Agenda and minutes

Tony Crane – Director Children’s Services

Nigel Moorhouse - Head of Service - Social Care

Paula Swindlehurst - Interim Senior Improvement Manager

Jane Branson – Assistant Director – Public health

Carl Griffin - Locum Consultant Public Health

Zoe – Van Cauter – Youth Representative

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 6 October 2014.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 6 October  2014 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

To provide an opportunity for Members to declare the existence of a party whip in relation to any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of the existence of a party whip.

A total period of 15 minutes is allocated for members of the public to make a statement(s) on any matter that falls within the remit of the Committee.

Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes, but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned, where there are a number of speakers.

Note: In order for officers to undertake any background research, it would be helpful if members of the public contacted the Scrutiny officer listed at the foot of the agenda, at least one working day before the meeting to provide brief details of the matter to be covered. 

There were no members of the public present who wished to speak.

To consider a report of the Head of Corporate Resources and Stewardship.

The committee reviewed its work programme.

RESOLVED –

(a)  That the work programme report be noted;

(b)  That The Chairman discuss with the Director of Children’s Services the item relating to HR policies, at the work planning meeting on 3 December, with a view to allocating a target date for this project;

(c)  That a tentative start date of January 2015 be allocated to the item relating to the development of an SEN policy and it be noted that Councillor K Edwards has expressed an interest in joining the Task and Finish group to be set up to pursue this project.

To receive a presentation from Jane Branson, Assistant Director of Public Health

Jane Branson Assistant Director Public health attended the meeting and gave a presentation on the Council’s responsibilities in relation to 5-19 year olds

Jane explained that although currently the Council was responsible  for Public Health Services for children and young people aged 5-19 (including Healthy Child Programme 5-19) from 1 October 2015, Public Health Services would be extended to include all children and young people i.e. 0 – 5 years (including Healthy Child Programme 0 – 5)

The responsibilities included the mandatory National Child Measurement Programme.

In addition, the Council had responsibilities in respect of the Healthy Child Programme (HCP), an early intervention and prevention public health programme that lay at the heart of universal services for children and families. This was a progressive universal programme – i.e. a programme of universal services appropriate for all children and young people with additional services for those with specific needs and risk factors.

The Director of Public Health was responsible for the exercise of all new Local Athority Public Health functions, specifically: 

·         accountable for population health

·         Statutory Chief Officer

·         Accountable for ring fence budget

·         Mandated responsibilities - commissioning

·         Review/oversight/monitoring function

·         Statutory duty to produce independent Annual Report

·         Statutory Member of Health & Wellbeing Board.

The presentation also included a summary of key health indicators which showed how Cheshire East compared to the national average and how specific towns within Cheshire East compared to the Cheshire East average.

RESOLVED-

(a)  That the report be received;

(b)  That the Assistant Director of Public Health be invited back to the Committee in December 2015 to report on progress particularly  in connection with the suite of indicators reported to this meeting. 

To receive a presentation on the outcome of the recommendations of the two Overview and Scrutiny reviews undertaken by the former Children and Families and Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committees in 2011/12 in relation to care leavers.

Paula Swindlehurst gave a presentation on measures taken by the Council in response to the two Scrutiny reviews undertaken by the former Children Families Overview and Scrutiny committee supplemented by the work of the demised Children and Families Policy Development Group in respect of care leavers, and the former Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny committee regarding the health of care leavers

RESOLVED –

(a)  That the presentation be received;

(b)  That the Director of Children’s services be requested to report back to this committee in 12 months time to update the committee on progress of the new proposals outlined in the report.

The Chairman to provide feed back on the interviews with Social Workers regarding working conditions undertaken by Members on 4 November 2014.

The Chairman informed the committee that he, Councillors Dorothy Flude, Irene Faseyi and Jos Saunders had met with a number of social workers based in Crewe and Macclesfield on 4 November 2014, to follow up the progress made to improve working conditions for Social workers since a delegation from the committee had met social workers in Children’s Services in December 2013.

RESOLVED – That the report be received and noted.

(a)  To appoint the following Members to the CSE Task Group:

Councillor P Hoyland

Councillor A Moran

Councillor G Merry

(b)   The Chairman to provide feedback on the informal session held on 3 November 2014 on CSE.

The Chairman referred to the informal meeting on 3  November 2014, at which it been proposed that the investigation of the adequacy of  arrangements in Cheshire East in respect of CSE should be referred to a Task and Finish group for detailed investigation.

He informed the committee that he had met with officers to discuss the draft scope for the review and that he intended to complete the review by the end of January 2015.

RESOLVED – That the following Members be appointed to the CSE task and finish Group:

Councillors Phil Hoyland, Arthur Moran, Gill Merry

To receive an oral update from the Director of Children’s Services.

Tony Crane Director of Children’s Services informed the committee that the Council had recently been the subject of an unannounced inspection of safeguarding arrangements.

It was hoped that a formal report on the outcome of the inspection would be reported to the next meeting of the Committee.

 Resolved- That the report be received.

To note the current forward plan, identify any new items, and to determine whether any examination of new issues is appropriate.

The Committee considered the latest version of the forward plan.

RESOLVED – That the Forward Plan be noted.