Meeting documents

i) Cabinet Member for Education and Skills

Including an update on the drafting of the new SEND strategy

ii) Cabinet Member for Children’s Services

Mrs J Teesdale, Deputy Cabinet Member for Children’s Services provided an update on the following:

• Ms Aarushi Bahl who had attended County Council on 24 November 2016 had now joined the Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire Youth Parliament and she wished to congratulate her.
• There had been a second Ofsted visit between 30 November and 1 December 2016 and a verbal summary of initial findings had been provided. A letter would be received from Ofsted in due course. The initial feedback noted:

Ø  There was evidence that Social Workers knew children well and they had good relationships.

Ø  There was a clear commitment to keep children at the centre of what Children’s Services did.

Ø  Clear management oversight and supervision

Ø  Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs) were good advocates for children.

Ø  There was progress on the timeliness and quality of health assessments.

Ø  Social Workers were seeing children regularly.

Ø  Assessments for Looked after Children still needed to be updated regularly.

Ø  Public Law Outline meetings and Court tracker needed to be used consistently.

Ø  Legal services needed to provide a more timely and efficient service to all children.

Ø  Interviews with children returning from going missing needed to be more timely with greater management oversight.

Committee Members also congratulated Ms Aarushi Bahi on her appointment to the Youth Parliament.

In response to Members’ questions Mr D Johnston, Managing Director – Children’s Social Care and Learning Business Unit made the following points:

• The written response from Ofsted’s findings would arrive on 10 January 2017 and would be forwarded on to the Committee.

ACTION: Mr D Johnston

• A small amount of funding was needed from across the whole Council to help support the Youth Parliament at the national level.
• There were still elements of children’s services that needed to improve but three of these could be dealt with quickly as they were processing issues.
• A child entering the social care system started with the First Response Team and moved to the Children in Need Team. Every effort was made to ensure that the same Social Worker remained with the child throughout the process; however, there were occasions when this might not be possible.

Mr Johnston was told of compliments received by Members from families involved with Social Care as to how their cases had turned around with new systems in place.

Mr Z Mohammed, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills provided an update on the following:

• The Council was awaiting the second stage of the National Funding Formula consultation.
• Buckinghamshire schools had been mentioned specifically in a report by Sir Michael Wilshaw, Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Service and Skills.   Highcrest School was noted for identifying and tracking the progress of the most able pupils and Bradley Taylor, Headteacher of Chiltern Gate Schools was recognised as an exceptional leader.
• There would be a grading change for GCSEs from the current ‘ABCD’ system onto "Progress 8" measures.
• The Council had lobbied hard in respect of the National Funding Formula and was optimistic as to what funding would be received. Buckinghamshire had one of the lowest funded secondary schools per pupil in the country at £4,000 per year; the lowest in Tower Hamlets by comparison was £7600 per pupil.

It was agreed that the Chairman write to Nick Gibb MP, Education Minister to invite him to speak to the Committee.

ACTION: Mr D Dhillon, Chairman