Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Charles Mathew and Councillor Mark Gray.  No substitutes were appointed.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 9 March 2017 and to receive information arising from them.

The minutes of the meetings held on 5 January 2017 and 9 March 2017 were approved and signed as a correct record.

Councillors Constance and Green reported that delays in the release of Section 106 payments were still occurring.  It was agreed to add this to the forward plan for scheduling in the next few months.

10.10

Report by Corporate Services (PSC5)

This paper provides details of performance for quarter three 2016-17 for Performance Scrutiny Committee to consider before making comments to Council. The report is required so that the Cabinet can monitor the performance of the Council in key service areas and be assured that progress is being made to improve areas where performance is below the expected level.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)          discuss and note the performance reported, and make any comments necessary for escalation to Cabinet before 25 April; and

(b)          note the ongoing work to improve business management and performance reporting.

Mr Jones summarised the report which applied to the period up to 31 December 2016.  The report was cautiously positive indicating that the Council was on target to meet the three strategic priorities set out in the Corporate Plan.

Members raised the following issues:

·         Asked why the compilation of the report is still quite labour-intensive, Mr Dyson responded that much of the work involves manual collation.  The digital platform being introduced as part of Transformation will allow the different systems to share data automatically.  Members asked for a quarterly update on progress and this was added to the forward plan.

·         Asked if ‘open data’ principles were being followed in the development of the digital platform Mr Dyson responded that he would take that question back to the Business Intelligence team.

·         Members asked for information to enable them to judge if the local economy is thriving or not in order to be able assess the performance of the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP).  It was agreed that a seminar on the economy would be useful for new councillors after the coming election , and that officers would raise this proposal with the Strategic Director for Communities.

·         Members welcomed the improvement with regard to Delayed Transfers of Care but asked if the problem had been moved on elsewhere.  Councillor Heathcoat attributed the improvement to successful teamwork with the partnerships involved.  As Cabinet member she gets data on Adult Social Care every Thursday and Members can receive the data if they ask for it.

·         Concern was expressed at the increase in the number of permanent exclusions from Oxfordshire schools.  The Chairman responded that a report was needed showing which schools were excluding and which schools were accepting excluded students.

·         Asked how officers judge that a former client was drugs free, Ms Messenger responded that there were two factors: firstly agreement with the individual at the completion of their service and secondly if they do not detect any related activity for the person in the following six months.

10.40

The Scrutiny Annual Report provides a summary of the work of the council’s overview and scrutiny function in 2016-17. This function includes the council’s three Overview and Scrutiny Committees, and any Cabinet Advisory Groups which have been appointed by Cabinet in this time. This draft report (PSC6) will be considered by Performance Scrutiny Committee before being submitted to full Council for approval.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to considered the report and discuss any changes or additions before the final version is submitted to full Council for approval in May.

Ms Scott introduced the report and explained that it had been compiled by officers in conjunction with Scrutiny Committee Chairmen.

Members asked for the following amendments:

·         That the report should reflect Members’ dissatisfaction with the item with the Police and Crime Commissioner who did not present a written report to the Committee.

·         The meeting of the Corporate Parenting Panel referred to in paragraph 2.20 was in January.

Ms Scott undertook to update the draft accordingly, to include matters from the March meetings and to recirculate to Committee Chairmen for final agreement before sending the report to Council.

11.10

The Director for Children’s Services will give the meeting an update on the new structure of Children's Services, focussing on safeguarding and better outcomes for children.

Ms Butler delivered an oral report to the meeting.  She reminded Members that she was now part of the ‘People’ Directorate.  Two new services just started on 1 March, the Locality and Community Support Service and the Family Solutions Service (which includes Early Help and CSC Family Support).  It is too early to assess them.  Overall, activity levels are skyrocketing.

A review of 10% of Looked After Children (LAC) cases has identified some key issues aimed at reducing the number of LACs.  There is a need to focus on relationship-based work, restorative practices, case loads and educational attainment.

Members of the Senior Management Group are going to spend a week on the front line to see practices for themselves and support workers in their difficult roles.

Members raised various issues and the officers and Cabinet member responded:

·         Regarding cooperation with schools, there are now 20 staff in the new Locality and Community Support Service so that each school has a named worker whether an academy or maintained school.

·         Three community coordinators are in place to work with community groups to keep extra centres open.

·         The best frameworks have restorative systems, try to avoid changes of social worker and work on families’ strengths.

·         On the increasing number of school exclusions, this is seen especially at secondary level and mostly in academies but it is a national issue.  The Police have offered closer coordination with their officers.

·         It is hoped that the review of LAC cases, examining who intervened when for example, will help develop more preventative measures.

·         There are fortnightly meetings reviewing high cost LAC placements, collating themes and identifying gaps.

·         Officers try to place locally, near support networks, but sometimes there is a need to move away.  Not many LACs required secure units – perhaps 2 per year.

·         It was agreed that new councillors elected in May will need training on corporate parenting.

·         Also a communications plan is needed to let the public know of the positive progress in children’s services.

11.40

Report by the Strategic Lead for Missing Children (PSC8)

This report provides a strategic update on the number of children reported as missing from home, care and school in Oxfordshire, including children looked after by Oxfordshire County Council. It covers the period between 01^st July 2016 to 31^st December 2016.

The report focuses on the main patterns, trends and concerns across the county which will be of note to strategic leads. It covers best practice in line with the agreed ‘joint protocol 'and current risks or shortfalls and how these are being managed to ensure compliance with the  relevant guidance issued by Department for Education (DfE) and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). 

It is not intended to reflect the full picture of all of the work undertaken by the Missing Childrens Panel and partners within the period.  Many investigations and analyses are active, awaiting further intelligence development or exploration with operational partners, third party agencies, and the children and families whom we are working to safeguard.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to note the report.

Mr Ruaux summarised the report.  The Missing Children Panel is of the view that increases in the number of children being reported missing for the first time is attributable to improved reporting.  The reduction in repeat missing episodes, despite the increasing Looked After Children (LAC) population, indicates that we are managing this more effectively.

Officers responded to questions from Members:

·         School attendance and educational attainment are important factors for children at risk of involvement in drugs or crime.

·         Once agencies become involved with a child, organised crime gangs tend to back off.

·         Three percent of missing cases are related to bullying in general – there is no separate figure for cyber bullying.  The most effective approach is to focus on welfare rather than the illegality.

·         Return interviews are the second most critical part of a case and in one case led to a conviction.

·         Often social care issues are at the centre and we need to look at cross body practices.

12.10

An overview report summarising Children’s Safeguarding Serious Case Reviews in the last year with focus on the outcome, actions taken, identifying improvements and assurance.

Ms Patel summarised the report which covered 6 Serious Case Reviews of which 4 have concluded.  The issues that arose were broadly similar to other SCRs and the national picture.  The reviews reinforced the importance of following safeguarding processes thoroughly and of challenging the assumption that adolescents have the capacity to protect themselves.

Members raised a number of issues and officers responded as follows:

·         Nationally and locally, the highest levels of risk involved drug/alcohol abuse, mental health and domestic abuse.

·         Services have a duty to work with young adults up to the age of 21, when care leavers, but an adult can reject help when over 18.

·         Staff can check beyond self-reported information by getting information from other family members, colleagues and the health services for example.

The Chairman asked that cases be brought to the Committee as they come up in order to look at the issues and actions arising.

In the event that any Member or Officer wishes to discuss the information set out in the Annex to Item 11, the Committee will be invited to resolve to exclude the public from that discussion by passing a resolution in the following terms:

"that the public be excluded during the consideration of the Annex since it is likely that if they were present during that discussion there would be a disclosure of "exempt" information as described in Part I of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972 and specified below the item in the Agenda".

THE ANNEX TO THE ITEM NAMED HAS NOT BEEN MADE PUBLIC AND SHOULD BE REGARDED AS ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ BY MEMBERS AND OFFICERS ENTITLED TO RECEIVE THEM.

THIS IS FOR THE REASON THAT IT COULD AFFECT ONGOING CONTRACTUAL NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE COUNCIL AND ONE OF ITS CONTRACTORS.

THIS ALSO MEANS THAT THE CONTENTS SHOULD NOT BE DISCUSSED WITH OTHERS AND NO COPIES SHOULD BE MADE.

RESOLVED: to agree that the public be excluded during the consideration of the annex since it is likely that if they were present during that discussion there would be a disclosure of “exempt” information as described in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972 and specified below the item in the Agenda.

PUBLIC SUMMARY OF PROCEEDINGS FOLLOWING THE WITHDRAWAL OF THE PRESS AND PUBLIC.

12.40

At Performance Scrutiny Committee’s meeting on 22 September 2016 the council’s Statutory Lead Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services, Cllr Melinda Tilley, extended an invitation to committee members to attend a meeting of the council’s Corporate Parenting Panel.

Cllr Tilley is the Chair of the Corporate Parenting Panel. The Panel’s purpose is to act as a champion for all Oxfordshire's looked after children and care leavers, to monitor their outcomes, and ensure that all partners are engaged in supporting their needs.

Several Performance Scrutiny Committee members had expressed a wish to attend a meeting of the Panel. The meeting on 16 January had been arranged to give members a better understanding of pressures on the council’s budget for Children, Education and Families and of statements in recent quarterly performance reports that our numbers of children in care were higher, and rising faster, than those of comparable authorities.

Annex 1 is deemed confidential as it contains information relating to the financial or business affairs of a particular person, which if published could adversely affect ongoing contractual negotiations between the council and one of its contractors.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to note the report.

The information contained in the annex to the report is exempt in that it falls within the following prescribed category:

3. Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information);

and since it is considered that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, in that disclosure would distort the proper process of open competition and would prejudice the position of the authority in the process of the transaction and the Council’s standing generally in relation to such transactions in future, to the detriment of the Council’s ability properly to discharge its fiduciary and other duties as a public authority.

Councillor Godden summarised the report on the meeting with the Corporate Parenting Panel.  With regard to the delays in delivering the Council’s four new children’s homes, Councillors were satisfied that matters are being pursued as far and as fast as they can be.

Activity levels around Child Protection plans remain high but it is thought that this is due to increased reporting rather than increasing levels of ill-treatment.

Councillor Tilley welcomed the attendance of councillors at the Panel meeting and emphasised that all councillors are welcome to attend but meetings are not open to members of the public.

Councillor Godden reported that

·         councillors were happy that they received full answers on the questions of pressures on the service and the overspend.

·         there was no sign of a plateau in demand yet.

·         she is not happy with the distinction whereby the Audit and Governance Committees look at risk management and processes in the service whereas the Performance Scrutiny Committee looks at the outcomes.

The Chairman recommended that new councillors elected in May should be well briefed on corporate parenting.