Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed Mark Hughes (Parent Governor Representative) to his first meeting of the Panel.  He also welcomed Jane Stanley (Healthwatch).

Apologies were received from Councillor Jo Monk, Mr Bryan Allbut (Church Representative) and Councillor Marcus Hart (Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Education).

None.

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Assistant Director for Legal and Governance in writing or by email indicating both the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case 15 July 2021). Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/email address listed below.

Please note that due to Covid requirements, places at the meeting are limited. All members of the public who wish to attend the meeting should register by e-mail with the officer below and places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

Attendees at the meeting will be required to sign that they have either:

·       Had Covid-19 in the last 6 months, or

·       Received two Covid-19 vaccinations, or

·       Had a negative lateral flow test in the 48 Hours prior to the meeting.

None.

(previously circulated)

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 16 March 2021 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for Children and Families and the Director of Children’s Services updated the Panel on developments relating to the Worcestershire Children First (WCF) Social Care Placements Sufficiency Strategy.

By way of introduction, the Director of Children’s Services made the following main points:

·       The strategy set out the aims and objectives to meet WCF’s sufficiency duties in relation to children placed in the Council’s care.

·       The quality of strategic planning was measured through a range of key performance indicators (KPIs) looking at outcomes for children and by Ofsted in service inspections.

·       Semi-independent accommodation was also part of the strategy but was not registered with Ofsted.

·       The principles underpinning sufficiency planning were outlined, including placing a child close to their local area, providing an experience of ‘family life’ and using care as a step to permanency.  The prevention of care was also part of sufficiency and included support for children to remain at home with parents where possible.

·       Provision should cover what was reasonably practicable.  The legislation recognised that it was not possible to have specialist placement provision in every local authority.

·       Members were reminded of the Council’s journey of improvement.  Worcestershire’s most recent ILACS (Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services) in July 2019 had recognised improved outcomes.

·       Attention was drawn to the ‘Strategy in Brief’ included in the presentation slides which highlighted the main proposals to note from the strategy.

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for Children and Families told the Panel about the recent independent review of children’s social care by Josh McAlister (the founder of the social work charity Frontline) and suggested it should be circulated to Members of the Panel.  The report had many synergies with the approach outlined by the Director of Children’s Services and cited other local authorities such as North Yorkshire, Essex and Hertfordshire with whom WCF had been working in partnership.  He highlighted the poor outcomes of many young people who had been in the care system and reminded the Panel of the importance of not defining young people by having been in care.  Each young person must be recognised as an individual.

Members of the Panel were given an opportunity to ask questions and the following main points were made:

·       A question was asked about the most appropriate time for the Scrutiny Panel to be involved in the development of the strategy and it was suggested that, in general, it was important for scrutiny Members to comment on proposals before they had been agreed by Cabinet.  The CMR agreed with the general desire for scrutiny to be involved at an early stage.  However, in this case the detail of the strategy was based on the professional view.  The Director of Children’s Services reminded the Panel that this was a dynamic strategy and was not set in stone.  The strategy would be reviewed (although not re-written) next year and there would be an opportunity to add to it.  The Director was genuinely happy to take on board any  ...  view the full minutes text for item 486.

The Panel was updated on performance information and 2020/21 Year-End Budget Monitoring.

WCF 2020/21 Year-End Budget

The Director of Resources updated the Panel on the year-end financial outturn for 2020/21.  The following main points were made:

·       Members were reminded that the deficit in the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) High Needs block was held as an unusable reserve on the balance sheet.  This deficit was set to rise and forecast to be £14.7 million by the end of March 2022.  Lobbying of Government on this issue was ongoing.  This was a big issue for the Council but should be seen in the context of much larger deficits in other local authorities.

·       The WCF 2020/21 outturn position showed a small surplus which, in the context of a £120 million budget, was a good position to be in at the end of a challenging year.  Money had been received from the County Council to cover the direct costs of Covid.

·       The pressure on the placements budget was still severe and the risk reserve had been increased to £1.9 million.

·       Internal audit had reported that budgets were robustly managed and well run.  External audit had been completed at the end of June 2021 and no issues were reported.  The accounts had been approved by the WCF Board and would be signed off in the next week.

·       It was confirmed that, as a separate company, WCF had to have separately audited accounts.

·       It was agreed that a breakdown of costs associated with Alternative Provision would be circulated to the Panel.

2020/21 Q4 Performance Information

The Director of Children’s Services reminded the Panel that this set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) had been previously agreed with the Scrutiny Panel.  The following main points were highlighted:

·       The Family Front Door had seen an increase in demand throughout lockdown and this had peaked when schools were re-opened to all pupils.  Referrals were assessed as having a lower level of need during the period that access to early help had been limited.  Resources had been used to target the peak and some repeat referrals had been seen.  Staff had worked well under pressure.  The Family Front Door had received an Ofsted focused visit and informal feedback included clear recognition of how well the service had managed demand and maintained quality.

·       The higher number of children in care reflected the impact Covid had had on the number of children able to exit the care system.  There had been delays in completing court proceedings and therefore overall numbers of children in care and caseloads had increased.

·       Care leavers had been provided with an additional £100 per month from December to March to help through lockdown.  In-person visits to those in semi-independent provision had continued.  There had been fewer visits to those children living in stable placements with carers in order to minimise face to face contact.  Children were kept on child protection plans as it had not been possible to have the reassurance that these plans could be removed.  Therefore, as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 487.

The Panel reviewed its work programme and the following points were noted:

·       Alternative provision should be added as a future item.

·       The annual report on educational attainment should include reference to apprenticeships.

·       Consideration of the 2 and 3 tier systems in the County should be added.  The Chairman agreed to put together some ideas about the particular aspects the Panel would wish to focus on.

The Director of Children’s Services confirmed that she had already had an input into the Work Programme.  She reminded the Panel of the importance of leaving space for items that might crop up through the year.

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Children and Families and the Director of Children’s Services had been asked to update the Panel on the year one evaluation and future development plans of Supporting Families First.

The Assistant Director, Family Front Door and Partnerships had arranged for a service user to join the meeting virtually to inform the Panel about the service she had received.  Members were told that the family had received support from an Outreach Worker, a Youth Mentor and an Emotional Health and Well-being Worker since January 2020.

During the discussion, the service user emphasised the importance of the workers supporting her son’s needs in order to establish improvements in family life.  She agreed that she would come back to the Panel in six months’ time so that the longer-term impact of the work could be assessed.

The Director of Children’s Services referred Panel Members to the Webstar which was a mechanism which supported families to express whether they felt better and to identify areas of progress, however small.

She went on to confirm that the next steps would be to develop this way of working with the families of children in need.  This would be a fundamental whole service change which would aim to identify problems earlier and reduce the number of child protection cases.  She confirmed that the programme included specialist provision to deal with substance misuse and acknowledged that some children would still need to come into care.

The Chairman thanked the officers for the positive report and for arranging the powerful conversation with the service user.