Agenda

To receive any apologies for absence from Councillors.

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.

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.

To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the Meeting held on 19 September 2023.

To consider any outstanding actions.

To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution. Further information on the requirements for submitting these is available to view at the following link:-

https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/documents/s2305/Public%20Items%20-%20Meeting%20Procedure%20Rules.pdf 

The deadline for the submission of public questions is 3 clear working days before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a statement is midday the working day before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a petition is 10 working days before the meeting.

To receive a verbal update on the work of the Members of Youth Parliament.

The purpose of this presentation is to provide an update on Young People’s Mental Services Transformation Programme – ‘Your Mind, Your Say’.

Overview and Scrutiny require regular updates on themes regarding improvements in Education and Skills Services to scrutinise the Improvement progress and plans since the Written Statement of Action was issued following a SEND Inspection in July 2021. Some progress has been made but further is required and at pace. An Education Improvement Consultant has been engaged by Childrens Services to support the Service Director for Education and Skills accelerate improvement and ensure stability in the Education and Skills Service. The assignment is;

•        To finalise the Education Improvement Plan and associated strategies

•        To lead the co-ordination of the Education Improvement Board and programme of work

•        To support Director of Education and Skills in creating a culture of accountability and performance across all LA Education and Skills functions

•        To support the work with School Leaders and Education Providers in the Improvement Plan; building back trust and delivering against our statutory duties; inspection readiness

•        To provide advice and support in strategic and operational matters with specific focus on SEND and Vulnerable Learner systems.

To understand the current state of play they have carried out a diagnostic of the service to inform a view in order to drive improvements. The findings of which are to be presented at Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny.

Items for information which have been circulated outside the Committee:

·       Independent Reviewing Officers Annual Report

·       Corporate Performance Q2 23-24 Update

To receive a verbal update from the Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People.

The Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Committee is asked to consider and identify work priorities for publication in a Forward Plan.

To note the dates for the rest of the Municipal year 2023/23 as follows:

·       23 January 2024

·       19 March 2024

All with a 6pm start, venues to be confirmed.

In relation to the items of business appearing below, the Committee is asked to consider the following resolution: -

‘That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 2 in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Act and that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs such interest in disclosing the information.’

This report provides an update on the progress of the Children’s Building Stronger Foundations (BSF) Programme. The programme is coordinating the action needed to sustain and accelerate the required improvements in children’s services, namely the achievement recurrent savings and to safely and appropriately manage and reduce the demand for statutory services. The report notes good progress made and proposes a detailed business case for a new service delivery model for children’s services.

BCP Childrens 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 Childrens Social Care Services.

The Childrens Services Improvement Plan is in place to ensure progress is made at pace in Childrens 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 2023 Childrens Services had a Department for Education Review to assess the progress being made by BCP Childrens Services. This review was conducted by the DfE Improvement Lead. They held focus groups with partners, and employees of Children’s Services to understand what is working well and what needs to happen to further support the improvement journey. There will be a presentation at Overview and Scrutiny delivering the findings of the review.