Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Nathan Desmond, Tony Muir and Tim Reid (Co-opted Church Representative for education matters).

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 6 July 2023).  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.

(Indicative timing: 10.05 – 10.45am)

In attendance for this item:

Independent Chair of the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Partnership (WSCP)

Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Children and Families

Chief Executive, Worcestershire Children First (WCF) and Director of Children’s Services, Worcestershire County Council

Director of Early Help, Children in Need and Family Front Door

The Independent Chairman of the WSCP introduced the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Partnership (WSCP) Annual Report for 2021 – 2022 (reporting period October 2021 to September 2022). The key areas of the Report were summarised and the Panel was advised that the reporting period had been about laying the groundwork for changes to the child protection system in England following the serious and tragic deaths of Star Hobson and Arthur Labinjo-Hughes. Further, in May 2022 Josh MacAlister’s independent review of children’s social care was published.

A number of other reports had been published in this period which carried potential learning for all safeguarding children’s partnerships:

• The Solihull Joint Targeted Area Inspection (JTAI) report (February 2022)
• The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Telford (July 2022)
• The final Report from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in October 2022.

The Independent Chair summarised the areas of focus for WSCP for  2021 – 2022 as detailed in the Report.

During the opportunity for discission and questions, the following main points were made:

• It was clarified that the national definition of Children in Need (CIN) included all children that had a social work plan including child protection, looked after children and CIN. Locally, the definition of CIN was split down to children in need of a support plan, child protection plan or care plan.

• A Member expressed concerns about the relationship between the Police and young people and how trust could be built. The example was given about the recent incident in Cardiff where two young people had died on e-bikes. The Independent Chair of the WSCP advised that whilst unable to comment specifically on the ongoing investigation of the Cardiff case, the relationship between the Police and young people was a longstanding issue and needed to improve. The Police Community Safety Officer model was helpful as was working with schools and summer activity clubs for example. There would however always be some hard to reach groups.
• The Chief Executive of WCF reinforced the value of the GET SAFE approach and ensuring that all partners were aware of and engaged with GET SAFE.
• In response to a member question about whether Quality Assurance Practice and Procedures Group multi-agency audits had highlighted a consistent approach from all the agencies, it was confirmed that there had been consistency and strong understanding from all agencies about the expectations around when a child protection process should be used. Learning from these audits had been published showing the systems in place were strong.
• In response to a question regarding timely information sharing and if this could be improved, the Panel was advised that audits had shown that information was being shared appropriately at the right time  ...  view the full minutes text for item 593.

(Indicative timing: 10.45 – 11.25am)

In attendance for this item:

Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Children and Families

Chief Executive, WCF and Director of Children’s Services, Worcestershire County Council

Director of Early Help, Children in Need and Family Front Door

The Panel considered an update on developments relating to the Independent Care Review and how this was being approached within WCF.

The Chief Executive, WCF introduced the report and referred to the presentation slides included in the agenda pack. Children’s Social Care reform: Stable homes, built on love was published in February 2023 having been commissioned by the Government to take a fundamental look at Children’s social care and understand how to transform it to better support the most vulnerable children and families.

The review was the largest review of systems for some time. The reforms were set out under 6 pillars and identified a range of further consultations and pilots as part of a phased implementation over two years. The Chief Executive, WCF explained where Worcestershire was at in respect of each of 6 Pillars (detailed in the presentation slides included in the agenda pack). The 6 pillars were:

·       Pillar 1 – Family Help – To provide the right support at the right time so children can thrive with their families.

·       Pillar 2 – A decisive multi-agency child protection system.

·       Pillar 3 – Unlocking the potential of family networks.

·       Pillar 4 – Putting love, relationships and stable home at the heart of being a child in care.

·       Pillar 5 – A valued, supported and highly skilled social worker for every child who needs one.

·       Pillar 6 – A system that continuously learns and improves and makes better use of evidence and data.

During the discussion, the following main points were made:

·       A Member referred to Pillar 2 and the Specialist Child Protection role (final detail yet to be determined) and questioned if it was needed.  The Chief Executive was concerned that this specialist role could result in the knowledge and expertise being contained in one area and not spread across the whole of the child protection system.  However, this would be re-proved by being tested out with the Families First Pathfinders.

·       A Member asked about the progress made with regard to the recruitment of Social Workers. Although data was not available at this meeting, the Chief Executive, WCF suggested that there were approximately 40 social worker vacancies. However, during Q1-2022, there had been an increase in the number of Social Workers leaving the organisation as two neighbouring authorities were offering agency workers £50 per hour and WCF was not able to compete with this and staff had therefore moved for better wages. Government had recently carried out a consultation on Child and Family Social Worker Workforce and was due to report back in September – this report was awaited.

·       The CMR for Education stated that all social care reviews had a financial element and recommended the Panel contacted Government Ministers to obtain help for funding. 

·       In terms of lobbying Government, the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 594.

(Indicative timing: 11.25 - 11.55am)

In attendance for this item:

The Cabinet Members with Responsibility for Children and Families and Education

The Chief Financial Officer

Interim Director of Resources, WCF

Chief Executive, WCF and Director of Children’s Services, Worcestershire County Council

Director of Early Help, Children in Need and Family Front Door

Budget Monitoring

The Panel received the budget monitoring 2022/23 – outturn period 12 and were provided with an overview of the Councils outturn position for 2022/23 which had been presented to Cabinet on 29 June 2023.

The Chief Finance Officer explained the presentation included in the Agenda pack and in doing so highlighted that:

• There was a net over-spend of £7.3 million for the Council on a £373.2 million budget. The over-spend was in all demand led areas – Adult Social Care, Children’s Social Care and Home to School Transport and would be funded by a planned transfer from reserves.
• The Dedicated Schools Grant year-end position was overspent by £8.9m with a cumulative deficit of £20.3m at the end of 2022/23, the deficit position at the end of 2023/24 was predicted to be around £28m.
• The full-year WCF budget was currently £138m of which over half was the ‘demand led’ budgets for Placements and Home to School Transport.  WCF was overspent by £6.5m which included a net overspend of £5.3m for Home to School
• Delivering Better Value In SEND – 55 authorities had opted to be part of this initiative which had given valuable insight engaging with other local authorities and shown that Worcestershire was doing good things with other authorities in more difficult positions. Projections going forward showed there would be a gap in Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). As the gap would continue to grow it was expected the Government needed to do something about that.

During the discussion, the following main points were made:

• The report on the Home to School Transport review was scheduled for the September meeting of the Panel.
• The CMR for Education explained that Home to School Transport was currently being reviewed and would include both the statutory and discretionary services. It was hoped that by September there would be some information with options to mitigate some issues.
• The Panel was advised that the overspend on all age disability would be managed through additional funding that had been allocated this year. The CCN report showed an overspend by many councils in Childrens Services which were still recovering post Covid.

Performance Monitoring

During the opportunity for questions, the following main points were noted:

• A Member questioned why the OFSTED performance data showed that some schools performance had gone from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’.  The Chief Executive, WCF explained that there could be a number a reasons including the length of time between inspections or attendance issues.  The CMR further explained that the School Improvement Team looked at each school individually to establish why performance had reduced. It was agreed to provide the Panel with a detailed report.
• A Member referred to page 79 of the Agenda (Number  ...  view the full minutes text for item 595.

(Indicative timing: 11.55am – 12.05pm)

The Panel reviewed the Work Programme and agreed that the Chairman would discuss with Officers whether all of the issues on the Work Programme were still relevant.

It was agreed that Children Missing Education would be scheduled for the September meeting.