Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Sean Gibbons and Jane Cox.

None

There were no declarations of interest made.

RESOLVED: That the minutes be agreed as a true record.

(A period not exceeding 20 minutes for statements from up to 5 members of the public on matters within the Panel’s remit, proposing action(s) which may be considered or contribute towards the future development of the Panel’s work programme).

There were no public statements made.

The Panel received a report outlining the progress and work of the Doncaster Safeguarding Children Board (DSCB).  This report included the arrangements the Board’s Annual Report and the Independent Chair’s updated assessment of the response to child sexual exploitation (CSE) for Doncaster.  Members were reminded that the Independent Chair’s first assessment was published back in December 2014 and covered ten key CSE assurance questions.  Following a brief summary of the report, there was a discussion around the following areas.

Attendance – Concern was raised about the zero percentage attendance at Board Meetings of one of the partners.  Members were informed that closer working would be undertaken with the Doncaster Safeguarding Adults Board providing more opportunity for joint working.

Progress and Impact against Strategic Priorities 2014 – 2017 – It was outlined that in February 2016, the Board had approved a new Business Plan for 2016/17 which brought together actions in response to the Boards strategic priorities and recommendations from Ofsted’s review of the Board (carried out in October 2015). Concern was raised that a numbers of strategic priorities were showing an overall impact rating as being “under development”.    It was explained that each of the priorities were graded in this way as they were still being worked on and showed the level of impact that had been made.  It was acknowledged that there needed to be more of an explanation around the terms used and that the plan and priorities were at an early stage.

Voluntary and Community Sector, including Faith Group – It was explained that there were more organisations listed than numbered as some were umbrella organisations that had been individually identified. 

Child Protection – Clarification was sought on the use of percentage figures in the tables shown on Page 58 of the agenda under “category of need”.  In relation to the “sexual” category of abuse, it was explained that this was sexual abuse in addition to sexual exploitation.  

Members were informed that to reduce figures, included within plans and priorities 2017-2018 for safeguarding children was “ to continue to deliver services to children, young people and families who are at risk through running away or going missing”.  It was commented that the number of incidents reported tended to increase when there was more focus placed on the issue.  Members heard how there was robust case management in place and a shift in strategy that sited more emphasis upstream. 

Missing Children - Clarification was provided that when a child went missing from school during the day, it was the schools responsibility to notify the parents.  It was commented that the challenge was about what point was it a missing episode and concern was raised that missing education may result in that child missing from home. 

It was commented that the advocacy service was about what was going on at home or at school.  It was added that there had been a reduction in Looked After Children in receipt of early help and that more was being  ...  view the full minutes text for item 71.

A report was provided that summarised the business of the high level Quarterly Performance challenge meeting (Quarterly Performance Monitoring) of the Doncaster Children’s Services Trust in Quarter 2 of 2017/18.  Reference was made to the recent Ofsted meeting that had been recently undertaken, it was explained that the outcome was embargoed until 19th January 2018.

Panel Members were also reminded of the invite to them to visit the Doncaster Children’s Services Trust at the Hub (Mary Woollett Centre) during October 2017, when as part of the Panel’s Corporate Parenting role.

Concern was raised about the Trust’s projected overspend, if there was value for money and whether the Trust was financially sustainable.  Members were informed that there had been a reduction in overspend since Quarter 1, which had taken into account £1.1 million provided at the beginning of the year to fund increased activity from Doncaster Council.

Members were reminded that this issue had already been considered by OSMC on two occasions and would remain on the workplan.  Members were informed that the Trust was looking at ways of generating income.  Regarding the contract, it was clarified that it was a 10 year contract with a break after 5 years, (due in 2 years) and that notice would need to be provided to the Department of Further Education to consider the next best model for Trust. 

It was explained that one of the contributing factors to the overspend was an increased demand (particularly from the high numbers of Looked after Children) for which the contract has allowed for.  In respect of Out of Authority Placement, it was explained that the Trust had a desire to place children within the borough or a 20 miles radius.  It was added that the Trust would never be in a position to bring all placements within the borough as some children had complex needs.  It was acknowledged that the quality and standards of children in care and at risk of abuse, was viewed as an improving situation.  

Impact of Austerity – Concern was raised about the effects of austerity on children in the Borough.  It was acknowledged that Children’s Services across the board were all under pressure, with overspends on children social care due to increased demand and complexity.  It was recognised that the priority of children was foremost although savings needed to be made. 

Projections – It was acknowledged that it was a tough challenge to anticipate demand and understand what was happening locally in the long term.  It was noted that it was a challenging situation for colleagues and that there was a need to participate in a wider policy conversation.

RESOLVED That the Panel note the content of the report.

This report provided a description of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) self-assessment challenge exercise for children’s services and a summary of the process carried out by the Council and the Trust to support this activity.   It was explained that it was an annual process in which the Trust and the Council jointly compiled a submission to an event at which 14 other local authority Children’s Services shared their self-assessment and participated in a  challenge.

It was explained that the Council and Trust were both consistent participants in the challenge process.  The exercise comprised of the compilation of a template which identified the Children’s Services Authority’s improvement journey including up to six jointly agreed core Strengths and Areas for improvement (between the Trust and the Council), with a supporting explanatory narrative.   It was outlined that each submitted challenge templates were distributed and considered by other authorities in the region at the challenge event in December each year.  Following this, a Local Authority may be requested to reconsider its listings of strengths and areas for development and/or its priority ordering.

It was explained that at subsequent Directors meeting, issues would be identified from the challenge day which were common to a number of authorities.  This was then fed into the Directors summary and taken forward as a programme of work.

The region’s Directors of Children’s Services consider the compiled results and to what extent, it was a shared reflection of regional performance.  It was further explained that this agreed listing of ‘wicked issues’ would inform improvement activity over the following 12 months.  This would feed into a programme of peer reviews and a programme of task and finish groups.

It was outlined that the 2016, three ‘wicked issues’ which were currently being worked on by regional task and finish groups included:

•           Placement sufficiency

•           Educational attainment at key stages 1 and 2

•           Outcomes for vulnerable groups.

Members were advised that on the 29th November 2017, Ofsted produced guidance for new single inspection framework, inspecting local authority children's services.  Members were informed that there was a dialogue being undertaken between children’s services and Ofsted.  It was commented that there was more flexibility in how this takes place with less emphasis, more frequent inspections, re-inspection and a number of monitoring visits peer evaluations.  It was believed that these were valuable and supported the inspection as more of a process and less of a one off event. 

RESOLVED That the Panel:

i.        Note the content of the report.

ii.       Review the outcomes of the discussions which have taken place to establish priorities and the next steps in the challenge process.

iii.      Request an update of the results of the challenge activity and how this will be applied to the Council and the Trust’s programme of self-improvement.

A report was presented that updated the Panel on the progress of the Education and Skills Commission and Social Mobility Opportunity Area (SMOA). The report set out the progress made to date in terms of implementing the recommendations of the One Doncaster report, and also how it aligned with the structure and intent of SMOA in the borough.

Members were reminded how, in January 2017, Mayor Ros Jones announced the formal response to the independent One Doncaster Report.  It followed that in the same month, Doncaster was awarded SMOA status by the Department for Education. The Board then established in shadow form and met formally back in August. 

The report highlighted that the Board had been established and was functioning well, with;

•        A high level ‘delivery plan’ that has been developed - It was explained that the delivery plan was different to the action plan and would involve more dialogue as to who will be providing what. 

•        A programme that still required further refinement at a programme level around benefits mapping, blueprints and stakeholder mapping; and at a project level to further define scope of projects and develop PIDs and project briefs

•        Some roles still to be assigned including Programme Manager for Social Mobility and the Project Managers for the whole programme.

Reference was made to recent national events where members of the board had stood down over lack of progress.  It was commented that although the policy was secure, it was still awaiting commitment.  It was added that £100,000 had been received in advance to establish governance arrangements.  It was noted that once the delivery plan was agreed then it needed to be delivered in accordance with established governance arrangements.  It was explained that the SMOA brings with it £6m of funding and a further £2.5 M for life skills such as collaboration, coping with difficulty and IT skills.  Areas that were not always recognised in attainment tables and were more about the wider contributions that schools could make. 

Members stressed that they felt that it was key to ensure that young people developed the right skills to ensure that they were job ready.  Members were assured that with the funding targeting youngsters at that age, investment should role out from junior school level onwards.  It was explained that there was a focus on primary outcomes, then on secondary outcomes, third was careers then fourth was school experiences. 

Teacher Recruitment and Retention - It was felt that achieving teacher recruitment and retention was key to Doncaster’s success. Concern was raised that this was a big issue as Doncaster did not have a university and therefore did not attract young people.  It was seen that there was a link to the place marketing agenda and for more could be done to make Doncaster more attractive. 

Although it was recognised that there was a wealth of teaching schools around Yorkshire and the Humber, comments were made that more schools should be involved in teaching teachers.  It was responded  ...  view the full minutes text for item 74.

The Panel received a report updating Members on the Panels work plan for 2017/18.  A copy of the work plan was attached at Appendix A of the report taking account of issues considered at the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny workplanning meeting held on the 1st June 2017.

Updates were provided on the following:

Visit to the Trust to take a look at the "Front door" of Children's Service based at the Hub at Mary Woollett. – Councillors were invited to see the initial referral team and spoke with Managers and frontline staff about the day to day workings and how things were managed.  Consideration was given to;

·                     Early Help;

·                     Transferred family support workers;  and

·                     Front door pressure.

It was commented that schools and academies needed to work as a partnership and liaise better with Education and Attendance Officers.  It was recognised that they were achieving their best with limited resources.

Early Help – That this had been repeatedly evaluated over the last 2 years and that Members might find it helpful to be provided with an update.

Appointments – That a new Head of Service had been appointed to develop education welfare and attendance strategy together under the one banner. 

School Transport - It was added that discussions have been taking place regarding school transport and that this has been added to the workplan as an issue for future consideration.

Workplan - It was commented that there is an extraordinary meeting to be arranged to consider the draft Annual Impact Report and Child Poverty. 

RESOLVED that the Panel note the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Panel report.