Agenda item

A copy of the report to be submitted to the Cabinet at its meeting on 6 July 2018 will be circulated separately to the Committee.  The Committee will be invited to comment on the proposals.  The views of the Committee will be reported to the Cabinet.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Children and Family Services seeking the Cabinet’s approval to reduce the number of Children’s Centres from 36 to 18 and to redesign the various elements of the Council’s Early Help Services for children and young people into an integrated family and wellbeing service for 0-19 years.  A copy of the Cabinet report, marked ‘Agenda Item 8’, is filed with these minutes.

In introducing the report, the Director of Children and Family Services drew the Committee’s attention to the results of the public consultation and the final proposals for the Family Wellbeing Service.  Attention was also drawn to the financial pressures faced by the service and the Committee was advised that there was currently no indication that there would be additional national funding made available to address these.

The Chairman invited Mrs Liz Blackshaw to present her petition entitled ‘Save Our Children’s Centre’, containing 4,283 signatures.  In presenting the petition, Mrs Blackshaw commented that although it was pleasing to see that the County Council had reconsidered its position in relation to the number of children’s centres no longer being used by the service, it was disappointing that this was only a further six Children’s Centres.  Mrs Blackshaw stressed the difficulties faced by some families due to the distance to their nearest Children’s Centre, and also explained the overall importance of the centres to the children and families who used them.

Mr. I. D. Ould CC, the Cabinet Lead Member, advised the Committee that he was confident in the proposals set out in the report.  He noted that the quality of work provided by Children’s Centres was not in question but praised officers for developing the concept of a new 0-19 family wellbeing service, informed by the success of the Supporting Leicestershire Families Programme.  He confirmed that he was lobbying at a national level for the funding of the Supporting Leicestershire Families Programme to continue beyond 2020.

Arising from the discussion, the following comments were raised:-

i)             Members welcomed the extra funding that had been found and were pleased to note that concerns raised during the consultation period had been taken into account in the development of the final proposal.  Assurance was given that colleagues across the Council recognised the difficulties facing the Children and Families Service and were supportive of the development of the new Family Wellbeing Service.  There was a confidence in the robustness and sustainability of the new service.

ii)            Lots of work was being undertaken to mitigate the risk around disabilities, for example, by spreading the location of the buildings around the county as much as possible.  Consideration had been given to the alternative provision which could be used if the demand was there.  The aim was to create a more flexible service focussed on providing targeted services to the most vulnerable children and families.

iii)           The importance of ensuring that a robust model was in place to continue to support those with disabilities in travelling to a Children’s Centre was stated.  This was highlighted by the Equality and Human Rights Impact Assessment.  It was confirmed that consideration had been given to where current users lived and where they would be able to access services.  Where appropriate, service users were already supported to access children’s centres.  This would continue and where it was not possible, provision would be delivered at home. 

iv)           In response to a query around the continuing use of volunteers, reassurance was given that the ongoing strategy would ensure that the existing volunteer base would be retained.  It was hoped that there would be a greater use of volunteers operating certain provision from community venues, for example continuing community networks to allow parents to connect with others from their locality to prevent loneliness. 

v)            It was noted that the Health service was present in many of the Children’s Centres and it was queried whether there was the possibility of approaching Health for a financial contribution to the service post 2020.  Discussions were currently ongoing with a number of partners, including Health, and part of this involved partner contributions. 

vi)           Consideration had been given to capital clawback figures so that the potential risk was known.  Dependent on the decision made by the Cabinet, work would take place towards identifying the future use for those buildings which would no longer be used by the service.  A clear analysis would be undertaken to assess the capital clawback risk, but there was confidence that the risk would be significantly mitigated, particularly if it was possible to continue to use the buildings for early years provision.  For those buildings that would still be used by the service, assurance was given that they would be able to cope with the increased footfall and would be able to provide greater flexibility to service users. 

vii)         The national Troubled Families Programme was due to end in 2019/20, but it was noted that Leicestershire was one of the highest performing authorities in terms of meeting the requirements of the national programme.  It was currently not known whether the national programme would continue and there would be a significant funding gap if it did not.  The proposed Family Wellbeing Service would incorporate a number of services, including Supporting Leicestershire Families, into an integrated early help service which would reduce duplication and take forward the most successful elements of each service.

viii)        Due to the nature of early help services, it could be difficult to monitor outcomes.  However, the Committee was advised that the service provided by children’s centres received high rates of satisfaction.  In addition, data was now being collected on the trajectory for children using the children’s centres.  This would provide a useful resource in the future.

The Committee supported the proposals within the Cabinet report, and agreed that this would ensure that there was targeted help for vulnerable children and that the service would be able to support Leicestershire families in the future.

RESOLVED:

a)    That the report be noted;

b)    That the Cabinet be advised of the views of the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the proposals for a Family Wellbeing Service.