Agenda and minutes

A webcast of the meeting can be viewed at http://council.webcast.vualto.com/leicestershire-county-council/home?EventId=17829

Mr G A Hart CC, Cabinet Support Member

Pat Fraser, Healthwatch Representative

The minutes of the meeting held on 7 November 2016 were taken as read, confirmed and signed.

The Chief Executive reported that no questions had been received under Standing Order 35.

The Chief Executive reported that no questions had been received under Standing Order 7(3) and 7(5).

There were no urgent items for consideration.

The Chairman invited members who wished to do so to declare any interest in respect of items on the agenda for the meeting.

Mr D Snartt CC declared a personal interest in all items on the agenda as two members of his family were teachers.

Ms K Knaggs declared a personal interest in all items on the agenda as she worked as a teacher at a school within her division.

There were no declarations of the party whip.

The Chief Executive reported that no petitions had been received under Standing Order 36.

The Committee considered a joint report of the Director of Children and Family Services and the Director of Corporate Resources on the proposed Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) for the period 2017/18 – 2020/21 as it related to Children and Family Services.  A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 8’ is filed with these minutes.

The Chairman welcomed to the meeting the Cabinet Support Member, Mr. G. A. Hart CC who was attending for this item.

In his introduction to the report, the Director of Children and Family Services explained that the majority of savings proposed in the MTFS had been identified in previous years, although some adjustments had been made as a result of further work to develop the proposals.  The MTFS proposals also reflected the need for growth in two areas.  These were: the social care placements budget, where the number of looked after children had increased and was expected to continue to do so, putting significant pressure on the budget; and social care.  There were three elements to the social care growth: the need to reduce caseloads to a reasonable level; improvements to the systems and processes for quality assurance; and the capacity of the Children’s Rights Service.

Arising from discussion the following points were raised:-

Service Transformation

(i)          The transformation programme for the department would need to respond to expected legislative changes.  These changes included the Children and Social Work Bill, a White Paper which would clarify the role of local authorities in education and the proposals for fairer funding for schools which were currently the subject of consultation.  It was agreed that a report outlining the proposals set out in the Children and Social Work Bill would be submitted to a future meeting of the Committee.

Growth

(ii)         Concern was expressed that, despite the growth included in the social care placements budget (G1), there was also a savings requirements from the same budget (CF2) which was larger than the growth being made available.  The Committee was advised that children’s social care had received an investment of approximately £8 million the previous year.  The growth proposed in the MTFS would enable the department to meet the increased level of demand, however, it was expected that more cost effective placements would be identified in order to achieve the savings target.  Work was already underway to reduce the number of residential placements and increase the number of looked after children placed with in-house foster carers.  Placements in family settings resulted in better outcomes as well as being more cost effective.

(iii)       The Department’s strategy to increase the number of in-house foster carers was acknowledged to be challenging, especially as the foster care market had not been fully tested before so its capacity was not known.  The need to place unaccompanied asylum seeking children could also present a challenge.  There would need to be careful management of the strategy with regular targets set to ensure it was delivering as expected.  The largest level of savings would be achieved through a reduction in the number of residential placements, although some savings would be realised through a reduction in the use of independent foster carers.  Work was already underway to recruit more in-house foster carers.

Savings

(iv)       With regard to the review of the Children’s Centre Programme (CF4), it was confirmed that the review undertaken in 2016 had encompassed the whole range of services provided by Children’s Centres and had considered them all on the same basis regardless of which organisation owned them.  Work was currently being undertaken with partners to consider how the savings requirement would be met, including  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48.

The Committee considered a joint report of the Chief Executive and Director of Children and Families Services which provided an update of the Children and Families Service performance at the end of quarter 2 of 2016/17.  A copy of the report marked ‘Agenda Item 9’ is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussion the following points were raised:-

(i)    Members welcomed the sustained improvement in performance for the number of children becoming subject to a child protection plan for the second or subsequent time.

(ii)   With regard to the percentage of care leavers in suitable accommodation, it was noted that the County Council was responsible for care leavers until the age of 25, although they were not obliged to keep in contact with the Council.  Accommodation that was considered to be unsuitable included bed and breakfast accommodation, custody, prison and mental health in-patient wards.  The Committee was assured that officers regularly reviewed all care leavers, including those who were not in contact, and supported them as much as possible to help them make good life choices.  Work was also being undertaken to improve data quality in this area.

(iii)  The figure for care leavers in education, employment or training was not directly comparable with the general figure of young people not in education, employment or training as the age range for each indicator was different.  However, some concern was expressed that the care leaver figure was low.  The Department had a strategy to address this which would be looked at in more detail by the Children in Care Panel and reported back to this Committee.

(iv) It was confirmed that supporting families back into work was still a priority for the Supporting Leicestershire Families Programme.  Areas of focus included improving the access that families had to employment advisors.

(v)  With regard to the percentage of reception pupils with free school meal status achieving a ‘good’ level of development, it was noted that the Leicestershire Education Excellence Partnership (LEEP) had a significant focus on vulnerable learners.  The school readiness and early years strategy was also being refreshed jointly with partners including children’s centres with a view to improving performance in this area.

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the Children and Families Service performance at the end of quarter 2 of 2016/17 be noted;

(b)  That a report on accommodation for care leavers and the numbers in education, employment and training be submitted to the Children in Care Panel and to a future meeting of the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The next meeting of the Committee is scheduled to take place on 6 March 2017 at 1.30pm.

It was noted that the next meeting of the Commission would be held on 6 March 2017 at 1.30pm.