Children & Young People Scrutiny Panel - Wednesday 27 November 2024, 6:00pm - City of Wolverhampton Council Webcasting

Children & Young People Scrutiny Panel
Wednesday, 27th November 2024 at 6:00pm 

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  1. Helen Bakewell
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  11. Cllr Andrew McNeil
  12. Helen Bakewell
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  15. Cllr Carol Hyatt
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  7. Andrew Scragg
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  14. Cllr Andrew McNeil
  15. Gulshanara Begum
  16. Cllr Jane Francis
  17. Cllr Jeszemma Howl
  18. Cllr Jane Francis
  19. Andrew Scragg
  20. Rachel King
  21. Gulshanara Begum
  22. Cllr Carol Hyatt
  23. Alison Hinds
  24. Cllr Jane Francis
  25. Cllr Leigh New
  26. Rachel King
  27. Cllr Leigh New
  28. Rachel King
  29. Cllr Jane Francis
  30. Cllr Ben Evans
  31. Alison Hinds
  32. Cllr Jane Francis
  33. Cllr Lovinyer Daley
  34. Rachel King
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  36. Cllr Lovinyer Daley
  37. Cllr Jane Francis
  38. Gulshanara Begum
  39. Cllr Jane Francis
  40. Cllr Jane Francis
  41. India Allmark
  42. Gulshanara Begum
  43. Cllr Jane Francis
  44. Cllr Leigh New
  45. Rachel King
  46. Cllr Jane Francis
  47. Cllr Leigh New
  48. Cllr Jane Francis
  49. Cllr Ben Evans
  50. Gulshanara Begum
  51. Cllr Jane Francis
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  7. Alison Hinds
  8. Cllr Jane Francis
  9. Cllr Louise Miles
  10. Cllr Carol Hyatt
  11. Alison Hinds
  12. Helen Bakewell
  13. Cllr Jane Francis
  14. Cllr Louise Miles
  15. Helen Bakewell
  16. Cllr Jane Francis
  17. Cllr Jane Francis
  18. Cllr Ben Evans
  19. Cllr Louise Miles
  20. Cllr Jane Francis
  21. Cllr Ben Evans
  22. Alison Hinds
  23. Cllr Jane Francis
  24. Cllr Paul Sweet
  25. Cllr Paul Sweet
  26. Cllr Jane Francis
  27. Cllr Louise Miles
  28. Cllr Lovinyer Daley
  29. Alison Hinds
  30. Cllr Jane Francis
  31. India Allmark
  32. Alison Hinds
  33. Cllr Jane Francis
  34. Cllr Louise Miles
  35. Cllr Jane Francis
  36. Alison Hinds
  37. Cllr Jane Francis
  38. Cllr Ben Evans
  39. Alison Hinds
  40. Cllr Jane Francis
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  5. Cllr Andrew McNeil
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  7. Cllr Carol Hyatt
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Cllr Jane Francis - 0:00:05
Good evening and welcome to this meeting of children and young people scrutiny

1 Welcome and Introductions

panel. My name is councillor Jane Francis and I'm the chair of the panel. Please
note that this meeting is being recorded for minute taking purposes and is not
being is being live streamed to the public. Agenda item two meeting

2 Meeting procedures to be followed

procedures to be followed. These proceedings are for everyone attending
the meeting. Number one, please keep your microphones on mute unless you have been
invited by the chair to speak. Number two, please state your name before you make a
comment or ask a question. Number three, please don't speak over one another. I'll
bring you into the meeting at an appropriate time. Number four, if you're
referring to a specific document please state the title clearly and the page

3 Apologies

number agenda item three apologies we'll now move to the business items are there
any apologies submitted for absence
to her apologies are received from councillor Rashbal core councillor
Barbara McGarrity and councillor Lamina Lloyd and also from Brenda while and
Lisa Preston just me know how it's substituting are there any other
Apologies that anyone else has been made aware of or substitutes in attendance
Thank you
Agenda item for

4 Declarations of interest

Declarations of interest are there any councillors who wish to declare an interest in relation to any matter on the agenda?

5 Minutes of the previous meeting (19 October 2024)

agenda item five minutes of the previous meeting held on the 19th of October 2024
the panel are asked to approve the draft minutes of meeting on the 19th of
October as a correct record can I have a proposer thank you Ben oh your comment
The early year senior advisor noted that the issue highlighted were part of a well and
Cllr Ben Evans - 0:02:24
commented that there was confidence about the future based on current progress.
I am pretty sure she used the phrase fairly confident and even said something on the lines
of can I sit on the fence and say fairly so could that word be added just to
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:02:43
clarify the issue can that be amended yeah thank you any other comments okay
in that case can I have a proposer for the minutes please
thank you Jenny and a seconder Thank You Carol

6 SEND SEF Evaluation Framework

Agenda item six is the SEND SEF evaluation framework. I'd like to invite Helen Bakewell,
Head of SEND and Inclusion, to introduce the report.
Helen Bakewell - 0:03:15
Thank you Chair. So Helen Bakewell, Head of SEND and Inclusion. So the self evaluation
framework is brought to you today. There's four appendices that goes with it. The first
one being a briefing note around the Send an Inclusion self -evaluation framework, the
second being the Send an Inclusion self -evaluation itself. There is also a one page summary for
the Send evaluation which is Appendix 3 and also Appendix 4 is the Local Area Send an
Inclusion Improvement Plan which is a draft document.
So, I'm just trying to move on. So the recommendations for action or decision is that the scrutiny
board is recommended to note Wolverhampton's local area partnership and sending inclusion
self -evaluation framework, which I will refer to as the CEF, which identifies the experience
and outcomes of children and young people in the city.
And also to note the draft
Consider that the draft action plan covers the areas of improvement highlighted within
the SEND self evaluation framework and that the governance arrangements are appropriate
for the local authority arrangements.
Before I go on Chair if it's okay, I'd like to clarify two comments that are included
in the document just for clarity. So the first one being spot purchasing, just to explain
what this means. This is where the education or care placement which are purchased through
a flexible service that provides tailored support for young people with complex needs
or learning disabilities and this is used where an appropriate provider is not currently on our
existing purchasing framework. Also the other one is around the graduated approach or graduated
response. So the graduated approach is a staggered process for identifying and supporting children
and young people with special educational needs in Wolverhampton. There's three areas, sorry,
four areas that it covers. So one is discussion which is where the school
discusses the child's learning with the child and the parent and carers.
Two, to complete assessment so the school assesses the child's needs. Three, support
so that the school puts in support in place for the child. And four, a review so
the school reviews the child's progress to make sure everything's working
appropriately. The graduated approach is also known as assess plan do review and
And it's based on the idea that early identification of needs and effective provision can be provided
through long term outcomes. The graduated approach can also include three waves of support
which is universal, which is children receiving quality teaching with the support from the
school staff. There's also targeted, where children are identified as needing support
in specific areas and then this specialist where we have specific needs that require
a real bespoke specialist support. You're welcome. Thank you. So the purpose of the
background is to share the summarised areas of strength and development based on the findings
in the CEF, like I said it goes into detail within the papers and also the CEF provides
an overview of the work that is being delivered across Wolverhampton including key areas of
strength and development. It's broken down into the evaluation criteria of the central
local area of inspection so that the area partnership can satisfy itself that it's appropriately
meeting the needs of children and young people in line with the expectations of the legislation
and guidance. Planning for the evaluation actually began in July 2024 and it's
been agreed to update the SEF on an annual basis so that we can make sure
that we're keeping on top of what's happening for children and young people.
Next slide please. So the self evaluation and this is a very
and the one -page profile obviously has got more detail in this as well.
But the key strengths I wanted to kind of highlight today was that we have enhanced
support and transition services, particularly around the Royal Wolverhampton Trust has improved assessment and transition support
through the recruitment of clinical nurses ensuring that effective identification needs
and smoother transitions of young people are moving into adult services.
The engagement and empowerment of young people, initiatives like the hashtag yes board and
high five youth forum encourage direct involvement of young people in decision making, shaping
activities and services based on their feedback and aspirations as reflected in their EHC
plans. And also a collaborative approach to send services. The partnership has established
effective multi -agency collaboration and joint commissioning which leads to a
clearer understanding of the needs of children and young people with SEND
supported by initiatives such as moving into adulthood careers fair and
the new local offer platform which has recently been launched.
Further developments include the strengths and SEND support framework so
We want to further enhance the multi -agency EHC plan improvement process by expanding
the graduated approach to help settings identify challenging behaviour as an unmet need and
ensuring robust support structures and clearer pathways are available for families.
We also want to ensure that early help and family support services are incorporated so
that we have comprehensive early help support and send offer with families
first first pathfinder program and the development of the family hub
centre of excellence to deliver immediate support for send services. We
also want to improve data and capacity management developing a better system
for families to register on the disability register and also send
parent portal to be able to access current demand sorry to be able to
assess current demand and capacity across the services to address things like waiting
lists and enhance the Joint Commissioning for better utilisation and service efficiency.
And then these are our proposed work streams and governance structures. So the governance
structure needs to respond to the local authorities processes and the ICB and
the local authority ultimately reports to the local authority Children
and Families Together board but also the Health and Wellbeing board where updates
will be provided as and when required. The action plan and the working groups
that sit underneath that has been co -produced, so the action plan itself
has been co -produced with all partners around the sending inclusion partnership
board and also with children, young people and their families. This is provided in the
pack and is currently still in draft as the working groups are still being established.
The plan aligns with the areas highlighted within the sending inclusion strategy and
the sending inclusion partnership board provide direct governance to the sending inclusion
improvement plan with the sending inclusion improvement steering group providing highlighted
reports to update on progress. We aim to publish the local area improvement plan
once it's been finalised in January and if progress is not being made in a
timely way the board will support with shared solutions to
seek to advise work streams. So that's the summary so if there's any comments or
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:11:46
Questions? Yep. Thank you. I've got a few questions to ask first and then I'll come to Councillor McNeil and then to Councillor Hyatt.
Okay. First of all, I'm going to ask about the larger numbers of sending secondary schools.
The primary schools, the areas seem to be speech, language and communication.
And then hopefully those problems are getting resolved and then into the secondary schools it becomes moderate learning difficulties.
But there is going to be an increase from presumably the primaries into the secondaries and are they able to cope with that increase?
So currently one of the areas of our plan includes making sure that we've got a clear pathway around
Helen Bakewell - 0:12:35
and clear projections around what the need is currently and going forwards.
We're working closely with both the schools and with Bill Haig for the school business support
to make sure that we've got capacity in place.
While we are lacking capacity, we are working together with Bill and also with commissioning
in order to be able to map and manage the need.
So things like resource bases and support.
Yeah.
Did you want to come in, Alison, here?
Through you, Chair.
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:13:05
Alison Hinds - 0:13:08
I mean, this is a really important piece of work
for us to be focusing on.
It supports our aim around inclusion for children.
And it means that we can work closely with schools
to enable as many children where it's appropriate to feel
included within their mainstream setting, whether that's in a resource base or whether
that's as part of the mainstream school. So we're doing quite a lot of work, it will actually
form part of a project that we're going to be working on, just to make sure that we're
looking around ensuring that we've got the right school places for the children in our
city and be able to manage that within our own resource, but working with schools around
what that looks like in terms of support.
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:13:55
On page 53 it mentions an ADHD nurse available. I wonder what the workload would be and is
that available to academies or is that a service that's a paid for service from academies?
Helen Bakewell - 0:14:13
It's a service that's provided by house so it's their delivery model. I think to access
it I think you need to be on the pathway in order to be able to access that level of support.
So it's part of the triage service as you go into that provision.
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:14:39
Page 62, it mentions about alternative provision. How much alternative provision is available
with compared with how much is needed.
Helen Bakewell - 0:14:47
So we've just redeveloped our alternative provision
framework so this is predominantly around young people that are at risk of
exclusion and prevention of exclusion. I believe that we've currently got at
least 40 providers on our list and the reason why that it's been extended and
we keep going out to tender to try and kind of improve the offer so that we do
have a range of support that is not just around placing children in long -term
placements but it also looks at developing the shorter term
interventions that young people can access both whilst they're still in
school but also for short term periods where that's needed. Thank you very much
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:15:35
Can I turn to Councillor McNeil, please?
Thank you chair
Just one question. So in the send strategy documents
Cllr Andrew McNeil - 0:15:46
and there is a development it does talk about
The removal of the carers
reassessments backlog
but I couldn't see where that then appeared in the plan, but I could be
Missing something
Helen Bakewell - 0:16:06
Yes, so we're working closely with adult colleagues in relation to carers' assessments
Alison Hinds - 0:16:16
to make sure that's a specialised area for their overwork, the carers' support team
sits in that world, but we have a lot of working across to make sure that those assessments
are done. When we started that work, there was a waiting list, but we're working closely
with adult colleagues to make sure that we are assessing those needs and responding accordingly.
Thank you. Councillor Hyatt.
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:16:45
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 0:16:46
Thank you, Chair. I thought the choice of your work students was really interesting
and I'm really looking forward to see how that shapes up and what that delivers. I mean,
it's obvious that such a lot of work has gone into this, so thank you very much. My attention
to was caught by page 50 which was the number of secondary school pupils with mild learning
difficulties being 10 % higher than the national average and it was interesting where you've
got speech and language communication, again you've got a 6 % difference and so often
speech and language communication can be interpreted as children get older into a mild learning
difficulty. But what I couldn't see, and I've been alerted most recently to a cross -party
presentation on the effect of homelessness on children, on their learning and development,
and we had a case study in the pack that we've been presented with today where you got a
child with a family of four children, one of which had autism, where their needs could
not be met in the hotel situation. So often with my residents, you know, they can be placed
in a hotel that is miles away from their school and inevitably their school attendance becomes
patchy and everything. What I couldn't see is where provision for children who'd been
affected by homelessness sat within what's being thought of how we support children's
and families. I couldn't see where it sat within the work stream and I couldn't see
how we're doing it and and are you aware of the importance of not placing
families in hotels that are populated by single men because they are
vulnerable and quite often it you know it'll be a single parent often the mum
with young children having to cope and then you've got you know a hostile
environment. Are you lazing with homeless teams or are you you know are you part
of their thinking about when they're looking after children and how do you specifically
meet their needs?
Sorry to hear you, so that's not actually in the plan but I'm more than kind of happy
Helen Bakewell - 0:19:02
to put that in. We have got things around placements so there is some work that we have
got that's already identified the fact that we need to do more work around in terms of
especially where we're looking at residential placements etc and work that we want to do
around that. So I think that's something that I'm quite happy to take away and actually
include into the plan if that helps. I think it has the potential to make a huge difference
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 0:19:29
for those individuals. I mean we're really good, early intervention, all those things,
we're really really good and it can make a lifetime of difference can't it really
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:19:47
so I'm sorry to add to your workload, really, thank you. Have we any further questions? In that case can I ask the panel to
endorse the recommendations thank you and a second thank you okay moving on to

7 TCSP Annual Report 2023-24 (Transforming Children's Services Programme)

agenda item 7 transforming children's services program I'd like to invite
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 0:20:18
Bolsana Begum program manager to present the report thank you chair so this is
Gulshanara Begum - 0:20:24
the annual report for 2023 -2024 and it covers the period of April 2023 to the end of March 2024.
And the purpose of this presentation is to actually highlight the transformative projects that
ourselves in Projects and Change have been involved in with children's and education services.
So I won't labour the first three slides because this programme actually started in 2016 and the first three slides actually highlights some of the activities and the milestones that we've achieved during the course of those years.
The programme itself actually formally runs until March 2025 and the main body of my presentation is the highlights from this year so I'll go into detail on that.
So starting with some of the key projects that we've been involved in in the last year.
I've given a small short description and if I can take the panel's time to go into some detail here.
The Future Steps is a project aimed at supporting mothers and fathers who've had repeat removals.
It's a holistic programme to actually look at the actual root causes to the removals
and giving a holistic approach to actually helping those parents resolve some of their circumstances
and hopefully change the outcomes for future pregnancies.
The Families First for Children's Pathfinder or FFCP is a government reform of social care
and Wolverhampton is one of three in the first wave and this is completely transformative of our children's social care
and I'll be going into some detail on that.
The Family Hubs transformation is essentially a continuation of some of the historic work that has been developed in this space
and it combines with the Best Start for Life work and gives a front door to all of our children's services
and provides a front door to integrated services across the council and our partners.
The Creating Family Homes project is an innovative new initiative within Wolverhampton
to actually create two family homes within our city and support young people and children
with care and complex needs so it keeps them closer to their families and the
the locality that they they are familiar with rather than having or receiving
that care outside of Wolverhampton. The Stay in Close project is a program that
has been I think started perhaps six years ago and it actually, sorry, the Stay
in Close project is a young care leavers project and helps young care leavers
moved towards independence again through a holistic approach. It provides practical and
emotional support, help from mentors towards education, employment and training as well
as support from health professionals as well. The Early Educational Entitlements Project
is a new project to actually respond to the expansion of funded childcare funded by the
and looking at early years childcare but also wraparound care within schools and then supporting
families as I was starting to say earlier. A long term programme of ours to actually
provide the right support at the right time for troubled families or families going through
difficulties and again looking at a whole family approach to resolving some of the difficulties
families might be experiencing. On the bottom corner, Culture of Inclusion and Integrated
Case Management System project as well as Social Workers in Schools. Those are three
projects that actually came to the end of their project life cycle during the course
of this annual report. So the main part of my PowerPoint actually
looks at the eight outcomes for children's TCSP programme and also looks at how some
of our projects actually align with those priorities. So priority one is increase communication
to stakeholders and the examples I've given there is the social media posts that we've
through a number of our project communications such as the family hubs
announcements such as the announcement of becoming the FFCP wave one project
but also I've also highlighted the fact that we actually created a regular
partnership newsletter to increase the information and awareness about the FFC
programme. We've had nearly 5 ,000 views on city people articles and the Stay In Close
booklet is another example of something that was produced during the time of this annual
report and it gave care leavers and professionals information about the project. Outcome two
is increased co -production and engagement across our projects. Family Hubs has always
been very successful in engaging with parents and carers and in the last year
over 400 parents and carers were registered for different activities and
lessons courses within our eight family hubs. Through the FFCP program over 120
different stakeholders from our different partners that includes the
council, health, police, the education and voluntary sector were involved in
actually designing our approach to delivering the new social care reforms.
And then another example of the co -production is that we actually have a
care lever on the Stay In Close project helping us deliver the work for the
young care leavers. Outcome three is an improved approach to working with
children and young people and families across the whole system. FFCP is a good
example of that because we're looking at the whole of children's social care and
the three aspects that we were looking at were family help, family networks and
child protection across the whole partnership. Family hubs another example
of that work across the system because it's a multi -agency approach where
multi -agencies actually work from each of the hubs and they actually put on
that are needs led from the locality. Outcome four is increased
engagement with the workforce and projects. Again I mentioned FFCP because
we've been involving all of our partnership staff in restorative
practice training and a whole partnership approach to any good practice
and learning that is taking place. Future Steps project is involved in promoting the
work that is happening on that project across the partnership, across all of children's
services, education services as well, and then also over 400 professionals have participated
in different aspects of training offered by the eight family hubs. Outcome five, increased
number of children remaining in safe and stable homes.
The Staying Close project has, at the end of March 2024,
had supported 26 young people moving towards independence,
maintaining their tendencies, and finding themselves
in work, employment, or training.
Family hubs, as I've said earlier,
it's a holistic approach to supporting families and carers.
One of our parents gave us a positive quote,
which I've shared on the presentation.
Outcome six is improved partnership working
in education settings.
The FFCP is a good example of that
because we've introduced education
as the fourth safeguarding partner.
So their involvement and the engagement with schools
has taken place and is continuing to take place as
well.
Culture of inclusion.
Helen mentioned earlier about the graduated response.
As part of that project, we looked at the graduated response and how children were being
supported, children with certain needs were being supported, their needs were being identified
in schools.
That was a milestone that was completed within the project.
Just finally, outcome seven is improved opportunities for our target cohorts of children and young
people.
The success of the Stay in Close project is a good example of this because evidence has shown that the outcomes for young people are far better as a consequence of the involvement of mentors and the holistic support that they're receiving on this project.
And then also I wanted to highlight that some of our family hubs across the city are also centres of excellence.
And as an example the Brick Kiln Centre is a SEND centre of excellence.
So both practitioners and families can receive additional support from that centre.
And there are other examples of family hubs being different centres of excellence.
And then finally, outcome eight is increased resilience and wellbeing amongst children
and young people and their families. So I've given two actual case studies there anonymised
where the Stay In Close project has helped a young person to actually move back into
the Wolverhampton area and the improved outcomes that we've seen with that young person. And
And then the second case study is a family that was supported through the Supporting
Families programme.
And I think there was a comment made earlier about a family with young children, and this
might have been that, where as a result of the supporting families support, the family
were able to have that young person in mainstream education with their families, with their
siblings, and the outcomes were looking positive.
for them. Now, overall the annual report is a success story and I wanted to actually just
highlight very briefly some of those conditions for success that we found. One of those is
the continued strong governance that we are provided by both the leadership but also the
TCSP board as well. We have committed and empowered SROs that oversee each of our individual
projects and they own, they are empowered to make those decisions and deliver transformation.
We have strong project management from our corporate projects and change team. We work
very closely with our senior responsible officers, forgive me in terms of what SROs is, and we
basically work closely together to keep projects on track, manage risks and realise benefits.
We have clear business case objectives and we also look at the wider context
And we call that the the project program and then the portfolio context across the whole organization
So that we we don't just work standalone
We look at the whole context and then finally the compliance with our corporate management office the PMO and they
Provide guidance and good practice in terms of how projects should be delivered and how they should be managed
And then finally, our priorities for 24 or 25. So we will continue to oversee those projects
throughout the whole project life cycle. We'll use learning from the evaluation of projects
to make sure that any new projects also benefit from any learning that has been acquired.
We'll manage program growth in the context of the medium -term financial strategy, but
also our future council and we will continue to share our achievements and best practice
across the organisation but also wider to all our stakeholders and then we will look
to the next year to assess our programme needs and work with the leadership to develop pipeline
plans as well. Thank you very much. I will take questions, please.
I have four questions if that is OK.
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:33:25
First of all, I know three projects have now completed and learning has been identified
from them.
I would be interested to know how the social workers in schools learning has been incorporated
into the family hubs and the FFCP?
Alison Hinds - 0:33:52
Through you, Chair, if it's okay. So we had a really successful social working
schools project here. It was a DfE funded programme and we worked closely
with six control and, so it was 12 schools, six that were active and six
control group schools. And what it meant that we had the social worker actually embedded
in the school, being part of that school family, there for consultation, there for advice and
guidance and being part of those schools discussions, but also being there for children within the
school, all these were secondary schools. We as much as we could enabled social workers
within that school to work with children that were open to children's social care and they
would be their primary worker.
And there was a lot of learning around how important
it is to have those relationships with our schools,
actually be there for children if children aren't open,
but to give advice and guidance, to give advice and guidance
to schools around the work.
And we were able to, although the national evaluation was not
as positive as we found in Wolverhampton of the project
and the funding ceased, we were able to pull through a lot
of the positives from how those relationships worked
and the work we've done closely with schools into not only our locality based work through
our family hubs but also into our family help work and how we're working with schools in
that family help space. So there was a great deal of learning that really helped us move
into another project which is our Families First for Children but also through our family
hubs work. But it was for us a really successful way of working and we did at that time try
to continue with the project and do it individually ourselves through an option for a traded service
with schools but there wasn't enough appetite at the time.
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:35:47
Thank you. Second question. I'm aware that the family hubs ask, you said, needs led,
but according to the locality, but what comes first, the chicken or the egg? I mean, you
don't know what needs there are until people turn up and say, oh, can I see such and such
person who may not be there. So when will the family hubs be able to offer most or all
services? I recognize that there are specialisms for different hubs but can we extend that?
I think there is an element of trial and error on this chair because we have actually looked
Gulshanara Begum - 0:36:25
at some services, put it on in the family hubs and then actually found out that the
the interest wasn't there. So sometimes there are projects that get trialled in the family hubs,
we see whether the need is there, whether parents, families are attending and then we tailor the
programme depending on that. But I think Rachel also wants to come in chair. Thank you. So
Andrew Scragg - 0:36:51
obviously one of the things that we do in the family hub is to hold locality boards,
so that is to try, you're absolutely right, it is a chicken and egg, so we've got a standard offer
the family hubs which is the offer that Gosh and I was spoken about a lot this evening
and some of that is better taken up in certain areas than others and then we've got our locality
boards where we've got a wide partnership discussion around what we know about the area,
any emerging themes, needs for families and communities and also looking at data to inform
that service provision and that planning so where we know there are particular communities
that we're not reaching or there are emerging needs so we've got new arrivals
coming into city for example we would tailor the offer to to that particular
area so there is a standard offer but then what we're looking at as we move
forward and we get better at doing the sort of locality based planning it will
be through those locality boards.
I'm getting there. Third question are the homes on track for completion at the end
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:37:52
of December it's December 2024 the target date.
Chair the homes are actually opening a little bit later now and a number of
Gulshanara Begum - 0:38:03
reasons for that including the fact that Ofsted applications and the visits from
Ofsted we can't we can't actually time those and currently I think we're
looking at perhaps March for home one to be completed but then we need to go
through the process of selecting the young people to go into the homes as well.
Alison Hinds - 0:38:27
So, but, Alison. Through you, Chair, just to add to that. So we are at the moment now
waiting, Oxford, for the first home and the second home actually now, so we're
just waiting for those visits. It's already the staff are employed, we're
taking this time to train the staff to make sure they're at a level that we would
required to be able to look after our children and we, sorry I just lost my train of thought,
yeah we are already starting to consider and think about which children might be suitable
so yeah, of course Naira is right, we know it, we are at the hands of Ofsted at the moment
but we're hopeful that certainly in the new year we will be ready to, between January
and March, to open at least one if not both of them.
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:39:16
Thank you. And finally, please give us some good news about funding beyond March 2025
at the end of the project, please.
Alison Hinds - 0:39:23
So there's a number of programmes that we are running through our transformation board
that are reliant upon grant funding. Some of them, well, the family hubs, we are aware
that we are going to get continued funding. We're just waiting for the actual amount that
that's going to be so we know the bigger amount nationally.
We're waiting for our own allocation of that.
Some of the others we're still awaiting,
whether we know there will be funding,
but we're hopeful that on the 19th of December,
we'll be clear about what that looks like.
But we've just been talking today.
Rachel and I have been to a National Children and Adult
Services Conference.
We've actually spoke at the conference today
around the Families First for Children
work we're doing in Wolverhampton.
and the DfE were actually part of that presentation.
There's some real positive messages coming out today
around the support of children's social care reform
and the funding required to be able to continue to roll that out,
not just across the pathfinders, but also broadly learning from the pathfinders
around how that's rolled out nationally.
So we're getting very positive messages, but we are still awaiting that.
In terms of other areas, we're still again,
the half of the supporting family is still awaiting what that looks like
in terms of grant funding arrangements.
Great, thank you very much.
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:40:48
Andrew, I believe you had a question.
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr Andrew McNeil - 0:40:52
That was a very impressive report with a lot of successes
with new tangible measures and I love to mention the experimentation.
and it's sort of a superpower of good organisations that they learn from the projects they undertake
because it's so easy to just move on to the next thing or a crisis etcetera.
And I was sort of pleased to see in your priorities for next year driven from the using the learning from your projects
I just thought you might want to tell us a bit about what some of those key learnings are and what you're doing with them.
Gulshanara Begum - 0:41:35
Thank you for that positive feedback, Councillor. So, first of all, underpinning all of our
projects is looking back at previous projects, similar projects that might have received
learning, some learning that can be applied. One of the things that we've learned in this
year's annual report is that a number of our projects have had challenges with recruiting
specialist roles, so educational psychologists, psychotherapists and some
of that learning that's come out of that has been that engaging with HR human
resources sooner, perhaps looking at the market profiling sooner as well, but
that's something that we will take on and we've already benefited from but
also we've continued to have the challenges from as well. I think it's
probably worth recognising that recording the learning doesn't always then mean that
we can remove the risk of not having the repeat challenge. But another example could be that
the Stay in Close project, it's a new project that we had in this year, it learnt from a
previous house project that Wolverhampton was involved in and we were able to reflect
on that learning and use it to the benefit of the Stay in Close project as well. Thank
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:43:00
you councillor hell Thank You chair lovely okay lovely report thank you I'm
Cllr Jeszemma Howl - 0:43:09
really well presented two questions really on page 73 3 .4 point five it says
400 plus trained in six months in the first six months of family hubs and
and start for life, but it doesn't say what they were trained in.
So it'd be great to hear a bit more on that.
On outcome two, on page 82, the outcome we're looking for
is increased co -production and engagement.
And 400 parents were registered since September 2023,
which my maths is terrible.
I work that out at about 50 per family hub in a year, which doesn't sound a huge
amount actually. Is there a target or a percentage of reach, available reach for
each family hub and how are they working towards increasing the reach? Thank you
chair.
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:44:25
Andrew Scragg - 0:44:27
the family hubs offer was up and coming, it was getting embedded and I think it would
be fair to say that the offer has been available and what the real priority has been sort of
into this year is around promoting that offer. We've now got a dedicated comms officer,
there's things up in GP surgeries that are promoting that. So we are really working hard
to create that reach and I think going back to the previous question around who aren't
Rachel King - 0:44:58
we reaching and how we make our services a bit more bespoke to individual communities,
that's where some of that locality board information are really coming. So I think it's absolutely
fair, you know, we need to, but those are the ones that have signed up for activities,
that doesn't mean that those that have just dropped in, you know, or have picked something
up from the hub or they might have accessed a different service there that has been logged
on to their health system. So the other thing about family hubs is because it's partnership,
it's not all necessarily captured in one place. So again, what we're really trying to work
hard on is how do we extract all of that into one place so we can give a real clear picture
around. It's not just what the local authority hold, but we might have births being registered
at the hub and so the footprint is much wider than just what we collect. So I think that's
whether those locality boards are going to be really important to sort of shape up a
better picture really.
Are you happy to take the first point?
Yes, I was finding it on the report but thank you very much for that
Gulshanara Begum - 0:45:57
question. So the point
that you took off the scrutiny report is actually supported by one of the more detailed sections
in the actual annual report.
It's page 26 on the actual annual report.
It might be a different page on your board pack.
But it gives a breakdown of the different types of courses,
such as mental health awareness, the Sully Hall approach,
pediatric first aid, restorative practice, trauma informed practice.
So basically a range of courses, training sessions for staff
across the partnership. Thank you.
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 0:46:44
Councillor Hyatt. Thank you, Chair. This I thought was an excellent
report. I thought it was transparent, it was clear, it was such an improvement on the very
first time I read one of these reports. I thought it was ace. And again, I mean, things
progressing so well it's so great to see. SRO, Senior Responsible Owner, is OFC
ongoing financial conditions?
OFC is our future council. I'm sorry I didn't put in abbreviations, my apologies.
No, I was just working out what would fit in because there is a 1 .7 million deficit and then you know you're looking to the future and I think that's a really big
deal. What I wanted to ask though, I mean again it was so comprehensive, most of my
questions were answered within the report, it was so good to read. I just wondered why
you hadn't done suicidal awareness training, because I believe it was offered free, or
was it taken up and done?
Alison Hinds - 0:47:54
My understanding is that that is training that's been offered through WST through the
Wolfhampton Safe Link recording together but we can check that out to make sure that people
know that it's available.
Thank you.
Councillor New.
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:48:13
Cllr Leigh New - 0:48:18
Hello, so mine is just around, first of all I would like to say thank you for the report,
the presentation, it was really positive. Mine is just around page 112, so it's with
regards to the family hubs and the, I think it's the 8 family hubs and the services that
you are providing, so you can see all the services there. So mine is just around the
domestic abuse which is really sensitive and usually find the victims find it
hard to go into family hubs so I just want to know really a little bit more
around how you kind of approach that sensitive situation. So I think as part of
Rachel King - 0:48:58
Pathfinder we've identified domestic abuse as a key priority that we
need to sort of enhance with our offer of support to families so we've
and we've recruited some dedicated domestic abuse champions that can not only skill up
our workforce and build some confidence in the workforce, because it's also challenging
for staff to deal with that, but build those relationships with partners. So doing work
with schools, because often schools will become aware that or have concerns about families
being subjected to domestic abuse. So it's about building that sort of offer, I think.
So we're not always expecting families to come into hubs to access that. It is also
about as a partnership trying to identify where we think it's happening so I think it's
sort of twofold. The offer's there for them to walk into the hub but it's also about how
we promote what we've got as a sort of more targeted approach from that sort of family
help offer.
Cllr Leigh New - 0:49:48
May I just ask if you work alongside Marek then with regards to the direct domestic abuse?
Yeah definitely, so they're linked into Marek so what we're trying to do is get our criteria
Rachel King - 0:50:01
So obviously with a smaller number of domestic abuse champions we can't work with every single
family that's experiencing this so we're trying to work alongside the MARACs so obviously
if they've got an IDFA involved through the sort of MARAC process then we wouldn't duplicate
supports that's the other reason why it's really important to work on a sort of partnership
basis.
So yeah and we're linked in with the Haven as well in terms of some of that work that's
been done across the city.
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:50:33
Councillor Evans. I really am enjoyed reading the report it's
Cllr Ben Evans - 0:50:38
very positive I had you quite interested in social workers in school programs
coming to an end. Permanent exclusion is very rare it's one in 600 people are
excluded. But I'm curious did it have an impact on permanent exclusions or do you
do you not know, is this a rare thing to happen?
Alison Hinds - 0:51:03
We did have some data that we collected at the time, some performance information
around the impact of having a social work in school so I definitely can go
back and check to see whether we've got data but I think that is one of the
performance indicators we measure but let me go and check
the vignette please
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:51:29
Cllr Lovinyer Daley - 0:51:30
thank you chair and I just wanted a bit of clarity on one of the target cohorts
the youth offenders just a little bit more detail on how these other
lost my day, sorry. How these other programmes link in with youth offending, is that to prevent
youth offending or is that ones that are already on the radar of the justice system and how
that links in with the family hubs as well? If you could just answer that. Thank you,
So the youth justice service is really sort of integrated within children's services so
Rachel King - 0:52:19
they're really, and they also focus very much on a prevention offer so the supporting families
programme has got sort of an anti -social behaviour element to it in terms of trying to prevent
that and intervene at that earliest level so there's various programmes that we've spoken
about in the transformation report tonight where young people that are on that trajectory
to becoming involved in criminal activity can be diverted really. Even outside of that,
just to reassure our individuals statutory youth justice service that we've got in the
city that's multi -agency, that absolutely has a prevention and divert approach and will
feed young people and families because they're very integrated into the bigger system they
can feed families in so where they're working with families who are coming across young
people they can make sure that you know they're taking up that family hub offer
it's if it's appropriate and and feed them into the right support a secondary
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:53:18
question yeah it's not really a question really obviously there was a few
Cllr Lovinyer Daley - 0:53:23
examples of successful stories in there it would have been nice just to see one
around the youth offending is all thank you chair thank you I do have a further
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:53:37
question looking at the priorities for 2024 2025 how is the criteria for 25
being assessed what sorts of numbers are being envisaged are there minimum
numbers to say oh yes that's been a success
Chair, do you mean new projects that are coming through or targets?
Gulshanara Begum - 0:54:04
So at the start of every project, the targets, the evaluating numbers are already set.
So as an example, staying close has already got a target number of, let's say 63 or in
the region of 63, young people to be supported through the project.
So through our project boards as well as the Transforming Children's Services Program board,
we basically keep an eye on how well the project is doing, will it hit those targets, will there be any difficulties, what the risks and challenges might be.
So for existing projects the numbers are set and every month I report to the board like a health check on each of the projects.
And then for future years and new projects, that is something that the senior responsible officer and the project board looks at for new projects, the targets.
And sometimes the funding bodies also set those targets for us as well. Thank you.
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:55:13
Thank you. I'm not sure if we therefore should be aware of those numbers, numerical targets, sorry that sounds so offstead, and whether we should have that RAG rated for us perhaps in a future report.
I'll note that and thank you, I'll make sure it's included.
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:55:34
Any further questions or comments? Oh, yes please.
We talked a lot in youth council about how pastoral support in the
India Allmark - 0:55:45
stalls varies from
stall to stall. Some stalls have good pastoral support, some don't. You said the social carers
in the stall programme was ending. What impacts do you think that might have? Do you think
that's not going to have big impacts on schools or that's not going to make a massive difference?
Chair and Alison can supplement if I missed something. So it's
Gulshanara Begum - 0:56:14
probably worth noting that
the social worker in schools programme involved six stroke twelve schools so the impact perhaps
was not felt across the whole of the spectrum and where the good practice was learnt or
identified, there was an offer to schools whether they would trade for those services
and unfortunately the schools themselves did not want to actually pay for that service.
So I agreed that some of the benefit may have been lost but at the same time it's worth
recognising that it was a trial, it was a pilot, it didn't actually impact on everyone
from the start.
Did you want to come in further? Thank you for the response and thank you for the question
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:57:03
India. Thank you. Any further? Oh, Councillor New.
Hi, sorry, sorry about this. Just one more question. So on page 114,
Cllr Leigh New - 0:57:12
he just says that
there's training offered to all the staff within the family hubs. And he says, and he's
and it says over 400 professionals of parties debate,
parties can't get the word out tonight so.
But I may ask if this is, they have to take this training
and this is what they've decided to do
or is it different kind of sectors they're working in?
Because looking at if you're doing like domestic violence,
there doesn't seem to be a lot on trauma
but there's also not a lot really on mental health first aid.
Thank you.
Rachel King - 0:57:54
So I think that there's a whole training programme that comes with Family Hooks and with the
Families First for Children Pathfinder. Not every professional will do every single training.
It will be dependent upon their skill set, their specialism, their professional background.
So I think the other thing to note is that some of the training's been a role in programmes
so some of those numbers might be lower because we've continued to deliver that into the next
year and we will continue to do so as those programs sort of develop and evolve. So I
think it sort of varies slightly. So some will be across, so take restorative practice
that's our underpinning approach, we will get as many practitioners as we possibly can
to do that, that's more a everybody needs to do it type approach. But for some of the
other more bespoke, so trauma informed, some of the mental health practitioner work, it
be dependent upon the role that they're filling.
secondary question?
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:58:47
Cllr Leigh New - 0:58:48
Would it be okay to have that put in the report on how many professionals there is in each section that they're actually, say you've got domestic violence, domestic abuse and you've got SEND, would it be okay in the report to actually say how many practic, pract, I can't get that word out today, yeah, practic, I can't say it, are actually working in each subject and training in each subject so we know exactly how many there is?
Yes, you should be able to, yeah.
Thank you.
Councillor Evans.
Cllr Jane Francis - 0:59:20
Yes, just following on with that question.
Cllr Ben Evans - 0:59:21
Will you still be taking KPIs for the schools that were part of the social workers in the
Swiss programme so you can see if they have a lasting impact?
Gulshanara Begum - 0:59:40
In short, no, we won't continue to collect KPIs in a project performance or project management
capacity.
But can comparisons be made?
Yes, they can.
But also, it's probably worth noting that 12 months after every project comes to an
The board asks the projects to come back and feedback in terms of the benefits that were
realised and do they still remain?
Have things gone back to the way they were?
I think that is something the board would look to from the social workers in schools
project as well.
Thank you.
Any further questions or comments?
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:00:28
In that case, can I ask the panel to endorse the recommendations? Can I have a proposer?
Thank you, Jenny. And seconded by Lienia. Thank you.

8 Our Future Council – Responding to the Financial Challenge

OK. Moving on to agenda item 8, our future council,
responding to the financial challenge. I would like to invite Councillor Miles,
councillor Coogan
Allison
director of children's services
Luke David Williams head of finance James Barlow finance business partner to present the report
I'm not sure which of you will be leaving. I'm gonna start presenting the chair. Thank you. Yeah, Luke isn't here
Actually, so I'm here from strategic finance. Yes, sir
so
Members may well be aware that this is an annual item that we bring to scrutiny panels
We attend from Strategic Finance along with the Director to ask for feedback regarding
the budget setting process.
We prepared a PowerPoint which we sent out and I'm just going to talk through the main
points on most of the slides if that's OK.
As you may be aware the budget setting process is a long one.
Almost after setting one budget and having that approved we move on to working kind of
in earnest on the next year's budget and also always looking at the medium term as well.
The annual budget setting process includes various updates to cabinet.
We then come to scrutiny panels and discuss the individual budgets relating to the panel.
Feedback then goes to scrutiny board, feedback from there goes to cabinet
and then eventually a full council where the budget will be approved.
So as part of this report we're asking the panel to consider and comment on the future council strategy
and the draft 2526 budget and the updated medium -term financial strategy
or MTFS, the associated savings proposals and the targets that are relevant to
this panel and provide feedback to the scrutiny board on those items please.
Okay and we've got a as part of that we've got a presentation that kind of
details the the journey the budget's been on up to this point how we got to
where we are, updates on the future council programme and then we're asking for the panel
to scrutinise that and the budget for 25 -26 and MTFS.
So just so everyone's clear we're talking about the budget setting for 25 -26 which will
start next April.
OK, I've then got some slides that kind of detail the background of the budget setting.
So, just so everyone's clear, we've got a legal requirement each year to set a balanced
budget. That means you have to look at what expenditure we're going to have as a council.
That means salaries in children's, maybe external placement costs, premises costs. We look at
what resources we're going to have as a council. Grants, council tax, business rates, fees
and charges, and we have to make sure that the two are balanced. If the resources we
are forecasting to have are less than the expenditure, then we've got what we call a
That's when we have to try and work on that to reduce the expenditure.
Wolverhampton, like many local authorities across the country, are facing unprecedented
financial challenges at the moment.
We've got significant pressures including pay awards, inflation, things like energy
bills increasing, increases in costs such as placements within children's social care.
We're also seeing increased demand, things like adult social care where you've got an
in population, increases in temporary accommodation, and while we're facing these cost increases
and demand increases, we've also seen a reduction in the core spending power of the council
of around 74 % in real terms.
So the next few slides kind of detail the journey that the budget has been on to date.
So 28th of February 2024 we set the 24 -25 budget at full council.
As part of that we look at the medium term so we say at this stage for 25 -26 there's
a gap and at that stage we'd said there was a gap of 27 .1 million for 25 -26.
A couple of other points were made in that report we were using some earmarked reserves
and we'd said that that was not a sustainable solution.
Obviously reserves are one off you can only use them once and they won't be ongoing and
further action was needed to reduce costs to bring the budget back into balance.
There was then a July cabinet update which detailed some of the work that had been done
to try and redress that balance. Savings had been identified totalling 7 .1 million. However,
there were also pressures that had emerged in year which had offset a lot of those savings
and the gap was still the 32 .6 million over the next two years. That would be the in year
gap and as part of that report the our future council strategy was was
introduced and which looked to transform the way the council's delivering
services and also to reduce costs then had the recent cabinet report in
November which gave an update on the on the progress of the OFC program and the
movement the kind of movement towards balancing the budget and detail that due
to unprecedented financial challenges that all councils are facing as I've
said in pay inflation that kind of thing and achieving everything was no longer
feasible or affordable and all priorities were set to be reviewed as
part of the OFC program. That report had identified 10 .4 million in specific
proposals but obviously that was not going to be enough to bridge the budget
gap that we've got. So the report also detailed that savings targets were going to be given
to certain areas to try and reduce that gap. That was 19 .9 million of savings targets,
although adult services and children will not be given the same targets as other areas.
And services were being asked to look at the services they're delivering, identify savings
plans and see where they can do things differently, do less, or stop services altogether.
You then have a slide which shows you the split between proposals and targets for all
the different scrutiny panels. So you can see the children's services and education
one. You've got a net budget of $56 .4 million. $262 ,000 of proposals were part of that report,
and then we have a target of 763 ,000. We then have another slide which looks at
the budget position for the whole council and details some of the numbers we've been
through in the presentation. So for 25 -26 you can see we started with a
kind of gap of 27 .1 million and there were savings identified in the July report, also
in the November report and we then have the savings targets. We've also had to put in
significant growth to next year's budget including 4 .3 million to children's services because
of some of those issues we've talked about like increasing placement costs and after
that we still have a gap of 11 .2 million to balance the budget for next year and work
Alison Hinds - 1:08:09
now please chair. So as part of the work we're doing as part of our future
council it's important for us to be thinking about the changes that we might
make in terms of doing things differently or more efficiently in
setting context around what is our vision and what remains our vision for
children services of education in the city. So it was important for us to
really think about what that what that looks like so to reassure that
alongside our partners that we'll ensure that we continue to safeguard and promote the well -being of our children in the city.
More importantly, this isn't just the role of the local authority,
but it's also how we work with our partners in ensuring that we reach and we achieve that vision.
And I think through some of the projects that we've talked about today, how we make sure that we're, I suppose,
and maximising the benefits of that partnership to make sure that we're safeguarding children in our city.
Also, we've heard a lot about this today, these things connect nicely together,
just around how important it is to work with families at that very earliest opportunity
to prevent and to engage at an early intervention space.
Longer term, the outcomes are much better for children and families
because it increases self resilience and enables children to live safely in their own family.
But also to offer that early intervention is less costly than offering a much higher
level of intervention such as children becoming looked after and needing to be cared for by
us. But where that isn't possible and where that does happen, that we need to really consider
making sure we promote children's permanence and that we make sure that only those children
who need to be in our care stay in our care.
So really thinking about what those permanence options are
and supporting those children to enable them to experience family environments
on their journey into independence and adulthood.
And similarly in education, that's a really similar picture.
We have, it says over 90 % of the slides,
we know we've got 93 % of our schools that are good or outstanding.
And that doesn't just happen,
and that's a combination of how we've supported schools,
but how we've worked with schools to get to that position.
And schools equally have worked really hard
to be able to make sure that the education they offer to our children
is of a brilliant standard.
And the work we've done together, there is some sustainability in that,
ensure the things they've put in place will enable them to continue
to deliver in that way,
and us offering support to enable them to do that.
We're really confident and we're really looking to make sure and ensure that all of our services
that we trade with schools continue to be traded where appropriate and also that we
are covering the cost of those traded services effectively.
But again, what's really important for us, same in the education space as a children's
social care space, is that the earliest we can support children in meeting their educational
needs, making sure in those first 1 ,001 days, even pre -birth and post -birth, and in those
early years, if we can really ensure that the right support is wrapped around from both
an education and social care point of view of those families, it will enable us to meet
needs of children at the earliest opportunity. So there's a real, I suppose, crossover between
the work we do in both areas of children's services.
So there's just some slides now that I just want to talk you through.
So James referenced proposals that had been agreed by Cabinet
and there's a couple of proposals there that some of you, many of you will have seen.
So those proposals are agreed.
One was around the ceasing of commissioning of a therapeutic support contract.
This is a contract that we've actually had for seven years in Wolverhampton.
It's a contract that we started when we were on our transformation journey around managing our demand
and making sure only those children in care needed to be in care right at that very beginning
when we had a lot of children in care and when we just worked on ensuring that we offered our services
at the earliest opportunity. It was the start of a journey for us.
That service was part of that work offering some therapeutic support at that early stage for families
in terms of those that were on the edge of care predominantly,
but also offered some services to children in care and care leavers.
I think we're in a much different place now in terms of our services
for children in Wolverhampton, we're not on that early journey anymore,
we are managing that demand and we are ensuring
that we continue to offer services at the right level.
And particularly with the things we've talked about today,
with our services through family hubs,
the work we're doing in that family help space,
we've come to a different position really,
and I suppose we're at a position now where the delivery of those services
doesn't require an edge of care, that additionality through that therapeutic support.
And the second item that was approved
is a reduction in the contribution to the youth zone.
That is going to be over a couple of years,
it's not going to be an immediate reduction.
Again, the Youth Zone continues to be a really important space for how we support young people
in that universal space and we will continue to work with them to ensure they maximise
membership and ensure the right children are attending where they can.
The Youth Zone are in a fairly good place and they're doing a lot of work around alternative
funders and have got a lot of funders who they're talking to and funders in the pipeline
around how they can support with the work. And that is the model of the youth zone, so
we'll continue to work with them in that space to support that work.
And then our targets, so we have a target in children's services that looks at a range
of efficiencies, income generation and reduction in delivery, and that total that we are working
towards is approximately 760 ,000.
So I've talked a lot around how, as part of our vision,
we maximise the use of the money that we
have coming into the city.
It gives us opportunity to look at how
we deliver our services.
We've heard through the transformation
that much of the work we do is reliant on grants,
not just in the social care space,
but also in the education space, a lot of the work we do is grant funding.
And it is, you know, moving forward around how we maximise that grant
to the very best to get the most out of that money
that is given to us for a specific purpose.
And also, I've touched on earlier on in our vision,
it's important for us to make sure that where we are trading services,
particularly to schools,
that they continue to be traded so they have value for money for schools to buy,
they're of a good service, but ultimately that we are covering the cost of delivering those services
when we're trading out to schools.
We're talking to head teachers and to school leaders around how we want to work with them in this space
around just co -producing what services look like as we move forward.
And then the other, just the other saving proposal, which was put to cabinet in November,
is just something I want to talk to you.
It doesn't actually fall in children's services budget, but it has implication for children's
services, so I thought it was only prudent to bring to this panel.
So this is in relation to post -16 transport for young people with special educational
needs and the charging policy.
So there is an all -age travel assistance policy,
which was agreed in 2020,
following quite a comprehensive review around independent travel.
As part of that policy, there was a post -16 charging policy
that actually was never implemented in 2020.
There were a couple of reasons for that.
it was just around the time of COVID and things were very different at that point.
And then following on from that, obviously, we've had cost of living crisis.
I'm not saying we're out of that, but the implications of that also were given consideration.
But I suppose as part of our future council, it's important for us to revisit that now.
And because it was a significant number of years ago, obviously 2020,
and we didn't implement that bit of the policy,
then we will be going back out to consultation
around talking to people who are particularly affected by that
with a potential implementation plan in September 2025.
Just for information, the strategic risk register.
This was, well, everybody knows what the strategic risk
It's around good governance, around making sure we as a council are managing our risks
properly and have good governance and oversight of them.
And the risk continue to be managed through the risk register and that was approved by
cabinet and has been to audit a risk committee on a regular basis.
We went to cabinet on the 13th just from a children's perspective.
We only have one item on the strategic risk register and that, as you would expect, is
a risk around ensuring that we continue to safeguard our children.
We have actually lowered the risk level score this time because we feel that we're in a
really positive place in terms of safeguarding children.
We can never take our eye off the ball and think that we can remove it entirely because
safeguarding children, there's always a risk factor attached to that.
But actually, because of the work we've been doing in the Pathfinder space,
because of all the transformation that we've done,
because of the oversight and governance, both internally and externally,
from an Ofsted point of view, we do feel we're in a good position
in terms of us being able to just lower that level of risk slightly,
but still remains on the risk register, which I think is prudent.
And then so there is another one that falls in our area, but that is in relation to financial
well -being and not just in relation to children.
So I think that's the end of our presentation, James.
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:19:23
Thank you both.
Can I ask if Councillor Miles would like to add anything?
Cllr Louise Miles - 1:19:32
I'd just like to add that obviously this is part of our consultation and I absolutely
Welcome all comments from questions from colleagues. Absolutely. It's essential, you know as part of the consultation process
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:19:45
Thank you chair. Okay, and Councillor Coogan, would you like to add anything as cabinet member member?
Just to say that if anyone would like to speak to me at any point about if they have any concerns about any of these
Cllr Jacqui Coogan - 1:19:55
Savings then please drop me an email. We'll have a meeting. We'll talk it over
Thank you, I have got a question, please
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:20:05
The education bit, you know, 93 % target is fantastic, but I'm just worried about taking our foot off the pedal.
Does it mean that there'll be less visits, less monitoring, less support offered?
Alison Hinds - 1:20:26
So we have a statutory function to deliver school improvement in the city to our maintained
schools and that will continue to be our priority and we also work quite closely as well with
our academies. The children that attend school regardless of status are children of our city
and we want to ensure that they get a good education. So just in terms of the statutory
the requirement for school improvement that will continue.
I think I said, when we looked at our vision,
we haven't, school improvement has been a big part
of how we've worked with schools to get them
to a position where they need to be.
And we will continue to work with schools.
But through that process and schools improving
the position they're in, is that a lot of that work
has been done by schools too, and it's important
for us to be an enabler and continue to support but allow schools to continue to
flourish in in what they've achieved really so so you know we will continue
to make sure our children get a good education in the city that might look
slightly differently and you know in that space and but in recognition that
we have a statutory duty to deliver that as well. Thank you did you
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:21:41
want to add to
Cllr Louise Miles - 1:21:46
that? Thank you chair just to say absolutely as Alison has said and in the
Discussions we've had we've made absolutely clear that we would not leave any school in our city that required help and support
Without that help and support, of course, we would absolutely continue to provide it
However, because of the financial challenges that we face
The services that we provide to schools for which we're able to charge must now at the very least be cost neutral to us
Thank You chair. Thank you
Councillor hurt
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 1:22:19
I actually had to write to try to get somebody funding for travel. He was 19 years old and
he was attending Redbaston College because Redbaston College had taken away free travel
for their students. They used to provide a minibus and they needed to save money so they'd
taken away free travel. In the Education, Health and Care Plan is usually a word which
promote independence. Can the funding from education health and care plans as a routine
include a travel element? Is that something that could be thought about to pay for travel costs?
Because if a family has to bear all the travel costs for education it can be quite prohibited,
it can be a lot.
Alison Hinds - 1:23:12
Yeah, I appreciate that. Unfortunately, the money that supports enabling school places
for children with EHCPs comes from the high needs block and there is a proactive factor
there that we can't provide transport out of that high needs block. So, no, the answer
that is no. So although, you know, it is recognised that some children might need support to get
to the school, but I think you touched, do you want to come here? Because I'm just going
to touch on independence. I just think, you know, you touched on how we are enabling and
encouraging young people to have that level of independence to get ready for adulthood,
and I think, you know, we are doing that work already and that's something we really need
come to continue with we had a review on preparation for adulthood fairly
recently at the beginning of the year and they were really complimentary
around the work that we do to work with young people in creating promoting that
independence in terms of particularly around lots of things but one of them
Helen Bakewell - 1:24:23
travel assistance did you want to add to that
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:24:27
Cllr Louise Miles - 1:24:30
and Councillor miles I'm just to add briefly that as part of this particular
item I have asked for all available benefits just to be reviewed to make
sure that if there is any possible benefit that could assist with these
travel expenses you know that we enable people to access them so I have asked
finance officers to you know look into that thank you did you want to add
something Helen. Thank you chair. I mean it's just the fact that as
Helen Bakewell - 1:24:56
part of this
and as part of the wider work that we've been doing we have been looking at
options around travel including travel training and there's also looking at
other local authorities to see what they've done and how they've implemented
because there's a few local authorities that have done the same but also making
sure that as Councillor Miles has just said the access to other benefits post
16 and what they can be and and that needs to be explored fully as well as
part of this and as part of consultation.
Can I just add a question on that topic before going to others in that case can
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:25:36
we have an idea of the application of charging the level of charging and can
we have the results of the consultation perhaps added into our work program if
the panel agree for that okay
councillor Evans please if it's okay check and I asked two questions
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:26:00
on a
Cllr Ben Evans - 1:26:01
similar fee so due to the last government's reforms have been a
shortage of private children's homes despite the high prices the council is
willing and to pay for them the placement markets became monopolized
needing the county resort to unregulated and provide provision, which poses a significant
safeguarding risk. Does James or Councillor Miles agree with that assessment? And can
they elaborate on how this is contributed to the £32 .6 million deficit?
it. Thank you for your question. Certainly the unregulated costs in
Cllr Louise Miles - 1:26:49
children's social care have been an enormous charge to this council
absolutely. My understanding is that for the most need children it's the cost of
in the region of twenty six thousand pounds per child per week which is
obviously a tremendous cost. We are lobbying government to ask for this
area to be, you know, reviewed and completely overhauled.
I have to say that over some years in children's services,
excellent work has been done to actually reduce the number of children
who need that kind of provision.
As Alison and others have said, by kind of early access
and working with families from the outset, but certainly as you rightly
indicate, Councillor Evans, it has been a tremendous charge to us and
to other councils and when councils make representations about the overall budgetary positions that
they're in, these costs are kind of top of the list for the pressures that are on councils.
Secondary question?
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:27:59
Cllr Ben Evans - 1:28:00
Yeah, despite these challenges, the risk of failure of safeguarding the children of the
city, the most vulnerable children, has fallen and is now I understand the lowest risk on
the risk register. Could these improvements be the result of the opening of the two family
children homes by the council which help reduce reliance on unregulated providers and does
Director Hines or Councillor Coogan feel a bit justified in opening up the family homes
despite some opposition.
Alison Hinds - 1:28:52
So the purpose of opening local children's homes is one, obviously there is a saving
in terms of the cost because we've heard about some of the high costs that we pay for regulated
placements as well as unregulated. And so there is definitely a cost benefit to open
our own local children's homes. But actually, also we need to remember the other very important
factors about why it's important to keep children local, to live in our small family homes that
are within the local authority that they are raised in.
They can continue to attend their own local school.
They can continue to be close to their family and friends
and see them on a regular basis.
They can continue to access support services
that are available to them in the city
and can also just feel well connected to their community.
So, you know
Money absolutely is very important and is one thing and will help with the financial situation
But there's also really important factors around why it's important to keep our children local
So yes
We're still very committed to enabling our children to live in the two children's homes that we're as we've heard around
We're just awaiting off -stage registration
Councillor sweet
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:30:18
Cllr Paul Sweet - 1:30:20
Just a comment on the costs of adult social care and children's in the city.
I mean, this isn't at all a political comment because frankly governments of both political parties have been absolutely woeful in this regard in addressing social care.
I mean, we've had promise after promise over decades of properly sorting the funding of social care in this country and we've got nowhere near it at the moment.
we have had whispers from this government about the cost of children's
placements but frankly nothing that's going to help us in the next two to
three five years I would imagine. And it's really disappointing when councils
have struggled for years and have raised these costs for years, that governments
of both persuasions haven't prioritised it when it's clearly a
priority for us and the families in our city. The specific
question I've got is around the figure that talks of reviewing the delivery of
essential day -to -day services including maximising grant funding and a review of
the traded services to schools. That's got a figure of 763 ,000 in there and I
wondered what assumptions have been made to arrive at that target. For
example is it that there will be full cost recovery of every traded service
assuming skills don't walk away, which I suspect many will.
What then is the assumption if they do walk away
of the associated costs of ceasing that service
and or making people redundant in that area?
Thank you Chair.
Through you Chair, so we've started to review the services provided
in the children's area over the last couple of months
and we're totally aware that obviously putting the price up too much to full cost recovery
may mean that schools walk away and services become not viable.
So that's something that we're taking into account.
And where we need to move to full cost recovery, if that can't be done straight away,
it's going to be part of a gradual process, might be over a number of years,
but we do need to start making that journey.
So I think we totally take that point that if we did it too quickly, too far,
schools may walk away.
So that's something that we're bearing in mind when we're setting the prices for next year.
Cllr Paul Sweet - 1:32:41
The biggest is that he's out of something he's the assumption that that will be the full cost of that said including that
Yeah, I mean the figure is based on a kind of number of assumptions some of those are kind of percentage targets against different cost
centers
And we've got a number of tradies services that we put assumptions against and we're not kind of welded to those targets being against certain
Services at the moment as a target things can be moved around and we're asking directors to deliver that however, they can
Like I say, and they're able to move those savings around within their portfolio and
also we're not welded to one year.
Things may well be over a number of years as well.
Did you want to add to that, Louise?
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:33:25
Yes, just to add that kind of we are reviewing the position.
Cllr Louise Miles - 1:33:27
We obviously continue our commitment to schools.
Where it is the case that the review indicates that provision is no longer viable, then obviously
it may well be that very definite decisions would have to be taken.
So I think one of the very early slides said that in our current financial position, as
with lots of other councils, we absolutely can't say that we will be able to continue
to do all that we have done up until now so you know I think everything is kind
of on the table and if something isn't viable then it isn't viable
Thank You councillor Daly
Cllr Lovinyer Daley - 1:34:15
Thank You chair and just coming back to the all -age travel assistance policy Wow
24 pages, it's very in -depth.
I was just wondering, I mean it has kind of been covered about the type of grants and
other services that might be available, but the actual policy itself is quite intense,
and I know it's going out to consultation, obviously over the coming months.
I'm hoping it will be narrowed down a bit better.
reading through it there are so many exceptions.
And that might end up meaning that there might not be any savings in the end,
if that makes sense with what I'm saying.
There are lots of outs and points in that policy as it stands.
I know it was four years ago now, probably even longer if that's when it was actually implemented
and I wasn't around then, so I can imagine it was intense.
But yeah, it may mean that with all the changes and if we keep still keeping that we're not
really making a saving, are you with me?
Because of all the exceptions that are within the current policy as it was written four
years ago.
But yeah, thank you, Chair.
Alison Hinds - 1:35:42
Yeah, I think that's a fair challenge and the comment we'll take back as we're reviewing
that policy and we do have a lot of questions.
go back out to consultation for it. Thank you.
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:35:54
Have we got any further comments or questions? Oh India please do come in.
As part of the work we've been doing with the Youth Council last year
India Allmark - 1:36:03
we've been looking at safe spaces for young people and just in general spaces for young people.
One of them that was identified of the very few was the way.
You said the reductions would happen gradually over the years,
but are we likely to see impacts once we've got to the end of those years?
Alison Hinds - 1:36:34
So what we're anticipating is we won't see any impact for adjoining young people
because whilst we are reducing the contribution gradually
that we're making,
what we're working quite closely with the way
and they're in a very positive position
in terms of the work they're doing
around alternative funders in the city predominantly.
So no, in terms of the offer,
what we, as I said when I spoke to this matter earlier on,
we will continue to work with them to to the work we do with children to
maximize their membership because also it's not just about that the funders
that are supporting it's also around with the money get from children you
people that visit and the membership that they pay so we'll continue to work
with with them around promoting an increase in that membership
councilmars yeah through you just to add and to emphasize again that some of
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:37:29
Cllr Louise Miles - 1:37:31
these targets do kind of incorporate applying for grants and raising funds in other ways.
So it's not just about kind of straightforward cuts.
Can I follow that up then with the sort of clarification, the consequences of us withdrawing
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:37:50
funding, does it mean that our partners might as well, so therefore does that need to go
to a risk register particularly around the youth zone from the conversations
Alison Hinds - 1:38:06
I've had with their CEO there isn't a risk of others withdrawing funding in
fact what what the conversation I've had is that they're in a real positive place
in terms of pipeline funding moving forward thank you
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:38:22
Councillor Evans on the subject alternative funding I know the
Cllr Ben Evans - 1:38:24
government a couple of weeks ago announced the national youth strategy. That's 85 million
capital funding for the year 2025 to 2026 for more youth facilities. I'm curious, have
the CEO of the way or anyone expressed any interest in that additional funding?
It's certainly something I can follow up with here.
Alison Hinds - 1:38:45
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:38:51
Thank you. Have we any further questions or comments? In that case, can I ask for the
panel recommendations to be endorsed? Can I have a proposer, please? Thank you, Jenny.
And the seconder. Thank you, Carol. Sorry, I'd also note the comments from the
panel for additional information. And also note the comments for additional

9 Outcome of Ofsted focused visit inspection

information and going on to the work program. Thank you. Okay we're on to
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:39:23
agenda item 9. Ending on a high. The outcome of the Ofsted focused visit
inspection. I'd like to invite Alison Hines, Director of Children's Services to
Alison Hinds - 1:39:36
the report please. Thank you chair. So yes hopefully this is some good news we can
share with you. So we got notification the last week in September that we will
be having a focused visit in Wolverhampton from Ofsted and that
happened so we started to do some work at the end of September off -site and
and actually with us two days the first week in October.
They were primarily interested and told us this from the very beginning
in coming to look at particularly a focus on our children in need and child protection.
And they were particularly interested in our developments
around the Families First for Children Pathfinder.
Oh, hold on, that's right.
So our last inspection, people will remember, was an IELACS inspection.
That was the last time Ofsted came here into Children's Services and that was in March 22.
And the outcome of that inspection, people will remember, was that we were rated good as a Children's Services
with an outstanding judgement of the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families.
To have a focus visit is not unusual in what's called an ILACS framework,
which is the Inspection of Local Authorities Children's Services.
So we probably were well overdue for a focus visit.
So it was not unexpected.
I suppose what was perhaps a little unexpected is the area that they came to look at,
given we had only just gone live in end of June, beginning of July in our family help space,
which is where our Child in Need and Child Protection sits.
So the focus visit, as I said, happened,
although lots happened the last week in September,
they were actually here for two days.
Before they came here, we, like any inspection,
had to provide a whole load of information that they require.
We provided our own self -assessment that you've seen through this panel,
and just so they could understand our own context and narrative.
The inspectors before they came sampled lots of key documents
and particularly some audit activity that we had undertaken
in relation to six young people.
So on -site activity the week after, so they were here for two days.
They spent some time with us at the very beginning,
and we as leaders and then not much time with us at all really, they were quickly and very
interested to go out, rightly so, to have a look for themselves first hand at what our
model looked like and speak to practitioners around what it felt like to be working in
that family help space. So they went out to spend some time both at Grayslea Family Hub
and at Whitmarines. Whilst they were there, they talked to social workers and talked to
alternative qualified workers just around the work that they're doing with our children
and families. They also spent some time with our social workers from the child assessment
team just doing some random sampling and just looking at the children that they were working
with and many of you recall also we had five recommendations actually, three of which were
education related the last time. One was around children missing and the other was around
how we supported our 16 and 17 year olds who were at risk of homelessness and they were
really interested to test out that we had closed off and we had completed the work that
needed to do to make sure that those recommendations have been acted upon.
And they were clear that they wanted to have a look at that while they were here.
So we had a published letter, which is what you get from a focused visit,
and that was published on the 1st of November.
But it's really good positioning to report to you that it's really a reassuring
strong child focus practices, what they saw, and for them to continue to find that in the
midst of a massive change programme in terms of how we are delivering our social care in
line with government drivers around social care reform. We're really quite proud of that.
They also confirmed that they were happy that the recommendations from the last inspection
have been completed, which I've just referenced. But I'm not going to go through all of these
because you've had this in the pack, but we felt really proud of some of the things
that frontline practitioners said when they met with inspectors and talked to inspectors
just around how proud they are to work in Wolverhampton, but also just about how aspirational
they are for our children and the inspectors talked to us about how pleasing that was to
see. They referenced that social workers and alternative qualified workers talked about
what a joy it was to work with children and being able to support and help them
and achieve their aspirations.
So there was some really lovely feedback for us
and much of that found its way into the final report.
They were assured that we were responding effectively and in a timely way
and that there were strong relationships across the partnership.
We've talked about this quite a lot today,
the importance of the partnership in terms of how we work with children,
both our statutory partners and our partners in the third sector,
is really important around how we deliver services at the right time
for children and families.
So, they could see on files that we had a real good oversight
and there was a real footprint of that management of oversight
for individual children,
that there was clear rationale, direction and decision making
to support practitioners in the work that they do.
We talked to them before they came.
Rachel did a good job as lead in the FFC space.
She talked to them around what they would see when they came here.
Because obviously in that family help space,
they would see potentially children in other places,
children in need that are being managed by alternative qualified practitioners.
And that is something different, we introduce them to the language defined here.
We don't talk about assessments, we talk about family planning
and just around developing a family plan for children.
And I think they came in with the knowledge that they probably would see something different
and they were looking to see what that looked like.
So it was a really, I think, great opportunity for them.
We were the first local authority that they've been to,
where we are testing out a new way of working.
And so it was good for them to come in as Ofsted inspectors and look at that.
but it's also a good experience for us as some external validation
in terms of where we're at, in terms of delivering our services in that space.
So, yeah, they just also said that we,
just a feeling that we've got really clear systems and processes.
And again, that doesn't sound much,
but when you're in the midst of a change programme,
for that to be noted was a real positive.
And that we also something they were interested in is how we were managing different level of needs.
So when need changed in that family help space, how whether that was an escalation or a de -escalation,
how we were managing that appropriately and again they felt that things were being appropriately escalated
and de -escalated in a timely way.
They did leave us with one area of improvement, and that was around quality and consistency of supervision.
As part of the information we gave them in advance, we gave them our Aiming for Excellence, which is our improvement plan,
of which we have six key features on there, one of which is around improvements in supervision.
So we'd already identified before they came.
This was an area of development and improvement that we were already working on.
So that came as no shock.
We'd already told them that that was something that was important for us to improve.
So we will continue to look at that particular area of recommendation
through the work we're doing around our improvement plan
under aiming for excellence.
and we can continue through the governance arrangements for our inspection to make sure that we close that recommendation off.
So yeah, we really proud a real positive report and yeah, great experience.
People don't often say that about off -steady inspections, but actually we felt it was really positive, so yeah.
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:49:02
It's great news and thank you and can you pass on our thanks to all concerned for the
hard work that's gone into that achievement. Thank you. Any further comments, questions?
Councillor Evans. It was a very positive letter and a great
Cllr Ben Evans - 1:49:23
achievement so I hate to be the person who focuses on the one criticism you've got but
I raise a scrutiny panel, so I'm going to live up to its name.
So I read the letter and then I read the letter, the last focus visit from the 11th of September
2018.
I use a good improvement, but it does make the same criticism.
So the 2018 letter said something on said supervision is not sufficiently detailed or
reflective, it does not ensure sufficient progress is made in traditional cases. The
recent one, the October 24 letter, was more watered down but same point, nevertheless
records of supervision do not consistently provide sufficient reflection, direction or
challenge. And it strikes me to have the same problem happen for six years is a bit problematic,
I'm just curious how has it persisted over six years?
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:50:32
Alison Hinds - 1:50:33
Through you, Chair, I would suggest that it's not exactly the same.
I think in the much earlier letter that we had from our last Focus visit a number of
years ago, what they were saying is that we couldn't evidence the impact of supervision
on progressive cases specifically.
I think in this letter, what they're saying in other areas,
because they're very complimentary around the management oversight,
that they can see direction for social workers
and they can see good oversight.
When we talked to them when we were here,
they talked around what they would like to see more of
is reflection recorded on a child's record.
And we had quite a discussion with them around
the importance of reflection and actually how we undertake our supervision,
not only on a one -to -one but also in a group supervision.
We operate in a highly reflective way in terms of that supervision and oversight.
They didn't quite like how we recorded, they didn't like the form that we used.
It's one that we modeled actually after our last inspection
so that we could try and ensure that we fitted our supervision to a restorative approach
to practice, but they felt that how we were recording wasn't really giving credence to
perhaps the conversation that was happening in the supervision space. So we are going
to take it away. I came away from the discussions we had that the issues were not quite the
same as they, it sounds like the wording is fairly similar, but were different this time
than they were when they were here six years ago.
But yet, supervision is crucial to making sure that we've got the right actions in place
and that workers have a sense of direction but also can reflect on the work that they're doing
and we feel confident that we'll continue to work on that.
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:52:32
I think the important thing is you recognise that a new before Ofsted commented on it
and that's the key, isn't it, being aware of that.
Councillor Coogan. If I may Jane it was actually brought up in my
Cllr Jacqui Coogan - 1:52:44
briefing just
before they came so when it when it came about we said yeah we know.
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:52:58
Any further comments? Okay can I have a proposer and seconder? Ben for the
proposer, Jenny for the seconder please. Thank you. Moving on to agenda item 10

10 Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel - Draft Work Programme 2024 - 25

children and young people scrutiny panel the draft work program I'd like to
invite Earl Pickett Smith scrutiny officer to present the report please
Earl Piggott Smith - 1:53:18
thank you chair the reports obviously sets out these scrutiny panel agenda for
the next three meetings scheduled again some of the issues that we discussed
today will be picked up as part of that discussion and obviously factored in in
terms of additional information members have requested at this meeting but also
trying to follow up with some of the key areas
identified as priorities for the longer term work program.
So they may not necessarily fall within this
period of meetings, it may well be during the next cycle of panel meetings
depending on when information becomes available.
So as normal the reports there for members comment and suggestions of
additional information that may be helpful
but also new potential topics like added to the work program.
There are a few, there are some ones listed as
their future items what they will be scheduling as and when the information
becomes available and it's obviously been agreed with the chair vice chair as
part of the standard agenda planning process but open for members comments
and suggestions chair
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 1:54:23
Councillor Hyde. I wondered about the effect of homelessness on children I'm
so aware that more of my residents are facing you know the stress of becoming
and the threat of becoming homeless and then having to manage the consequences
of that with their children and schools are having to manage it as well and I
mean you are the professionals it's an increasing risk isn't it to families and
is it something that that's more on your radar now is that something worth
reporting back to and I mean I haven't got the perspective on it than you have
Alison Hinds - 1:55:04
So I think it would be really useful for us to bring, work with colleagues to bring a paper here,
just looking at the impact I suppose of homelessness, including living in temporary accommodation.
And yeah, I think that would be quite useful if we could think about how we could build that into the work plan.
Yes, actually, thank you. Would you mind reading that out, please?
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:55:36
Thank you.
Sorry, yes. So I think based on your previous comments and previous
Cllr Andrew McNeil - 1:55:45
committees, it's one of the items to be confirmed was strengthening families
where children are vulnerable or at risk, can children living in temporary
accommodation come under the protection of a virtual school head. So I think the idea
was it would capture the essence of those points that you were raising, which
around homeless and that they're consequence of homelessness and eviction
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:56:07
page 167 page 167 to be confirmed I think that's the start of a discussion
Cllr Carol Hyatt - 1:56:18
isn't it because you've got its specific effects on that unsend children you've
got you know it large families being placed it in accommodation where where
you know, the predominant single males in there and affecting vulnerable children in particular.
I think it's quite a complex topic which hopefully will be illustrated through that sort of a
discussion. Yes, I mean many children who are homeless are still trying to get to school
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:56:45
or unfailing. Which is why it perhaps is under the virtual school head idea that it may sit.
it. Can I bring up the idea that was mentioned earlier about having some guests along to
speak about their experiences in social work? A suggestion was an experienced social worker
and a newer social worker and potentially someone from one of the family hubs to come
along and speak to us about the work they do in the family hubs because I think they
do a fantastic job but we need to know more about what they're doing.
Alison Hinds - 1:57:31
Through you chair, yes so I think that would be a great idea. I think it's something that's
we've talked about that's happened in adult scrutiny and I think it was well
received. We have an item on the work plan on the 2nd of April that looks at
outcomes of our annual workforce health check that we do and we do that with
qualified social workers and the wider workforce.
So I think when we bring that report here, perhaps it would be great if we could be accompanied by
two social workers and
a couple of people who are in that wider workforce that are alternative qualified to just talk about their experiences.
Thank you. I think it brings it to life a little bit more than a
Cllr Jane Francis - 1:58:12
report. Thank you. Any further comments or questions?
In that case, look at the time, eight o 'clock.
I'd like to thank everyone for their contributions.
And that brings the meeting to a close.
Thank you.
Cllr Paul Sweet
Cabinet Member for Children and Young People
Labour
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