Agenda and draft minutes
Venue: The Oculus, Buckinghamshire Council, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury HP19 8FF. View directions
Contact: Katie Dover
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Apologies for Absence Additional documents: Minutes: Apologies were received from Cllrs Adoh, Kayani, Summers and co-optees Zoe Williams and Tony Wilson
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Declarations of Interest For Committee Members to declare any personal or disclosable pecuniary interests. Additional documents: Minutes: Cllrs Bates, Blamires, Clarke, Darby, Osibogun and Turner declared a personal interest as a school governor within Buckinghamshire |
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Minutes of the Previous Meeting That the minutes of the meeting held on 13th June 2024 be confirmed as a correct record. Additional documents: Minutes: The minutes of the previous meeting held on 13th June 2024 were agreed as a correct record.
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Public Questions 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/ Additional documents: Minutes: There were no public questions received.
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Principal Social Worker Annual Report 2023-2024
Contributors: Cllr Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services Richard Nash, Service Director for Children’s Social Care Aman Sekhon-Gill, Assistant Director of Quality Assurance and Standards, Children’s Services Additional documents:
Minutes: Cabinet Member Cllr Anita Cranmer introduced the report and welcomed the officers present: · Richard Nash, Service Director for Children’s Social Care (CSC) · Aman Sekhon-Gill, Assistant Director of Quality Assurance and Standards, Children’s Services
The report was Introduced by the Assistant Director of Quality Assurance and Standards, who made the following key points: · The report concentrated on three key areas: o Quality of the service provided o Recruitment and retention of staff o The Social Work Academy and learning and development
Key headlines from the report were: · Recruitment and retention of staff continued to be a problem but had not affected the safeguarding of vulnerable children. · The team had launched “Practice Methodology”, a new approach to working with families which placed an emphasis on work relating to child trauma. · A significant number of casefile audits had been completed. · Most areas had been improved in terms of working practices. · Quality assurance work had taken place in partnership with Hampshire County Council. · The council had continued to take part in the “Step Up to Social Work” programme to encourage recruitment.
The key recommendations for the year 2024 to 2025 were outlined: · The impact of practice methodology work through quality assurance and champions groups will continue to be evidenced. · Quality assurance activity will be extended to cover generic case file auditing in addition to themed auditing. · Recruitment and retention of staff will continue to be a key area of improvement. · The workforce voice will be gathered to support highlighting areas of strength and development for the organisation. · Family feedback will be embedded into the general auditing work. The role of principal social worker had been vacant for ten months but the work had been carried out by the Assistant Director of Quality Assurance and Standards and other colleagues.
In response to Councillors’ questions several points were raised and responded to as follows:
· The high cost of living in Buckinghamshire has affected the retntion of staff to varying degrees across the council, including social workers. In order to recruit staff, connections had been made with universities via the social work academy and there had been a focus on people living in the local area who were interested in becoming social workers. Potential social workers had the opportunity to talk to practitioners about the role to gain an insight into the work. · The advertisement for the role of Principal Social Worker had attracted a huge number of applicants but none met the role criteria. Recruitment had been paused during August and the job would be re-advertised. All the statutory requirements of the role continued to be delivered. Quality assurance did not sit entirely within the Principal Social Worker post and quality practice standards had been incorporated in the service when the Locality Teams were set up. · New social workers were inducted into the role by being given a reduced caseload, were given increased supervision and were buddied up with more experienced colleagues. The work that new social workers were given was tailored to each person’s ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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For the Committee to note the plans for increasing in-house provision for looked after children and the next steps in the project.
Contributors: Cllr Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services John Macilwraith, Corporate Director for Children’s Services Joanna Baschnonga, Service Director for Major Projects, Children’s Services Additional documents: Minutes: Cabinet Member Cllr Anita Cranmer introduced the report, noting that it was an important piece of news against the background of increasing numbers of children needing care, a national lack of placements and the high cost of placements.
Cllr Cranmer welcomed the following contributors:
· Joanna Baschnonga,Service Director for Major Projects, Children’s Services · Errol Albert, Service Director, Transformation and Improvement · Michael Jarrett, Service Director, Education & Inclusion
The Service Director for Major Projects introduced the report, making the following key points:
· At the heart of this project is the national placement sufficiency crisis and the decline in the number of foster carers coming forward. Finding all placement types have become more difficult recently and the costs had increased greatly. · Some children had been living in children’s homes due to a lack of foster carers. Other children had been placed outside Buckinghamshire. · In response to these pressures, the council is developing more in-house provision at pace. In addition, a range of measures had been developed to increase the recruitment and retention of foster carers. Both programmes were launched in March 2024. · In May 2024 a package of benefits and perks for foster carers had been launched to compete with the offering of foster caring agencies. A new web site would be launched in October 2024 to elevate awareness. · Progress had been good across both initiatives, which should deliver £11 million in savings by the year 2027 to 2028.
In response to Councillors’ questions several points were raised and responded to as follows: · There had been a positive response to the offer for foster carers, with approximately 60% of foster carers taking this up. Surveys and workshops had been organised to provide information on what would be important to foster carers. Benefits such as free sports, leisure and entertainment had resulted from this consultation. A number of carers had returned to the council and 20 new foster carers were due to be approved this year. Phase 2 of the project would look at increasing the offer to foster carers, for example by involving local businesses. · The qualities which a person needed to become a foster carer were clearly set out to potential applicants, with the public web site providing a range of information to help residents understand what would be required. Most people who expressed an interest that withdrew from the process did so at an early stage when officers made the whole process very clear to potential candidates. More information about why potential fosters carer dropped out of the process would be available over the forthcoming 6 to 12 months. The process to become a foster carer was very stringent and emphasis has been focussed on communicating the right information at the right time. · The Service Director for Major Projects explained that Member engagement is key to the process of selecting and renovating properties as children’s homes. Planning consent would also be required. The council had a track record of providing high quality children’s homes and needed to engage with the local ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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Performance Monitoring Report Quarter 4 For the Committee to consider the Quarter 4 performance monitoring report that was submitted to Cabinet. Additional documents: Minutes: Cllr Anita Cranmer introduced the report and noted that the statistics reported were from the period to 1st April 2024, these would be reported to full council. The Service Director for Children’s Social Care noted that the percentage of children social care assessments completed within 45 days, the percentage of child protection conferences completed within 15 days and the percentage of children in need seen within 45 days would all be positively impacted by the transformation project which had commenced since April. He was confident that performance had improved since quarter 4. The percentage of 19/20 olds not in education, employment, or training (NEET) was an issue being investigated by both the care leavers team and the looked after children’s team. Some factors around the cost of accommodation, rates of pay and turnaround of young people into employment stopping and then returning to employment, were noted. The work would be overseen by the Corporate Parenting Panel. The Service Director for Education & Inclusion noted that work on NEET and for those young people with SEND was being addressed in partnership with other agencies. Some young people had gone onto some good opportunities. Action: Directors to report back on the work relating to those young people not in education, employment or training to future select committee. To be considered in the future Work Programme. In response to Members’ questions, it was noted that: - Work was underway with providers regarding the lack of level 1 qualifications for young people. Negotiations were underway with employers regarding the provision of supported internships to provide more locally to meet young people’s needs. - There is a 51% compliance rate of EHCPs within the 20 weeks deadline, due to the high number of requests for EHCPs following assessments. Some counties had compliance rates lower than 10% illustrating the extent of the problem. The lack of educational psychologists was a limiting factor and there are only so many that could be completed in the time frame. In the last four years there had been a 61% increase in the number of assessments required by educational psychologists. While these are waiting assessment the council ensured adequate provision for meeting the needs of young people. The wait time did not impact on them moving or on their general education but only the specificity of the measures to be put in place once an assessment was made. Exceptions (* see note at end of minute for details) to the 20-week deadline related to very complex needs or medical issues. There were just over 7000 children and young people with an EHCP in Buckinghamshire. Around 19000 children either receive SEN support or have an EHCP in the county. - Several Officers were involved in target setting. Various metrics were used to produce appropriate targets for performance indicators. It was a question of getting the balance right, encouraging the work to be stretched but still having potentially attainable targets. The targets, which were agreed by the Management Team related ... view the full minutes text for item 7. |
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Scrutiny Review Group Report on School Attendance For the Committee to receive the report of the scrutiny review group on school attendance.
Contributors: Cllr Lesley Clarke; Chairman of the Review Group Members of the Review Group Additional documents:
Minutes: Councillor Cranmer introduced the report of the review group as excellent and timely, noting that school non-attendance is a current national problem. In response to the immediate concerns on the issue a video had been released by the Education Department during August and some departmental work had already commenced due to the pressing nature of the issue. Councillor Clarke, the chair of the review group noted that the council had made useful information on the subject available at the county show for distribution to parents and young people. The information was also on the website, and the councillor requested that the location of the website be made readily available to all. She thanked the Officers, school staff and the Senior Scrutiny Officer, Katie Dover for working on the review. Councillor Clarke noted that the report had now been published and would go to the Cabinet meeting in November. Further points raised by Councillors included: -This issue of school non-attendance was affecting many children across the country missing school with the potential to have a huge impact on their future lives. - Councillor Clarke noted that some of the young people missing school had mental health issues and some with anxiety. She noted that this is often a natural thing and that we should do more to clarify what constitutes anxiety and educate young people about the normal elements of anxiety. It was noted that the council provide educational psychologists to help with this issue. - A communications campaign and the distribution of information in, for example, HSE lessons could be used as vehicles to spread important messages about the need to be in school. Training on emotional health could be included in some lessons. - Many young people had experienced mental health issues, and some of these were anxiety-based. Councillors suggested that the communications campaign could include some work around what it is to be anxious and how this can sometimes be a “normal” reaction to life’s experiences. However, it was noted that “anxiety” covered a wide range of issues, more children were experiencing anxiety since the covid pandemic, and that anxiety could progress from mild to severe. - It was noted that it had been reported that social media had played a role in the increase of young people’s awareness of anxiety, and that this could be clarified by a communication s campaign. - Attitudes to attendance had changed since lockdown. It was noted that there is a link between non-attendance and school exclusions. Term time unauthorised holidays had also increased. The Chairman stated that the council did not endorse unauthorised holidays in term time. - The Service Director for Education & Inclusion noted that permanent exclusions from school were a last resort and there were many stages before this point was reached. The council’s education department were working with schools to look at the change in young people’s behaviour since lockdown. Other options were assessed as well as exclusion. The Assistant Director of Quality Assurance and Standards noted that ... view the full minutes text for item 8. |
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For the Committee to consider the work programme for the year. Additional documents: Minutes: The Chairman and Committee Members put forward a number of suggestions for a more in-depth piece of work for the committee to investigate this year. These included the new Ofsted framework, an update on the family hub and school exclusions.
Further to discussions, the Committee agreed to investigate the issue of the increased number of school exclusions for its in-depth piece of work this year.
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Date of Next Meeting The next meeting of the Select Committee will be held on Thursday 7th November at 2.00 p.m. in The Oculus, The Gateway, Aylesbury. Additional documents: Minutes: The next meeting of the Select Committee will be held on Thursday 7th November 2024 at 2pm in The Oculus, at The Gateway. |