Meeting documents

Cabinet are asked to agree the five recommendations as set out in the report.

Mr T Vouyioukas, Executive Director for Children’s Services, Ms S Callaghan, Service Director for Education, Ms S Turnbull, Early Help Programme Manager, and Mr G Morgan, Head of Early Help, attended the meeting to answer member questions.

Mr Whyte, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, took members through the report included in the agenda pack.  Mr Whyte made reference to the Cabinet Member report, the consultation findings, the Early Help Strategy (a partnership document setting out the policy and strategy for delivering Early Help co-signed by the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and all stakeholders), the proposed new service ‘Family Support Service’, the family centre site location report and the completed quality impact assessment.

Mt Whyte highlighted the following points:

• Cabinet were being asked to agree the new Early Help service, to be called the Family Support Service.
• Children’s Services were on a road to improvement and the early help review was an important part of the process.
• There had been a lengthy consultation process which had included six public sessions resulting in improved offers from the draft proposal.
• The new Family Support Service would be an integrated service working in partnership with key stakeholders.
• There had been an increase from 14 proposed centres in the draft proposal to 16 ensuring there was still a physical presence in local communities.
• The centres would provide a wide range of professional advice and services able to respond to issues in the community.
• There would be a named link officer for each school.

• There would be improvements to the Buckinghamshire Family Information Services.

Mr T Vouyioukas also highlighted that:

• The model was based on helping families to identify their needs early.
• The existing offer was not reaching the right families at the right time and there had been an increase in the number of vulnerable families and children needing support.  Mr Vouyioukas stated that it was not just about the physical presence of a building but ensuring the right professional support was available at the right time.
• The consultation had been over a 10 week period.
• Mr Vouyioukas thanked colleagues across health, schools and the voluntary sector for their contribution to the strategy.

Cabinet raised and discussed the following points:

• Following a question from Mr Tett, Mr Whyte confirmed that public health services currently provided at the centres would remain accessible.  Mr Brown, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Public Health, added that contracts for those services were for three years and would continue and work in conjunction with the family centres.  Mr Vouyioukas confirmed that public health services to support families were commissioned by the council; with approximately £7.6 million per annum spend.  These services were not in-scope of the review.
• Mr Brown supported the review and highlighted the importance of intervening early in a child’s life and Mr Whyte confirmed that only 5% of those accessing the children’s centres had an identified need for support which meant that some children were being reached too late.
• Mr Chilver supported the proposal and the suggestion to change to family centres.  Mr Chilver highlighted t improvements to the family information website which was critical to ensure access to reliable and key information and wanted assurances that the council’s digital team were involved.  Mr Morgan confirmed that there had been regular dialogue with the digital team and the focus was on improving self-service.
• Mr Chilver wanted assurances that the council were fully engaged with town and parish councils on the suggested alternative uses of those sites no longer being used as centres and the need to ensure local members were kept informed.  Ms Turnbull confirmed that there had been regular engagement with parish and town councils and local members.
• Ms Turnbull also stated that there was no risk of clawback from central government in relation to the Surestart grants given for a number of children centres as there was no overall change in usage as those buildings were intended for continuing early years use.
• Ms Turnbull confirmed that if the recommendations were agreed the next step would be further engagement to finalise lease arrangements.  Written updates would be provided to members.. 
• It was highlighted that the new model would focus more on reaching those that were in need and more accessible as the new model provided more options for them to engage with the service.
• Members made reference to the strength of the Early Help Strategy and the importance of early intervention.  Lin Hazell highlighted that too many children were receiving support too late in life.  There had been an increase in children in need, high protection plans and looked after children. 
• It was highlighted that change could not wait until the new council was in place; it would be unlikely that the new council would have additional money.  Reference was made to county council’s that had already made similar changes and the success of those, which Bucks were taking key learnings from.
• Members highlighted the excellent goal of the new service with named link officers to ensure service users would only need to tell their story once.
• Mr Whyte and officers were thanked for their thorough report and residents were thanked for their feedback as part of the consultation. 
• Mr Whyte thanked the team for their work and urged people to read appendix 3 ‘Proposed design for the new Family Support Service, which was an easy to read accessible document setting out what would be delivered. 
• The Leader asked to convey Cabinet’s thanks to all those that had worked on the review

The report set out the following recommendations:

1. To agree the Early Help Strategy as set out in Appendix 2.
2. To agree to establish an integrated Family Support Service that will assist children and families to deal with difficulties as early as possible, and reduce the need for statutory social care (see Appendix 3).
3. To agree to retaining 16 children’s centres across the county for early years provision (as set out in Appendix 4), with the buildings also available for additional use to support families with children 0-19 (up to 25 for children with special educational needs or disabilities). These sites will be renamed as family centres to reflect their wider support role.
4. To agree to close 19 children’s centres as listed in Appendix 4, and ensure their continuing use for early years and community benefit.
5. To agree to give delegated authority to the Executive Director for Children’s Services, following consultation with the Executive Director for Resources, Cabinet Members for Children’s Services and Resources, to:
   1. authorise changes in lease agreements for those children’s centres to be closed, including agreeing the final use for such buildings;
   2. authorise further changes in the location of the premises of children’s centres if required, subject to those changes being in accordance with the Early Help Strategy, and following a consultation on the proposals.

RESOLVED:  Cabinet AGREED the recommendations.