Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED: to elect Councillor Bonner as Chairman of the Committee for the

2011/12 Council year.

RESOLVED: to elect Councillor Sexon as Deputy Chairman of the Committee for the

2011/12 Council year.

It was reported that, following the Council’s Annual Meeting, Councillor Michael Waine had replaced Councillor Alyas Ahmed on the Committee. All other members remained as before.

An apology was received from Councillor Janet Godden. There were no temporary appointments

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 16 February 2011 and to note for information any matters arising from them.

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 16 February 2011 were

approved and signed with one amendment: the addition of Mrs Carole Thomson to the list of attendees at the meeting.

There were no speakers and no petitions were presented.

A regular update by the Director of Children, Education and Families. This time the update will cover:

• Outcome of the Ofsted inspection of Safeguarding and Looked After Children Services
• Update on organisational redesign

The Committee is invited to receive the presentation which will be followed by a question & answer session.

The Director of Children, Education and Families provided her regular  update on the latest issues affecting the Directorate. These were:

1. The recent Ofsted inspection of the Looked After Children and Safeguarding service
2. Update on organisational redesign

The Director reported that following the most recent inspection of the Looked After Children and Safeguarding service the Council had been given the second highest rating of “Good”.  Good in this context means that the service is “exceeding statutory minimum requirements”. This judgement is an improvement on previous inspections and means the Council compares very favourably with other authorities in the country.

Inspectors examined the services relating to safeguarding children and young people and also looked at the quality of support for children while they are in children's homes, foster care or adopted. They interviewed parents, children and young people themselves as well as all of those working with children and young people across all agencies. The report commented that "a well-trained, stable and experienced workforce in Oxfordshire ensures that children, young people and their families receive a consistent service from those who work with them".

Following a short question and answer session the Committee congratulated the Directorate on the excellent findings and paid tribute to the staff working in the field.

The Director reported that work on the Organisational Redesign of the Directorate was continuing. Most new posts in Children’s Social care and Education and Early Intervention  have now been filled down to and including the third tier level. This will enable the development of the new early intervention service to go ahead more rapidly.

Members of the Committee made a number of comments and asked questions.

The importance of evaluation was stressed and the need for a benchmark of the present position to compare with how the new set up works. It was agreed that the Committee should have a role in that evaluation.

The importance of communication of the new structures was also stressed. There was a lot of uncertainty about just what the future of what the youth service would look like in the future.  The Chairman asked that the Director should bring the Committee up to date at the July and subsequent meetings. Also, if anything important were to arise, updates between meetings would be welcomed.

The service would be provided across 7 hubs, 6 satellites and 43 children’s centres. There would be a mix of in-house and outreach services as most appropriate to the needs of young people. All members will be provided with a map of where the sites would be.

A member raised the issue of consultation with schools over the new structure for early intervention. There was concern over the lack of information being provided so far. The Director stressed the objective of providing an integrated early intervention strategy across the County by September 2011. This date created a number of difficulties with regard to consultation with schools in view of schools closing for the summer holiday in July.  However it was accepted that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 129/11

The Committee last received a report on this topic in September 2010. Following that discussion a further update was requested for this meeting. Members asked that the update should include general information on teenage pregnancies as well as specific information on numbers of pregnancies resulting in birth, those resulting in termination and how many are second pregnancies. Also what work is done with young males, education in schools and pregnancies for young women who have learning difficulties.

Sarah Breton, Strategic Lead and Head of Joint Commissioning and Clare Dodwell, Reducing Teenage Pregnancy Co-ordinator will present the attached report (CH6). This will be followed by a question and answer session.

Sarah Breton, Strategic Lead and Head of Joint Commissioning supported by Clare Dodwell, Reducing Teenage Pregnancy Co-ordinator presented the report attached to the agenda. They made the following sp[ecific points:

There had been a significant reduction in the number of teenage pregnancies across the County with a reduction in the gap between the best and worse areas. It was of particular note that the reduction of abortions in the worst ward was better than in the best.

The number of second conceptions is increasing and new initiatives are being introduced aimed at reducing these.  

Evidence points to improved knowledge of sexual health and the role that young men have in preventing pregnancies and in being young fathers.

In response to questions the following points were made:

Generally children born to teenage parents are more likely to have social and other problems in the future.

The Family Nurse Programme provides an intensive weekly programme of support and advice for young mothers and fathers. The programme runs for two and a half years and begins during the pregnancy. Funding for the programme of £750k a year comes from the PCT and it is provided across the whole of the County in rural areas as well as urban.

Members were pleased to see that the trend is in the right direction and they paid tribute to the excellent work that is being done. They asked for a written report to be circulated to all Committee members following publication of the next set of figures in February 2012.

There is a Government requirement for all local authorities and named partners to work together to understand what needs to be done to tackle child poverty and to develop a coordinated and comprehensive Child Poverty Strategy. As part of the work to address child poverty the County Council is preparing an assessment of the needs of children living in poverty in its area.

Nationally, leadership is being provided by the Teenage Pregnancy Unit, and the Oxfordshire Teenage Pregnancy Coordinator, a joint appointment with Public Health, is leading the work locally on producing a Child Poverty Needs Assessment (CPNA).

At this meeting members will receive a short briefing paper on the CPNA and a presentation on the emerging findings.  The Committees views will be sought at this early stage in the process on what they would wish to see as the priorities for action.

Clare Dodwell, Reducing Teenage Pregnancy Co-ordinator and Sarah Breton, Strategic Lead and Head of Joint Commissioning will present the attached paper (CH7).

Clare Dodwell presented the report attached to the agenda. She explained that, as part of the work to address child poverty in Oxfordshire, the County Council is preparing an assessment of the needs of children living in poverty in its area. The Child Poverty Needs Assessment (CPNA) will be presented to the Children’s Trust Board on May 20^th. Then the Trust would have to decide whether to develop a separate child poverty strategy or to include it as part of other strategies.

However it is to be done the most important thing ill be to produce an action plan against which progress in reducing child poverty could be evaluated.

Members made the following points:

There is a need to address issues around skills deficits, homelessness and understanding money to avoid falling into the hands of loan sharks.

The importance of the issue of rural poverty should not be forgotten. A lack of work opportunities in rural areas can often mean that lone parents have to decide between spending a large part of their income on transport or staying at home. Also the lack of individual self-esteem should be addressed.

The importance of grandparents is neglected in the report. They can provide a secure environment for children to enable lone parents to go to work and/or get an education.

There is a need to identify areas of hidden deprivation.

The Committee would wish to be involved in the development and implementation of the strategy. If a working party or similar were to be put in place to take the strategy forward the Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee would wish to have a member involved.

As part of the Children, Education and Families Business Strategy to achieve the significant savings required by the 2011/12 spending review it is planned that Outdoor Education Learning Centres would move to become self financing. At the December 2010 Budget meeting members of the Committee asked to be given an opportunity to scrutinise the business plan for Outdoor Learning Centres at some time in spring 2011.

The service began implementation of its 5 year plan in 2010-11. The key element of working towards becoming self-financing is to increase income by both maximising the use of the Centres and trading services which are not provided elsewhere locally.

At the time of the discussions on budgets towards the end of last year, members of the Children's Services Scrutiny Committee expressed an interest in knowing more about the proposals for the Outdoor Centres. Members were particularly interested in knowing what the service is likely to look like in the future and whether extending the service to a wider group would affect the use that local children could make of the centres.

Charlotte Christie, the manager of the Outdoor Learning Service, will explain the plans for the future to the Committee. A report is attached (CH8).

Charlotte Christie presented her report. The presentation was followed by a question and answer session during which the following points were made:

At present more than 90% of bookings are for Oxfordshire children. However some schools are beginning to struggle with increased charges. There has not yet been a great push to bring in business from outside of the Oxfordshire but this might have to increase in future.

The service is currently on track to achieve the required savings having exceeded the target by £80k. Continuing to make these savings could however prove more difficult in future.

There are cheaper, commercial options to the Outdoor Learning Centres (OLC). It will be important in the future to ensure that there is a full understanding of the difference in the breadth and quality of the service provided by the OLCs compared with the cheaper alternatives. The OLCs do not just provide activities but also a form of self-development that helps young people develop confidence and self-reliance.

Schools should be encouraged to recognise the importance of the residential courses for young people and to help them with funding if necessary.

A question was asked about the Outdoor Centres’ Management Board. The background was: there used to be a ‘ house committee ‘ for the Outdoor Centres which had three Councillors on it and others such as headteachers. This committee ceased to meet several years ago and a ‘management group‘  was set up in its place. However, following an external inspection two years ago it was noted that this was not fully effective as a strategic group, so there was recommendation to establish a more robust group.

One of the actions for the current financial year in the five year business plan is to strengthen the strategic management through the establishment of a new group which would include Councillors and be responsible for monitoring the progress of the plan. It was AGREED that this issue should be addressed as soon as possible.

The Committee was pleased to hear that the business plan is on track and would wish to be told of any deviation from that.

The Oxfordshire Music Service provides music teaching support to schools, as well as instrumental and vocal tuition to children and adults, and opportunities for making music together.

As part of this service there is instrumental tuition in schools, weekly instrumental, vocal, performing arts and music theory groups, youth orchestras, activities and courses during the school holidays, ensembles for adult musicians, Saturday afternoon workshops and an instrument purchase scheme.

At the time of the December 2010 Budget meeting it was believed that Government grant funding for the music service might cease. However this did not happen and the funding has continued prior to recommendations of a national review of the provision of music services in schools. The review could lead to a new national funding formula for music education.

Tony Mealings, Head of Oxfordshire County Music Service, will speak to the Committee about the future of the service and how the Music Service focuses on and engages with less advantaged young people. A paper is attached describing the activities of the Music Service (CH9).

Tony Mealings, Head of the Oxfordshire Music Service, presented his report and that was followed by a question and answer session. The following points were made:

The music service is experiencing he same level of school participation as in previous years.

Following the Government sponsored Henley Review of Music Education Music Education, hubs are to be established in each Local Authority area bringing together schools, Local Authority Music Services, music organisations and other delivery organisations. In future funding will be awarded to the hubs rather than to local authority music services. The hub in Oxfordshire will be led by the County Council. Various  entrepreneurial partners are joining with the Council on this.

Members expressed a particular interest in knowing about music opportunities for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Mr Mealings referred to the examples in his report and highlighted the ongoing partnership with Christ Church Cathedral School. The Music Service is seeking to increase opportunities for more children to take part in concerts.

The business plan targets are being exceeded and costs are continuing to be reduced. However cost cutting is clearly going to become more difficult. Funding is unlikely to increase in future. The largest part of the funding for the Music service comes from central government and a new funding formula is being devised. Past experience suggests that “prosperous” areas such as Oxfordshire often lose out when such formulae are instituted. Some charities that have provided support in the past have run out of money and new partners are being sought.

The Committee expressed full support for this very valuable service. Members recognised the benefits it brings to both the children involved and the wider community. In particular the Committee commends the work being done to provide opportunities for young people to perform. Members asked to be kept aware of any future music events.

The Chairman will propose that the following should be added to the future work programme:

• Looked After Children; attainment in English and Maths

Members AGREED to add an item, “Looked After Children; attainment in English and Maths” to the work programme.

The Chairman will update the Committee on a number of issues including:

1. From Care 2 Work Quality Mark
2. The position on issues for concern identified by Committee at the December Budget meeting
3. KS1 Select Committee on July 5
4. Junior Citizens’ programme – visit to Rewley Road Fire Station

The Chairman was supported by the Committee in congratulating the County Council on being the first in the South East region to get the Care 2 Work Quality Mark.

The Chairman reminded the Committee that they would be keeping track on those items of concern that had arisen from the five year Business Strategy.

These were:

EDAS – a report on how the service is performing would come later in the year.

Charging for respite care for disabled children – see Director’s report earlier

Early Intervention Centres – as above

Outdoor Centres – as discussed in the meeting

Junior Citizens Programme – visit to Rewley Road Fire Station. It was AGREED that another date should be sought for the visit to see the Junior Citizens’ programme in action.

The meeting closed at 13.10