Return to AgendaITEM CH3
CHILDREN’S SERVICES SCRUTINY committee
MINUTES of the meeting held on 8 July 2008 commencing at 10.00 am and finishing at 1.00 pm.
Present:
Voting Members: Councillor Sue Haffenden - in the chair
Councillor Nick Carter Councillor Mrs Anda Fitzgerald-O’Connor Councillor Jean Fooks Councillor Deborah Glass Woodin Councillor Pete Handley Councillor Colin Lamont (in place of Councillor Ann Bonner) Councillor David Nimmo-Smith Councillor Keith Mallon (in place of Councillor Marilyn Badcock) Councillor Val Smith Councillor David Turner Councillor Carol Viney
Mr Chris Bevan Mr Ben Jackson Mrs Sue Matthew Ms Bernadine Spencer
Other Members in Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Families, Attendance: Councillor Louise Chapman and Cabinet Member for Schools Improvement, Councillor Michael Waine
By Invitation: Mrs Carol Thomson (Oxfordshire Governor’s Association) Mr Mark Forder (COTO)
Officers:
Whole of meeting: D. Miller (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.
91/08 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND TEMPORARY APPOINTMENTS
Apologies for absence and temporary appointments were received as follows:
92/08 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Mr Ben Jackson declared a personal interest at Agenda item 6 by virtue of his membership of CHOICE and as a father of a child who was a young carer.
Councillor Val Smith declared a personal interest at Agenda item 10 by virtue of her position as a School Governor at Peers Schools.
93/08 MINUTES
The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 13 May 2008 were approved and signed, subject to substituting the word ‘contracts’ with ‘contacts’ in paragraph 8 of minute 85/08.
94/08 ANNUAL SCRUTINY WORK PROGRAMME JULY 2008-JULY 2009 (Agenda Item 5)
At the Scrutiny Co-ordinating Group 2 June 2008, new scrutiny developments were agreed to enable scrutiny to develop and improve including a scrutiny proposal form, improved scrutiny resource management and a process for the effective management of the Scrutiny work programme. This would enable the Committee to ensure that its workload was more systematically linked to the Council’s corporate objectives. The new work programme would also lead to the development of a forward programme to scrutinise, with other local authorities, the performance of key strategic partnerships.
The Senior Policy Manager, Alexandra Bailey attended before the Committee to introduce the work programme and to answer any questions that Members may have wished to ask.
Following discussion and debate the Committee AGREED:
(a) to identify Educational Attainment as their first choice activity to be put forward to the Scrutiny Co-ordinating Group and appointed Councillors Sue Haffenden, David Turner, Val smith, Mrs Bernadine Spencer and Mrs Sue Matthew to the Review Group;
(b) the following areas to look at in Committee over the next year:
· Workload and the recruitment of head teachers Q & A session to be held by the end of the year by Committee and to include succession planning.
· Monitoring of services that support schools – to be included in the monitoring of the Children & Young People’s Plan carried out by the task group.
· JAR Report and Action Plan – to be considered at the September Meeting of the Committee.
· Sport in Schools – invite the Director of Health to give further information to the Committee on this issue.
· Youth Service – Q & A session during Committee at the next available meeting.
95/08 YOUNG (CHILD) CARERS (AND SUPPORT FOR THEM): FINAL REVIEW REPORT (Agenda item 6)
On 10 July 2007, this Committee agreed as part of its work programme to undertake a Scrutiny Review of ‘Young Carers’ and appointed Councillors David Turner, Mrs Anda Fitzgerald-O’Connor, Carol Viney and Mr Ben Jackson to the Lead Member Review Group.
Having collected a wide variety of evidence, the Review Group now presented its findings for this Committee’s consideration.
Members of the Review Group talked to the Review report, highlighting the key findings and recommendations in the report.
Following discussion and debate, the Committee AGREED to submit this Review to the Cabinet subject to:
(a) a number of editorial changes which would improve the grammar and English used throughout the report;
(b) the revision of Recommendations 9 and 13 as shown below (revisions shown in bold italics and strikethrough):
9. to explore the benefits
of different staffing models for YCs such as in Hertfordshire, 13. It is desirable to achieve a link up
of all direct and indirect funding streams
96/08 HEALTHY SCHOOLS SCRUTINY REVIEW: EVALUATION (Agenda item 7)
[Lead Member Review Group comprised Councillors Mrs Anda Fitzgerald-O’Connor, Jean Fooks and Keith Stone].
The Cabinet had considered this Scrutiny Review Report in June 2007. The Review set out to investigate how the Healthy Oxfordshire Schools Programme (HOSP) was being implemented in the County’s schools and how effectively it was working.
The Committee was asked to question the Cabinet Member for Schools Improvement in relation to progress regarding implementation of the Review recommendations.
Ms Anne Whitehead, Healthy Schools Co-ordinator and Ms Giti Paulin, Schools' Adviser (PSHE & Citizenship) attended the meeting to give a short presentation to the Committee on the Healthy Schools Project, a copy of which is attached to the signed minutes. The main points are summarised below:
· there were 6 members of staff in the team, 4 funded externally. · Funding was year on year which made strategic planning difficult; · the team helped schools to review and revise practice in order to achieve Healthy School Status; · Certification – there was a very good completion rate in Oxfordshire; · Healthy Schools enabled schools to share good practice – focus groups, networks, newsletters. Also held celebration events annually; · the team was working in collaboration with many other services in and out of the County Council; · National and local targets were set; · a Healthy School was a good and improving school who took on new initiatives; · it was very important to listen to communities and all participates in the scheme, including children, parents, governors etc; · some Healthy Schools were undertaking gardening and growing expertise; · the eating environment in a school was key as well as the food served and lunchtime supervision; · a good school would have identified who vulnerable pupils were and have good support in place; · good schools would also have excellent behaviour policies and effective measures in place for things such bullying; · training sessions for teachers were provided for emotional wellbeing issues such as bereavement and eating disorders; · 78% of schools had achieved Healthy School status in Oxfordshire and around 96% of schools were currently participating in the scheme – above national and local targets; · registration only lasted for 3 years and 43% would need to reapply next year.
Following the presentation, members of the committee asked a number of questions around funding and the state of lavatories and dining provision in many schools in Oxfordshire.
In response, Councillor Waine confirmed that funding was secure for 2008/2009 and that it was the Directorate’s intention to continue funding the scheme thereafter and that lavatories and dinning provision were recognised problems but could often only be improved through new builds and school improvements.
Following discussion the Committee AGREED to welcome progress undertaken thus far whilst expressing concern about lavatory and dining provision in many schools in Oxfordshire.
The Chairman encouraged all Members of the Committee to put improving lavatory facilities on School Governor’s Agendas.
97/08 PROGRESS UPDATE FROM TASK GROUP: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PRIORITIES FROM THE REVIEW OF YEAR ONE OF THE CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE’S PLAN (Agenda Item 8)
Task Group members comprised Councillors Fooks, Glass-Woodin and Handley, Mrs Sue Matthew and Ms Bernadine Spencer.
One of the items in this Committee’s Scrutiny Work Programme for 2007/08 was an ongoing review of the Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP) as it was implemented. On 17 July 2007, the Cabinet approved the review of the first year of the Children & Young People’s Plan, which had been produced in April 2006.
A Task Group was set up to report back to the Committee periodically and feeding into the review of Year 2 of the Plan.
The Lead Member Review Group reported as follows:
· the Group still hoped to visit one or two other localities to gather evidence; · Members of the lead Member Review Group had attended the new Children’s Sounding Board; · the Group would bring a report to the September meeting of the Committee.
The Committee noted the update.
98/08 YOUNG PEOPLE & FAMILIES DIRECTORATE RESTRUCTURING (Agenda Item 9)
The Committee received an update from Mr Mike Simm, Head of Commissioning, Strategy & Locality Development’s on the restructuring of the Children, Young People & Families Directorate.
Mr Simm reported the following in relation to the restructuring;-
· the restructuring was moving towards creating a much more integrated service; · restructuring would maximise integration of services outside of their professional silos; · the Directorate were working towards creating 3 areas: north, central and south. Each area would have a Head of Service to include social care and educational achievement. Service managers would then manage integrated services underneath them; · this would ensure that raising achievement and safeguarding was dealt with across the board; · the Directorate were in the process of making appointments. Hoped to effectively bring in processes by September. · build on PCHAMs – including early intervention teams in hope that in time we could expand services to achieve diversity.
The Committee welcomed the new areas created and thanked Mr Simm for his update.
99/08 TRACKING SCRUTINY ITEMS (Agenda Item 10)
The Committee noted a report by Councillor Jean Fooks on her findings of a recent visit to the Peers Acadamy.
100/08 FORWARD PLAN
The Committee was asked to suggest items from the current Forward Plan on which it might have wished to have had an opportunity to offer advice to the Cabinet before any decision was taken.
No items had been identified for consideration.
................................................................................... in the Chair
Date of signing.................................................................. 2008
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