To undertake a Select Committee
of the work/governance of the Children’s Trust to explore partnership working through the Children's Trust and to look
at ways in which this can be strengthened in the future.
There will be a short presentation from officers followed by a question and answer session.
Councillor Louise Chapman, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Families, will attend as Chairman of the Children’s Trust Board. The following will also be in attendance:
Meera Spillett, Director of Children, Young People & Families
Paula Tansley, Interim Head of Commissioning, Performance and
Quality Assurance
Jan Paine, Head of Service - Southern Area, Young People & Access to Education
Sally Taylor, Head of Northern Area, Raising Achievement
Jim Leivers, Interim Head of Service for Children and
Families
Sian Rodway, Strategic Lead,
Performance
Sarah Breton, Strategic Lead & Head of Joint Commissioning
Minutes:
The Scrutiny Committee received a
presentation on the role and work of the Children’s Trust and Children’s Trust
Board. The Director of Children, Young People & Families highlighted the
work with young people through the Sounding Boards that sought the views of
young people on a range of topics. Partnership working had brought about
changes and she highlighted work with Police on first time entrants into police
statistics where the Police had set aside their own targets to work to reduce
this figure. Councillor Louise Chapman added that at Board level partnership
working was resulting in success stories and fostering strong working
relationships at an operational level.
During
discussions and in response to questions the following matters were raised:
1.
The importance
of pre-schools to the well being and
development of children.
2.
The statutory
guidance relating to Children’s Trust was very complex and would benefit from
being simplified. It was suggested that a simple summary was needed defining
the Children’s Trust, explaining what they do and addressing how it provided
value for money.
3.
The current financial situation provided an opportunity to strip away
the target driven obsession. The Committee sought information on the thinking
about how kpi’s might be reduced, removed or a different approach taken.
Councillor Chapman undertook to provide a list of targets that she personally
would like to see removed. She added that a sub group was looking at
performance and that what drove her were the local targets. Some measures of
performance were necessary.
4.
Councillor Chapman undertook to provide a written response on the cost of
the Children’s Trust Board.
5.
Responding to questions from members the Director for Children, Young
People & Families confirmed that the
Children’s Trust was a statutory body and outlined the type of activity that
the Trust brought about that was different to what could achieved by individual
organisations working alone. She highlighted actions to tackle the problems of
families in temporary accommodation and tackling school absenteeism. Process
had been simplified.
6.
Asked what she was most proud of in relation to the Trust, Councillor
Chapman referred to the work to raise awareness of Looked After Children and
their representation at Board level.
7.
The Director for Children Young People & Families recognised the
need to guard against the Trust Board becoming a talking shop. The Children’s
Trust was about more than Board membership and efforts were made to keep the
representation on the Board to the minimum required for effective working. The Board
ensured that the Children’s Plan was being delivered. Responding to criticism that
time had been spent on developing the Plan when what was needed was already known,
the Committee heard that there had been a great deal of consultation; there was
a duty to consult as the Plan was statutory and guided all that was done in this
area.
8.
A member who had attended meeting of the Children’s Trust Board commented
that they had been well run, well chaired and with a good level of engagement. However
the reports from the sub groups showed a lack of attendance and she queried what
the Trust could do about this problem. Councillor Chapman replied that it was important
that the right people were present but that sometimes meant that they could not
always attend as they had other commitments.
9.
Sally Taylor detailed work by the Trust to tackle the cycle of
deprivation by targeting specific families in identified wards. It was early
days but the emerging evidence was that this type of targeting was both
effective and an efficient use of resources. Jean Bradlow, Assistant Director
of Public Health referred to work detailed in the Director of Public Health’s
Annual Report that focussed on deprivation in
10.
Reference was made to the 155,000 children in Oxfordshire with a query
over how far the Trust focussed on the 4,000 vulnerable children in the County.
Meera Spillett explained the layered approach to service provision; some areas
of work were universal such as ‘ Every child a reader’; below that support was
provided to a smaller number of children who had additional needs usually on a
temporary basis; finally there were those children with complex ongoing needs.
11.
There was recognition of the impact on Trust working of the Health White
Paper proposals. There would need to be a strong relationship with GPs and GP
Consortia. It was noted that it was too early for arrangements to have been
determined and the Trust would have to wait and see how proposals developed.
12.
Responding to comments about safeguarding Meera Spillett acknowledged
that the process around CAF and TAC forms was patchy and required work. Extra
money had been included in the budget to link social workers with schools. One of
the big challenges was the expectations on social workers and the sheer volume of
universal services. Every school should have a governor and a designated member
of the senior management team responsible for safeguarding issues and additional
training was available to them.
13.
Concern was expressed that misunderstanding could lead to children being
removed from parents. Meera Spillett confirmed that there were Emergency Protection
orders but that generally parents were notified and were part of the process.
14.
Responding to comments about neglect it was reported that this issue had
been identified and an action plan drawn up.
15.
Responding to criticism that two out of 17 LAA targets on track did not seem
like value for money, Councillor Chapman explained that some targets could not be
assessed except on an annual basis. She undertook to provide a response and actions on each of the targets not being met.
16.
During discussion of cross boundary working the Committee was advised that
the common legislation meant there was dialogue between the Children’s Trust at
a strategic level. There were protocols about working together and arrangements
in place for picking up cross boundary issues.
17.
Asked whether people such as head teachers, social workers and voluntary
groups would understand what the Trust was doing the Committee was advised that
that there was a continuum with some being more aware than others. An example was
the process established to notify head teachers in the event of domestic violence.
The chairman thanked the Cabinet Member for Children, Young people &
Families and officers for their attendance and it was AGREED that this matter be considered again in a year.