Agenda item

To receive the annual report from the Chairman of the Children and Young People Sub-Committee (to follow).

The Chair of the Children and Young People Sub-Committee, Councillor Robert Ward, provided a report for the Committee, which was set out in the supplementary agenda. This report provided an overview of the work of the Sub-Committee in the past year, scrutinising the progress made on the Children’s Improvement Plan. During the introduction of the report by the Chair of the Children and Young People Sub-Committee the following points were noted:-

·         The principle used as a basis for the work of the Sub-Committee was that they needed to address the key areas highlighted by Ofsted. However this needed to be balanced against the need not to create unnecessary duplication of work already going on elsewhere.

·         It was recognised that there had possibly been too much flexibility in the work programme of the Sub-Committee, which would be addressed in the forthcoming year with more structure put in place.

·         The Sub-Committee had recently received a complete set of indicators from the Children’s Improvement Board, which would allow them to focus on those not going as well as others.

·         For the next meeting of the Sub-Committee in June, the agenda would include a reports on the recovery plan for high needs, the localities model and the Children’s Improvement Board as well as looking at preparations for the next Ofsted inspection expected later in the year.

·         It was hoped that there would be further opportunities for the Sub-Committee to engage with a wide variety of people including service users. It was also noted that there may need to be more work needed outside of the formal Sub-Committee meetings to enable this engagement.

The Committee acknowledged the importance of the report from the Chair of the Sub-Committee, in particular should the outcome from the next Ofsted inspection result in the service continuing to be rated as inadequate.

It was questioned whether the Sub-Committee was receiving the responses it needed to be able to make an assessment of the Children’s Improvement Plan. It was advised that it could be difficult as the organisation was sometimes reluctant to be challenged. It was not the Sub-Committee’s job to either judge or manage the Service, but instead to ask questions and look for potential gaps. 

It was noted that one of the key area’s for improvement was recruitment and retention. Reports seemed to indicate that the performance was improving in the area, but anecdotal evidence from other sources seemed to contradict this. It was questioned whether recruitment and retention should be bracketed together as there would be different reasons effecting each. The Chair of the Sub-Committee advised from their work over the past year, it seemed that retention of staff remained a significant issue and they had concerns about the continuity of social workers supporting children.

The Committee agreed to extend its thanks to the Sub-Committee for its work over the past year, with the work of the Chair noted as being exemplary. It was agreed that another report should be given in the run up to the next Ofsted inspection to apprise the Committee of the progress made.

Conclusions: Following the discussion of this item, the Committee reached the following conclusions:-

1.    That the content of the report should be noted and the Committee’s thanks should be given to the Chair and the Sub-Committee for their hard work over the past year.

2.    That the Children & Young People Sub-Committee should continue to lead on the scrutiny of the Children’s Improvement Plan.

3.    That another report be request from the Chair of the Children & Young People Sub-Committee in the run up to the Ofsted inspection to apprise the Committee of the progress made.