Agenda and minutes

To approve the record of the Children and Young People Committee held on 25 March 2014 and the Joint Meeting of all Committees held on 14 May 2014. 

The record of the Children and Young People Committee held on 25 March 2014 was agreed subject to an amendment to include the addition of Councillor Watson who was present at the meeting; and the record of the Joint Meeting of all Committees held on 14 May 2014 was agreed. Both were signed by the Chairman.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Iles and Pat Gulvin, Alex Tear and Perdita Blinkhorn. 

The Chairman will announce any late items which do not appear on the main agenda but which he/she has agreed should be considered by reason of special circumstances to be specified in the report. 

There were none. 

(A)              Disclosable pecuniary interests and other interests

A member need only disclose at any meeting the existence of a disclosable pecuniary interest (DPI) in a matter to be considered at that meeting if that DPI has not been entered on the disclosable pecuniary interests register maintained by the Monitoring Officer.

A member disclosing a DPI at a meeting must thereafter notify the Monitoring Officer in writing of that interest within 28 days from the date of disclosure at the meeting.

A member may not participate in a discussion of or vote on any matter in which he or she has a DPI (both those already registered and those disclosed at the meeting) and must withdraw from the room during such discussion/vote.

Members may choose to voluntarily disclose a DPI at a meeting even if it is registered on the council’s register of disclosable pecuniary interests but there is no legal requirement to do so.

Members should also ensure they disclose any other interests which may give rise to a conflict under the council’s code of conduct.

In line with the training provided to members by the Monitoring Officer members will also need to consider bias and pre-determination in certain circumstances and whether they have a conflict of interest or should otherwise leave the room for Code reasons.

(B)            Whipping

The Council’s constitution also requires any Member of the Committee who is subject to a party whip (ie agreeing to vote in line with the majority view of a private party group meeting) to declare the existence of the whip.

There were none. 

The Chairman advised the Committee that the Assistant Director Inclusion would be leaving Medway Council and thanked her for her contribution to the work of the Committee and wished her well for the future. 

This report outlines the outcomes of the informal consultation period on the Council’s proposals to ‘increase pupil numbers’ and ‘extend the range of SEN designation’ at Danecourt Special School, by way of statutory prescribed alterations. 

Discussion:

The Performance Intelligence and Strategic Manager attended for this item and presented the report outlining the outcomes of the informal consultation period on the Council’s proposals to increase pupil numbers and extend the range of SEN designation at Danecourt Special School, by way of statutory prescribed alterations. Members then asked questions and made comments on the following matters:

• Record of the public consultation meeting held on 3 March 2014 (Appendix 3 of the report). Members advised that Councillor Harriott was no longer a member of the governing body and that the minutes should be amended to record that he was attending in his ward member capacity and not as a member of the governing body.

• Use of Danecourt for respite care provision. Members requested that a proposal to utilise Danecourt Special School as a local resource for respite care provision be considered as part of the plans for the future, given the cost of using facilities outside of Medway. The Director of Children and Adults Services advised that a review of short breaks provision would be presented to a future meeting of this Committee and that the possibility of using Danecourt Special School would be considered as part of that review.

• Site restrictions. Members noted the comments at the public consultation meeting and, in particular, the issues raised relating to traffic and parking. Officers advised that the increase in pupil numbers was relatively small and would be unlikely to significantly impact on parking facilities, and that transport to and from school would be provided for any additional pupils. Officers assured Members that careful consideration would be given to planning considerations when progressing proposals for the site.

Decision:

The Committee:

(a)               requested that the Director of Children and Adults Services include Danecourt Special School as a potential site for respite care provision as part of the review of Medway Council’s short break provision and noted that a report on the review will be considered at a future meeting of this committee, prior to Cabinet consideration; and

(b)               noted the report and forwarded it to Cabinet for consideration.

The core purpose of Sure Start children’s centres is to improve outcomes for young children and their families and to reduce inequalities experienced by families in greatest need. This report provides information about the role that children’s centres play in delivering early help and securing good outcomes for children in Medway. 

Discussion:

The Strategic Manager Early Years Service, presented the report on the role that children’s centres play in delivering early help and securing good outcomes for children in Medway.

A video was shown to the Committee, the website link to clips from the video are:

http://www.medway.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/childcare/surestart.aspx

and

http://www.medway.gov.uk/educationandlearning/earlyyearsandchildcare/childcare/surestart/surestartvideos.aspx

The Committee thanked the Strategic Manager Early Years Service for the excellent presentation of his report and Members formally acknowledged the impact that his personal leadership, drive and enthusiasm has had on the service. They then raised a number of issues and asked specific questions regarding the report and future service developments.

• Department for Education (DfE) estimates for early education for two year olds. Officers assured Members that despite the DfE originally forecasting 690 eligible child places, eligibility was extended to include low income working families and the current forecast for September 2014 specifies that 1490 children would be entitled to places. Eligibility includes families that are entitled to free school meals.

• Better Start lottery bid.  The Director of Children and Adults Services advised that the presentation of Medway’s bid to the Big Lottery Fund, which included key delivery partners and a local parent on the presentation team, appeared to be well received, but that announcements regarding the successful bids were unlikely to be known until the end of June. The parent spoke passionately about life challenges and the impact that Medway’s children’s centres have upon children and families. Should the bid be unsuccessful then the Council, in conjunction with partner agencies, would need to reconsider service development plans, starting ‘in a different place, at a different pace.’ She also advised that partner relationships had been established and strengthened during the development of the bid, and that this has included exploring new ways of making the most of the population of 12,000 higher education students based in Medway.

• Daycare nursery provision. In response to questions relating to All Saints Children Centre, mentioned in paragraph 8.6 of the report, officers confirmed that the 3 other children centres that had been affected by the policy shift, from subsidised full-time childcare places to provision of free places for two-year olds, were: Wayfield; Bligh and Saxon Way.

• Integration of learning across services. Members welcomed the Director of Children and Adults Services’ observations on how the learning from early years work, including ‘wrap around’ services, and social worker intervention, can be transferred across services and different age groups. The Director confirmed that she was considering this and also reported that although individual secondary schools had procured social care intervention services, these were not universally available or funded by Medway Council.

• Impact of the recession and budget restraints. Officers reported a 38% increase in numbers attending children’s centres in the last 2 years, despite budgets remaining at 2012 levels. They also confirmed that whilst certain funding streams had reduced, others had increased, such as the dedicated schools grant (DSG), and reported that public health also provided more services at children’s centres, such as the expansion of the numbers  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

Medway Council commissioned a Peer Review of children’s safeguarding services from the Local Government Association (LGA) in February 2014. This paper summarises the process, the key findings and the planned responses. The letter from the LGA which reports on the Peer Review, and has been sent to the Department for Education (DfE), is attached to the report, at Appendix 1. 

Discussion:

The Director of Children and Adults Services presented the report which set out the findings of the Peer Review of children’s safeguarding services by the Local Government Association (LGA) in February 2014. In particular, she advised Members that the Review was structured around 5 key safeguarding themes including:

• effectiveness of practice, service delivery and the voice of the child;
• outcomes, impact and performance management;
• working together with partners;
• capacity and resource management;
• vision, strategy and leadership.

The Director outlined the Peer Review findings including the strengths identified during the Review and the areas for improvement that have been mainly addressed through the recent revisions of the Improvement Plan and the updating of the Medway Safeguarding Children Board’s Business Plan.

Members then asked questions and officers responded as follows:

• Partnership working. The Director of Children and Adults Services confirmed that the Peer Review had focussed on work between partner agencies in relation to safeguarding children and that further work will be undertaken with strategic partnership groups to clarify respective roles and responsibilities.

• Challenge of safeguarding issues and the role of the overview and scrutiny committee. The Director advised the Committee that further information on best practice nationally was being researched and that the Centre for Public Scrutiny (CfPS) would assist with providing this. Committee members stated that the Committee had played a key role in challenging data presented at previous meetings and the Committee acknowledged the importance of constructive dialogue with officers and key stakeholders at overview and scrutiny committee meetings to facilitate ongoing improvement. Members agreed that guidance on scrutiny of childrens safeguarding previously produced by the Centre for Public Scrutiny should be circulated to the Committee ahead of the July meeting when the Medway Safeguarding Children Board would be scrutinised.

• Update on children’s safeguarding processes and structures. Members requested an update on the work of the children’s safeguarding team, referral processes, signs and safeguarding thresholds. The Director agreed to organise a Member briefing session.

• Ward work. Officers confirmed any safeguarding matters relating to particular families or a child, raised directly with a Member, should be referred into Children’s Social Care immediately so that appropriate processes and procedures can be followed.

• Invitations to members of the Council to visit childrens' homes. Officers advised that Members would need to consider any individual invitations carefully and exercise judgement in each case about whether or not it would be appropriate to accept.

Decision:

The Committee:

(a)            requested an all member briefing on the work of the safeguarding team, referral processes, signs and safeguarding thresholds;

(b)      noted the report.

This item advises Members of the current work programme and allows the Committee to adjust it in the light of latest priorities, issues and circumstances. It gives Members the opportunity to shape and direct the Committee’s activities over the year.

Discussion:

The Democratic Services Officer introduced the report and advised the Committee that an item scheduled for 15 July 2014 in the work programme, regarding the review and update of the school organisation plan 2011-2016, would now be considered by Cabinet on 30 September 2014 and so this item would feature on the agenda for 18 September 2014.

Decision:

The Committee:

(a)               noted the report and agreed the work programme set out at Appendix 1, subject to the above amendment;

(b)               requested that the report on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), due at the next meeting of the Committee, includes information on the provision of services during the transition period between adolescence and adulthood;

(c)               noted that a Briefing Note on schools obtaining Academy status in Medway will be circulated to members of the Committee for information in September;

(d)               noted that a further election process for Parent Governor Representatives will commence in September 2014;

(e)               noted that a Briefing Note on recent legislative changes regarding Young Carers had been circulated to the Committee by email on 2 June 2014.