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Agenda and minutes

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Items
Note No. Item

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1.

Minutes

Minutes of the People’s Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 20 March 2017 (previously circulated).

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the People’s Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 20 March 2017 be signed as a correct record.

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2.

Items Requiring Urgent Attention

Items which in the opinion of the Chairman should be considered at the meeting as matters of urgency.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There was no item raised as a matter of urgency.

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3.

Public Participation

Members of the public may make representations/presentations on 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.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no oral representations received at the meeting from a member of the public.

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4.

Overview of Children's Services pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Report of the Chief Officer for Children’s Services (CS/17/23).

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received the Report of the Chief Officer for Children’s Services (CP/17/23) presenting an overview of Children’s Services in Devon including the number of statutory functions carried out by the County Council aimed at children and young people; Early Years provision; Public Health Nursing Services; Children’s Centres; School Admissions and School Place Planning; improving educational outcomes for vulnerable groups; Youth Offending Service and Children’s Social Care Service.

 

The Chief Officer undertook to provide Members with details of the partner agencies that work with the County Council on Children’s Social Care.

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5.

Re-Commissioning of Children's Centres pdf icon PDF 90 KB

Report of the Head of Education and Learning (CS/17/22).

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

(Councillor McInnes, Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Skills, attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(1) and spoke to this item at the invitation of the Committee).

 

(Councillors Hannaford and Brennan declared a personal interest in this matter by virtue of being a Member of the West Exe Children’s Centre Advisory Board, and being a trained breastfeeding peer support worker with Action for Children and a parent of a child registered at Beacon Heath Childrens Centre, respectively).

 

The Committee received a Report from the Chief Officer for Children’s Services (CS/17/22) on the future commissioning of the Children’s Centre Service to be delivered under a single provider contract with an extension of the age range from 0 to 5, to children eight years and under.

 

Members’ discussion points with the Chief Officer included:

 

·         increased engagement of local Councillors with Children’s Centre in their Divisions to raise awareness and signpost families to services;

·         continuity of services and investment in onward provision;

·         additional support for hard to reach families and access to services and provision;

·         staff transfers to a single contract provider;

·         services provided centrally across the contract by a single provider rather than by individual Centres;

·         assurances over financial considerations offered by a new contract.

 

 

The Chief Officer undertook to circulate to Members the draft Children’s Centre Services specification document and to ask Children’s Centres to invite their local Councillor to attend and become involved with their Centres.  A copy of the Impact Assessment was circulated at the meeting and attached to these minutes.

 

It was MOVED by Councillor Hannaford and SECONDED by Councillor Sellis and

 

RESOLVED that a Task Group be convened to consider the pre-procurement process and recommissioning of Children’s Centres.

 

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6.

Service Review: Children's Social Work pdf icon PDF 127 KB

Report of the Chief Officer for Children’s Services (CS/17/20).

Additional documents:

Minutes:

(Councillor McInnes, Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Skills, attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(1) and spoke to this item at the invitation of the Committee).

 

The Committee received a Report from the Chief Officer for Children’s Services (CS/17/20) on the outcome of a service review of Children’s Services following a detailed self-assessment undertaken in early 2017 followed by an independent service review in May 2017. The Council was currently judged by Ofsted as ‘requires improvement to be good’ and the Service was working hard to achieve this.  The Report identified key areas of strength as well as the 10 key areas for improvement within Children’s Services, including Early Help and Children in Need.

 

The Chief Officer also highlighted difficulties around workforce such as modernisation and staff retention; with specific areas of concern around recruitment in North Devon.

 

Members’ discussions points with the Chief Officer included:

 

·       concerns around the previously high reliance on agency staff  and the effect on staff morale, specifically in North Devon;

·       the process of a council achieving a ‘good’ rating from Ofsted;

·       training received by new workers, including a one year training development course to help improve the skills and staff retention;

·       the Independent Advisor for Children’s Scrutiny role.

 

It was MOVED by Councillor Hannaford and SECONDED by Councillor Sellis and

 

RESOLVED

 

a)   that the 2017/18 Improvement Plan be submitted to a future meeting and the progress for of the three priorities for accelerated improvement be reviewed in the Autumn of 2017;

b)   that arrangements be made for the Committee to visit teams in North Devon in Autumn 2017 to satisfy themselves that improvements were embedded and that resources were sufficient to the task;

c)   that a Scrutiny Masterclass session on Early help be provided. 

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7.

Education Performance Report pdf icon PDF 532 KB

Report of the Chief Officer for Children’s Services (CP/17/21).

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received the Education Performance Report from the Chief Officer for Children’s Services (CS/17/21) on the latest performance measures within Education and Learning. Key areas highlighted within the Report and by the Chief Officer included:

 

·         take up of Early Years funding for two year olds;

·         96% of parents allocated first school preference and Primary and Secondary level;

·         approximately 7,000 in-year applications also processed by the Admissions Team;

·         overall absence rates remained low across the County;

·         high volume of requests for Statutory Assessment;

·         improved rates of transfers from Statements to Education, Health and Care Plans;

·         92% of schools are judged Good or Outstanding.

 

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8.

Election of Commissioning Liaison Member

In line with the recommendations of the ‘Scrutiny in a Commissioning Council’ Task Group Report, the Committee be asked to select a Commissioning Liaison Member, whose role will be to work closely with the relevant Cabinet Members and Chief Officers/Heads of Service, developing a fuller understanding of commissioning processes, and provide a link between Cabinet and Scrutiny on commissioning and commissioned services.

 

The Commissioning Scrutiny Task Group Report can be viewed here:

http://democracy.devon.gov.uk/documents/s1830/Scrutiny%20in%20a%20Commissioninig%20Council.pdf

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

It was MOVED by Councillor Hannaford, SECONDED by Councillor Mathews, and

 

RESOLVED that Councillor Hosking be appointed as the Commissioning Liaison Member for the Children’s Scrutiny Committee

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9.

Children's Scrutiny Committee Work Programme

In accordance with the previous practice, Scrutiny Committees are requested to review the list of forthcoming business (previously circulated) and to determine which items are to be included in the Work Programme. 

 

The Committee may also wish to review the content of the Cabinet Forward Plan to see if  there are any specific items therein it might wish to explore further.

 

The Work Programme and Forward Plan can be found at:

 

http://democracy.devon.gov.uk/mgPlansHome.aspx?bcr=1

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the current outline Work Programme be approved subject to inclusion of the following topics for future consideration:

 

(a) Re-Commissioning of Children’s Centre Task Group – comprising of Councillors Hannaford, Brennan, Hellyer, Hosking and Sellis.

 

(b) Emotional Health and Wellbeing Task Group – comprising of Councillors Channon, Aves, Hellyer and Saywell.

 

 

[NB: The Scrutiny Work Programme was available on the Council's website at http://www.devon.gov.uk/scrutiny_programme.htm 

 

and the Council/Cabinet Forward Plan is available at http://www.devon.gov.uk/forward_plan ]

 

 


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