Meeting documents

Cabinet is asked to note (a) the national and local developments across Children’s Services, and (b) the programme of work taking place to further improve Children’s Services in Buckinghamshire.

Mr W Whyte, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services introduced the update report and made reference to the following:

• The report included updates from Children’s Social Care and Education and Skills
• The ongoing Early Help consultation closed on 13 December.
• The sufficiency of places for Looked After Children was highlighted and the creation of 4 new residential homes within Buckinghamshire and focus on in house foster placements. 
• The first Children’s Short Breaks Strategy for the Council had been developed in partnership with Adult Services, the Clinical Commissioning Group and FACT Bucks (Bucks Parent Carer Forum) and was currently out for consultation until
• Significant work had been and continued to be undertaken as part of the Ofsted Improvement Plan and an Ofsted visit was planned for that week to look particularly at children subject to protection plans.  The Improvement Plan had now evolved into phase 2.
• The Children in Need audit review and work looking at particular cases.  Placement at home with parent arrangements had been reviewed and resolved.
• Ongoing focus on the Workforce Strategy and recruitment. 

Mr T Vouyioukas, Executive Director for Children’s Services also attended the meeting to answer any questions from Cabinet.  Mr Vouyioukas highlighted the following points:

• Phase 2 of the Improvement Plan and the improvement in quality of standards and practice.

• Highlighted the Early Help consultation and the importance of getting it right.
• The Side by Side project working with local schools.

Cabinet raised and discussed the following points:

• There was a sense of pace within the improvement plan but ensuring work was still being carried out in a safe and secure way ensuring sustainable change. 
• The high caseload of social workers and if the current recruitment supported this or if increase of target total workforce was needed.
• The importance of working with district colleagues on the Homelessness Strategy.
• The Ofsted Improvement Plan was still a top priority of the Council.
• Still concerns in the increase of Looked After Children and the time taken to introduce children into the service and complete health checks.  Mr Whyte thanked Mr Brown for his work on the Corporate Parenting Panel and stated that they were improving health assessments for those entering the service and those that had been with them for some time.  

Mr M Appleyard, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills highlighted the following points in relation to his portfolio within the report:

• The importance of identifying areas where improvements could still be made.
• Buckinghamshire had a greater number of exclusions than the national average and work had been ongoing to introduce the Side by Side school led model of improvement to help support secondary schools that did not yet have a good or outstanding Ofsted rating. Support was given to these schools by the deployment of the best teachers and senior leaders from other secondary schools in the county and has been running since April 2018.
• GCSE results were similar to others across the country and 89% of pupils attend a school with a rating of good or outstanding with 91% of schools being rated good or above.
• Early years were high performing in terms of provision for early year’s children.

RESOLVED: Cabinet NOTED the report.