Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr. Nick Denys (Vice-Chairman), with Cllr. Judy Kelly substituting.

No Declarations of Interest were made.

No matters had been notified in advance or as urgent.

It was confirmed that all agenda items were Part I and would be discussed in public.

Members requested that the minutes for the work programme item be updated to reflect that officers had provided a figure for the number of permanent management posts within children's social care that had been filled. This has stood at ten on the date of the June Committee meeting.

Resolved: That:

1. Subject to the above addition, the minutes of the meeting held on 24 June 2015 be agreed as a correct record.

Officers introduced a report to provide the Committee with details of the Children and Young People's Social Care Service Improvement Plan (SIP). The Plan provided an overview of the key areas of activity and details of planned improvements.

At the March 2015 meeting, the Committee had been informed that the Ofsted Plan to address recommendations from the previous inspection had been concluded and that ongoing work would be transferred to a new Service Improvement Plan. The development of the Plan had taken into account national policy and legislation and the report of the Ofsted Chief Inspector.

The Report of the Chief Inspector, published in March 2015, had outlined a number of key characteristics that had been judged to be good. These included 'strong leaders and managers have a relentless focus on outcomes for children' and 'mangers have a discernible grip on cases at all times.' These had formed a basis for the development of the Plan, which aimed to ensure improved service delivery using an iterative and sustainable approach.

It was noted that the SIP was based upon six key principles. All open cases were required to be supported by a plan and, where required, permanency arrangements also needed to be made in a timely manner. There were also challenges in relation to legislation regarding permanency and the Public Law Outline as legal requirements in relation to these areas had been tightened.

The SIP provided a framework of seven workstreams that would address the range of challenges and improvement activity within the service. Four of the workstreams set out the structure of the services provided. There was now dedicated project management support available to assist with development and delivery of the SIP. An officer had been seconded from Finance and would be working full time on the Plan.

Officers advised that there were now greater expectations of how well Children's Services identify, manage and support children at risk of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), gang violence and radicalisation. The 'Staying Put' legislation also had an impact on service delivery. This increased the age that Looked After Children were entitled to remain in their foster placements from 18 to 21. Unaccompanied Asylum seeker children arriving at Heathrow also presented a challenge as Hillingdon had responsibility for providing services to unaccompanied and asylum seeking children and young people. These factors had been considered during development of the Plan.

Staff stability and the management structure were considered to be essential to the Plan. To ensure good management oversight, a flatter management structure had been developed. This involved increasing the number of Team Managers, with a maximum number of seven social workers reporting to each. A layer of management below Team Manager level had also been removed.

The SIP was considered to be a 'live' document and the Committee would be provided with an update on progress once a quarter. Officers reflected that the Service was much more stable than it had been a year ago and had improved significantly. It was anticipated that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

Officers presented the 2016/17 Budget Planning Report for Children, Young People and Learning Services. This was the first of two opportunities within the budgetary planning cycle for the Policy Overview Committee to consider issues relating to budget planning for 2016/17. The report set out the main financial issues facing the service, the work being undertaken to overcome them and the response to legislative changes. The second report, due to be considered by the Committee in January 2016 would set out detailed budget proposals, which would first be presented to Cabinet.

It was noted that the current forecast for 2016/17 was for a Council savings requirement of £20.3 million. Officers were working to identify potential savings and it was anticipated that there could be some frontloading in cuts of funding from the Government. However, until the Government announced the final amount of funding that the Council would receive in December 2015, the final funding position would not be fully known. It was noted that the Government's recent Summer Budget had added defence spending to the list of protected budgets and that cuts would therefore have to come from other areas, with local government being one possible area.

The Council remained in a strong position to deal with future budgetary challenges, due to having an accumulated balance of £40.4 million at the end of 2014/15 and the robust budget challenge process that was utilised. An initial budget challenge session had been held and a second session was due to take place in the autumn. The embedding of the Council's Transformation programme was helping services to meet budgetary challenges and all services had had their delivery models reviewed.

The Education Service had identified budget savings for 2015/16 totalling £240,000. The service was confident that these would be delivered and the capital programme was dealing with pupil growth through school expansions. The rate at which schools were converting to Academy status was slowing down, although the current Education and Adoption Bill could lead to an increase in conversions. It was also noted that there was a national shortage of teachers and especially of headteachers.

The Department for Education had indicated that they would be investigating the National Funding Formula. Funding of schools was currently not standardised across the country, although since 2014, the Government had ensured that each local authority received a minimum of the average level of funding per pupil compared to the national average. This had resulted in receipt of an additional £155,000 of funding.

Within Children's Social Care, 2014/15 had seen a high level of staff turnover from director level down. A significant programme of recruitment was underway and opportunities would also be taken to convert agency staff to permanent employment, where the staff wished to make this move. New ways of working were being implemented The 'Staying Put' legislation, which increased the age that young people in foster care were entitled to stay with their foster carers from 18 to 21 also was having an impact on budgets. Additional New  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

A Member raised a concern that a report on the School Improvement Plan due to be considered by Cabinet on 23 July 2015 did not contain information about secondary schools that were under consideration for expansion. This was of concern as the Member had understood that some of these places were required for September.

It was noted that an item in relation to Education Travel Plans was due to be considered by Cabinet in September 2015. This had been added to a version of the Forward Plan that had been published after dispatch of the papers for the Children, Young People and Learning POC meeting.

Resolved: That:

1.    Concerns raised in relation to the Cabinet School Improvement Plan report be passed to relevant officers for a response to be provided.

2.    The Forward Plan be noted.

Members requested that consideration be given to inviting additional witnesses to attend one of the witness sessions for the Committee's first review of 2015/16, the title of which was "The effectiveness of early help to promote positive outcomes for families." It was proposed that a representative from Bell Farm Christian Centre be invited in addition to a representative from a Children's Centre in the north of the Borough.

Resolved: That:

1.    Officers to investigate inviting additional witnesses, as requested by the Committee, as part of the first Major Review of 2015/16.

2.    The Work Programme be noted.