Agenda and minutes

Minutes of the meeting held on 23 January 2017 (previously circulated).

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meetings held on 23 January and 30 January 2017 be signed as a correct record.

Members of the public may make representations/presentationson any substantive matter listed in the published agenda for this meeting, as set out hereunder, relating to a specific matter or an examination of services or facilities provided or to be provided.

There were no representations received.

Ms Sian Walker, Independent Chairman of the DASB will attend to present the Annual Report and respond to any questions.

Mrs Sian Walker, Chair of the Devon Safeguarding Adults Board, attended and spoke at the invitation of the Committee, presenting the Annual Report of the Devon Safeguarding Adults Board summarising its progress over the past year, the effectiveness of the adult safeguarding arrangements by partner organisations in place across Devon and its aims and objectives for the future. 

[NB: The DASB Annual Report may be viewed at: https://new.devon.gov.uk/devonsafeguardingadultsboard/safeguarding-adults-board-information

Verbal update from Chairman of Devon Safeguarding Children’s Board.

Mr Gurrey, Chairman of the Devon Safeguarding Children Board, attended and spoke at the invitation of the Committee, commenting on steps taken to revise and enhance the Board's governance arrangements, to ensure a more pro-active, streamlined and focussed approach and to have a more positive impact upon work to protect children and young people.  In Devon, the Children’s Safeguarding Board would be merging with the Devon’s Children, Young People and Families Alliance from 1 July 2017.  The Chairman of the Board highlighted that the new arrangements would need to ensure close working with the Scrutiny Committee to provide improved accountability and quality assurance across child protection services.

Report of the County Treasurer (CT/17/25).

The Committee received the Report of the County Treasurer (CT/17/25) outlining the proposed internal audit activity within Adult Care and Health and Children’s Services for 2017/18; the work undertaken and providing an overall adequacy and effectiveness of the service area’s internal control environment.

Report of the Dementia Spotlight Review Group (CS/17/12)

The Committee considered the Joint Spotlight Review Report on Dementia (CS/17/12) with Members of the Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee which had considered the Council’s strategy for dementia; examined the increased number or people in residential care homes in Devon suffering with dementia compared to its neighbours; identified initiatives being driven across the County to make Devon a more inclusive place for people living with dementia and their carers and reviewed the Council’s role in encouraging partnership work between organisations to build on existing support.

It was MOVED by Councillor Randall Johnson, SECONDED by Councillor Hannaford

RESOLVED that the Task Group's findings and recommendations be commended to the Cabinet for approval and action and that the Report be also drawn to the attention of the Farms Estates Committee for consideration alongside complementary work being undertaken by the NFU and that appropriate awareness training be also made available to Members in any induction programme following the next quadrennial elections in May of this year.

Report of the Public Health Nursing Spotlight Review Group (CS/17/11).

The Committee received and noted the Spotlight Task Group Report (CS/17/11) looking at the future options for the provision of public health nursing services and noted that, at its last meeting in March, Cabinet had agreed to award a one year contract for 2018/19 to Virgin Care Ltd for the provision of children’s services to allow for a full procurement with a contract start date of 1 April 2019 incorporating 0-19 Public Health Nursing Services.

Report of meeting held on 27 February 2017 (CS/17/13).

The Committee received the Report of discussions and decisions at the meeting on 27 February 2017 (CS/17/13) including Early Help Development, Early Help for Troubled Families, the Delivery Plan for Devon Children’s Partnership, the Re-procurement of Integrated Children’s Services and the Performance Management in Children’s Social Work and Child Protection.

Report of meeting held on 2 March 2017 (CS/17/14).

The Committee received the Report of discussions and decisions made at the meeting on 2 March 2017 (CS/17/14) including Carers Contract Re-Procurement, Residential and Nursing Homes Commissioning Plans and performance framework and indicators.

Head of Education and Learning to provide a verbal update.

The Committee received an update from the Head of Education and Learning on progress made against recommendations of the Small Schools Task Group Report in September 2016.   Since that time the educational landscape had undergone significant changes following Government’s withdrawal of the requirement for schools to convert to Academies, along with the White Paper on Educational Excellence Everywhere and further issues around the national funding formula for schools.  It was expected that the Department for Education would announce its intention to maintain a dual working educational system with Academies and Local Authority maintained schools.

The Head of Education and Learning informed Members of the progress made against the Task Group’s recommendations, namely that the Council continued to lobby government for fairer funding for Devon Pupils; financial and strategic planning was in place for Headteachers, Bursars and School Governors covering a wide range of considerations; close working partnership with the Dioceses to engage with local schools; a proactive approach to supporting and engaging with local authority maintained schools through community based working; shared best practice in schools and ongoing work to recruit and train school governors.

Report of the Chief Officer for Children’s Services (CS/17/13).

The Committee noted the Report of the Chief Officer for Children’s Services (CS/17/13) on the re-procurement of Integrated Childrens Services and that on 8 March 2017, Cabinet had awarded a one year contract for 2018/19 to Virgin Care Ltd for the same reasons as set out at Minute 52 above.

Report of the Head of Children’s Social Work and Child Protection (CS/17/16).

The Committee considered the Report of the Head of Children’s Social Work and Child Protection (CS/17/16) on the development of a Regional Adoption Agency (RAA) outlining current performance, to be considered by Cabinet on 12 April 2017.  The RAA programme aimed to deliver good practice that ensures improved life chances for children through improved adopter recruitment, improved timeliness of placing children, more children achieving permanence through adoption and improved adoption support.

Report of the Chief Officer for Children’s Services.

The Committee received the Report of the Head of Children’s Social Work and Child Protection on the outcomes of the Social Worker Survey which received a positive response rate and highlighted key findings including managers creating an environment where staff felt supported and listened to, ASYE’s receiving the necessary support to complete their assessed year and over two thirds of caseworkers stating that they had a case audited within the last 6 months.   The survey recognised the need to continue to reduce caseloads and reinforced the importance of ensuring stable and effective frontline managers.

Report of the Head of Children’s Social Work and Child Protection (CS/16/02)

The Committee received the Report of the Head of Children’s Social Work and Child Protection updating Members in relation to Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub, Early Help, Children in Need, Referrals into statutory children’s service, single assessments, child protection enquiries, child protection conferences and a higher than the national average number of repeat child protection plans.

Report of the Head of Adult Commissioning and Health and the Head of Adult Care Operations and Health (ACH/17/59).

The Committee received and noted the report of the Head of Adult Commissioning and Health and the Head of Adult Care Operations and Health (ACH/17/59) highlighting areas of good performance and where further improvement and development were needed in line with current adult vision priority.

Areas presented in the report and discussed by Members, in line with the Vision Priorities, included: the Deprivation of Liberties Safeguards, ensuring that people using the service felt safe, reducing the need for long term social care and support, expanding the use of community based services, ensuring people have a positive experience of the social care services and ensuring the workforce can deliver effective and high quality services.  Members also noted the need to improve the quality of the presentation of the performance data, ensuring the relevance of the information provided.