Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Cllrs Diana Blamires, Susan Lewin, Caroline Jones and Paul Turner.

• Cllrs Bates, Clarke, Darby, Hussain and Osibogun all declared a personal interest as a school governor. 
• Tony Wilson declared a personal interest as a trustee of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire School Trust.

Cllr Sophie Kayani declared a personal interest as an employee at Bourne End Academy and a Policy Advisor for the Dyspraxia Foundation.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the committee held on 15^th June 2023.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 15^th June 2023 were agreed as a correct record.

It was agreed that the information that had been circulated to members at nos. 12,13 and 14 on the Minutes Action Addendum would be shared with Cllr Hussain who had recently rejoined the Select Committee.

ACTION: Scrutiny Manager

The Chairman invited the Cabinet Member, Cllr Anita Cranmer to make a statement at the start of the meeting in connection with the recent RAAC concrete issues in schools, which had been reported in the national press.  The Cabinet Member reported that there were three schools in Buckinghamshire which were impacted by the concerns about the safety of RAAC concrete – Waddesdon Church of England Secondary School, St Joseph’s Catholic Primary and St Michael’s Catholic School.  Fortunately, none of the three schools had serious or widespread issues. For example, at Waddesdon the problem was restricted to the school’s restaurant area, so children have not been significantly impacted. Whilst the Council was not responsible for the maintenance of academy or faith school’s buildings, the Council was responsible for ensuring that children can access education so officers had been working with schools to try and ensure that remote learning would only be implemented as a last resort.

The Cabinet Member ended by thanking all the officers and headteachers who had been working hard to resolve these issues ahead of term starting.  Committee Members had some questions for the Cabinet Member and the main points were as follows:

• A Member who represents the ward where St Michael’s is located noted that there had been ongoing issues with a planning issue at the school over the past year and they were disappointed that officers had not kept them informed of developments, as both a local member and a corporate parent.
• Gareth Drawmer explained that as a voluntary aided school of the Catholic Diocese of Northampton, St Michael’s Catholic School was responsible for the upkeep of its estate, although in the past year the school had transferred into a Catholic Academies Trust.  Surveys had shown that there was a structural issue in part of the school, which was closely monitored until it reached a stage, in the autumn term, where it was considered to be unsafe. At that point, the Council liaised with the school, the Trust and the Diocese to ensure that the education of the children would be able to continue and fortunately Stokenchurch Community Centre was able to offer a space at short notice which enabled children to have their lessons there.  The school’s own Communications Officer liaised with local members at the time.
• Officers were thanked for their support to the Headteachers concerned.  It was noted that there may be other schools who might be affected in future and a member asked if all schools had been surveyed and the survey results shared with the Council.  It was reported that all maintained schools had been surveyed and that there were a small number of Academies  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Public Questions is an opportunity for people who live, work or study in Buckinghamshire to put a question to a Select Committee. The Committee will hear from members of the public who have submitted questions in advance relating to items on the agenda. The Cabinet Member, relevant key partners and responsible officers will be invited to respond.

Further information on how to register can be found here: https://www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/your-council/get-involved-with-council-decisions/select-committees/

There were none.

For the Select Committee to consider the Placement Sufficiency Strategy which sets out the aims of the department to provide places for children in care.

Contributors:

Cllr Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services and Education

Richard Nash, Service Director – Children’s Social Care

Sandra Carnell, Head of Children’s Care Service

The Chairman welcomed Cllr Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services and Richard Nash, Service Director - Children’s Social Care to the meeting.  Richard Nash explained that he wanted to provide the Select Committee with an update on the placement sufficiency strategy in light of national challenges around placements.  The following main points were noted:

• The number of children looked after (CLA) in Buckinghamshire had remained relatively stable at around 500 over the past five years although it was important to recognise that children were coming in and out of care all the time
• The report set out a variety of CLA data sets, a number of significant challenges for the service and the priorities for the future in terms of tackling these challenges.

The Chairman invited members’ questions.  In response to questions and during subsequent discussions, the following main points were noted:

-          Changes to the context and demand for placements can be rapid.  –

-          It can take up to 6 to 8 weeks to find an appropriate placement for a young person and during this time the temporary situation is managed as best as possible, while intensive work is undertaken on a case by case basis.

-          It is possible to help children with complex needs by supporting them with stability and supportive relationships.  Some placements which were created when there was no alternative have been very successful. We intend to expand the number of places in children’s homes ensuring the appropriate level of staffing and numbers of beds.

-          Our children’s homes are staffed at the correct level but it is getting harder to recruit all the related professional staff for several national and economic reasons.

-          For younger children we prefer foster carers. There are some foster carers in Buckinghamshire that are fostering children who come from outside the area. Trying to attract foster carers is very important and various methods are used to do so including social media, all staff briefings. You would need a spare bedroom to become a foster carer. Some potential foster carers commence their training but then their personal circumstances change and their training is not completed.  The Council is proactive in recruiting and ensuring that foster carers have the full training and that they are supported strongly. The council is aware of the concept of “It takes a village to raise a child”.

-          Foster carers receive an allowance but a discussion about level of incentives to encourage foster carers is ongoing.

-          There is a fostering recruitment team which works in conjunction with the communications team to produce appropriate recruitment information.

-          The council is very aware of the greater national recognition of the placement crisis and our placement team works full time to analyse all options available nationally and even then it is often not possible to find appropriate solutions. A government paper has realised that there needs to be some grouping to tackle the issue on a locality basis but it is difficult to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

For the Select Committee to consider a progress report on the work of the Principal Social Worker during 2022/23 to promote and improve the quality of social work practice, highlight the achievements for this year and identify priorities for the coming year. 

Contributors:

Cllr Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Portfolio Holder Children’s Services and Education

Richard Nash, Service Director – Children’s Social Care

Richard Nash introduced the annual report of Amanda Andrews, our Principal Social Worker setting out work in previous year to support and promote social work practice. The role is part of the Practice  Development Team, working closely with audit and quality, as well as the work with the assisted in first year social work academy. The focus had been into the recruitment and retention of social workers, learning from audits and ensuring transfer into practice and enhances the learning of the teams. The PSW listens to the teams and disseminates good practice, so the role is a key one.

In response to Councillors’ questions the following points were made:

-          Dip samples were used to investigate single cases and would be assessed in a short time period. An audit is more a detailed investigation which is undertaken alongside a social worker and their manager.  Using both methods of checking work gives great benefits, covering a wider variety of work. The bar for meeting the grading of “good” is high. There is a direct relationship between the recruitment and retention challenges experienced and levels of social worker experience with cases not reaching the standard level of “good”. Such a case might reveal that the focus given to it did not relate strongly enough to the plan of the child in question. It would not indicate any risk to a child or not receiving a service. The team always strived to improve and the service improvement trajectory was upwards.

-          There is a structure around career progression, taking into account the needs of the service, the ambitions of the individual and the available evidence. Sometimes employees are ready to progress but may chose not to. We are looking at the whole service at the moment which will open up new opportunities. Many teams are very specialist so sometimes opportunities are limited. We encourage employees to progress.

ACTION:Richard Nash to investigate the option of

adding age and gender of newly qualified   

social workers into future reports.

-          Career progression panels meet on a regular basis. Gaining a higher salary within the same team is only possible when a vacancy occurs.

-          There are over 7000 vacancies nationally and not enough social workers so the social work academy has been expanded to address this issue. Some leavers have experienced issues relating to the cost of living crisis and moved to a less expensive area. The service assesses the overall picture at a given time and respond appropriately to this.

-          The primary service focus is about good outcomes for children and young people rather than process. Dip sampling and audit work were linked to performance monitoring. Check and challenge meetings looked at these to assess them.

-          Some candidates have stated that they are attracted to Buckinghamshire because of our well-being offer and this offer has received some awareness outside of the county. We will keep reviewing this offer to keep it relevant to current circumstances.

-          Links are made to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

For the Committee to receive an update on progress with Ofsted work and to receive the  annual engagement meeting letter from Ofsted with regards to  social care and education, 30 June 2023.

Contributors:

Cllr Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Portfolio holder for Children’s Services and Education

John Macilwraith, Corporate Director for Children’s Services

Richard Nash, Service Director Children’s Social Care

All local authorities have an annual meeting with Ofsted. At our recent Ofsted meeting, three inspectors attended and received a presentation by our Officers on the work of the department. The letter in the agenda was the response from Ofsted as an account of the meeting.

In response to Councillors comments the following points were made:

-          The Buckinghamshire Challenge work had commenced four years ago to address the issue of the attainment gap at all stages of children’s lives across Buckinghamshire. As a result of work, a project handbook had been produced for schools to use to work collaboratively with the Education Endowment Foundation to address the issues. The handbook was launched in June and communication relating to this were sent to councillors.

-          The Opportunity Bucks project has an education sub group which would ensure that information was escalated to others including to the Opportunity Bucks Boards.

-          The availability of apprenticeships would be flagged to Bucks College and Bucks Business First so that young people were aware of them and that they are accessible.

-          The January 2023 Education Standards report showed data relating to attainment. We have not yet received full information relating to all secondary schools so will be bringing outcome data of the recent academic year in January 2024.

Action: Richard Nash / Gareth Drawmer to discuss with the Corporate Director the level of information which it is possible to share relating to schools’ attainment in particular relating to the 10 wards focussed on in Opportunity Bucks

-          Buckinghamshire is a large area with diverse communities and we need to ensure services are aligned with them. In Opportunity Bucks wards there are larger numbers of pupils with the pupil premium and therefore there is more funding to use. In 187 areas, headteachers have challenge champions to go back into groups of schools to support the methodologies to reduce the attainment gap and support inclusion.

-          The gap has narrowed more at secondary level. 2022 figures were the first set of full figures since the pandemic and most authorities have seen large numbers of changes since before the pandemic. Key stage 1 and early years are a focus going forward and  there are some good indicative for the trends.

-          90% of our children are in good or outstanding schools. More are outstanding than good. Overall the standards are still high.

-          There are national issues for recruitment into teaching. Together with the teaching alliance we are encouraging recruitment fairs to help this issue. Recruitment into teaching has fallen by 30%.

-          Staff are supported with continuing professional development opportunities to further their career.

-          We have a programme to develop headteachers. There is a two year induction programme with mentoring to ensure that they are supported as they need. Headteachers also have the option of termly supervision with the educational psychologist team.  There is support for Ofsted inspections.

-          There has been a significant rise in complaints to Ofsted. This is a national  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

For the Select Committee to receive the work programme for the forthcoming year and make any suggestions thereon.

Contributors:

All Members

Katie Dover, Senior Scrutiny Officer

The Scrutiny Manager noted the items that would be coming forward to the November meeting of the Select Committee. It was further noted that the six month update of the “Review of the Pathways for Children with SEND” would come to the March committee meeting.

Suggestions for more depth work included looking at alternate provision          and also fostering children. Further ideas could be forwarded to the chairman.

The next meeting of the Select Committee will take place on Thursday 2^nd November at 2.00 p.m. in the Paralympic Room, The Gateway, Aylesbury.

2^nd November 2023 at 2pm in the Paralympic Room, The Gateway