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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - County Hall, New Road, Oxford OX1 1ND. View directions

Contact: Colm Ó Caomhánaigh, Tel: 07393 001096  E-Mail:  colm.ocaomhanaigh@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Link: video link: https://oxon.cc/POSC17022022

Items
No. Item

1/22

Apologies for Absence and Temporary Appointments

Minutes:

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Bethia Thomas (Councillor Dan Levy substituted).

 

2/22

Minutes pdf icon PDF 325 KB

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 11 November 2021 and to receive information arising from them.

 

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 November 2022 were agreed and signed.

 

In relation to the Co-Option of Members to this Committee, officers were asked to progress this.

3/22

Petitions and Public Address

Currently council meetings are taking place in-person (not virtually) with Covid safety procedures operating in the venues.  However, members of the public who wish to speak at this meeting can attend the meeting ‘virtually’ through an online connection.  While you can ask to attend the meeting in person, you are strongly encouraged to attend ‘virtually’ to minimise the risk of Covid-19 infection.

 

Please also note that in line with current government guidance all attendees are strongly encouraged to take a lateral flow test in advance of the meeting.

 

Normally requests to speak at this public meeting are required by 9 am on the day preceding the published date of the meeting. However, during the current situation and to facilitate these new arrangements we are asking that requests to speak are submitted by no later than 9am four working days before the meeting i.e. 9 am on Friday 11 February 2022 Requests to speak should be sent to colm.ocaomhanaigh@oxfordshire.gov.uk .  You will be contacted by the officer regarding the arrangements for speaking.

 

If you ask to attend in person, the officer will also advise you regarding Covid-19 safety at the meeting.  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 9 am 2 working days before the meeting. Written submissions should be no longer than 1 A4 sheet.

 

Minutes:

Ms Debbie List attended the meeting and made a public address in relation to Agenda Item 6 -  Overview of Home To School Transport In Oxfordshire.

 

The Committee was informed that Ms List lives in the village of Standlake. She has three children, two of which attended the local primary school. When applying for a secondary school place for her eldest son, they applied to the catchment school, Bartholomew School but was told that they would have to pay for transport as there was a closer school, although it was not their catchment school.

 

When applying for Bartholomew School for her second son, they were told there would be no transport. This was obviously a blow as there was no transport. Her son was offered transport on a community bus, a 16 seater minibus, which was run by volunteers.

 

Ms List questioned the policy as her sons would get transport paid for if they attended a school which was closer, although not in catchment. Ms List questioned the inequality of the policy.

 

Mr John Christie attended the meeting and made a public address in relation to Agenda Item 6 -  Overview of Home To School Transport In Oxfordshire.

 

The Committee was informed that the Council is wrongly denying free school transport from children from Middle Barton to their long established catchment area partner school Chipping Norton because it claims there are places available at a nearer school Heyford Park.(HPS)

 

When Heyford Park Free School opened (HPS), it became the nearest school for Middle Barton. This appeared unlikely to affect free transport to Chipping Norton School because HPS is a small 2 FE all-through school and so would not have places for all or any Middle Barton year 7 students. Its website indicated that it did not plan to admit any year 7 students.

 

However, because the school is undersubscribed it now states it will admit pupils to a small number of places it has in year 7, although the admissions policy confusingly still states that ‘there will cease to be a formal entry point in year 7’.

 

In 2018 there was one vacant year 7 place at HPS. 12 children from Middle Barton were to go to Chipping Norton School, but because there was one place available at HPS, OCC deemed that the nearest school with places available was HPS and none of the 12 were entitled to free transport. This is at a cost of c 700 pounds a year per child.

 

This decision appears harsh and unreasonable. This is because there was not a place for each Middle Barton child at HPS, but just one, leaving the 11 children who did not have a place at HPS still without free transport

 

A second unreasonable decision by OCC occurred in 2021 when 11 places were available at HPS and 20 children in Middle Barton did not get free home to school transport. All the children who were part of the year 7 intake for the previous 2 years had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3/22

4/22

Overview of Home to School Transport in Oxfordshire pdf icon PDF 360 KB

Report by Corporate Director for Children’s Services

 

Officers were asked to provide an overview to include the following information. 

 

• Current arrangements including parental preference

• Pupil projections, expansion plans and need

• How to create fairness within the system

• How to decarbon the service

• Service User experience and opinion

 

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to note the report. 

 

Minutes:

The Committee was provided with a report which provided an overview of the Home to School Transport Policy in Oxfordshire. The report contained the following information: 

 

• Current arrangements including parental preference

• Pupil projections, expansion plans and need

• How to create fairness within the system

• How to decarbon the service

• Service User experience and opinion

 

The Director for Childrens Services attended the meeting and introduced Neil Darlington (Admissions and Transport), Sandra Pearce (Transport Hub) and Paul Fermer (Community Operations) who provided details of the Policy to Members.

 

The current arrangements for Home to School Transport are that normally eligibility for free travel is determined at the time that a school place is allocated through, Oxfordshire County Council’s Coordinated Admissions Scheme for entry at the normal points of admission; and/or, the issuing of an Education, Health and Care Plan; and/or, the operation of the Fair Access Protocol; and/or,

the In-Year Coordinated Admissions Scheme.

 

The key principles in the Council’s current policy were:

·       Free travel to “Nearest school” if in excess of statutory walking distances (2 miles if under 8 years of age, 3 miles if 8 to 16 years of age)

·       Post 16 free travel for SEN students to the nearest college/school at which need can be met

·       Providing a spare seat scheme

·       Providing a formal appeals process

 

Under the Home to School Travel and Transport Policy, children and young people were entitled to free travel which was provided by the most cost-effective means. This was usually by the provision of a free bus pass, however, where numbers were small, children were sometimes transported by taxi. In addition, If parents wanted to take their children to school themselves, the Council may agree to the payment of a mileage allowance. 

 

If free travel was agreed, children and young people would be expected to use public transport or, if this is unavailable, contracted transport such as a coach or minibus. It was expected up to Year 5, parents would accompany children. Once a child was in Year 6 and above only the child would only receive free travel.

 

In relation to SEND, the Council has a duty to make suitable arrangements as they deem necessary to facilitate attendance at school for eligible children between the ages of 5-16 (Section 508B of the Education Act, 1996). This transport provision applied if their nearest suitable school was beyond 2 miles (if below the age of 8) or beyond 3 miles (if aged between 8 and 16).

 

There is a statutory responsibility to make transport arrangements for SEN Pupils who cannot reasonably be expected to walk to school because of their mobility problems or because of associated health and safety issues related to their SEN or disability.

 

Reference was made to current pupil projections which indicated a 1.2% increase in primary pupil numbers and for secondary school pupils a 7.8% predicted rise between 2020/21 and 2025/26. Longer term, due to the high levels of housing growth planned for the county, projections were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4/22

5/22

Serious Case Review: Child R pdf icon PDF 220 KB

Report by Corporate Director for Children’s Services

 

The Serious Case Review (SCR) concerns child R who was 13yrs old when she took her own life in 2013 in an out of county residential establishment.

 

The Committee is recommended to note the findings and recommendations of the Serious Case Review for Child R and to note the actions taken to date.

 

Minutes:

The Committee was provided with a report of a Serious Case Review of child R who was 13 years old when she took her own life in 2013 in an out of county residential establishment.

 

As a mark of respect, the Committee stood for a moments silence in memory of the child.

 

Lara Patel, Deputy Director, Safeguarding Children’s’ Social Care, attended the meeting and informed Members that the SCR report focused on learning and an explanation of what happened. The findings of the SCR were:

 

·       Working to keep children safe within their families continues to be a challenge and there is the need to ensure that improvements made since child R was a child are embedded into practice.

·       Placement Planning and managing the complex needs of Children in Care needs sufficient placement availability, clarity of role across the professional network and systems that scrutinise and challenge how well the child’s needs can be met.

·       Where there is a risk of suicide, Children in Care should have a clearly articulated suicide prevention plan which takes account of emotional, behavioural and situational risks.

 

Reference was made to the ten recommendations which came out of the review which were turned into an action plan.

 

Derek Benson, the Independent Chair of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board attended the meeting and reported that there would be constant monitoring of the recommendations.

 

Reference was made to the impact of the pandemic on the safeguarding of children in terms of increased caseloads, CAMHS waiting lists, co-ordination with other agencies and Multi-Agency Risk Assessments where all agencies were involved with the child. An increase in people expressing an interest in becoming foster carers is needed to be able to provide more local placements.

 

As part of the Early Strategy there is a target to undertake 10,000 Early Help Assessments to prevent children from needing statutory interventions.  It was acknowledged that this would be a challenge for agencies.

 

More local placements are needed so that children were not placed in areas away from their families.

 

Recruitment and Retention of Social Workers was a national issue, with Oxfordshire competing with other local authorities. It was agreed that the Recruitment and Retention Strategy for Social Workers would be submitted to this Committee (ACTION: Director of Children’s Services).

 

RESOLVED – That the findings and recommendations of the Serious Case Review for Child R, and the actions taken to date be noted.     

 

 

 

6/22

Consultation on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in Oxfordshire pdf icon PDF 237 KB

Report by Corporate Director of Children’s Services

 

A public consultation on proposed changes to arrangements for SEND for children and young people in Oxfordshire was launched on 10th January 2022. It is intended to run until 10th March 2022.

 

The People Overview & Scrutiny Committee is RECOMMENDED to consider this paper and formulate a joint response to the SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) Consultation which closes on 10th March 2022.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee was provided with a report which informed Members of a public consultation on proposed changes to arrangements for SEND for children and young people in Oxfordshire which was launched on 10th January, 2022.

 

The Chair commented that it was unusual that the Committee was being asked to comment on the consultation at this point in time and reference was made to some parents of SEND children having difficulty accessing the consultation. Members did not think that scrutiny should be a consultee in the process, but should have a role in the policy development.

 

The Director of Childrens Services reported that the Committee would have the opportunity to scrutinise the policy.    

 

There have also been a series of all member briefings on this issue. The report provides an opportunity for the Committee to scrutinise the policy and also to consider any recommendations to feed into the consultation.

 

Members were informed that reasons that changes needed to be made were outcomes for children with SEND in Oxfordshire were not good enough. In addition, it needed to be ensured that effective and efficient use was made of available funding, which would mean that difficult decisions must be made and the Council needed to act now.

 

The key strategic objectives being consulted on were:

·       Improving outcomes for children with SEND

·       Developing a continuum of local provision to meet the requirements of children and young people with SEND

·       Good physical and mental health and wellbeing

·       Improving post-16 education, learning, employment and training

·       Positive move into adulthood for young people with SEND.

 

The proposed changes which were subject to consultation were :

 

·       Reform of Top-Up funding arrangements for children and young people with an EHC Plan

·       Resource bases as a core part of the range of provision

·       Sufficiency of specialist day placements in Oxfordshire

·       Enhanced pathways within mainstream schools

·       Reconfiguring requests for additional funding for schools

·       Co-ordinated approach to supporting children with SEND at the earliest opportunity.

 

The Director of Children’s Services commented that SEND was not a good system for making use of resources. The Council were awaiting the outcome of the national review into SEND.

 

Kate Bradley - Head of SEND, Carole Stow - Consultation Manager of OCC, Susannah Wintersgill -  Director Strategy, Insight and Communications, Ed Edwards – Senior SEND Consultation Officer and Simon Knight – Head Teacher attended the meeting to provide background to the consultation.  

 

Issues raised by Members

 

·       Training was an important aspect of SEND and this was not referred to in the paper. Officers reported that training was key to the approach.

·       The phasing of top ups would be dependent on the outcome of the consultation.

·       There needed to be support and challenge in schools with School leaders thinking strategically.

·       There was a need for commissioning of services.

·       This review result in a potential overspend for Oxfordshire.

·       It was important that pupils voices were also heard and Members were informed that sessions had been held with young people to get their views.

·       There would be an email  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6/22

7/22

Work Plan 2021/22 pdf icon PDF 216 KB

Report by Director of Law and Governance

 

This report presents the People Scrutiny Committee Work Plan for 2021/22.

 

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to note the Work Plan (as set out in Appendix 1).

 

Minutes:

It was agreed that the following be added to the Committee’s Work Plan:

 

Education White Paper

Recruitment and Retention Strategy for Social Workers.