Venue: Committee Suite, Civic Centre, Poole BH15 2RU. View directions
Contact: Louise Smith Email: democratic.services@bcpcouncil.gov.uk
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Apologies To receive any apologies for absence from Councillors. Minutes: Apologies were received from Councillors Geary, Northover and Rocca and Mark Saxby. |
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Substitute Members To receive information on any changes in the membership of the Committee.
Note – When a member of a Committee is unable to attend a meeting of a Committee or Sub-Committee, the relevant Political Group Leader (or their nominated representative) may, by notice to the Monitoring Officer (or their nominated representative) prior to the meeting, appoint a substitute member from within the same Political Group. The contact details on the front of this agenda should be used for notifications.
Minutes: Councillor Hilliard substituted for Councillor Geary. |
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Declarations of Interests Councillors are requested to declare any interests on items included in this agenda. Please refer to the workflow on the preceding page for guidance. Declarations received will be reported at the meeting. Minutes: Councillors Hilliard, Kelly, Dr Rice and Moore declared interests as Governors and Trustees at schools within the BCP conurbation. |
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Confirmation of Minutes To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the Meeting held on 27 July 2021. Minutes: RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 27 July 2021, having previously been circulated, be agreed and signed by the Chair. |
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To consider any outstanding actions. Minutes: The Chair advised that the actions outstanding were being progressed. |
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Public Issues To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution, which is available to view at the following link:
https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeID=151&Info=1&bcr=1
The deadline for the submission of a public question is 4 clear working days before the meeting. The deadline for the submission of a public statement is midday the working day before the meeting. The deadline for the submission of a petition is 10 working days before the meeting.
Minutes: A public question had been received as follows:
“In light of the Ofsted recommendations, will you now be urgently reassessing the cases of children in BCP care to return them to birth families where possible (especially where the necessary early support was not given in the first place), do you agree that neurodivergent parents should receive any additional support, and do you feel that investing in such support would be better, especially for the children's long term needs, than opting to keep funding long term care costs?”
Received from Mr Tinsley. Address supplied.
Response: Thank you very much for your question. Having read the OFSTED report and recommendations, along with your question, I very much appreciate the sentiment of the question but am not sure precisely which Ofsted recommendations it refers. I will, however, endeavour to give you the fullest possible answer to each of your points:
Will you now be urgently reassessing the cases of children in BCP care to return them to birth families where possible?
This is a complex question to answer because children who are in care and adopted children are subject to different legal arrangements. I will answer the question by explaining the different nature of this arrangements and separately answer the question of urgent review.
I would like to assure you that BCP endeavours to support all children to remain with their birth families wherever that is safe and possible. If it is not in the best interests of the child for example where there is abuse or the child’s needs cannot be met by their parents, we seek for alternative forms of care for the child our first consideration being wider family or friends. 46% of the children who entered care in BCP care last year returned home. A further 20% of the children who came into care in BCP last year went to live with wider family and friends caring for the child as a foster carer or under a Special Guardianship arrangement. For children who cannot return home or to their wider families BCP has a duty to secure children a permanent and safe home to adulthood and beyond. Some children are fostered under a section 20 arrangement where birth parents share parental responsibility with the local authority, others are made subject to care order where the local authority holds parental responsibility. A care order is made by a judge who will carefully consider the ability of parents and wider family to care for the child prior to the making of the order. Under both of these legal arrangements BCP is required to encourage contact with birth family wherever that is safe to do so. There is a statutory meeting every 6 month which considers the views of all those involved with the child including birth family the child and professionals. The meeting considers contact and whether the plan should be for the child to remain in foster care. It is possible for a child to return home on a care ... view the full minutes text for item 37. |
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Children's Services Capital Programme The report sets out the capital programme for Children’s Services, including summarising the available funding and approved projects. It provides a brief summary of the status of projects which have been completed or are in progress, and of projects which have not yet been initiated. A review of inclusion practice in BCP schools and a revised special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) strategy is underway, led by the Director of Education. A programme of capital works to help deliver that strategy will be brought forward in the 2022 budget. Additional documents: Minutes: The Interim Pupil Place Planning, Admissions and School Funding Manager, presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'A' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.
The report set out the capital programme for Children’s Services, including summarising the available funding and approved projects. It provided a summary of the status of projects which had been completed or were in progress, and of projects which had not yet been initiated. A review of inclusion practice in BCP schools and a revised special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) strategy was underway, led by the Director of Education. A programme of capital works to help deliver that strategy would be brought forward in the 2022 budget.
The Committee discussed the report and comments were made, including:
The Portfolio Holder with responsibility for Covid Resilience and Schools and Skills wanted ... view the full minutes text for item 38. |
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Children's Social Care Improvement Journey – progress update Members received an overview report of progress at theirmeeting on 8 June and requested further updates in order to satisfy themselves that progress was being maintained. Additional documents:
Minutes: The DfE Improvement Advisor for BCP and Interim Corporate Director, Children’s Services presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'B' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.
The Committee received an overview report of progress at its meeting on 8 June 2021 and requested further updates in order to be satisfied that was progress being maintained.
The Committee discussed the report and comments were made, including:
The Chair summarised the discussions as follows:
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School Place Planning Strategy The School Place Planning Strategy is a non-statutory strategy intended to provide information about the forecast supply and demand for school places for the coming years, and to set out principles for organisational change. The intended audience includes BCP elected members, schools and academies, the Department for Education and its agencies, the wider community. The strategy does not make proposals for organisational change, such as the opening of new schools, school closures, or change of admission numbers: it provides information to enable strategic planning. Additional documents: Minutes: The Interim Pupil Place Planning, Admissions and School Funding Manager, presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'C' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.
The School Place Planning Strategy was a non-statutory strategy intended to provide information about the forecast supply and demand for school places for the coming years, and to set out principles for organisational change. The intended audience included BCP elected members, schools and academies, the Department for Education, its agencies and the wider community. The strategy did not make proposals for organisational change, such as the opening of new schools, school closures, or change of admission numbers: it provided information to enable strategic planning.
The Committee discussed the report and comments were made, including:
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Portfolio Holder Update To receive any verbal updates from the Portfolio Holders.
Minutes: The Portfolio Holder with responsibility for Covid Resilience and Schools and Skills thanked the Committee for its valuable contributions to the items considered and advised of some items that would be coming to Committee soon.
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Information Only Items Any Information Only Reports will be circulated after the meeting.
Minutes: There was no information only items to be circulated on this occasion. |
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To consider the Committee’s Forward Plan. Minutes: The Chair advised the Committee of the planned forward planning session and it was noted that details of that would be shared by the Clerk in due course. |
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Dates of Future Meetings To note the dates of future Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committees as follows:
All meetings will commence at 6pm and venues to be confirmed.
Minutes: The dates of the future meetings were noted. |