10:05
The Director for Children, Young People & Families will give a verbal update on key issues.
Minutes:
The Director for Children, Young People & Families reported that her priorities were the budget, performance, parents, young people and children and people and partnerships. On the budget, she had taken action on the projected budgetary overspend of £1½m by the end of the financial year 2009/10 and the report to be submitted to the Cabinet on the outturn for the year would now show a balanced budget. However, it needed to be recognised that expenditure was demand-led. She wanted to ensure that there was effective use of resources and that financial value for money was delivered. On school improvement, she wanted to consider sharing good practice.
She said that there had been increased demand for safeguarding services after the Baby P case and, since 2007, the number of child protection plans had increased by 102% from 55 to 111: this was in comparison with demand for safeguarding services after the Victoria Climbie case where it had decreased a few years later.
She had been meeting parents and children to find out their views on services. The Environment & Economy Directorate had been involved in providing more transport for children with disabilities to enable them to access leisure services. She had met young people at a sounding board event on poverty where children in Blackbird Leys, Oxford had been given advice on making the right choices at school.
She had reviewed information provided to parents and members and wanted improvements to ensure that it was the right information in the right format and that it was customer-focused.
On school admissions, 97% of applicants had received their first preference. In March, she had attended a conference of primary headteachers on how the brain worked and how children learnt: ideas from the conference would be taken forward with headteachers and governors.
On educational effectiveness, she was taking stock of the current position. There were likely to be changes to the management structure of her directorate. She would like to see a review of resources with partners and the district councils to maximise their use and a review of assets, for example of schools and health resources, with partners on the Children’s Trust.
The following is a summary of questions asked/comments made by members.
· In balancing the budget, had cuts to services been made or services ceased? The Director for Children, Young People & Families said that some services had been stopped and these would be set out in the report to the Cabinet but front-line services had been prioritised to ensure there would be no reductions in these services. Statutory responsibilities had also been prioritised and priorities in the Children and Young People’s Plan had been addressed. Duplication needed to be reduced and resources used more effectively.
· On safeguarding children, information needed to be shared more as people found it confusing having to meet with many organisations and it had been agreed, for example, that children with disabilities would have a named worker who would be their point of contact. This did not appear to happening.
· On school admission appeals, were members permitted to accompany appellants to hearings as some people wanted support and help with presenting their case?
· On casework, could members have lists of officers in the Directorate whom they could contact direct on enquiries?
· What action was being taken to relieve social workers of tasks, for example health and safety, which could be undertaken by other officers to enable them to undertake their own duties? The Director for Children, Young People & Families said that Mr Leivers had been asked to follow-up actions recommended by the Social Work Task Force.
· What changes were proposed on CRB checks and what was the future of the Building Schools for the Future programme. On CRB checks, the Director for Children, Young People & Families said that the Independent Safeguarding Authority would be undertaking the vetting and barring arrangements. The County Council’s Human Resources would be providing guidance to schools on this and on good practice. On Building Schools for the Future, the Government had advised that it would be reviewing commitments. The County Council was continuing to plan for the programme until it was advised of any changes to these arrangements.
The Committee AGREED:
(a) to note that the Director for Children, Young People & Families had undertaken to:
(i) respond to Councillor V Smith on whether members could have a list of officers in her Directorate whom they could contact direct on enquiries;
(ii) send information on sounding boards for children to members.
(b) to invite the Director for Children, Young People & Families to update the Committee several times a year on issues.