Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Ms T L Onslow, Mr M J Hart (Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Education and Skills), Mr J H Smith (Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Health and Wellbeing) and Ms J Stanley (Healthwatch).

None.

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Assistant Director for Legal and Governance 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 13 February 2020).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/e-mail address below.

None.

(to follow)

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 23 January 2020 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Attending for this item were:

Liz Altay, Public Health Consultant, WCC

Kathryn Cobain, Interim Director of Public Health, WCC

Ness Cole, Head of Service for Parenting and Community, Action for Children

Sue Harris, Director of Strategy and Partnerships, Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust

Sally-Anne Osbourne, Associate Director for Children Young People & Families & Specialist Primary Care, Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust

The Interim Director of Public Health and colleagues had been invited to the meeting to brief Members on the latest developments in relation to the 0-19 Prevention and Early Intervention Service.

The Panel had previously received an update in May 2019.  The commissioning process had now been completed and the Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust had been awarded the contract as the Lead Provider.  The new service would commence on 1 April 2020.

By way of introduction, Members received a presentation and were given an opportunity to ask questions.  The following main points were raised:

·       There was an annual £9.3 million spend on this service.

·       Action for Children was a national charity and currently held the Parenting and Community Development contract in south Worcestershire.

·       It was confirmed that community capacity building aimed to provide more service capacity through volunteering and peer support.

·       In response to a question about the demand for specialist services, Members were informed that, although the number of births overall was not going up, the potential complexity of need was increasing.

·       The importance of service integration was highlighted.  The commissioned service would bring together Public Health Nursing Services for Children and Young People and the Parenting & Community Development Service.

·       It was confirmed that the Service would have a focus on narrowing inequalities.

·       Members were shown the ‘windscreen of need’ which highlighted the breadth of the service ranging from universal to specialist services.

·       Members noted details of the Healthy Child Programme which would be delivered in full by the newly commissioned service.

·       The new service would be known as the Starting Well Partnership.  It would be a fully integrated partnership with one pathway, with the aim that families would not be aware that those delivering the service were employed by different organisations.

·       It was confirmed that there were currently four providers: Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, Action for Children (in south Worcestershire), Barnado’s (in Wyre Forest) and Redditch Borough Council (in Redditch and Bromsgrove).  These providers currently had four different contracts which would be brought together under one organisation moving forward (to be known as the Starting Well Partnership).  The Partnership would deliver the contract on behalf of Worcestershire County Council.  Although there would be one contract held by Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust as the prime contractor, the service would retain the expertise of all four partners, with local knowledge as a strength.

·       In response to a question about communication in relation to the new service, Members were reminded that the new contract would start on 1 April 2020.  There would be face-to-face communication with staff.  It was confirmed that all appropriate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 424.

Attending for this item were:

Nicola Jones, School Improvement Lead, Babcock Prime

Sarah Wilkins, Director of Education and Early Help, Worcestershire Children First

The Panel was asked to consider a summary of the educational outcomes for children and young people in Worcestershire schools for 2019.  Members were reminded that, from 1 June 2020, staff currently working for Babcock Prime would be transferring to Worcestershire Children First.

During the discussion, the following main points were made:

·       Across the board, results showed very little difference between attainment in maintained schools and academies.  For Early Learning Goals, maintained schools were showing a more rapid improvement.

·       At Key Stage 1, schools in Worcestershire were achieving in line with national results.

·       At Key Stage 2, Worcestershire schools were achieving below national results.  Although there had been some improvement, there had also been improvements nationally.  The gap had decreased but needed to narrow faster.

·       In response to a question about the difference in attainment between boys and girls, Members were informed that national trends were replicated in Worcestershire, with more able boys doing better than more able girls.  It was agreed that further details on this would be circulated following the meeting.

·       In response to a question about attainment in each district council area at Key Stage 2, the Panel was informed that Bromsgrove, Malvern and Worcester City achieved above the national average whereas Redditch, Wyre Forest and Wychavon achieved below the national average.  There were similar trends in the Early Years.

·       It was confirmed that there was no clear split on achievement between 2-tier and 3-tier areas.  Achievement levels very much depended on how schools worked together.

·       It was agreed that further details of attainment levels broken down by district council area would be circulated to the Panel, once validated data was available.

·       It was confirmed that the County had good models of collaboration between schools (for example, in Bromsgrove) but imposing a model of working on other areas was unlikely to be successful.  It was part of the way forward to have a community approach and this would be developed using the existing district briefings.

·       To date, the focus of work at Key Stage 2 had been on reading and mathematics.  This had started to have an impact and there was now a need to include writing in the focus.

·       Schools had been assessed as being in one of five categories according to the amount of support they needed.  Members were informed that the model for support had recently changed and schools in Category 3 were now able to access training free of charge.  Support was either bespoke to an individual school or group of schools, and take up and engagement had already improved.  The peer-to-peer model aimed to bring schools together to work with a School Improvement Adviser.

·       Since 1 September, all maintained schools had access to a School Improvement Adviser.  Members were reminded that school improvement would take time.  Ofsted reports were now recognising where the School Improvement Service was making a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 425.

The Panel reviewed its work programme and no comments were made.