Agenda item

Question Time with the Cabinet Member for Children Young People and Learning, Councillor Alisa Flemming.

(Report to follow)

The Cabinet Member for Children Families and Education introduced the item and outlined the details in a Presentation

Following the presentation, Members had the opportunity to ask questions.

A Member raised concerns about the loss leadership staff in the Inclusions department and highlighted the importance and value of the work started to remain an area of focus. Officers said that inclusions was a key element of the work with children and families and the team work was based on inclusions lead model which was about meeting the needs of children and young people through collaboration with schools. Fundamentally governance around SEND which was previously not in place had now been developed.

A Member commented that the presentation showed innovation despite issues in some areas of service. The department operated a social work academy and it was challenged that this was a system that had previously been in place with little results. The Cabinet Member responded that the social work academy linked into work around recruitment and retention of staff. The difference with the model now was the imbedding of support for ASYE and frontline staff, additionally there had been improvements made to consistency of line of sight.

It was asked what specific actions and resources would be put in place for children and young people to be supported with mental health wellbeing and address any safeguarding issues as a result of the past 12 months given the imminent return to school. The Cabinet Member said that trailblazing work was already embedded in schools. There was work taking place at national level to explore additional funding that would be needed to support the further work. Some of the work would be completed under the good partnership and part of that would take place once pupils were back at school and emerging issues came to light. It was difficult to forecast what the support young people would be until specific problems presented themselves but children’s social care would work alongside education to provide a responsive service. It was acknowledged that national input was needed due to the financial element that would be needed to support children and their families.

Officers added that the impact of the last 12 months would emerge upon return to school and in the coming months. Services would need to move away from Covid cases, to how families were coping with the aftermath. The education directorate had an acute awareness of what was happening in schools and they also sat within SPOC to provide first hand support as needed. There was funding in place through the Young Londoner initiative which had provided a wellbeing grant for 10 schools in the borough and the department was exploring how to widen the support beyond the 10 schools. Discussions were underway on whether to utilise the grants by having mental health first aiders in all schools and a mapping exercise would take place to determine best use.

The Chair added that children would present in different ways and that open questions as well as rapid recognition of what children were manifesting would be needed. There was concerns that signs would be missed due to complexity of issues that may be presented. Officers agreed that locally and nationally, there were concerns regarding hidden harm and it was a worry for all partners and multiagencies. The main route to identification of issues would be through expertise and skills of staff and there would be a need to appropriately plan for increase in demand for both voluntary and statutory services.

It was asked how staff would be retained and what succession planning would look like going forward. The Cabinet Member responded that the costs for locum staff  was a strain on the budget and it was in the best interest of the service to maintain a level of permanent staff due to the detrimental impact a high turnover of staff can have on delivery of service for families. Succession planning for Croydon included work on growing our own scheme, continuity of the overseas initiative all of which has helped to recruit and retain staff. The offer of a systemic model of practice had been beneficial in attracting social workers to the borough. Officer added that the challenge would be to maintain current practice and ensure that staff were in place to deliver in house training.

In response to a further question on what actions were being taken to further reduce the use of agency staff on light of the Council’s financial difficulties, officers said that they were working hard to create a safe and supportive practice environment. The current level of 24% of agency staff was in line with neighbouring Local Authorities and was a significant achievement from 80% two years ago. Maintaining good levels of caseload, improving culture, support and routes to progression were all actions that were being taken to produce an attractive recruitment and retention package.

It was asked what areas of the service would be targeted for long term extra savings to be made in relation to the £25million right sized money that was mentioned in the report. Officers that it was important that the service operated within its budget. There had been a history of quarter 3 and 4 overspend in areas such as CWD, UASC and placement costs. Work was being done to right size the budget and ways in which systems needed to be linked together to enable accurate forecasting. The service was working to ensure they were in a position of knowing all of forecast spend and the DFE was assisting on a specific project on this. The focus was on providing best quality core service within the allocated budget.

The Chair thanked the Cabinet Member for attending and engaging with the sub-committee.

The Sub-Committee came to the following conclusions

1.    The Sub-Committee welcomed the detailed and comprehensive report and presentation

2.    The information regarding the progress that had been made on St Nicholas and Addington Heights school was impressive

3.    The processes in place to mitigate the loss of senior staff in inclusions and the inclusions of growth in the budget was reassuring

4.    It was important that strategic commissioning explore the means of cost reduction without damaging children

5.    An audit of unmet needs due to the limitations of the budget to be considered to identify specialist funding that can be tapped into.

6.    Effective financial monitoring and controls need to be a priority if the Council is to deliver the targeted cost savings successfully

The Sub-Committee recommended that

1.    A detailed report on the Social care academy on outcomes and measures of success be provided in six months

2.    A report be brought to the April meeting  around the actual impact and specific intervention/mitigation for all schools in the borough to manage mental health issues identified following  return to school on 8 March 2021 that arose as a result of the pandemic

3.    Head teachers be invited to the meeting in April 2021 to bring their perspective.

4.    The Sub-Committee give consideration  to how to capture the voice of the child around experiences of return to school