Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Tony Muir, Tim Reid (Church Representative), Tina Russell, Phil Rook and Gabrielle Stacey.

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 both the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case 11 November 2021).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/e-mail address listed in this agenda and on the website.

None.

(previously circulated)

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 22 September 2021 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

With the Chairman’s agreement, the following announcements were made:

·       On 5 November, Will Quince MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families had written to the Leader of the Council to confirm the removal of the Statutory Direction from the Department for Education for the Council’s children’s social care services.  For the benefit of new Members, the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Education provided some background to this announcement, emphasising the huge amount of hard work that had gone into the long improvement journey.  He confirmed that the improvement journey would continue with the aim of ensuring that all vulnerable children in the County were safe.  The Chairman and Vice Chairman welcomed this announcement and wished to pass on their thanks to all staff who had been part of the improvement journey.  The CMR confirmed that the announcement did not have any immediate impact on the future of Worcestershire Children First.

·       The report following Ofsted’s recent inspection of Worcestershire Children First Fostering had been published on 9 November.  The independent fostering agency had been rated as ‘requires improvement’.  The inspection had found no widespread failings and had concluded that children were well cared for.  However, it was acknowledged that there were a number of areas to be improved and an improvement plan was now in place, including applying WCF’s quality assurance programme to the fostering agency and providing further senior management support.

·       It was confirmed that the long-anticipated Ofsted/CQC local area SEND inspection had taken place on 1 to 3 November.  The results would be received in a formal letter to the Chief Executive of WCF and the Chief Executive of Herefordshire and Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, and the Panel would receive a further report once this letter had been received.  In response to a question about the number of children with SEN and whether the figure of 1 in 8 was accurate, the Director of Education, Early Years and Children with Disabilities reminded Members that the cohort of children with SEN covered a broad range and not all children with SEN would be the subject of Education, Health and Care Plans.

In order to accommodate Officer availability, the Chairman agreed to amend the order of the agenda items and consider Item 6 before Item 5.

In-Year Budget Monitoring and 2022/23 Budget Scrutiny

The following main points were made:

·       As previously reported, the key pressure on the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) was in the High Needs Block, a pressure that was in line with the national picture.  The DfE had acknowledged this pressure and the deficit would sit on the Council’s balance sheet as an unusable reserve while the DfE considered the way forward.  However, it was important to note that the legislation allowing this carry forward would expire at the end of the 22/23 financial year when the deficit could potentially revert to the County Council.  Members were reminded that the High Needs Management Plan was in place to monitor this budget closely.

·       The forecast overspend in the Education and Early Help Directorate had been driven by pressure on Educational Psychology. A nationwide shortage of educational psychologists had caused staffing problems leading to an income shortfall and a reliance on a number of agency arrangements.  It was confirmed that recruitment to these posts had now been completed.

·       Trading income was now becoming more stable following the pandemic.

·       In terms of forecast overspend, Worcestershire was in a positive position when compared with other local authorities, including statistical neighbours.

·       The Chief Accountant informed Members that the Council was still awaiting specific details from the Government in relation to the budget for 2022/23.  A further announcement was expected in mid-December.  It was expected that there may be some cash increases and an increase in council tax, but this would be set against increasing demand and cost pressures.

·       With reference to Home to School Transport, the Vice Chairman congratulated the team on the much-improved budget picture.

·       It was confirmed that current budget discussions were broadly based on allowing 2% for staff pay increases, although the final figure was still under consideration.

Q2 Performance Information

During the discussion, the following main points were made:

·       Although there had been a slight decrease in demand experienced by the Family Front Door, levels of demand remained higher than those seen pre-covid.  The ‘conversion rates’ of referrals from agencies requiring ongoing social worker involvement remained a challenge.  Referrals from schools and the police were back on track but those from health (at 19%) remained an area of concern.

·       Although referrals to the Family Support Service had increased, an audit of these referrals had revealed that they were not all appropriate.  Further work would be carried out in November and December to better understand the data.

·       The number of Looked After Children was in line with statistical neighbours at 74 per 10,000, which put the Council in the bottom 2 of 14 West Midlands local authorities.

·       The rates of children leaving care (ie no longer needing to be looked after by the local authority) remained a challenge.

·       Although the number of children coming into care continued to increase, the rate  ...  view the full minutes text for item 502.

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Education and the Director for Education, Early Years and Children with Disabilities (Worcestershire Children First) had been invited to the meeting to update the Panel on developments relating to Vulnerable Learners in Worcestershire.

A Member of the Panel suggested that the number of acronyms in the report had made it difficult to read and requested that, for future reports, the number of acronyms be reduced and a glossary be included at the start of the report, if appropriate.

By way of introduction, the Cabinet Member informed the Panel that in terms of vulnerable learners there was an improving situation, although he acknowledged that there was still work to do.  The policy direction agreed by Cabinet recognised that children and young people needed to be in school to learn.  In recognising that parents had a right to elect to education their children at home, it was important that elective home education was not used as a means of ‘off rolling’ pupils.  Permanent exclusions should be kept to an absolute minimum.

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

·       It was confirmed that the reference to ‘timely’ access to appropriate provision referred to the range of statutory deadlines which applied to different types of vulnerable learners.  The service had developed a much-improved understanding of the children involved and the status of their vulnerabilities.  This has led to an improvement in meeting statutory deadlines.

·       The increase in the number of parents electing to educate their children at home was split equally between those who had had a positive experience of home schooling during the pandemic and had chosen to continue to educate their children at home, and those who had not returned to school as a result of covid anxiety.  Officers had made it clear to those choosing to continue to home educate that there would no longer be the same level of support from schools as had been available during lockdowns.

·       It was suggested that the reduction in the number of young people starting apprenticeships was related to fewer companies offering apprenticeships rather than reduced take up from young people.  Work was ongoing with the Skills and Investment Group Manager to promote apprenticeships in the County.

·       It was confirmed that work in the north of the County with children at risk of becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) was a pilot scheme which would be followed up with a similar scheme in the south once appropriate staff had been recruited.

·       The term Children Missing Education (CME) referred to children up to Y11 who were not on a school roll.  Referrals were received via the Children’s Services Portal and the CME team would investigate each case.  Some cases were quickly resolved whereas others proved more difficult.  Officers would visit the last known address, contact the landlord if relevant and would not give up until they had found the child and established their situation.  The cases of the most  ...  view the full minutes text for item 503.

The Panel reviewed its current work programme and agreed the following:

·       The update on GET SAFE should be delayed to a future meeting and the discussion should include young people who had used the service.

·       Cllr Chambers would discuss the role of school nurses with officers outside of the meeting.