Venue: County Hall, Worcester
Contact: Alyson Grice/Alison Spall Overview & Scrutiny Officers
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Apologies and Welcome Minutes: There were no apologies for absence received. |
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Declaration of Interest and of any Party Whip Minutes: None. |
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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 22 February 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: A summary of the key points made by the public participants at the meeting were as follows:
Debra Lamont
Dr Karen Nokes
· Dr Nokes asked whether in light of the findings by Ofsted in their recent inspection report, an independent body would be appointed to assist Worcestershire County Council (the Council) and Worcestershire Children First (WCF) to ensure that they acted lawfully as public bodies and workedconstructively with parents in so doing. · She outlined her experiences over the last 4 years in which she had been forced to go to mediation twice to secure an EHCP for her son. When the named school couldn’t meet her son’s needs (which the school had advised) further legal action had been instigated. Dr Nokes believed that WCF had misled her family, their lawyer and the tribunal over a period of many weeks. Ultimately WCF had conceded that the allocated school could not meet their son’s needs. This long process had resulted in their son missing out on 6 months of schooling, which she felt was shameful.
Asher MacKenzie-Wilson
Rowan Winchester
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Confirmation of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting (previously circulated)
Minutes: The Minutes of the Meeting held on 11 January 2022 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.
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Additional documents:
Minutes: In attendance for this item were:
· Marcus Hart, Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for Education
The Panel was asked to consider an update on the outcome of the Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) Special Education Needs revisit in Worcestershire which took place between 1 and 3 November 2021. The visit took place to decide whether sufficient progress had been made in addressing each of the twelve areas of significant weakness detailed in the inspection report letter published on 16 May 2018.
Sufficient progress had been made in addressing eight of the significant weaknesses identified at the initial inspection and four significant weaknesses remained. As an outcome of the revisit inspection, the DfE (Department for Education) and NHSE (NHS England) required an Accelerated Progress Plan (APP) to demonstrate how remaining areas of weaknesses would be addressed.
At the Chairman’s invitation, the CMR Education addressed the Panel and in doing so welcomed the public speakers who had spoken so passionately about their concerns regarding the Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) Service. The CMR gave the assurance that he was listening and that there was a relentless drive to get things right. He acknowledged that substantial progress had been made across eight of the areas of weakness following the last Ofsted/CQC visit. However, he also acknowledged the importance of the considerable work still required across the other four key areas of significant weakness, where insufficient progress had been made. There was an acceptance that greater inclusion in mainstream schools was needed across the County; although some schools were demonstrating very good practice, others had work to do. In 2021, the CMR advised that nearly 100% of EHCP’s had been achieved within target, although they needed to be of sufficient and robust quality and the actions identified needed to be being carried out. The CMR was committed to ensuring that this took place.
The CMR provided reassurance that he was committed to ‘getting it right’ and undertook to ensure that cultural issues were addressed. He believed that the number of cases going to tribunals should be the exception and acknowledged the fragile relationships with parents/carers and was in no doubt that there was much work to be done.
In terms of funding, the overall level of resources provided for SEND provision in next year’s budget had increased by £200k. Previously in 2019, an additional £600k had been allocated to SEND which had enabled an additional 17 posts to be created. The funding for those posts had been continued in the base budget since 2019. With regard to the staffing situation within the SEND Team, the CMR accepted that there had been some recent movement of staff, but he stressed that he had every confidence in the professionals who continued within the ... view the full minutes text for item 517. |
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Worcestershire Children First Independent Fostering Service Ofsted Inspection PDF 275 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: In attendance for this item were:
Andy Roberts, Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for Children and Families Tina Russell, Chief Executive, Worcestershire Children First (WCF) and Director of Children’s Services Maria White, Assistant Director Permanency, Care Proceedings, Fostering and Adoption, WCF Sharon Hurley, Registered Manager – Interim, Worcestershire Children First Independent Fostering Agency (WCFF) Susan Fletcher, Kinship Team Manager, WCFF Carol Barker, Mainstream Team Manager, WCFF Alison Williams, Recruitment and Retention Lead, WCFF
The Panel received a report on the WCF first independent Fostering Inspection Report, for the Inspection carried out in September 2021. The CMR reminded the Panel that Fostering Services were previously part of the Council, but when WCF was formed, the fostering services were required to form as an independent Fostering Agency, and therefore were subject to a separate Ofsted inspection.
The Assistant Director introduced the Team and provided background to the establishment of the WCF independent fostering agency (WCFF), registered on 1 October 2019. In December 2020, Ofsted had carried out an assurance visit and had found no serious or widespread concerns. Following this, in September 2021 a full inspection had taken place, and the outcome was an overall inspection judgement of ‘Requires improvement to be Good’. The inspection report had included 9 requirements and 4 recommendations that needed to be addressed for WCFF to improve.
The Assistant Director explained that a Fostering Service Improvement Plan had been developed to address the requirements and recommendations of the inspection report. The level 1 plan set out a ‘plan on a page’ and featured 7 different workstreams and included links to the relevant fostering regulations and national standards, whilst the level 2 plan included more detail and milestone activity and measures to be achieved in each area. Each of the workstreams would be progressed by a working group, led by a Fostering Team Manager, and the Panel was updated on the actions that had already been completed in the plan. The Panel was assured that those people directly involved in the fostering process such as children, young people, carers, and staff were included in the workstream activity.
Members were then invited to ask questions and the following is a summary of the questions and responses provided:
· In response to a Member query about how the situation had arisen that Managers were not ensuring that sufficient attention was given to the matching of children to foster carers, the Assistant Director advised that the matching process was being refreshed to ensure that both the specific needs of children and the evidence providing assurance that foster carers could meet their needs, were being carefully reviewed and recorded. Although, much of this work was already being done, a weakness had been identified in capturing and demonstrating this on the matching report. In response to a follow-up question, the Chief Executive highlighted the importance in regulated settings for evidence to be recorded. A system was being developed whereby social workers and other professionals could record activities without it being too burdensome. · A Member ... view the full minutes text for item 518. |
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Additional documents: Minutes: The following additions to the work programme were agreed:
· Regular progress updates on the SEND Accelerated progress plan (including RAG ratings) · An update on the WCFF Fostering service following the Ofsted re-inspection later this year. |