Agenda and minutes

The Chairman thanked Councillors Daisley and Onslow, the previous Chairman and Vice-Chairman for all their work on the Panel and congratulated them on their new roles. He also welcomed Councillor Desmond as a new member of the Panel.

Apologies were received from Councillor Jo Monk and from Councillors Andy Roberts, Tracey Onslow and Karen May (Cabinet Members with Responsibility).

Councillor Dan Boatright declared an interest in Agenda Item 5 (Strengthening the Youth Offer in Worcestershire) in that he was a Council nominated Trustee of the Pershore Riverside Centre.

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 6 July 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.

None.

(previously circulated)

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 10 May 2022 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman, subject to the following amendment to Minute 532 (Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report 2020-21) which would be amended to read as follows:

·         Asked about his own main areas of concern, the Independent Chairman highlighted:

o the importance of getting thresholds right so that responses were appropriate and timely. The effectiveness of the Family Front Door was paramount in this to ensure that focus was placed on those most at risk and that decision-making was strong. Last year’s Ofsted report had scrutinised the Family Front Door arrangements and found that strong progress had been made in improving the quality of practice.

(Indicative timing: 10.05 - 10.40am)

The Panel considered a report that outlined the steps which were being taken to review and strengthen the Council’s youth offer and inform the recommissioning of the Council’s funded youth services.

The Public Health Consultant explained the Council’s statutory duty in relation to youth services and activities for young people. The National Youth Agency defined youth work as a ‘distinct educational process adapted across a variety of settings to support a young person’s personal, social and educational development.’ The Panel was informed that there were three evidence-based domains for youth work interventions, universal open access, detached youth work and one to one mentoring, all three of which were operated in Worcestershire via a range of statutory, voluntary and community sector organisations.

Since 2016, the Council had funded 14 Open Access ‘Positive Activities’ Contracts in the County and the infrastructure to support these. The recommissioning of these contracts was now overdue. Some additional short-term funding had also recently been made available to District Councils through the Contain Outbreak Management Fund for detached youth work and one to one mentoring support for those young people adversely impacted by the pandemic.

As part of the work to review the youth offer and to support the recommissioning work, an Adolescent Health profile for the county had recently been completed and whilst this showed that, overall, the county fared better than the England average, there were disadvantaged areas where young people faced poorer outcomes. A Youth Needs Assessment had also been carried out which mapped current provision. This process which had included engagement with a variety of stakeholders and young people and had identified some key findings to be taken into account for the development of the revised strategy, strengthened youth offer and re-commissioned Council youth provision.

Members asked a range of questions which were responded to as follows:

·         The Panel was informed that the ‘youth offer’ was a package specific to a location based on local need and that commissioning work needed to take account of that. Moving forward a Youth Outcomes Framework would be developed, in conjunction with young people and stakeholders to ensure that the services provided would meet specific local need and were able to be effectively evaluated.

·         The National Youth Association offered guidance on the numbers of young people it was expected to be in regular contact with youth provision. Engagement with youth services in the county was measured and currently fell short of the expected levels.  This was an issue being addressed as part of current work, which would take into account the voice of young people and their changing needs.

·         In terms of the impact of funding youth services over the last decade, the Public Health Consultant confirmed that there had been issues caused by having some short-term funding which had led to problems with staff retention. With this commissioning process it would be ensured that there was longer term funding in place leading to a sustained approach aimed at building capacity locally to add skills to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 538.

(Indicative timing: 10.40 – 11.20am)

The Panel received a report which gave an update on the support being provided to the children and families living in Worcestershire as part of the Ukraine Settlement schemes. The Assistant Director of Communities and the Assistant Director for Education Quality and Improvement (EQI) were in attendance to provide further background information and respond to Members questions.

The Panel were informed of the latest figures with 474 Worcestershire households having been matched with 1145 Ukrainian guests. Approximately 60% of the guests had arrived in the county and of those 35% were school age children. As of the 1 July, the Assistant Director (EQI) advised that 235 applications for school places had been received, with 223 offers made to date for schools across the county.  Only 2 children had been unable to be placed in a school of their choice, but these children had now been successfully placed. Where a child could not be placed in their parent’s first choice of school, transport was being arranged to take them to their nearest available school.

The Panel received details of the funding per pupil that the Department of Education would provide to Councils supporting Ukrainian guests. This funding had not yet been received, but it was anticipated that it would be issued by the end of the academic year along with detailed criteria as to how it could be spent. This was important as it would allow schools to plan their services accordingly and it was hoped that it might be able to support some additional staffing.

The Assistant Director of Communities highlighted that in addition to the specific funding for education services, the Council also received £10,500 per Ukrainian guest, which could be spent to meet a range of needs, including adult learning and transport.

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

·         In order to make the application process for a school place more user friendly, it was suggested that the application form could be made available in the Ukrainian language.

·         Members reported that some guests were very keen to take up employment but were struggling to obtain the correct ‘right to work’ document. The Assistant Director for Communities advised that a meeting was taking place that day with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to see how this situation could be addressed.

·         Schools had been offered the opportunity to take part in a specialist programme of trauma support, of which 106 schools had already taken the opportunity to do so. Whilst this was a positive step, there was concern that schools were having to offer this type of support and that additional specialised support would be necessary. It was acknowledged that this would be needed by children and adults alike and that liaison was taking place with health colleagues to determine who best to support this need. The £10,500 funding per guest, referred to above, could be used to provide support for individual needs which were identified. SSAFA, the Armed Forces  ...  view the full minutes text for item 539.

(Indicative timing: 11.20 – 11.50am)

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

Year-End Budget Monitoring

The Director of Resources highlighted the following points:

•                 The Cabinet had been presented with the provisional financial results for the Council on 1 July 2022 which was an overall overspend of £1.3m on a £355.5m budget.

•                 The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) had an in year overspend of £4.8m resulting in a cumulative deficit of £11.3m for 2021/22.   This was a deteriorating position and the predicted deficit position at the end of 2022/23 was around £19m. The deficit would sit on the Council’s balance sheet as an unusable reserve and be carried forward against future DSG income.  However currently the legislation enabling this to happen would expire at the end of 2022/23.

•                 High Needs funding and deficits were a national problem and the Government had recently issued a Green Paper for SEND. To address the future sustainability the DfE was investing a one-off £85m over three years in the Delivering Better Value in SEND (DBV) programme. This would support 55 local authorities with deficits to reform their high needs systems, addressing the underlying issues that lead to increased pressure, and putting them on a more sustainable footing. Worcestershire was one of the 55 Local Authorities and was participating in the DBV programme which was being supported by Newton Europe and CIPFA.  For information Authorities with the highest deficits would participate in the safety valve intervention programme. 

•                 Worcestershire was confirmed in Phase 1 - tranche 2, which would start in January to June 2023.  The Panel would be kept updated on any developments regarding the expected expiry of the legislation next year.

•                 WCF’s Outturn at the end of 2021/22 was an underspend of £51k, so effectively a break-even position. This was a good performance, as a result of the £3m savings target having been achieved as part of the 2021/budget.

•                 The WCF external audit had been completed at the end of June. The WCF Risk, Governance and Audit Board would meet in early July to review the accounts and sign them off, and the financial results would be fed through to the Council’s Group accounts.

Responding to Members’ questions, the Director of Resources agreed to provide:

·       The costs of the legal fees for SEND and

·       Clarification on the details of the CSC Safeguarding budget on the Outturn figures.

Performance Information

The Director of Early Help, Children in Need and Family Front Door (FFD) gave an overview of the key points relating to the Social Care data.

·       Pressure on contacts and referrals to the FFD had remained consistent. This situation was being monitored closely to check what the ongoing trend would be and demand with partners was also being reviewed to see whether the trends were similar.

·       The Director was concerned at the end of Quarter 4 with the fluctuations in the Social Work assessment data, although this situation was replicated in other local authorities. A deep dive  ...  view the full minutes text for item 540.

(Indicative timing: 11.50am – 12 noon)

The Panel reviewed its current work programme, which as part of the overall Scrutiny Work Programme had been to the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Board the previous week, then forwarded to Council on 14 July for approval. 

The Chairman advised that in liaison with Officers he would look at dates that the outstanding items on the work programme could be fitted in to meetings in the year ahead.

A Member requested that the school nurse service be added to the work programme, in terms of what the current service provided and what the plans and aspirations were for the future. The Director of Early Help commented that the service was provided by Public Health but suggested that the scope of the report be widened to include Emotional and Well Being Practitioners. The Panel agreed to add this item to the Work Programme, covering both services.