2018).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/e-mail address below.

None.

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Children and Families and the Assistant Director, Safeguarding Services (Children's Social Care) had been invited to the meeting to update the Board on the 18 October Cabinet decision in respect of Children at the Edge of Care and Children's Homes.

The Assistant Director, Safeguarding Services was invited to give an overview of the issues involved.  She made the following main points:

·       In recent years, both locally and nationally, there had been a rise in the number of children coming into the care system.

·       Locally, in particular there had been a rise in the number of 11 to 16 year olds coming into care.  It was known that this age group was more likely to have negative outcomes, whether in a care home or a foster home.  Often, when young people leave care they move back to their family where they have local connections.

·       The proposal was to do something different, as removing children from their families did nothing to address the risk of challenging behaviour or repair fractured relationships.  There was a need for a whole service cultural change.

·       Research from Ofsted and other authorities indicated that there was a need for an edge of care service to have key staff with a range of skills, and capacity to respond and build relationships with parents and young people.  The principle was to keep children safely in the care of parents and provide support for relationships to be repaired.

·       From a safeguarding perspective, there will always be some children who needed be brought into care.

·       There was a need to target the resources where they could make most impact.  Closing children homes would release funds to build an edge of care service.

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and the following main points were raised:

·       Although the principle of taking fewer children into care was supported, concern was expressed about the timing of changes.  Even with an edge of care service in place, there would be occasions when a family might need a break in order to deal with a short term crisis.  Further concern was expressed about how the service would move forward with children who were currently living in care homes but were not yet 16 or 17 and able to receive support around leaving care.  To manage the transition the service would need a pool of highly skilled foster carers and a question was asked about whether this was available.  A further question was asked about whether a suitable facility was available locally to support the most damaged young people in the local authority's care.

·       In response, the Assistant Director informed Members that Children's Services had been challenged on the use of residential care as a short break for families having difficulties.  Often, this had been experienced as a step into care.  Instead there was a need for outreach work to repair fractured relationships, something which had not been done previously.  There would still be an opportunity for 'time out'  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1065.

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Adult Social Care and the Director of Adult Services had been invited to the meeting to update the Board on the 18 October 2018 Cabinet decision in respect of the Future Use of The Grange, Kidderminster.

By way of introduction, the following main points were made:

·       In February Cabinet made a decision about the future use of The Grange and agreed to re-purpose the building as a long-term dementia unit.  At this point decision makers did not have all relevant information in place and, in particular, a feasibility study on the future use of the building was not available.  When the feasibility study was produced it was clear that the business case for the development of the dementia unit was not practical.  Given the new information, the revised proposal was to close the facility.

·       There continued to be a need for a wide spectrum of dementia care and further work needed to be done to establish the range of need across the county.  This need might be met through direct provision or by stimulating the market.

·       The options appraisal made it clear that the capital cost of necessary refurbishment would outweigh any financial benefit of re-purposing the building.  It was acknowledged that The Grange was valued in Kidderminster but the building had now reached the end of the road.

Members were given the opportunity to ask questions and the following main points were raised:

·       It was disappointing that the February Cabinet report had not recognised that there would be major problems with the use of The Grange as a dementia unit.  The building was in clear need of updating and there appeared to have been neglect of a capital asset.

·       Of greater concern was the lack of provision for dementia care in the area.  Dementia patients often had elderly partners and local provision was important.  The loss of local dementia beds was a major concern.

·       The Director of Adult Services agreed that there was a need across the county for specialist units.  Everyone should have a choice of good quality care with reasonable costs.  She suggested that the county was at a tipping point in relation to older people with many more over 75s in the population.  She was pleased that the public recognised the quality of local authority provision but pointed out that there were also some very good private providers.

·       The clarity of paragraph 25 of the Cabinet report in giving details of the actual savings to be generated by the closure was welcomed.  A question was asked about whether the current forecast of £1.230m cost reduction would be used to mitigate cost pressures in Adult Services and what capital receipt might be achieved by the sale of the site.  In response, the Director informed the Board that she would certainly make the case for the forecast saving and any capital receipt to be used to support budgets in adult social care.

·       It was suggested that there was a need to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1066.

On 3 October the Vice Chairman of the OSPB had attended a West Midland Scrutiny Network event and she updated the Board on the main issues discussed.

New Government guidance on scrutiny was being drafted by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the network had discussed what might be included.  In summarising the discussion, the Vice Chairman made the following points:

·       Scrutiny questions should be precise.  Formulating the correct question was key to successful scrutiny.

·       Powers to scrutinise external bodies should be made clearer.

·       Chairs of scrutiny bodies should be elected by the committee as it was important that the person chosen knew how to chair.

·       Information should always be in the public domain unless it could be demonstrated that harm would be done by publishing.

·       Any item coming to Cabinet should also come to scrutiny as this would improve the Cabinet report.

·       The scrutiny work programme should be shared with District Councils and other Local Authorities in order to identify common topics and avoid duplication.

In the discussion that followed, the following main points were made:

·       There needed to be complete transparency on budget figures for the scrutiny process to be successful, as it was crucial to understand what resources were available.  Identifying a 'scrutiny champion' on Senior Leadership Team would be important in achieving this.

·       Involving other Local Authorities, in particular Town and Parish Councils, should be done in a sensitive way.

·       In the interests of transparency, all scrutiny panel meetings should be webcast.

·       The importance of performance information was noted.  It was crucial that each Panel considered relevant performance data so that trends could be identified and reports made on an exception basis.

·       All Panels must have budget information on a quarterly basis.

·       It was suggested that the Board should write to the MHCLG and also to the Leader and Chief Executive of the County Council giving their views on the guidance.  The Vice Chairman volunteered to draft these letters.

·       Members were reminded that, at the Board's last meeting, it had been agreed that performance information and in-year budget figures would be considered by the Board four times a year.

·       With reference to webcasting, it would be useful to see viewing figures before any decisions were made, as webcasting more meetings would require additional funding.  The Chairman of the Economy and Environment O&S Panel expressed concern that, although webcasting was useful for Council, Cabinet and OSPB, it was less useful for Panels as it may inhibit the officers attending.

·       Feedback from the Network meeting had suggested that scrutiny should report to Council rather than to Cabinet.  This was also favoured by Ministers.  The Vice Chairman expressed concern that this might slow the scrutiny process down as Council met less frequently than Cabinet.  It was suggested that OSPB might need to retain the flexibility to report to either body.

·       A Councillor who was not a Member of the Board was asked for her views.  She supported the idea of scrutiny reporting to Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1067.

Bus and Community Transport Scrutiny Task Group

The Task Group had held three meetings so far and had another two planned.  Feedback from Councillors had been excellent and Members were thanked for taking the time to respond.  The Task Group had also spoken to representatives of Diamond and First Buses and other stakeholder user groups, and received feedback from members of the public.  Work to date had largely focussed on buses and the Leader was keen that the Task Group also followed up the second element of the scrutiny, namely community transport.

Children and Families O&S Panel

Family Front Door Scrutiny Task Group

The Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Children and Families O&S Panel were due to meet with the Director of Children, Families and Communities and the Assistant Director Safeguarding Services (Children's Social Care) to discuss taking this scrutiny forward.  Members were reminded that the Scrutiny Task Group would be led by the Vice Chairman of the Panel, as previously agreed by OSPB.

Overnight Short Breaks for Children with Disabilities

This scrutiny was still ongoing and the Task Group would be receiving feedback on the further work being undertaken by Officers in Children's Services.

Meeting with Key Stage 2 headteachers

In October, the Panel had held a successful meeting with Key Stage 2 headteachers.  The meeting had heard from Bromsgrove headteachers about successful collaborative working in their area.  Key Stage 2 results were a huge issue for the County and the Panel was looking to support a 'One Worcestershire' approach to improving attainment.

Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee

The Committee had received comprehensive information from the Ambulance Trust about its plans for the winter and the Trust appeared to be ahead of the game.  With reference to the Acute Trust, it was disappointing that HOSC had not received any information about the Trust's plans to cover the departure of the Chief Executive.

A further meeting of HOSC would be held at the end of November to consider plans for winter pressures.  An informal briefing about the STP was also being planned.

Corporate and Communities O&S Panel

The Panel was due to hold its next meeting on 7 November to consider libraries re-modelling and in-year budget issues.  The Panel had also received a budget briefing which included both surprising and unsurprising information.  The Chairman informed the Board that the Panel's Vice Chairman had recently suffered an injury while on Council business and he sent her get well wishes.

On 23 October the Panel had held a robust meeting on commissioning with the CMR for Transformation and Commissioning and the Director of Commercial and Commissioning.  Following the meeting, the Panel would be asking the CMR to set out her vision for commissioning and where the Council is going, and invite her and the Director back in six months' time to update the Panel on progress.  It was important to ensure that the Council had the skills to run a commissioning service.  Whether a service was commissioned out  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1068.