Agendas, Meetings and Minutes - Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: County Hall, Worcester

Contact: Alyson Grice/Alison Spall  Overview & Scrutiny Officers

Items
No. Item

520.

Apologies and Welcome

Minutes:

At the Chairman’s request, the Panel held two minutes’ silence to remember the situation in Ukraine.

 

Apologies were received from Mr Mark Hughes (Parent Governor Representative), Councillor Jo Monk, Councillor Tony Muir, Councillor Tracey Onslow and Mr Tim Reid (Church Representative).

521.

Declaration of Interest and of any Party Whip

Minutes:

None.

522.

Public Participation

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 9 March 2022).  Further details are available on the Council's website.  Enquiries can also be made through the telephone number/e-mail address listed in this agenda and on the website.

Minutes:

None.

523.

Confirmation of the Minutes of the previous meeting

To follow.

Minutes:

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 23 February 2022 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

524.

Educational COVID Recovery - Impact on Educational Outcomes 2021 including Apprenticeships pdf icon PDF 486 KB

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Education and the Director of Children’s Services/Chief Executive, Worcestershire Children First (WCF) had been invited to update the Panel on educational outcomes for the academic year 2020/21 with a focus on the impact of the Covid pandemic and on apprenticeships.

 

The Assistant Director for Education Quality and Improvement (WCF) introduced the report and made the following main points:

 

·       The academic year 2020/21 had been significantly impacted by the pandemic.  Members were reminded that there had been no externally verified end of key stage data and no Ofsted inspections had taken place.  Although some visits and monitoring by Ofsted had happened, inspections had not restarted until January 2022.  Therefore sources of external data were limited.

·       With reference to the situation from September 2021 (ie the current academic year) schools had continued to be quite heavily impacted by the absence of pupils and staff due to Covid.  Since March 2020, each school had been on an individual journey depending on the number of children and staff affected by Covid and the impact of the pandemic was individual for each school.

 

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Education suggested that, as the country came out of the Covid pandemic, schools would adjust to a new normality.  Ofsted was now carrying out inspections again and, looking at reports received to date, it was pleasing to see that far more schools had retained their ‘good’ status than had not.  School attendance in the county had been broadly in line with national averages but he acknowledged that issues remained for some children with the return to school.  Attendance was approximately 3% down on pre-pandemic levels and would continue to be a focus of work going forward as children could not learn if they were not in school.

 

With reference to apprenticeships, the Skills and Investment Group Manager made the following main points:

 

·       As the pandemic hit, the number of apprenticeships available had ‘nose-dived’ as employers had had to deal with issues relating to their existing staff, such as furlough, working from home and social distancing.  This situation had continued into 2021 although some positives had also been seen such as an increase in the number of health and social care apprenticeships when compared to previous years.  However, these were predominantly for the over-25s, a reflection of employers re-skilling their existing workforce rather than taking on new staff.

·       Overall, in 2020/21 employers had responded well and there had never been so many vacancies.  However, many young people had not been in school and had, therefore, missed out on careers education, work experience and employment encounters.

·       In summary, apprenticeships had been through a rocky period but employers were now looking to move forward in their workforce planning.  The year to December 2021 had seen 152% of the previous year’s vacancies, one of the highest figures seen to date.  However, challenges remained with finding young people who wanted to take up these opportunities.

 

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 524.

525.

Performance and In-Year Budget Monitoring pdf icon PDF 135 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel was updated on performance and financial information for services relating to Children and Families.

 

Performance Information

 

The Director of Children’s Services/Chief Executive of Worcestershire Children First briefed the Panel on the headlines from performance data for Q3 2021/22.  The following main points were made:

 

·       The rise in the number of referrals to the Family Front Door was consistent with data from previous years.  However, the rate of conversion of referrals to social worker assessments was low meaning that the Family Front Door was receiving contacts that it did not need to.  Officers were looking at the figures to find out why this was the case.  Possible reasons included:

o   Professionals needed more support to use the Family Front Door properly.  It was not clear why they were not making greater use of early help services.

o   Professionals were themselves very busy and did not have time to direct to the correct channels.

o   Levels of professional anxiety were high given recent high-profile cases in the press.

·       It was suggested that all three reasons were in play with the end result that the Family Front Door was overloaded.  Work had been commissioned through the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Partnership to look at the availability and effectiveness of early help.  Audit work was also underway to look at cases where a referral had resulted in signposting to universal or early help services.

·       The number of social work assessments had dropped.  It was essential to address the current backlog in writing up assessments and a plan was in place to address this by the end of March.

·       This year had seen 166 new children becoming looked after, a figure that was consistent with previous years.  In terms of new accommodations, Worcestershire was second lowest in the region, a result of the work of the Supporting Families First team.  Members were informed that a recent report by the County Council Network on The Future of Children’s Social Care had showcased WCF’s care prevention work as good practice.

·       The number of Looked After Children per 10,000 under 18s was 75, a figure at the lower end when compared to regional authorities.  However, Members were reassured that social workers would always act when a child needed to come into care.

·       The rate of 35 children on Child Protection Plans per 10,000 under 18s was in line with national and statistical neighbours.

·       In terms of staffing, there were very positive levels of stability and permanency.  WCF strived to be an employer of choice.  Pay rates were good but other issues were also important such as the stability of the management structure.

·       Caseloads had reduced in the locality teams (child protection) but were higher for those working in the Family Front Door and through care.  WCF would continue to monitor this situation closely.

 

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

 

·       It was confirmed that data on the number of Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) annual reviews completed within  ...  view the full minutes text for item 525.

526.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 228 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel reviewed its current work programme and the following was noted:

 

·       The Future of Youth Work would be considered by the Panel in July and would be discussed at Cabinet later that month.

·       It was suggested that qualitative data in relation to educational attainment could be considered by the Panel in September.  The Chairman would raise this suggestion with the Director of Children’s Services.