Agenda and minutes

It was proposed, seconded and AGREED that Councillor Simpson should be appointed Chair of the Committee for the remainder of the 2022/23 municipal year. Councillor Simpson assumed the role of the Chair at this point.

The Chair welcomed attendees and thanked Councillor Corkin for previously chairing the Committee in a professional and well-balanced manner.

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Leverton. Councillor Champken-Woods substituted for Councillor Leverton.

An apology for absence was also received from Councillor Bearder, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care.

Councillor Champken-Woods declared a personal interest that he and his wife are chair and vice-chair of trustees for a day centre for the elderly in Thame.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 16 June 2022.

The Committee considered the minutes of the previous meeting held on 16 June 2022. It was AGREED that the Chair should sign the minutes as an accurate record.

It was requested that it was minuted, as it had been raised at a number of previous meetings, that the Council Chamber was not conducive to the requirements for People Overview & Scrutiny Committee meetings.  It was also requested that rather than focus largely on strategic matters in relation to items considered, there should be a greater emphasis on performance and outcomes.

There had been an item at the Committee meeting in June in respect of the Home to School Transport Policy Working Group Project Plan.  Clarification was sought on future meeting dates of the Working Group.

Councillor Brighouse advised the Committee that a press release was being submitted later that day that an independent Education Commission was being established.  She was hopeful that the Committee would be able to review the recommendations.

Members of the public who wish to speak at this meeting can attend the meeting in person or ‘virtually’ through an online connection. 

To facilitate ‘hybrid’ meetings we are asking that requests to speak are submitted by no later than 9am four working days before the meeting i.e., 9am on Friday 4 November 2022.  Requests to speak should be sent to Jonathan.deacon@oxfordshire.gov.uk

If you are speaking ‘virtually’, you may submit a written statement of your presentation to ensure that if the technology fails, then your views can still be taken into account. A written copy of your statement can be provided no later than 9am 2 working days before the meeting. Written submissions should be no longer than 1 A4 sheet.

There were none.

To understand current progress in implementation and any associated improvement in the outcomes for young adults and to review plans for the future.

The Committee heard initially from a witness, Kathy Liddell, a family carer with a 26 year old daughter with learning disabilities.  The family had first experienced Oxfordshire’s social care services when Ms Liddell’s daughter was 15.  Ms Liddell spoke about joining the co-production group to help other families which included officers delivering services and young people who used the services.  A key aspect which came out of the group meetings was having a named individual who could take families through the process from teenage years through to the age of 25.  This did not just relate to educational needs but also included where the young person was going to live and how he/she was going to work and earn money.  The group looked at best practice at other county councils. Ms Liddell added that she was now working with Oxfordshire Family Support Network.  The Moving into Adulthood Service (MiA) was invaluable for young people and their families.

Members also heard from Victoria Baran, Interim Deputy Director Adult Social Care, Karen Fuller, Interim Corporate Director of Adult Social Care and Kevin Gordon, Director for Children’s Services, in relation to this item.  Ms Baran confirmed in her presentation that the MiA Service had been developed in response to recommendations made by the co-production group, referred to by Ms Liddell.  The Service worked with young people from 18 to 25 years of age, with an in-reach into Children’s Services from the age of 16.  Having a named link worker from the age of 16 enabled the young person and their family to build a relationship with the Service from an early point and provided them with consistency through their journey into adulthood.

There had been a big focus on improving accessibility of information.  For instance, webinars were being delivered to schools and colleges, young people and their families.  A Moving into Adulthood guide would be published later this year and would assist in understanding a complex system.  Young people were being encouraged to identify their own aspirations with the option of chairing their own review meetings.  The Council was working collaboratively with Oxfordshire Employment Service and Community Connections to support young people to achieve their outcomes.

There was an emphasis on improving co-ordination between teams and partners, including operating a Multi-Agency Placement and Commissioning (MAPaC) forum with a single route for all young people needing funding from more than one team.  Also, Children’s and Adults’ Social Care teams were undertaking joint training in areas such as Mental Capacity, the role of social care in SEND and, the Working with Families training delivered by the Oxfordshire Family Support Network.  Quarterly Health Transitions meetings ensured that the health care of young people was taken into account during their transition alongside the social care aspects.

Ms Baran advised that the Service was currently actively supporting 385 young people to plan for their journey into adulthood. Since the service launched in June 2021 it had worked with a total of 560  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20/22

People Overview Scrutiny Committee to understand current and anticipated demand and impact on funding and to make any recommendations on  service sustainability in relation to the challenges and opportunities for  workforce recruitment and retention.

Kevin Gordon, Director for Children’s Services, introduced the report and provided a presentation at the meeting. He stated that the council currently employs 811 FTE staff in Adult Social Care (ASC) and 1,021 FTE staff in Children’s Social Care.  In terms of those who were employed by the Council’s care providers, 14,500 people were working in residential care homes, homecare and day centres.  The social care workforce also consisted of 1,300 Personal Assistants work in the county supporting people at home.  Many unpaid carers also contributed significantly.

The challenges for recruiting and retaining staff included the underlying economic factors such as Oxfordshire being an expensive place to live and strong competition from other sectors in a buoyant local labour market in the South East.  Social care roles were sometimes perceived to be unskilled jobs with little career progression and relatively low wages were paid for what can be a very demanding job.

Mr Gordon referred to the impact of Covid generally on people leaving the workforce in the UK and that the increase in vacancy levels in the internal and external social care workforce at Oxfordshire was a widespread phenomenon.  A deep dive review of the issues impacting the recruitment and retention of children’s social workers had been undertaken this year.  In relation to the findings, work was progressing to reduce the demand flow into statutory Children’s Services and caseloads were stabilising. There was for now a continued reliance upon agency workers until such time as work demand could be managed.  The Council had a plan in place to ‘grow your own’ social work staffing, with an established Social Work Academy that supported the learning and development for students who wish to enter the social work profession and those who are newly qualified, to experienced practitioners and those aiming to become managers.  The Council was able to be quite selective in introducing people into the programmes, including local people and it was hoped there would be longer term retention.

An alternative source of experienced social workers was the recent employment of six International Social Workers.  It was expected that an additional six would be recruited in 2022/23.

Options being looked at in terms of retention of staff included market supplements for hard to recruit to posts and lump sum long-service payments and also career break opportunities such as sabbaticals for staff who may otherwise be considering leaving due to stress or burnout the option to take time out to support their wellbeing.   The Council would explore the potential to offer sabbatical leave after 3 years of service for staff in hard to recruit teams.

The presentation drew the Committee’s attention to the ASC legislation, ‘Build Back Better: Our Plan for Health and Social Care’ and ‘People at the Heart of Care’.  As one of six ‘Trailblazer’ local authorities, OCC was working with the DHSC to trial key aspects of the reforms.  It was stated that the work that had been done on the Oxfordshire Way  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21/22

The People Overview Scrutiny Committee is recommended to review Oxfordshire County Council’s plans for Care Quality Commission Assurance implementation in April 2023 and review progress to date towards readiness for assessment, what we know so far, and the actions planned to support the assessment framework.

It is also recommended that the committee discuss ways to support preparations through awareness raising, engagement and promotion of the good work being undertaken in Adult Social Care.

Karen Fuller introduced the report and in conjunction with Victoria Baran provided a presentation at the meeting. The Health and Care Act 2022 had introduced a new duty for the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to independently review and assess how Local Authorities were delivering their Care Act function.  The key elements of CQC’s new strategy were independent assurance to residents about the quality of service, assurance driven by needs and outcomes for residents, working towards stronger safety within the system and acceleration of improvement.

Reference was made to the progress the Council had made with the extensive programme of transformation, resulting in the Oxfordshire Way.  This was in order to improve outcomes for residents, improve the governance structures, form a stronger integration with health partners and focus on using residents’ feedback to inform decision making.  The Oxfordshire Way had been co-produced with partners across the county and was the Council’s vision of supporting people to live well at home in their community, remaining fit and healthy for as long as possible. The Oxfordshire Way aimed to provide people with the ability to support themselves through personal, local and system assets to lead independent lives and strongly aligned with the CQC’s assessment framework. The introduction of the CQC assessment allowed the Council to build on its transformation programme.

The CQC would be using a Single Assessment Framework to assess services.  The framework was based on a set of quality statements describing what good care looks like and Local Authorities were required to evidence their commitment to these quality statements through feedback, policies and data.  There was a strong focus on placing people’s experiences of care at the heart of the process.

Areas of focus for Local Authority assessments included Working with People in terms of supporting people to live healthier lives, assessing needs, including unpaid carers; Providing support with market shaping, commissioning, workforce capacity and capability, integration and partnership working; Ensuring safety in safeguarding, safe systems, pathways and transitions and Leadership in terms of governance and risk management at all levels, culture and values of the workforce and organisation, innovation, continuous learning and improvement.

The Committee was advised that there was a delay to DHSC sign off on methodology which was part of the Framework Implementation.  It was expected that the CQC Digital Solution design, build and implementation in order for ASC to upload its evidence, would be available by March 2023.  The Go Live date was scheduled for April 2023.

ASC was preparing by engaging with the CQC in co-producing the Framework and commissioning an independent consultant to review its readiness for assurance and provide insight into further development opportunities. It built on the findings of the independent review with its own self-assessment workshops for operational teams.

Next steps included aiming to embed a culture of continuous improvement and development aligning with the ethos of the CQC strategy and our corporate values of ‘Always Learning’ and ‘Daring to do it differently’.  By further embedding and building upon the successes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22/22

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to note the action and recommendation tracker which is being used to monitor the implementation of formally agreed actions and recommendations.

The Committee decided to take this item prior to the Co-Optee Recruitment Update in order that Karen Fuller was able to provide an update. Tom Hudson, Principal Overview and Scrutiny Officer, advised the Committee that many of the actions were still ‘in progress’ due to the timing of meetings as they awaited a response from Cabinet.  There would be an update to all the Committee’s recommendations recorded at the previous meeting in June 2022 at the next meeting in January 2023.

Mr Hudson and Ms Fuller referred specifically to an action included in the Action and Recommendation Tracker report which had been recorded at the June 2022 meeting that ‘The Local Account to be updated and shared with Scrutiny Committee with a view to it being used as a performance dashboard’.  Having reviewed it, it was felt that the local account would not provide a useful dashboard.  It was suggested that the Chief Executive’s recommendation was taken forward to provide data on the waiting lists of people waiting for a service from the Council.

Ms Fuller informed the Committee that it was no longer a requirement to produce a local account.  The last one had been produced in 2014 and was therefore out of date. 

Mr Hudson brought to the Committee’s attention that Members had been promised at the previous meeting that they would be able to review Scrutiny protocols.  He stated this had not happened because Performance and Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee had established a working group in respect of democratic processes and how the Council supported Members to do their jobs.  Part of the working group’s remit was to focus on scrutiny and it was therefore being proposed to delay the review of the Scrutiny protocols for the time being to avoid duplication of effort.

The following action was AGREED:

1)              To amend the action from the June 2022 meeting that ‘The Local Account to be updated and shared with Scrutiny Committee with a view to it being used as a performance dashboard’ and replace it with an emphasis on providing data on the waiting lists of people waiting for a service from the Council.

The action and recommendation tracker was NOTED.

Item To Follow.

Members of the Committee received an apology for the late receipt of the report which had been awaiting the required approval. 

Tom Hudson advised the Committee that there was a legal requirement enshrined within the Council’s Constitution to have co-optees included as members of the Committee.  The required four co-optees were two parent governors of maintained schools in Oxfordshire, one Church of England representative appointed by the Oxford Diocesan Board of Education and one Roman Catholic representative appointed jointly by the Archbishop of Birmingham and the Bishop of Portsmouth.

Current progress was that a nomination had been received from the Oxford Diocesan Board of Education.  This was Ruth Bennie, the deputy director at the organisation.  Mr Hudson was in contact with the Archbishop of Birmingham and the Bishop of Portsmouth in order to seek agreement on a Roman Catholic representative.

The requirement in the legislation was to hold an election amongst parent governors between those who are eligible and have put themselves forward for nomination.  Mr Hudson had advertised for an election.  Three people had expressed initial interest.  One had not submitted the necessary paperwork, one was ineligible to stand owing to her employment by the Council and the third had a change of personal circumstances and had withdrawn from the list.  The legislation stated that if the posts were not filled, an attempt must be made to fill the vacant positions in six months’ time.  This was scheduled to take place in March 2023.

During discussion of this item, it was noted that whilst the legislation was very prescriptive and allowed only for parent governors of maintained schools in Oxfordshire to be appointed as co-optees, there was the option to invite representatives of Oxfordshire Governors’ Association to meetings as an external contributor when educational matters were being considered by the Committee.  It would be raised with the Monitoring Officer whether there was any scope to amend the position so that parent governors that were not representing maintained schools would be able to sit as co-optees.

The following action was AGREED:

1)              That the Principal Overview and Scrutiny Officer would raise with the Monitoring Officer whether there was any scope to amend the position so that parent governors that were not representing maintained schools would be able to sit as co-optees.

It was RESOLVED that:

1)              The update on activity undertaken to fill the Committee’s vacant co-optee posts is noted.

2)              That Ruth Bennie is appointed as the Anglican nomination to the Committee as co-opted member, subject to completion of the necessary formalities.

3)              The Catholic nominee is accepted as a co-opted member to the Committee, subject to the completion of necessary formalities, without further reference to the Committee.

To NOTE the Committee’s Work Programme and the Council’s Forward Plan.  It was requested in June 2022 that the current versions of the documents are provided at each meeting of the Committee.

Mr Hudson explained that there were updates to the Sub-Groups/Working Groups section of the Committee’s Work Programme.  The Food Strategy Action Plan was now scheduled for January and the Special Meeting with Regional Schools Commissioner, ESFA/OFSTED had also been delayed.

There was a discussion relating to the Education Commission.  Mr Gordon advised that an independent Chair had been appointed and he recommended that she be invited to a meeting of the Committee.  Members were keen that they were able to scrutinise the work of the Committee whilst the work was still evolving rather than be asked to consider the final recommendations.  This would ideally include a Member of the Committee having representation on the Commission. They requested having further information on performance data in order to be as informed as possible.  They noted that there was a Members’ briefing being made available shortly and the terms of reference of the Commission were currently being agreed. 

It was AGREED that in the event the Committee was represented on the Education Commission, the recommended Member would be Councillor Waine.

Mr Hudson stated that discussions had taken place regarding an all Member briefing being provided regarding Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) matters.  Members looked in detail at the best forum for considering SEND matters, including whether there should be a special meeting.  It was AGREED that the Chair and Vice-Chair would discuss with Mr Gordon outside the meeting what the most suitable forum was to achieve a productive SEND meeting and report back to Members. 

It was also AGREED that the youth offer for Oxfordshire would be added to the January schedule.  Early help would be scheduled for the March meeting.

It was requested that there was less emphasis in the People OSC meetings on lengthy presentations and that they be circulated to Members before the meeting.