Return to AgendaITEM CH3
CHILDREN’S SERVICES SCRUTINY committee
MINUTES of the meeting held on 24 February 2009 commencing at 10.00 am and finishing at 12.25 pm
Present:
Voting Members: Councillor Ann Bonner - in the chair
Councillor Marilyn Badcock Councillor Mrs Anda Fitzgerald-O’Connor Councillor Jean Fooks Councillor Deborah Glass Woodin Councillor Sue Haffenden Councillor Pete Handley Councillor Steve Hayward Councillor David Nimmo-Smith Councillor Val Smith Councillor Lawrie Stratford (in place of Councillor Nick Carter Councillor Dermot Roaf (in place of Councillor David Turner) Councillor Carol Viney
Chris Bevan Mr Ben Jackson Dr Uday Kishore Mrs Sue Matthew
By Invitation: Cabinet Member for Schools Improvement (Items 6 & 7); Cabinet Member for Children & Young People (Item 7)
Carole Thomson – Oxfordshire Governors Association
Officers:
Whole of meeting: G. Warrington (Corporate Core)
Part of meeting:
The Scrutiny Committee considered the matters, reports and recommendations contained or referred to in the agenda for the meeting and agreed as set out below. Copies of the agenda and reports are attached to the signed Minutes.
1/09 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND TEMPORARY APPOINTMENTS
Apologies for absence and temporary appointments were received as follows:
2/09 MINUTES
The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 9 December 2009 were approved and signed subject to:
· Deleting Councillor Marilyn Badcock’s name from the list of voting members present at the meeting · Inserting “Education Work Attainment” immediately before the word Panel in line 1 of Minute 123/08.
Minute 120/08 – Service & Resource Planning 2009/10-2013/14
Officers to respond to Councillor Handley regarding refurbishment work at Carterton Youth Centre.
Minute 121/08 – Home-Start
Councillor Fooks expressed some concern about potential loss of volunteers. Officers advised that funding continued to rise along with efforts to increase engagement with Home-start services.
3/09 PRESENTATION – SAFEGUARDING BOARD (Agenda Item 5)
The Committee received a presentation from Dawn Hodson (Business Manager, Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board) on the work of the Board in the absence of its independent Chair, Andrea Hickman who was unable to attend the meeting.
Mr Couldrick advised that the Board was tightly controlled and regulated holding the County Council and its partners accountable for the effectiveness of work done to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The OSB had recruited an independent Chair with a full time business manager and administration. Indications were that the Board was making good progress and was doing all it should and it was intended to bring a report back to a future meeting of the Committee. In the meantime agencies were awaiting the report from Lord Laming although it was likely that the work of the Board would be subject to more rigorous scrutiny.
The Committee debated the following areas:
· The work of the Death Review Panel and the issue of insurance to cover death of children · Delays in completion of CRB checks and the need to highlight where such delays put child safety at risk · Parenting classes · Serious Case Reviews and the possibility of member involvement through a small panel.
AGREED to note the presentation of the work of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board and the issues raised during debate.
4/09 ROLE OF SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PARTNERS (Agenda Item 6)
The Committee received a presentation on the role of the School Improvement Partners (SIPs) from Alan Lindsay. He outlined the history, role, key principles and future challenges for SIPs and responded to the following issues raised during debate:
· Importance of the link between SIPs and Governors and regularity of contact between the two. · Ultimately it was the Governors who should decide the direction of the school. The role of the SIP was to act as a conduit for information between the Local Authority and the School.
Councillor Waine added that a school should not rely on its SIP to say whether or not it was performing well. Ultimately the prime responsibility for school performance lay with the Headteacher and Governing body. The expectation now was that there would be more dialogue between the SIP and the Governing body.
AGREED to note the presentation on the role of School Improvement Partners and the issues raised during debate.
5/09 ANNUAL PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF OXFORDSHIRE’S SERVICES FOR CHILDREN – 2008 (Agenda Item 7)
This item has been included on the agenda in accordance with Section F, Rule 9 of the Constitution.
Andy Couldrick and Sian Rodway attended to give a presentation on Ofsted’s annual performance of the Council’s services for children which had been drawn from a range of data and information covering the period 1 April 2007 – 31 March 2008.
Ms Rodway referred to concerns nationally regarding Ofsted’s processes and many authorities, including Oxfordshire, had made representations to them. The APA process had to a large extent been discredited by events at Haringey, which had received a good report. The APA report had highlighted a number of areas which had received praise from Inspectors including:
· Strong senior leadership · Helping children and young people to make a positive contribution · Outstanding mechanisms for consulting with children and young people · Child protection and safeguarding work
There were areas which had received low grading but since March 2008 (the end of the period covered by the APA there had been significant progress. These included 14-19 strategy; Safeguarding Board; GCSE results and a steady reduction in the number of failing schools with two outstanding secondary schools.
With regard to specific issues raised:
“Staying safe” – Mr Couldrick advised that the County Council was only 2% below neighbouring authorities and performance had increase considerably.
“Enjoying and Achieving” – Ms Rodway confirmed that as part of the restructuring three primary school improvement leads, ex primary head teachers, had been appointed to focus on key stage 1 and key stage 2 improvement
National Review of Formula Funding – Councillor Waine advised that it had been difficult to find out how this judgement had been reached but highlighted a real issue on funding for schools with high carry forwards.
Mr Couldrick added that this was the last year of APAs and there was reason to be confident that the County was well placed to move forward when the new system was introduced.
Councillor Chapman had felt that the whole inspection system had been a backward looking exercise and looked forward to a new regime.
AGREED to note the presentation on the role of School Improvement Partners and the issues raised during debate. 6/09 FORWARD PLAN (Agenda Item 8)
No items from the current Forward Plan were raised on which the Committee wished to have an opportunity to offer advice to the Cabinet before any decision was taken.
Members suggested the following topics for consideration at the 18 March and 14 July 2009 meetings.
18 March 2009
· Termination of Pregnancy/Teenage Pregnancy Scrutiny Review – Interim Position Statement · Draft Educational Attainment Scrutiny Review · Annual Update from Healthy Schools Champion
14 July 2009
· Overview of Committee’s Work Programme · Funding Formula · Children & Young Person Plan Refresh · Dissolution of Learning & Skills Council – funding issues (possible item) · Children’s Trust – Operation in Oxfordshire
................................................................................... in the Chair
Date of signing.................................................................. 2009
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