Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from Councillors.

The Chair introduced an LGA Associate who was attending on behalf of the LGA to observe the Committee and advised of the programme of support which was being offered for Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee. 

Apologies had been received from Councillor D Butt and Mark Saxby.  Councillors Moore and Rocca attended remotely.

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.

There were no substitute members on this occasion.

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.

There were no declarations of interest received on this occasion.

To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the Meeting held on 20 September 2022.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 20 September 2022, having previously been circulated, be confirmed as an accurate record and signed by the Chair.

The Chair advised the Committee that a few historic actions dating back to 2021 had been superseded and would be removed from the action sheet.

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.

There were no public issues received on this occasion.

The Chair of the Working Group to provide a verbal update to the Committee on its findings and recommendations.

The Chair thanked the working group members and provided the Committee with verbal feedback from the first meeting of the group.

A Member of the working group advised that there was a report being prepared for consideration at parliament about child exploitation and the issues surrounding it and wondered if lobbying local MPs to help tackle the issues may be appropriate.

The Committee was advised that an update had been provided to a Member of the working group from the Local Police and Crime Commissioner regarding work the police were doing across BCP and Dorset and that this could be sent on to the Committee for their information. ACTION

The Committee was also advised that Children’s Services were applying for some funding to assist with diverting and disrupting anti-social and exploitative behaviour from known locations.

The Chair advised that the minutes of the working group including the proposed next steps would be shared with the Committee and if they had any comments or suggestions to email the Clerk. ACTION

The Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership (PDSCP) is the statutory body which oversees multi-agency safeguarding services which covers the local Dorset and BCP council areas.  This report contains a background and introduction to the functions of the partnership and the council’s responsibilities.

The annual report of the PDSCP is provided as an attachment for consideration by cabinet. The annual report includes reflections on 2021/22; strategic priorities for 2022 to 2024; learning from practice; information from the Child Death Overview Panel; summary of multi-agency training; achievements from each of the statutory safeguarding partner organisations and sub-groups of the partnership.

The Independent Chair of the Pan Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership 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 Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership (PDSCP) was the statutory body which oversaw multi-agency safeguarding services which covered the local Dorset and BCP council areas.  The report contained a background and introduction to the functions of the partnership and the council’s responsibilities.

The annual report of the PDSCP was provided as an attachment for consideration by the Committee and Cabinet. The annual report included reflections on 2021/22; strategic priorities for 2022 to 2024; learning from practice; information from the Child Death Overview Panel; summary of multi-agency training; achievements from each of the statutory safeguarding partner organisations and sub-groups of the partnership.

The Committee discussed the Report and comments were made, including:

• A Committee Member highlighted the child exploitation aspects and the work that was ongoing with partners regarding county lines and the issues surrounding it
• In response to a query, the Committee was advised of the scrutineer addition to the partnership work, how it was being considered and established and it was highlighted that a scrutiny plan was being developed which would be published next year and could be shared with the Committee once complete. ACTION
• The Pan Dorset working was discussed and it was noted that there were challenges due to dealing with two very large authorities which were highlighted, but the Committee was reassured that in areas where Pan Dorset work was imperative such as for training and child death reviews it worked well
• The Director for Children’s Services (DCS) further detailed challenges as highlighted in the DfE Improvement Advisors Report, which was being considered later on the agenda, but stressed the concerted effort in building strengthened partnerships across Dorset and BCP, whilst ensuring it still meets the safeguarding responsibilities for the children and young people of BCP
• In response to a query, it was noted the partnership did not currently have links with local sports centres and voluntary organisations although the agencies which made up the partnership did
• In response to a query regarding funding for outreach youth workers, the Committee was advised that the funding used was a one off, but the DCS advised that sustainability would be considered in how to continue and fund any good work
• An MYP advised that they had reached out to young people at a recent forum regarding the Pan Dorset Safeguarding Partnership and they were not aware of it and the work it undertook.  The Independent Chair advised he would happily attend a forum to detail the work of the Board to spread awareness and understanding. ACTION

The Chair summarised the discussions as follows:

• exploitation and how this report fed into the working group
• addition of scrutiny and the plan
• issues and advantages of working Pan Dorset
• funding for outreach youth workers
• links with sports centres and voluntary services
• raise awareness  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55.

BCP Children’s Services was inspected, under the Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACs) framework in December 2021. The outcome was an overall inadequate judgement. As a result the Secretary of State of Education issued a Statutory Direction and appointed a DfE Improvement Adviser to support the Council in their improvement of Children’s Social Care Services.

As a result a Children’s Services Improvement Plan is in place to ensure progress is made at pace in Children’s Social Care in line with the recommendations of the December Inspection and in accordance with the statutory direction notice received by the Council in March 2022.

Overview and Scrutiny require regular updates on themes regarding improvement. In October 2022 Children’s Services had their second Monitoring Visit, the letter published by Ofsted is presented for scrutiny alongside, the DfE Advisers first report. The DfE Adviser in their role is required to review the pace and progress of improvement at 6 months to ensure it is sufficient and report on this to the Secretary of State.

The Director of 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.

BCP Children’s Services was inspected, under the Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACs) framework in December 2021. The outcome was an overall inadequate judgement. As a result the Secretary of State of Education issued a Statutory Direction and appointed a DfE Improvement Adviser to support the Council in their improvement of Children’s Social Care Services.

As a result a Children’s Services Improvement Plan was put in place to ensure progress was made at pace in Children’s Social Care in line with the recommendations of the December Inspection and in accordance with the statutory direction notice received by the Council in March 2022.

Overview and Scrutiny required regular updates on themes regarding improvement. In October 2022 Children’s Services had their second Monitoring Visit, the letter published by Ofsted was presented for scrutiny alongside, the DfE Advisers first report. The DfE Adviser in their role was required to review the pace and progress of improvement at six months to ensure it was sufficient and report on this to the Secretary of State.

The Committee discussed the report and comments were made, including:

• In response to a query regarding the Local Government Review (LGR) and the barriers which still needed to be address, the Committee was advised of the issues which needed resolving corporately, as well as the transition to moving to one case management system, which unfortunately still had not been resolved. 
• In response to a query regarding a Children’s Trust, the Committee was advised that the statutory direction from the DfE was to consider whether Children’s Services could prosper and improve within BCP or whether it should be removed from BCP’s control and become a Children’s Trust, which would be an independent legal entity from BCP Council.  The Committee was advised of the implications should that happen
• In response to queries regarding LGR and the corporate transformation, structure and board, it was highlighted that there was a children’s services transformation board which work along the corporate transformation.  Details of the financial support system, HR operating model and pay and reward model were provided to the Committee
• In response to a query about staffing and dependency on agency staff, the Committee was advised that a shortage of social workers was a national issue and could result in higher caseloads.  The way in which the service was trying to address this issue was detailed
• In response to a query about consistencies and good practice, the Committee was advised of the work being undertaken to drive improvement which included the quality assurance work, a good training offer and the need for a social work model which the service wanted to adopt and were looking for DfE funding to assist with that, however it was noted that this could only be introduced once the workforce had stabilised.
• The Chair enquired  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.

The Written Statement of Action Programme of Improvement Work has been underway for ten months and as required by Department for Education and NHS England has been concentrating on improving eight areas of significant weakness. The Department for Education and NHS England have a regular monitoring session with BCP Council and NHS Dorset to ensure progress is being made against the eight key areas.

The Director of Education & Skills and Head of SEND 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 Written Statement of Action Programme of Improvement Work had been underway for ten months and as required by Department for Education and NHS England had been concentrating on improving eight areas of significant weakness. The Department for Education and NHS England had a regular monitoring session with BCP Council and NHS Dorset to ensure progress was being made against the eight key areas.

The Committee discussed the report and comments were made, including:

• The Chair enquired about joint working between agencies and the Committee was advised that improvements take time to embed and of the journey to change culture of the system wide approach.  Reference was given to the coproduced seven values which were embedded in every aspect of work in the whole system approach
• In response to a query about the coproduction wok to date, the Chair enquired whether this could be shared with the Committee. ACTION
• The Committee was advised of the Annual SEND Survey which was circulated from colleagues from health and education as well as Children’s Services which helped to drive the improvement.  It was noted that there had been approximately 170 responses received to date.  The challenge was to get the feedback from the young people affected.  There was a request that the MYPs shared the survey as much as possible with the Headteachers and SENCOs to increase the response and how this could be done was discussed.  ACTION
• A Participation Worker advised that targeted groups would be beneficial to help engagement with the young people and would support the SEND Participation Worker to progress this.
• In response to a concern regarding the rise in Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), the Committee was advised there had been a rise nationally and the reasons for that were highlighted including a backlog from Covid and an increase in parental request
• The Committee were advised that there were Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) being developed and requested sight of them once developed. ACTION – present to next Committee.
• A Committee Member congratulated the team on the work that had been undertaken and the Committee was advised about the work done to keep track on the improvements and acknowledged the time that parents and carers were giving to the improvement journey
• In response to a query regarding the cultural issues referenced in the initial inspection letter, the Committee was advised if referred to the lack of communication and oversight.  The Director of Education advised she could send the inspection letter to the Committee which provided further details. ACTION
• In response to a query regarding pre exclusion panels, the Committee was advised that they were now referred to as an Education Entitlement Meeting and the remit of them was detailed, it was noted that they had led to none of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.

Report providing provisional attainment data from 2022 public examinations and assessment series in BCP.

The Director of Education and Skills and the Secondary Advisor presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'D' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The purpose of the report was to provide the committee with an early oversight of outcomes for children and young people in BCP.  The report provided provisional attainment data from 2022 public examinations and assessment series in BCP.

The Committee was advised that an update on the validated data could be provided at the next meeting.  ADD TO THE FORWARD PLAN.

The Committee discuss the report and comments were made, including:

• An MYP enquired about the English and Maths pass rate statistic and those who did not reach it potentially missing out on the ability to attend 6^th form provision, the Committee was reassured that it was a complicated area, but a large number of 6^th form provisions would accept lower grades of 4 and above depending on the chosen subjects and would only require higher grades to progress to specific subjects.  The options of also applying for applied subjects and offers to re-sit GCSEs were also highlighted
• The qualifications including the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) and levels were explained to the Committee
• In response to a query regarding STEM subjects, the Committee was advised that consideration of the subjects within selective schools and single gender schools across the comprehensive system needed further investigation however single sex schools were starting to merge and teach co-educational in certain subjects. 
• In response to a query about some schools results declining since 2019, the Committee was advised that the report had been kept at a high level until the data had been validated and to ensure schools were willing to share the information, however possible reasons for the decline were highlighted.  It was noted that nationally BCP had done well for outcomes and the grading distribution was detailed to the Committee.
• In response to a query regarding the advance information provided to students before GCSEs and how some of it was not given or inaccurate, the Committee was advised how complex and distressing the exam system has been recently and how some of the advance information in certain subjects was very useful and some had led to more confusion.  The Committee was advised that Ofqual would have taken that into consideration when awarding the grading and it should not have had a big impact on results.

The Chair summarised discussions as follows:

• Definition of EBacc
• Inflated grades
• Pass rates and impacts
• Levels and qualifications
• Gender and STEM subjects
• Potential decline in results
• Advanced information

RESOLVED that the Committee note the report.

This report provides a performance update for the period July – September 2022 (Quarter 2 2022-23) for the key performance indicators relating to Children’s Services as detailed in the Corporate Performance Scorecard. 

The Chair highlighted the supplement to Appendix 2 which provided an updated Exceptions Performance Report.

The Interim Head of Performance presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix ‘E’ to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The report provided a performance update for the period July – September 2022 (Quarter 2 2022-23) for the key performance indicators relating to Children’s Services as detailed in the Corporate Performance Scorecard.

The Committee discussed the report and comments were made, including:

• In response to a query regarding Ofsted ratings and possible risk of not placing a child at a school because it did not have a rating, the Committee was advised of the possible reasons why a school would not have a rating, however was reassured that they would be considered when placing a child
• In response to a query regarding NEETs, the Committee was advised that numbers were reducing and validated data would be released shortly
• In response to a query regarding the virtual school working with the Princes Trust, the Committee was advised of the local re-engagement services which were personalised to a young person and involved a multi agency approach to try to engage and reintegrate the young person back into the education, employment or training
• In response to a query from an MYP regarding the summary of equality implications and whether there was any work ongoing to try and reduce the exclusions of the BAME community, the Committee was advised that the Education Entitlement Board was trying to reduce exclusions across the whole school cohort
• In response to a query regarding the mention of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in Appendix 1 – Corporate Performance Indicators Scoreboard and the course which was provided for them, the Committee was advised the College had been supportive and were offering an online non English speaking, speaking English course and were in early conversations about how to oversee education of UASC to ensure they were receiving the right levels of education
• The Committee were advised of the start times of college courses and the challenges encountered were detailed including funding and staffing resources.  The NEET offer was highlighted as providing support should there be a delay in a young person starting college courses.

The Chair summarised discussions as follows:

• Ofsted ratings
• NEET numbers
• Virtual school working with other partners to reduce NEETS
• Disadvantaged YP – BAME and exclusion rates
• Percentage of good and outstanding Schools
• UASC
• Funding of college and how impacts college courses.

RESOLVED that the Committee note report.

To receive a verbal update from the Portfolio Holders.

The Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People advised the Committee of two recent events, an awards event for children in care and care leavers and expressed thanks to those who attended and the officially opening of Care Leavers Hub, which had won best project of the year award at the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum and encouraged Committee Members to visit it.

The Committee was advised of the budget café to consider the Children’s Services budget and Cabinet on December 14 where the Equality and Diversity Policy was recommended for approval and included that Children in Care, Care Leavers and Care Experienced Children and young people would be considered locally as having protected characteristics under the remit of the Equalities Act.

The Chair read out an update from the Portfolio Holder for Priorities and Delivery regarding the high needs block funding which included the following:

• The DfE had acknowledged the pressures which local systems were experiencing delivering special educational needs and disability (SEND) services. Its ‘Delivering Better Value in SEND programme’ was aimed at supporting local authorities to improve delivery of SEND services for children and young people while ensuring services were sustainable. BCP was one of 55 local authorities taking part, chosen based on those with the highest deficits as at 2020- 21.
• The details of the process were highlighted to the Committee which included a Diagnostic to assist in identifying the most impactful changes which could improve the outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
• At the end of the Diagnostic, authorities would receive funding from the DfE and with support from DfE officials and their local SEND advisors would deliver the plan to realise these opportunities to improve. Early diagnostics pointed to opportunities that BCP Council had already identified and got actions in place to address, for example, increasing specialist places and investing in our SEND Service to increase capacity. 

To consider the Committee’s Forward Plan.

The Forward Plan was noted, and it was highlighted that another Child Exploitation Working Group and possibly a working group to consider the budget for Children’s Services would be arranged in the new year.

To note the date for the next meeting as 7 February 2023.

The date of the last meeting for the municipal year 2022/23 was noted.