Agenda item

This report is an update on the work to ensure that the multi-agency, whole system early help offer for Medway is as effective as possible and is designed to meet the needs of children, families and young people. It is the Council’s role to enable, facilitate and stimulate early help, which is provided by a wide range of organisations/ services and not just the Council. This report describes the work to date to strengthen the system for supporting multi agency interventions and simplifying the system.

Discussion:

The Head of Early Help and Targeted Services introduced the report which updated the Committee on the work and progress in relation to the whole system early help offer in Medway.  He also referred to the Early Help Strategy which was currently being drafted and undertook to share it with the Committee when it was at the final draft stage.

Members then raised a number of questions and comments, which included:

·         School absences – in relation to a question about unauthorised school absences, the Head of Early Help and Targeted Services explained that the rules around absence from school were clear and that families did receive penalties where appropriate.

·         Domestic Abuse support for hard to reach communities – in response to a question about how this could be improved, officers explained that the provision of domestic abuse support was currently out to tender and one of the key specifications in that process was for providers to demonstrate how they could improve engagement with such communities as it was an area that needed improvement.

·         Levels of contact – clarification was sought around the data relating to levels of contact.  In response, officers confirmed that further analysis was needed.  For example, where the prevalence of particular issues was recorded to be low, was this a true reflection of prevalence or did it relate to under reporting?

·         Exclusion rates – in response to a concern raised about exclusion rates, officers confirmed that there was a great deal of partnership support to address the issues around exclusions, between schools and the Council, looking at transitions between schools and sharing of information and Headteachers providing constructive challenge to each other.  Rates were reducing but more improvement was needed.

·         Child on parent abuse – in response to a question about whether there had been an increase in reported incidents of children being violent to their parents or carers, officers confirmed that there had been an increase in incidents reported.  He explained that families were being supported to use “nonviolence resistance” methods and undertook to circulate further information on this to the Committee.  The Medway Parent and Carer Forum added that they had also seen an increase in reports of this and it was recognised that different strategies would be needed to tackle intentional harm and that caused due to a clinical condition.

·         Attendance data – in response to a question about the provision of attendance figures at the Children and Family Hubs and Wellbeing Centres, it was explained that this data had previously been collected for SureStart Children Centres due to a Government requirement.  This requirement had since been removed and therefore this data was no longer collected so resource could be focused elsewhere.  The Head of Early Help and Targeted Services did, however, undertake to consider further how such information could be provided to the Committee for scrutiny purposes, for example, taking a snapshot of one week.  The Deputy Director, Children and Adult Services added that one measure of the value of early help was no increase in referrals to social care statutory help.

·         Youth Service – in response to comments made about Medway’s Youth Service, officers explained how well the service was supporting vulnerable children and young people, for example, participation from looked after children had increased from 3-4% to approximately 25%.  Development of the service was ongoing and different possibilities were being explored, such as added support from businesses and it was confirmed communication with youth centre management committees was ongoing.  The Chair of Medway Youth Council shared his own perspective of the Youth Service, commenting on how improved he felt it was and how well valued the service was by young people.

Decision:

The Committee:

1)        noted the report and;

2)        agreed that a further report be presented to the Committee regarding the Early Help Strategy, a review of progress against next steps, evidence of impact and effectiveness (particularly around new arrangements in the hubs) and scrutiny of future programme arrangements.