Meeting documents
Venue: Mezzanine Room 1, County Hall, Aylesbury. View directions
Contact: Sarah Hawkswood
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Note | No. | Item |
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Apologies for absence Additional documents: Minutes: Apologies were received from Mr David Babb and Mr Brian Roberts. |
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Declarations of Interest To declare any Personal or Dislosable Pecuniary Interests. Additional documents: Minutes: There were no declarations of interest. |
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Minutes of the meeting held on 27th March 2018. Additional documents: Minutes: The minutes of the last meeting of the Committee, held on 27th March 2018 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman. |
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Public Questions Public Questions is an opportunity for people who live, work or study in the county to put a question to a Scrutiny Committee about any issue that has an impact on their local community or the county as a whole.
Members of the public, who have given prior notice, will be invited to put their question in person.
The Cabinet Member and responsible officers will then be invited to respond.
Further information and details on how to register can be found through the following link and by then clicking on ‘Public Questions’.
http://democracy.buckscc.gov.uk/mgCommitteeDetails.aspx?ID=788 Additional documents: Minutes: There were no public questions. |
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Chairman's Report For the chairman of the Committee to provide an update to the Committee on recent scrutiny related activity. Additional documents: Minutes: The Chairman informed the Committee that evidence gathering was continuing on the Permanent Exclusions Inquiry. |
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Committee Member Updates For members of the Committee to update the Committee on any issue they are investigating on behalf of the Committee. Additional documents: Minutes: Mr G Williams and a few of the members met with the Head of Educational Psychology Service and discussed some of the preliminary findings from the exclusion inquiry. Mr Williams congratulated the Educational Psychology Service team on how they dealt with the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) plans.
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10.45am |
Cabinet Member Question Time PDF 400 KB For the Committee to ask Cabinet Members questions on current issues for their portfolios. I. Mr M Appleyard, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills II. Mr W Whyte, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services
Additional documents: Minutes: The Chairman welcomed Mr M Appleyard, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, Mr T Vouyioukas, Executive Director for Children’s Services, Miss S Callaghan, Service Director, Education, and Ms G Hancock, Interim Service Director Children’s Social Care, to the meeting.
Mr W Whyte informed the committee that the current week was the start of the Foster Care Fortnight and that he was grateful to the Council and the committee for their help with publicity.
The Cabinet Member also highlighted that one of the Council’s Children’s Homes had recently been rated ‘good’ by OFSTED.
Members sought clarification and assurance on the following: · The timing of the new consultation process for the Early Help Service in light of the decision to not go ahead with the previous decision following a legal challenge. · The length of time it would take before a decision was taken on future Children’s Homes.
In response, it was explained that: · A new consultation on an Early Help Service would be take place in the Autumn, after a pre-consultation engagement phase. The new service is aimed to go live in September 2019. · There would be a pre consultation on the Children’s Homes at the start of summer. The new service would go live in September 2019.
Ofsted Update Members raised questions in regard to the following: · The deliverability of the current action plan given that a new senior management team had only recently been put in place. · The timing of when a further OFSTED inspection would be expected. · The staff morale within the service in light of the Ofsted rating and actions to address this. · Actions to measure and monitor improvements in preparation for the next OFSTED inspection. · An update was requested in regard to the Safeguarding Services Realignment work which was set out in the update report.
In response, Mr Whyte and Mr Vouyioukas explained the following: · The team working on the OFSTED report were all competent and experienced. The high level plan was presented to Cabinet. · The Council has no timeline for a future Ofsted Inspection. · Frontline staff were engaged in further developing actions to improving services. · The pace of improvement works is picking up and 75% of the findings are currently being actioned. · The Council is reporting on progress to the Improvement Board chaired by the commissioner, this is referred to on page 115 of the report. · The Safeguarding Services Realignment work has been implemented successfully. Everything has happened that was planned, with the staff reporting that the new alignment is helping them practise better. The changes introduced were co-produced with the first line staff and managers.
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11.15am |
Education Standards PDF 431 KB For the Committee to consider an overview of education standards across the County for 2017 and information about the National Funding Formula.
Contributors:
Additional documents: Minutes: The Chairman welcomed Mr M Appleyard, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, and Ms S Callaghan, Service Director, Education, to the meeting.
Ms Callaghan discussed the presentation and report on Education Standards Report.
The Committee raised the following issues and questions::
In response it was explained that:
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11.45am |
Elective Home Education PDF 696 KB For the Committee to review an update on elective home education in Buckinghamshire.
Contributors:
Additional documents: Minutes: The Chairman welcomed Mr M Appleyard, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills to the meeting.
Mr Appleyard briefed the Committee on the issues of the outsourced public service delivery for transport between Marlow and Wycombe. The service provider informed parents they had considered terminating their service without informing the Council beforehand which caused unnecessary concern. Mr Appleyard advised that the Council would communicate the business requirements of the Council with the service provider.
Mr W Whyte informed the Committee that the current week was the start of Private Fostering Week. Following his appointment in March 2018, our commissioner, John Coughlan has completed his 3 month review of Children’s Services. The commissioner has submitted his recommendations to the Department for Education and the outcome will be shared once received. In addition, OFSTED had visited the Council to complete the first monitoring visit following the November 2017 inspection and will publish their findings in early August. .
The following questions were asked and responses provided.
ACTION: Mr Vouyioukas
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12.15pm |
Looked After Children: Child Sexual Exploitation and Safety PDF 511 KB For Members to consider an update summary of safeguarding actions, arrangements and protocols for looked after children and young people in Bucks.
Contributors:
· Mr Warren Whyte. Cabinet Member for Children’s Services · Mr T Vouyioukas, Executive Director of Children’s Services · Ms G Hancock, Children’s Services Additional documents: Minutes: The Chairman welcomed back Mr Whyte to discuss an update summary of safeguarding actions, arrangements and protocols for looked after children and young people in Bucks.
From the report the following issues were raised:
The following responses were provided:
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12.40pm |
Ofsted Update - Action Plan Progress PDF 242 KB For the Committee to receive an update on progress against the Ofsted Action Plan approved by Cabinet on 19th February 2018.
Contributors:
Additional documents: Minutes: This agenda item was brought forward and discussed under Agenda item 7 as detailed above.
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1pm |
Committee Work Programme PDF 99 KB For the Committee to note forthcoming agenda items. Additional documents: Minutes: The Chairman informed Members that the Permanent Exclusion Inquiry was due to report to the Committee in July with its draft report The HASC Committee would report on the transition from childhood to adulthood.
The Meeting on the 5th June had been cancelled.
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Date of Next Meeting To note the next meeting of the Children’s Social Care and Learning Select Committee on 5th June 2018 at 3pm. Additional documents: Minutes: The next meeting would be held on the 10th July in Mezz 1
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