Agenda and minutes

The Minutes of the meeting held on 21 May 2012 were taken as read and signed as a correct record.

            It was reported that no public questions had been received.

            The Board received a report which contained the minutes relating to  the Children, Young People and Families portfolio which had been considered by Executive Board Committee since the last meeting of the PPB.

            RESOLVED: That the minutes be noted.

            The minutes of the Halton Children’s Trust meeting held on 21 February, 17 April, 29 May and 10 July 2012 were submitted to the Board for information.

            Arising from the minutes Members commented on the excellent results from breastfeeding targets, which had been achieved for the first time.

            In relation to Minute 4.0 from 29 May 2012, the Board queried whether Partners had returned ISAs by 1^st June.  In response it was noted that not all of them had been returned by this date, however contact had been made with partners to chase up the outstanding returns.  

            RESOLVED: That the minutes be noted.

            The Board received two short Presentations from Nigel Moorhouse – Operational Director Children and Families, and Ann McIntyre – Operational Director Children’s Organisation and Provision, which provided an overview of each area within the Children and Enterprise Directorate. 

            Members were informed of structures, roles and responsibilities of teams, plus emerging and key issues within the areas.

            The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director – Policy and Resources which provided performance management information for Quarter 1 of 2012-13. 

            It was reported that in line with the revised Council’s Performance Framework for 2012/13, the PPB had been provided with a Children & Young People’s Priority Based report which identified the key issues that arose from performance in Quarter 1.  The priorities and common areas of focus were set out in the report as follows:

·         commissioning;

• early help and support;
• narrowing the gap; and
• common areas of focus: workforce planning and development, asset management and resources.

Members were advised that the full Departmental Quarterly monitoring reports were available via the following link  http://srvmosswfe1:40000/sites/Teams/PerformanceandImprovement/ Pages/QuarterlyMonitoringReports.aspx

 Officers noted the following headlines and key issues:

·         in relation to the Efficiency Review of Children in Need Service the team were in the process of finalising the ‘As is’ report and work was being undertaken to look at the potential solutions;

• there were changes to Statutory Guidance and New Inspection Frameworks for Child Protection and Looked After Children plus new inspection frameworks for Vulnerable children;

·         regarding this year’s academic results there had been an overall increase across all key stages and post 16 education.  It was reported that these initial results were subject to validation and a report would be brought to the October meeting of the Board;

·         in relation to the English Baccalaureate Members commented on the value of this in terms of future employability;

·         there were changes to eligibility criteria for vulnerable 2 year olds, which would significantly increase the number who would be able to access the 2 year old places in the Borough, in line with government funding increases;

Arising from discussion of the reports Members noted the following:

·         with regards to academic results from 2011-12 verbally presented to the Board, Members wished to congratulate the Learning and Achievement Team for the excellent results in narrowing the gap in attainment between those pupils who received free school meals and those who didn’t, and the overall results; 

• concerns were raised in relation to the new Ofsted inspection changes and that the bar had been raised as a result of the revisions to the framework.  Members noted that there would be a possibility of a ‘drop’ in category for some schools; and

• Members requested that capital projects be included within the financial statements of performance monitoring reports.

The Board was advised of two Topic Group titles for the forthcoming year as follows:

·         Mental Health of Children – in relation to self harming issues (this would be open to Members of Health PPB); and

• Provision of Independent Living Skills for Children and Young People with Special  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

            The Board received a report of the Strategic  Director – Children and Enterprise which provided the opportunity to scrutinise Referral and Assessment activity and provided an update on issues impacting on current performance within the Children in Need (CiN) Service.  Members were advised that the report focused on performance in relation to the end of year data for 2011/12.

            The Board was advised of the importance of Members having a good understanding of performance and were satisfied that adequate strategies were in place to ensure that the children in Halton were safeguarded. 

            Members were further advised that Children’s Social Care was made up of a number of services and the CiN Service provided contact referral and assessment services to children in need and those in need of protection, including those children with a disability who required a social worker. 

It was further reported that the Permanence Team provided services to children in care who had a plan of permanence and the Young People’s  Team proved services to care leavers and Children in Need who were 14+.  In addition the Fostering and Adoption Team undertook family finding and recruitment of carers.

            Outlined in the report were details of the following:

·         Referrals;

·         Contacts;

·         Completion of Assessments;

·         Caseloads and Social Work Capacity;

·         Child Protection Plans and S47 / Child Protection Enquires;

·         Work Flow;

·         Management Capacity;

·         Performance Data; and

·         Efficiency Review

Arsing from discussion of the report Members noted the following:

·           the 2 social worker vacancies referred to in the report had now been filled;

·           feed back from Climbie visits would be useful, Members requested this be included in future Children in Need reports;

·           concerns were raised regarding the large increase in sexual abuse referrals during 2011/12 - from 17 referrals to 88.  Members were advised a portion of this increase was attributable to adults accessing child pornography on line.  It was further noted that there was increased awareness of issues in relation to online sexual abuse which could account for the increase in referrals.

RESOLVED: That

1)    the Board continues to scrutinise and support the work of the Children’s Trust in relation to the development of Team around the Family and early help services; and

2)    an update report on the first 2 Quarter performance for 2012/13 be presented to the Board in 6 months to include action taken following the efficiency review and the impact on reducing Social Worker’s Caseloads; and

3)    feedback from Climbie visits be added to future Children in Need reports.

            The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director – Children and Enterprise which provided an update on the developments in the Troubled Families programme.

            It was reported that the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) had issued the Financial Framework for Troubled Families.  Halton had re-named the initiative the ‘Inspiring Families Project”. The report set out the framework which explained the following:

·         the process for drawing up the list of families who would be part of the programme;

·         the criteria drawn up by government;

·         how to use local intelligence on families with serious problems who were high cost;

·         the criteria for identifying which of the above families were eligible for additional funding from government by payment by results; and

·         what would need to be achieved with each family in order to claim payment by results.

It was further noted that all authorities had formally signed up to the programme and had informed the TFU of their year 1 figures for working with families.

   The report further set out the following:

·         details of funding,

·         explanations of upfront attachment fees over the course of the 3 year programme;

·         deadline for claiming results payments;

·         Halton’s position (written commitment had been provided that Halton would engage with 375 Troubled Families);

·         the proposed profile for the number of families and how the project was intended to work with them over 3 years;

·         next steps; and

·         other implications.

It was further reported that an agreement had been made to consider Alcohol and Domestic Violence as the local factor for Halton for the first year. Appended to the report for information was a chart detailing the criteria and breakdown for the troubled families to date, including Halton’s ‘latest picture’.

The Board also noted Appendix B of the report – Troubled Families Outcomes and sub-measures and discussed the complexities involved in the need to share data with other agencies and the continuous need for the data to be refreshed.  

RESOLVED: that

1)    the developments in the Inspiring Families Programme be noted; and

2)      the Board support the Inspiring Families Approach in Halton.

            The Board received a report of the Strategic Director – Children and Enterprise which provided an analysis on complaints processed under the Children Act 1989, Representation’s Procedure.

            The report outlined the 4 categories to the representation process and the annual report from 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012 which detailed the 41 Statutory complaints that were made, and included feedback from young people / advocates who had accessed the complaints process.

            Members were further advised of the types of Statutory complaints made, the outcomes of closed Stage 1 complaints, information regarding Stage 2 complaints and timescales.

            In relation to the compliments report the Board was advised that 131 compliments had been made for the year in respect of Children’s Social Care.  This was a 70% increase and it was noted that 76 of those were received from service users (15 of these from people under 18 years), and 55 were positive feedback from workers and professionals.

            Arising from discussion of the report the Board noted that learning priorities could be gained from feedback from both complaints and compliments.  It was noted that this information was shared with mangers in the Child Care Service Teams.

            RESOLVED: That 

1)    The report be accepted as the mechanism by which the Local Authority is kept informed about the operation of its complaints procedure; and

2)      The Annual report will evidence how feedback from services users have been used to improve service delivery.