Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from any members of the Committee.

Apologies were received from Josephine Copeland (Non-voting Teacher representative) and for lateness from Councillor Ramsey.

Apologies were received from Councillor Henson, for who Councillor Foster attended as their substitute.

Apologies were given for former Councillor Mike Bonello, who had resigned from the Council on the 22^nd January 2024.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 14 November 2023 as an accurate record.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on the 14 November 2023 were approved as an accurate record.

Members are invited to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and other registrable and non-registrable interests they may have in relation to any item(s) of business on today’s agenda.

There were no disclosures of interest.

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

There were no items of urgent business.

The Children & Young People Sub-Committee is asked to review the information provided on the identified budget proposals and reach a conclusion on the following:-

1.         Are the savings deliverable, sustainable and not an unacceptable risk?

2.         Is the impact on service users and the wider community understood?

3.         Have all reasonable alternative options been explored and do no better options exist?

The Sub-Committee considered a report set out in the supplementary agenda, which provided information on the identified budget proposals for 2024/25. The Director of Quality, Commissioning & Performance and the Director of Children’s Social Care introduced the item and went through the report. The Sub-Committee considered the reports and looked to satisfy the following questions:

1.          Are the savings deliverable, sustainable and not an unacceptable risk?

2.          Is the impact on service users and the wider community understood?

3.          Have all reasonable alternative options been explored and do no better options exist?

2024-28 SAV CYPE 001 – Children’s Social Care staffing budget realignment

The Director of Quality, Commissioning & Performance explained that, in light of this saving no longer being included in the Council’s Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS), Finance Officers were preparing an updated MTFS that would look to achieve the savings in other areas of the Council’s budget.  The updated MTFS would take into account the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement, feedback from the budget engagement process, and updated Council Tax and business rate income forecasts.

Members asked about flexible working in Children’s Social Care, and the Director of Children’s Social Care explained that the general approach in the department meant that social care staff were in office three days a week, and worked two days a week from home. The Sub-Committee heard that in office work was important for staff support, wellbeing and supervision, with team meetings taking place in person, as well as other service, team and learning events. The Director of Children’s Social Care explained that working in person was important to ensure that the service held risk collectively.

The Sub-Committee asked about current vacancy rates in Children’s Social Care and heard that vacancies were filled by agency workers; there were some uncovered vacancies, but work was ongoing with the agency provider to address this. The Director of Children’s Social Care explained that using locum social workers was vital to ensure that caseloads remained manageable; there would always be some vacancies, due to gaps between staff leaving and starting, but it was important that these were closed where possible. Members queried whether achieving savings through more intensive work in the family home would require a more labour-intensive approach and cause additional burden for social workers.The Director of Children’s Social Care responded that the aim of filling these vacancies was to ensure that social workers had as much capacity as possible to be more involved in family life and to work closely with early help partners and schools. The importance of partnership working with the new Family Hubs model was also highlighted. Members heard that the aims of bringing on board a CYPE Strategic Transformation Partner would be to understand which forms of intervention led to the best and most expedient results; how the Council might work better with Community Sector providers; and how systems could be streamlined to unlock more staff resource.

Members asked how officers expected to maintain the quality of interventions and meet rising demands  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5/24

The Children & Young People Scrutiny Sub-Committee has asked to review the Cabinet Paper on the Education Estates Strategy to conduct Pre-Decision Scrutiny, looking particularly at the management of surplus school places, Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) provision, and the proposed Schools’ Maintenance Plan.

The Sub-Committee considered a paper set out in the supplementary agenda, which provided a report due for consideration at Cabinet on 31 January 2024 on the Education Estates Strategy for Pre-Decision Scrutiny. The Director of Education and the Head of Service for Early Years, School Place Planning and Admissions who introduced the report. The Chair thanked officers for providing written answers to a number of the Sub-Committee’s questions on the paper in advance of the meeting.

Members asked about in-year admissions and what support was available to assist families moving into the borough with finding school places. The Director of Education explained that there had been a significant number of in-year admissions over the last couple of months. The Sub-Committee heard that the local authority received in-year admissions, but that schools, were their own admissions authority; because of this, the Council process the applications and pass these applications directly on to the schools named in the application. The Council did chase schools to respond to in-year admissions where these were outstanding and it was acknowledged that sometimes responses could take a significant period. Where Members submitted casework regarding in-year admissions, the Education department did respond directly to families and highlighted when applications were being submitted to schools with no available places. Additional support was provided to these families in identifying where there were available school places in the borough.

It was acknowledged that admissions for year 11 were more challenging, especially where students had not accessed the GCSE curriculum previously. The Director of Education explained that in response to this, the Fair Access Protocol had been looked at to separate out the ‘managed moves’ element, which had now been retitled as the ‘inclusion’ element; this had begun to yield positive results for in-year admissions. The Council was looking at what else could be done differently for year 10 and 11 in-year admissions to best work with schools, and had established a working group with head teachers to look at how best to support families moving into the borough.

The Sub-Committee asked whether the Council funded tuition or other support whilst school placements were being sought. The Director of Education explained that the Council had limited powers in this area, but could write to the Secretary of State to ensure a child was admitted to a school. There was a focus on partnership working with schools and conversations with head teachers on the in-year admissions process..

The Sub-Committee asked about modifications to schools to ensure they lost less heat, and asked if similar work was being considered to make sure schools remained cool during heatwaves. The Head of Service for Early Years, School Place Planning and Admission explained that the Education department worked closely with Capital Delivery colleagues to conduct risk assessments and ensure health and safety was paramount in all schools, with all regulations being correctly followed. Whilst ensuring schools could be properly heated was the responsibility of the local authority, overheating in schools was regulated by the DfE and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6/24

For the Sub-Committee to receive the Early Help, Children’s Social Care and Education Dashboard.

The Sub-Committee considered a report set out on pages 17 to 22 of the agenda, which provided the Early Help, Children’s Social Care and Education Dashboard, and updated additional ‘Red’ indicators reviewed at the previous meeting.

On M37, the Sub-Committee asked what actions were being taken to address this indicator and the Chair queried the timetable for improvement. The Director of Children’s Social Care explained that there was rigorous multi-agency oversight where children were subject to a subsequent Child Protection Plan, especially when this was within a short space of time. A Panel met every month to look at all of these children, and it was more likely that the ‘Pre-Proceedings Process’ may accompany subsequent CPPs and that these would work to shorter timescales. CPPs usually took between 6 and 18 months to have an effect, and it was highlighted that CPPs were always instated when needed. The Director of Children’s Social Care stated that M37 had reduced and plateaued, with most of the children on a subsequent plan having last been on a CPP over 3 years ago. The Director of Quality, Commissioning & Performance agreed that this indicator was a concern for the Council but explained that it was predicted that this indicator would start to improve over the latter half of 2024.

On Appendix B, the Director of Children’s Social Care explained that these indicators related to earlier conversations in the meeting about rising demands and caseloads, and their impacts on social workers. It was acknowledged that these indicators were not where they should be, but that the service was focussed on completing supervisions and visits. The Director of Children’s Social Care reassured the Sub-Committee that the service reported every month on each child that had not been seen in timescale; Heads of Service required Team Managers to put management oversight record on these files and explain to these children why they had not been seen. Where there were vacancies and illness, teams triaged cases for visits and worked closely with schools to provide some limited safeguarding oversight. Some families were persistent in refusing visitation and, in these cases, the application of a CPP became a stronger consideration. There were Family Support Workers in the Family Assessment Service who could undertake welfare visits, although it was recognised that this was not in place of a statutory social work visit.

The Chair and Sub-Committee thanked officers for their detailed and candid responses and reassurance.

The Children & Young People Sub-Committee is presented with the most recent Cabinet responses to its past recommendations.

The Sub-Committee noted the report.

The Sub-Committee is asked to:

1.     Note the draft work programme for 2023-24, as set out in Appendix 1 of the report.

2.     Consider whether there are any changes to the work programme that should be considered.

The Sub-Committee noted the report.

The Sub-Committee requested some information at a future meeting on the impact in Croydon of new London-Wide Early Years funding at a future meeting.