Agenda item

Cabinet Member: Children, Education & Families

Forward Plan Ref: 2015/023

Contact: Jim Leivers, Director for Children’s Services Tel: (01865) 815122

Report by Director for Children’s Services (CA7).

In common with councils across England, Oxfordshire County Council have to make savings across all service areas as a result of reductions in government funding, pressures on all services and restrictions on ability to raise Council Tax. The Children, Education and Families Directorate need to find savings of £8 million.

Nationally, children’s services are now dealing with a growing number of child protection cases and children at risk of neglect.  Over the past few years there has been a 50 per cent rise in the number of children on child protection plans, in part as a response to growing concerns about child sexual exploitation.

Reduced funding and rising demand mean we need to make radical changes to the way services for children and families are delivered.

The overwhelming priority for children’s services must be to meet our legal requirement to keep children safe from abuse and neglect and it would clearly be unsafe to reduce funding of core child protection social work. The Directorate's savings, therefore, have to come from the Early Intervention Service, which includes the current network of 44 Children's Centres and 7 Early Intervention Hubs and the Youth Engagement and Opportunities Team.

The need to make changes, however, presents opportunities to think about new ways to support families within their communities and ensure some of the services provided within Early Intervention continue.

The Council has developed a preferred model for a new 0-19 service based on integrating the services provided by Children’s Centres, Early Intervention Hubs and Children’s Social Care. This approach was recommended by the cross-party Cabinet Advisory Group set up to look at new ways of working.

The £8m that remains from the current £16m budget for the Early Intervention Service will be combined with the £4m budget for Children’s Social Care Family Support Teams to create a wholly new £12m service.

The new service will focus on supporting children on child protection plans, children in need and those identified as vulnerable through Oxfordshire's Thriving Families programme.

Cabinet is RECOMMENDED:

·                 That the options identified in the report be put forward for public consultation during the Autumn of 2015

·                 A further report outlining outcome of the consultation along with detailed proposals for the future shape of services be produced for Cabinet consideration in early 2016.

In common with councils across England, Oxfordshire County Council have to make savings across all service areas as a result of reductions in government funding, pressures on all services and restrictions on ability to raise Council Tax. The Children, Education and Families Directorate need to find savings of £8 million.

The Council has developed a preferred model for a new 0-19 service based on integrating the services provided by Children’s Centres, Early Intervention Hubs and Children’s Social Care. This approach was recommended by the cross-party Cabinet Advisory Group set up to look at new ways of working.

The new service will focus on supporting children on child protection plans, children in need and those identified as vulnerable through Oxfordshire's Thriving Families programme. Cabinet had before them a report setting out options for approval for public consultation.

Emma Burnett, Cultivate Oxfordshire Ltd, spoke in support of the work of children’s centres and illustrated their value by reference to her and her family’s experiences. She suggested that the Council should use reserves to keep the centres open even if in a streamlined fashion so that buildings and staff were not lost. She asked that the Council give users and the voluntary sector a couple of years to find solutions.

Dr Sonia Bues, as a clinical psychologist commented that she dealt with people with entrenched problems and that early intervention was vital. Children’s Centres provided this support. It was important that this was easily accessible, universal and non-stigmatising. She referred to press reports detailing how scores of children had been let down and asked that more children not be failed by the closure of the children’s centres.

Jo Lovell, spoke both as a user and then a helper at a children’s centres and referred to the help and support she had received at a difficult time.

Claire El Mouden, as a user of a children’s centre highlighted, by reference to her own experience, why universal access was important.

Charlie Payne, showed Cabinet photos of a children’s centre session and shared with them comments of the parents there which expressed how much they valued the service provided.

James Kirkham, as a father had used the baby cafes and found them welcoming and without the children’s centre he was not sure that he would have built his confidence as a father. He and his daughter felt part of a community and the parenting course he had taken had helped with his step son.

Jill Huish, a user of the service, expressed sadness and dismay at the proposed models all of which she felt to be wrong. The short term savings would be offset by more costly knock on effects. She referred to the wide range of services available through children’s centres. She shared with Cabinet her experience highlighting the courses she had taken. She felt that the support from highly trained staff had avoided social worker intervention.

Eleanor Pritchard, informed Cabinet that she had used her local children’s centre when she had felt alone and isolated. The centres were more than the sum of their valuable services and the economic case was only a partial picture. If the centre had not been available she would have had to go to her GP.

Yan Wong, governor of a local nursery and children’s centre, stressed the importance of a universal service which was able to identify children in need of help. He did not feel that a referral service would do that. He suggested that the County Council should be joining with other local authorities to lobby central government to secure the long term future of centres.

Katherine Harloe, a service user detailed how her local children’s centre had helped her and that she had been able to get to her local centre when she was unable to access other support. She feared that the proposals would mean that more families like hers would slip through the cracks in available support.

Juliet Corbett, spoke in support of the Children’s Centres referring to the support provided to her and that she had used the Centre’s often when she would not qualify for targeted support. She highlighted the economic case for the provision of the support provided by Children’s Centres and referred to the strong evidence base for universal/targeted services.

Jenny Pawsey, highlighted the support she had received from the breakfast café which was a safe, welcoming and supportive space. Help was provided not just from professionals but from other attendees and there was a real community feel. A large number of people would be worse off if the centres closed and given the time it had taken to build them upit would be tragic to lose that infrastructure now.

Marchelle Farrell, as a member of the public, had attended one of the listening events and she stated that the meeting had been told that no cost analysis had been carried out. It was irresponsible to to make decisions without secure analysis. She added that the County Council had a new public health remit and that children’s centres provide excellent public health services. She queried the wisdom of shutting them and then having to re-establish something to provide the necessary services.

The Chairman expressed his thanks to all the public speakers who had shown considerable courage in sharing their personal stories at a public meeting.

Councillor Gill Sanders, Shadow Cabinet Member for Children, Education & Families, commented that the central government cuts and the pressure on other services put the Council in an impossible position. She was saddened by what was proposed and labour councillors would be working to salvage what they could. She hoped that there would not be a need for further cuts and would want to ensure that the most deprived continued to receive the support they needed. The value of professionals could not be over-estimated.  She added that labour councillors would be working with local groups to try and ensure that no children’s centres close and that no children or families lost access to the valuable services provided by them. However it was necessary to be realistic about what could be provided and consultation was vital. She referred to her role on the Cabinet Advisory Group and stated that she had been glad to be a member and to contribute to the debate.

Councillor Nick Hards, speaking as a local councillor for Didcot West stated that reducing the number of Centres I Didcot from 3 to 1 would make access difficult. He referred to concentrations of families under the thriving families programme in places such as Farringdon, Wantage, Wallingford and Berinsfield and queried the ability of staff to manage from just 8 centres. He was concerned that the proposals would lead to children and families being stigmatised and queried what could be done to prevent this happening. The consultation was vital and there was a need to think about how the building could be used to be available to groups willing to provide services.

Councillor Suzanna Pressel, speaking as a local councillor for Jericho & Osney, referred to the moving stories that had been heard today and the points made such as there being no costed assessment of the impact of closures. She called on Cabinet Members to lobby the Prime Minister and to consider their position as a member of the ruling parliamentary party. She wanted to see all the centres remain open and more detail was needed on the proposals.

Councillor Brighouse, local councillor for Churchill & Lye Valley stated that the Labour group was committed to protecting the most vulnerable children, young people and families. As Chairman of Performance Scrutiny Committee she asked that the Committee be allowed to look at the outcome of the consultation before it was considered by Cabinet. She commented that children’s centres were all very different with varying funding and different ranges of services. It was clear that they had made an enormous difference to the parents speaking today who all had a story to tell. She asked that they go back to their communities and be involved through the consultation in coming back with suggestions that would make a difference. The Leader agreed that he was happy for the outcomes to be considered by Performance Scrutiny Committee before it came back to Cabinet.

Councillor Melinda Tilley, Cabinet Member for Children, Education & Families introduced the contents of the report explaining the process followed to produce the proposals. She stressed that this was about moving to a consultation and that no decisions were being taken and that she welcomed good ideas coming forward. Jim Leivers, Director for Children’s Services reiterated that Cabinet was being asked to agree a consultation but added that the decision to reduce the budget by £6m had already been taken as part of the Council budget setting. There were no simple options and use of reserves was not a viable option as a long term solution was needed to meeting the Council’s statutory responsibilities.

During discussion Cabinet expressed sympathy for the views expressed today and the personal stories which could not fail to touch them. Several members referred to the support they had given to children’s centres. Responding to a question from a Cabinet Member, Councillor Tilley advised that the majority of referrals to the MASH came from the police. Referrals to the County Council came from schools, GPs and then from children’s centres. However Cabinet recognised the need to reduce the budget and supported the proposals as ensuring that the most vulnerable are reached. Cabinet would welcome working with local communities and for community solutions to come forward.

A Cabinet Member welcomed comments from Councillor Brighouse but was saddened that other councillors took up a political position.

Councillor Tilley in moving the recommendations commented that the Council still have the buildings and urged anyone wishing to run those universal services to come forward.

On a show of hands it was:

RESOLVED:           (by 7 votes for to 0 against)to agree:

(a)            that the options identified in the report be put forward for public consultation during the Autumn of 2015

(b)            a further report outlining the outcome of the consultation along with detailed proposals for the future shape of services be produced for consideration by Performance Scrutiny Committee prior to Cabinet consideration in early 2016.