Agenda and minutes

Councillor Timothy Hallchurch attended in place of Councillor Tony Harbour.

Cllr Hallchurch declared a personal  interest in Agenda Item 6 on account of his being a member of the Federation of Small Businesses.

Cllr Fitzgerald O’Connor declared a personal interest in Agenda Item 7 on account of her membership on the Boards of Oxfordshire Play Association and Oxfordshire Playbus.

To approve the minutes of the meetings held on 22 September 2009 (CH3(a)) and 5 October (CH3(b)) and to note for information any matters arising on them.

The Minutes of the meetings held on 22 September 2009 (CH3(a)) and 5 October 2009 (CH3(b)) were approved and signed subject to the addition of Carole Thomson as being present at both meetings and the addition of the following bullet point at the top of page 21, 5 October 2009 meeting, to read as follows:

‘A projected £600k would be withdrawn from the central budget if there were to be two academies’.

10.15 am

To discuss operational matters with regard to the Committee’s Work Plan. A matrix is attached at CH5.

It was AGREED to receive the matrix as set down in CH5.

10.25 am

This item is one of the three principle topics earmarked at the last meeting for review, the others being ‘Bullying in Schools’ and ‘ Science in Schools and the Community’. Plans are underway for presentations to be given at the 23 February meeting on the latter two topics.

A presentation will be made by Sandra Higgs, Strategy Leader, 14 – 19 Oxfordshire after which there will be a question & answer session. A brief which has been prepared by the officers will follow.

Members of the Committee were given a presentation based on a briefing paper prepared by (CH5) by Sandra Higgs, Strategy Leader, 14 – 19, and Richard Savage, Service Manager, Supporting Choices. This item had been one of the three principle topics earmarked at the 22 September meeting for review, the others being ‘Bullying in Schools’ and ‘Science in Schools and the Community’. Plans were underway for presentations to be given to the 23 February meeting on the latter two topics.

Following the presentation, the Committee conducted a question and answer session, some of the responses to which are set out below:

Q         Is Health & Safety, and in particular Manual Handling,  part of the curriculum?

R         Health & Safety is part of the curriculum for both the new Diploma and the Apprenticeship programmes. It is also a stand alone qualification. We have to think about the needs of the learners and, at the same time avoid duplication of courses in order to make them cost effective.

Q         Will those that have started in the sixth form at Carterton College qualify for subsidised travel?

R         It is the Local Authority’s responsibility to organise travel and to ensure access to college courses. However, there are thresholds in place for qualification. We are finding that not all wish to apply for  it and, to this end, we are working with Carterton College.

Q         In my division there are a significant amount of small businesses, pubs, post offices, corner shops and farms employing young people aged under 18 and access to courses can be impossible without independent transport. In addition, might a number of small business employers lose their day release facilities? Will EU workers qualify for language course?

R         Part of the changes is to give more flexibility to employers and providers and to make learners used to different styles of learning. Part of this flexibility could be via learning on the job, receiving both assessment and mentoring support. The challenge in Oxfordshire is to try to communicate this message to employers and providers in a better way and to ensure that types of programme availability matches up to need. Currently there are a large number of employers not giving training as employees are still required to travel to a central venue. Yes EU workers will qualify for language courses.

Q         Will 16 year olds who are already in day release training, be breaking the law ?

R         There is a nationwide debate currently going on about who to criminalise in these circumstances – the young people (or their parents), or the employers who take them on. We do not have an answer to that at this time. It is a matter of concern.

The Leach report said that young people not receiving training, and not willing to engage in training will be unlikely to remain in a job for a long time. Statistics suggest that young people currently in year 6 and 7 will be likely to have up to 17 jobs  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40/09

11.10 am

This is an opportunity for the Committee to feed any advice/comment to Cabinet in relation to the draft Plan , prior to its submission for approval to the 15 December Cabinet.

The draft Plan can be found at CH7.

Members had before them a copy of the draft Oxfordshire Children & Young People’s Plan 2010-13. This was an opportunity for the Committee to feed any advice/comment to Cabinet in relation to the draft Plan, prior to its submission for approval to the 15 December Cabinet and to full Council in January.

Sian Rodway, Councillor Louise Chapman and Councillor Michael Waine were present in order to introduce the report and to answer any questions that the Committee had. The Committee had a number of questions, some of which are detailed below along with the response received:

Q         Play is very important to a child’s development as it enhances trust and self confidence. There does not appear to be much emphasis placed on play in the document?

R         (Cllr Chapman) The local authority has a Play Strategy which various people and organisations have signed up to . There is quite a significant amount of information on play on the website. We will have a look at it and maybe strengthen the language in the Delivery Plan.

Q         Is there anything extra in the Plan to alleviate the problems Young Carers sometimes experience in school, such a bullying?

R         Young Carers are mentioned in the Plan and there will be clear links within the Strategy. We have not started from scratch and we are linking into other Strategies extending into 2010 which are focussed on these young people, such as the Anti Bullying Strategy.

Q         This is a very well written, plausible and exciting document – but have you been ambitious enough with some of the targets and milestones? For example, the secondary school absence rate targets? Also some of the statistics are not clear enough – for example those relating to entrants to criminal justice. How measurable are these targets?

R         The priorities are the business of all the partners who have signed up to it and everybody will be held to account. The priorities also have to line up with legislative requirements so that we can then extricate funding against them. Some will show a very definite achievement by the end of the first year and some will take much longer. Every year they are reviewed formally, as is the Delivery Plan. LAA targets are set with GOSE and reviewed on an annual basis. It is recognised that the outcomes of some targets by their very nature cannot be predicted as they are set a long time in advance. With regard to the external targets in particular, we need to be very clear as to whose target it is, when it was set, what ability we have to revise it etc and whether we are in a position to move on. The Children’s Trust will be monitoring the Plan and of course, scrutiny. We welcome any form of monitoring.

Q         Oxford City Council’s own response was to direct attention to the neglectful environments which some children were having to live in and proposing that they have a safe place to go  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41/09

11.45 pm

The purpose of this agenda item is to evaluate, 12 months on from the Cabinet’s consideration of the review, what progress has been made in implementing the recommendations that were agreed. The review was undertaken by Councillors Anda Fitzgerald O’Connor, Carol Viney and David Turner, together with Ben Jackson, a former co-optee of the Committee.

Councillor David Turner, as lead member, has been tracking the review and he has been invited to attend.

Councillors Michael Waine and Louise Chapman have also been invited to attend to respond to any questions members of the Committee might have with regard to the tracking report, together with Children, Young People & Families officers Deborah Parkhouse and Hannah Farncombe.

Copies of the full review is attached at CH8(a), the Executive Summary at CH8(b) and the tracking report at CH8(c).

The purpose of this agenda item was to evaluate, 12 months on from the Cabinet’s consideration of the review, what progress has been made in implementing the recommendations that were agreed. The review was undertaken by Councillors Anda Fitzgerald O’Connor, Carol Viney and David Turner, together with Ben Jackson, a former co-optee of the Committee.

Councillor David Turner, as lead member, had been tracking the review and he has been invited to attend.

Councillors Michael Waine and Louise Chapman were also in attendance to respond to any questions members of the Committee might have had with regard to the tracking report, together with Children, Young People & Families officers Deborah Parkhouse and Hannah Farncombe.

Copies of the full review were attached at CH8(a), the Executive Summary at CH8(b) and the tracking report at CH8(c).

Various follow up questions were asked by Cllr Turner to those contained in the monitoring report, some of which, together with the responses received, are detailed below:

Recommendation 1

Q         Was Annex 2 circulated to all schools and why will the Action Plan relating to the work needed in schools not be developed until spring 2010?

R         The contents of Annex 2 was sent out to all schools in the County and the contents embedded in the Young Carers Strategy. In addition, the Strategy has gone out to all schools. A new School Development Worker post has been developed to work county wide. This person will come into post in January 2010 and will build on the work done to date.

Q         Couldn’t the Strategy have been sent out earlier than September 2009?

R         Much work was required to develop a Strategy with partners following the Cabinet meeting. Cllr Chapman commented that officers were able to embed a significant amount into the Strategy after consultation. The timing of the review was opportune, as officers were able to incorporate its recommendations into the Strategy. 

Recommendation 3

Q         How wide has the build up of non teaching support for young carers been? How  many single points of contact have been made in schools?

R         There have been some, but the situation is inconsistent. We have tried to develop it via integration with the Strategy.

Recommendation 5

Q         Has there been any improvement to access to support services for those young carers living in rural areas?

R         We have accessed voluntary drivers and other forms of community transport within some rural parts of the north and the south of the County. Also, Lord Williams’s School in Thame have done some work on the recognition of young carers in the area. We have supported the School with some of the issues including bullying. However, generally this still remains a challenge area.

Recommendation 6

Q         Have you managed to lobby the LGA to consider reviewing the legislative requirements around assessments for young carers?

R         Cllr Chapman – This issue has come up at various times. I have raised it locally with MPs and others.

Recommendation 7

Q         Has the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42/09

12.15 pm

An update will be given by the members of the Working Group.

The Committee noted the progress report.

12.20 pm

An update will be given by members of the Working Group.

The Committee noted the progress report.