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ITEM CH5

CHILDREN’S SERVICES SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

MINUTES of the meeting held on 27 February 2007 commencing at 10.00 am and finishing at 1.05 pm.

Present:

Voting Members:               

Councillor Mrs Anda Fitzgerald-O’Connor - in the chair

Councillor Jean Fooks
Councillor Deborah Glass Woodin
Councillor Colin Lamont (in place of Councillor Sue Haffenden)
Councillor Charles Mathew (in place of Councillor Keith Stone)
Councillor Bill Service
Councillor Val Smith
Councillor Lawrie Stratford
Councillor Melinda Tilley
Councillor David Turner
Councillor David Wilmshurst (in place of Councillor Carol Viney)
Mr Chris Bevan
Mr Ben Jackson
Mrs Sue Matthew

Other Members in Attendance:

Councillor Michael Waine (for Agenda Item 5)
Councillor Louise Chapman (for Agenda Item 5)

By Invitation:

Ms B. Williams, COTO
Mrs C. Thomson, Oxfordshire Governors’ Association

Officers:

Whole of meeting:
D Miller (Corporate Core)

Part of meeting:
Mr J. Hehir (Corporate Core);
S. Ainsworth, W. Cliffe and J. Johnson (Children, Young People & Families)

The Scrutiny Committee considered the matters, reports and recommendations contained or referred to in the agenda for the meeting, together with a schedule of addenda tabled at the meeting and agreed as set out below.  Copies of the agenda, reports and schedule are attached to the signed Minutes.

1/07             APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND TEMPORARY APPOINTMENTS

Apologies for absence and temporary appointments were received as follows:

2/07             DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Mr Ben Jackson declared a personal interest in Agenda Item 5 by virtue of being a member of CHOICE and as a parent of a child with SEN.

3/07             MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 12 December 2006 were approved and signed.

4/07             SPEAKING TO OR PETITIONING THE COMMITTEE

The following witnesses addressed the meeting:-

5/07             EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION TO PARENTS OF CHILDREN WITH SEN

(Agenda Item 5)

At their meeting in October 2006, the Committee agreed to undertake an investigation into how ‘Effective Communication to Parents of Children with SEN’ is in Oxfordshire.  The aim of the investigation was to explore areas such as parent’s awareness of SEN activities and newsletters, how parents could communicate with each other on this subject and whether Council supplied services were the correct avenues for the dissemination of information. 

Mr Ben Jackson and Mrs Sue Haffenden were nominated as the Task Group to carry out background work in this area.  Following discussions among the Task Group, it was decided that the best way of undertaking this work would be by a single committee question and answer session and that the meeting would work in “select committee” mode to question invited members, staff and representatives of parents and the community.

This would provide the opportunity to scrutinise the extent to which information was currently available to parents from all organisations and how effectively parents were signposted to additional support.  The Committee would then seek to make recommendations to the Cabinet, if necessary, in order to implement an improvement to the service.

Mrs Janet Johnson gave a brief presentation on the development of locality working, information sharing and the role of the lead professional.  (A copy of the presentation is attached as Annex 1 to these minutes.) (download as .doc file)

They key messages from the presentation were that children, young people and families had indicated that they wished Oxfordshire County Council to:

·                    put children, young people and families at the centre and involve them in the decision making;

·                    be coordinated across agencies with one lead contact person to help them navigate the system and support;

·                    have fewer assessments, reduce duplication and give more practical support;

·                    be available earlier – before things deteriorate;

·                    be organised so that services are easy to access locally.

and that as a result, the Council were in the process of putting the following measures into place:

·                    easier access to services;

·                    earlier identification and resolution to difficulties;

·                    faster, more coordinated and appropriate response;

·                    ‘Tell the story once’ (one assessment);

·                    one lead professional who coordinates the support;

·                    improved planning and evaluation;

·                    a better service experience for families.

In response to a question from a Committee member, Mrs Johnson undertook to produce data on the numbers and percentages of children with special educational needs.  This information is listed below:

The Committee then questioned the witnesses (listed at Minute 4/07) in relation to their experience of communication to parents with children with SEN using the lines of enquiry set out in the report CH5.

Key issues arising from the evidence gathered from witnesses were as follows:

·        Standard of information should be plain clear English – separate sheet with legal information.

·        Facilitate parent groups.

·        Parent partnership – take logo off.

·        Must be target dates for lead professionals – must be in place.

·        Simple communication.

·        Single point of contact.

·        What actually happens from what’s on the paper – capacity to deliver?

·        Lead professional must lead to all – must find right people.

·        Work with all forums to make sure – checklist criteria.

·        Check timescales in Children, Young People & Families Plan for when client is allocated a key worker, as it was left a bit vague this morning.

·        Respite issue is very important – more investigation required.

·        Concerns about children who slip through the net, as target of “SEN” is not listed.

·        Should emphasise the positives, eg Barnardos said Oxon partnership work on SEN is better than most.

·        Harness what we have – ie Oxfordshire Children’s Information Service.

·        Useful to know when barriers remain to communication.

Following gathering evidence from all the witnesses and a lengthy debate ( a record of which is attached to the signed minutes), the Committee AGREED to:

(a)          nominate Councillors Melinda Tilley and Val Smith to the Task Group;

(b)          ask the Task Group to bring a report back to the next scheduled meeting of the Committee with suggested recommendations to the Cabinet.

6/07             SCRUTINY REVIEW OF HEALTHY SCHOOLS: DRAFT REVIEW REPORT

(Agenda Item 6)

On 27 September, this Committee had agreed as part of their work programme to undertake a scrutiny review of ‘Healthy Schools’ and appointed Councillors Mrs Anda Fitzgerald-O’Connor, Keith Stone and Jean Fooks to the Lead Member Review Group.  Having collected a wide variety of evidence, the review group now presented its findings in a draft report (CH6), for the Committee’s consideration.

Councillor Fooks, in introducing the report, stressed that the report before the Committee was at a very draft stage and had been included on the Agenda to enable the Committee to offer any advice on how to improve it, in order to assist with the production of the final report.

The Committee then considered the draft review report and offered the following observations for the Group’s consideration:

·                    some members of the Committee expressed regret that physical activity was not part of the review;

·                    there was no reference to the importance of breakfast/breakfast clubs in the review;

·                    that the review could give consideration to physical activity where school fields were not available;

·                    that ‘whole curriculum’ should be prevalent throughout the day;

·                    better ways to school – how many children used this?

·                    had the review group considered integrating people who prepared school meals into lessons?

The Lead Member Review Group thanked the Committee for its observations and undertook to take them into account when finalising the draft Review Report.

7/07             SCRUTINY REVIEW OF WORKFORCE REMODELLING – PLANNING, PREPARATION AND ASSESSMENT

(Agenda Item 7)

On 12 December 2006, this Committee agreed as part of their work programme to undertake a scrutiny review of ‘Workforce Remodelling’ and appointed Councillor Sue Haffenden, Mrs Sue Matthew and Ms Brenda Williams to the Lead Member Review Group.

Ms Brenda Williams gave an update on the progress thus far on the Scrutiny Review of ‘Workforce Remodelling’.  She reported that four sets of questionnaires had been prepared, printed and circulated.  These were issued and publicised through a mailing, including a poster, through Schools News, on the website, by press release and through the newsletters of the organisations and unions for teachers, support and governors all of whom were supporting the review.  So far 365 questionnaires had been returned.

She stressed that although the official closing date for responses was 12 February 2007, the Review Group would welcome further responses.

She further reported that the group had identified a number of witnesses and visits to gather further evidence for the Review.  It was anticipated that a draft report would be available for consideration by the Committee at its meeting on 22 May 2007.

8/07             TRACKING SCRUTINY ITEMS

(Agenda Item 8)

The Committee noted the outcome of their advice in relation to Service and Resource Planning 2007/08 – 2011/12.

9/07             FORWARD PLAN

(Agenda Item 9)

The Committee were asked to suggest items from the current Forward Plan on which it may wish to have an opportunity to offer advice to the Cabinet before any decision is taken.

No Items were identified.

................................................................................... in the Chair

Date of signing.................................................................. 2007

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