Agenda and minutes

Venue: The Oculus, Buckinghamshire Council, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury HP19 8FF. View directions

Contact: Katie Dover 

Media

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Items
No. Item

1.

Election of Chairman for this Meeting

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Senior Scrutiny Officer welcomed everyone to the meeting and gave  apologies for the Chairman, Councillor Julie Ward as she had tested positive for Covid and therefore was unable to attend the meeting.

 

It was RESOLVED that Councillor Mark Dormer be elected Chairman for this meeting of the Select Committee.

2.

Apologies for Absence

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Tony Wilson and Councillors James, Jones and Towns.

3.

Appointment of Vice-Chairman

The Chairman will appoint the Vice-Chairman for the forthcoming year.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

This item was deferred until the next meeting of the Select Committee to be held on 8th September 2022, to allow the elected Chairman, Councillor Julie Ward to make the appointment.

4.

Declarations of Interest

For Committee Members to disclose any Personal or Disclosable Pecuniary Interests.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Bates declared a personal interest as Chairman of Governors at the Growing Together Foundation

Councillor Blamires declared a personal interest as parent of a SEND child

Councillor Kayani declared interests as Chairman of the Dyspraxia Foundation and employee of the Bourne End Academy

Councillor Hussein declared a personal interest as a governor at Pebble Brook School

Councillor Osibogun declared a personal interest as a governor at Buckingham Primary School

Councillor Turner declared a personal interest as a Governor at Chiltern Wood School

Zoe Williams declared a personal interest as a parent governor.

 

 

Councillor Hussein requested information be brought back to the committee on the issues of the 11 plus examination.

The Chairman for the meeting agreed that the issue of how to include this in the work programme be brought back to the next committee meeting for the Chairman Councillor Ward to advise on.

                                                                                                                   Action: KD/RN/Cllr Ward

5.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 433 KB

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meetings of the Select Committee held on 22nd March 2022 and 18th May 2022.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The minutes of the Select Committee meetings held on 22nd March 2022 and 18th May 2022 were reviewed.

 

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meetings of the committee held on 22nd March and 18th May 2022 be AGREED as an accurate record and signed by the Chairman.

6.

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/getinvolved-with-council-decisions/select-committees/

Additional documents:

Minutes:

No public questions were received in relation to this agenda of the Select Committee.

7.

Local Area SEND Inspection Outcome pdf icon PDF 480 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Dormer welcomed Tracey Ironmonger, Service Director; Gayle Porter and Tina Charlton from Buckinghamshire NHS Trust; Sue Hadwin from Oxford Health NHS Trust and Niki Cartwright from NHS Berkshire West CCG who attended the meeting to speak on this item.

 

Councillor Cranmer, Cabinet portfolio holder for Children’s Services and Education introduced the report. It was noted that a thorough investigation of the local area SEND provision had taken place between 28th February and 11th March this year involving staff, service users and parents. The work had included a significant analysis of reported information from over 1000 parents.  The review was the first of its kind on this service carried out jointly by the Care Quality Commission and Ofsted.

 

Councillor Cranmer noted that in the report was good overall and  that the service was reported to know its area of work well and was aware of the areas that needed to improve as highlighted in the inspection report.  These areas were already subject to improvement by both the council and the healthcare services who were working in partnership. The areas included the need for a  cohesive area strategy on therapies, waiting times for autistic/ADHD reports and waiting times for appointments with community paediatricians.

 

Richard Nash noted that this was a local area inspection involving the health, education and departmental services which would work together to address the highlighted issues and ensure that all children requiring the services would receive what they required.

 

Simon James noted that there was a whole system approach to addressing the highlighted issues.  The focus of the review of services had been on identifying needs; assessing and meeting needs and thirdly, identifying what the positive outcomes were for children and young people in the area. FACT (Families and Children Together) Bucks had taken evidence from parents and carers as well as  speaking to parents within schools and this evidence was taken very seriously and was documented in the response letter from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission.

 

Much work had commenced on the three areas of work recommended for improvement which would be responded to in the written statement of action. The statement would be submitted to Ofsted via the Department for Education and NH S England no later than 8th August.

The  strengths currently found  in the SEND service were detailed in the response  letter as follows:-

 

-             good SEND governance which included the Board co-chaired by Simon Jones and the chair of FACT Bucks,

-          good leadership in local authority, health, social care and schools

-          co-production was embedded in terms of strategic work

-          effective joint commissioning especially relating to children’s mental health needs

-          Children are well prepared for school

-          EHCPs are provided in a timely manner

-          The independent board provided an added level of scrutiny

-          Fortnightly planning meetings occurred to ensure the written statement of action was on track

-          All elements formed the planned ongoing journey for the service

-          Work would continue with parents  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Rapid Review Group Report on Social Worker Recruitment and Retention pdf icon PDF 1 MB

To receive the report of the rapid review group on social worker recruitment and retention.

 

Contributors:

Councillor Mark Dormer (Chairman)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Mark Dormer introduced the report of the rapid review group on social worker recruitment and retention.

The work had initially covered the whole service but the group had re-focussed their focus in the early stages of the review to the child protection and child assessment teams where there were additional challenges and problems.

The approach taken had covered holding meetings with directors; managers; front line social workers and undertaking research on the national picture. Focus groups with social workers were held in confidential sessions to allow employees to be open with their views on where improvements or changes could be made. Meetings were also held with finance and human resources (HR) officers to look at salaries, issues regarding leavers and to consider how the HR service aligned with the front-line staff.

Richard Nash noted that the issue of recruitment and retention of social workers was not a new issue but it had come under much greater pressure during the last 16 months when a 60 % increase in work in the child protection area had been experienced. As a statutory service, all calls on the service had to be addressed to ensure all children in Buckinghamshire were safe. Social workers often worked anti-social hours under pressure. Increasing the number of social workers was important and the social work academy would be increased this year to train 60 social workers. It was important to support and train the social workers well to equip them to deal with the difficult scenarios they might face. There was also a  balance to be achieved between needs and resources.

 

In response to a question, Richard Nash detailed the timeline that social workers often had to follow in relation to a section 47 incident where the council had a statutory duty to respond. The timeline might include the teacher noticing a problem, the designated officer who would then contact the multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) as soon as practically possible. A social worker would then be required to speak to the child at their home on the same day, possibly with police colleagues with the parent/carer. If a placement was required due to harm caused to a child, the social worker might be working till very late in the evening, to ensure the child was safe. The same social worker would be back into work the next morning to continue their work on the incident and having possibly been working under very stressful circumstances.

The review group had considered it their role to discover what the council could do to help social workers to carry on performing their role and be supported.

Richard Nash noted the recommendations regarding improving I.T. systems for supporting social workers and the challenges to do so in making them compatible with the current I.T. social care systems.

Palvinder Kudhail noted streamlining work had commenced on the redesign of forms and both I.T. and business support. A report was expected to the Director next week with short term and longer term items.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 453 KB

An opportunity for Members to discuss possible topics for the future committee work programme.

 

Contributors:

All Members

Mrs Katie Dover, Senior Scrutiny Officer

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Select committee received the draft work programme and made the following suggestions for consideration with the Chairman at the next meeting:-

 

-          Councillor Collingwood noted the action plan on the Ofsted report and it was suggested that this come back to the next meeting of the committee.

-          An update on the Sufficiency Strategy was requested to come back to the January committee meeting.

-          An item was requested on vulnerable children missing from education.

-          Information regarding the attainment gap would be included in the Education Standards report in January 2023 and would include the process of the 11 plus exam. This issue was being managed by the Risk Management and Audit Committee on 15th July.

-          The issue of school transport would be discussed at the Transport, Environment and Climate Change Committee on 3rd November.

10.

Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Select Committee will be held on Thursday 8th September 2022 in The Oculus, Buckinghamshire Council, The Gateway, Aylesbury at 2.00 p.m.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The next meeting of the Select Committee would be held on Thursday 8th September 2022 at 2.00 p.m. in The Oculus, The Gateway, Aylesbury