Venue: Committee Suite 1,2 & 3, Westfields, Middlewich Road, Sandbach CW11 1HZ. View directions
Contact: Denise French Email: denise.french@cheshireeast.gov.uk
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Also Present Minutes: Councillor J P Findlow, Portfolio Holder for Children and Family Services |
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Officers present Minutes: L Butcher, Head of Services for Children and Families M Bayley, Children and Families F Bradley, Children and Families S Lawrence, Children and Families D J French, Legal and Democratic Services |
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Declaration of Interest/Party Whip To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any personal and/or prejudicial interests and for members to declare the existence of a party whip in relation to any item on the agenda.
Minutes: There were no declarations made. |
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Public Speaking Time/Open Session In accordance with Procedure Rules Nos.11 and 35 a total period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the Committee on any matter relevant to the work 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 questions were submitted at least one working day before the meeting.
Minutes: There were no Members of the Public present who wished to address the Committee. |
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Minutes of Previous Meeting To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 3 August 2009. Minutes: RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 3 August be confirmed as a correct record subject to one amendment to minute number 31 the second bullet point in paragraph 4 to read “Pay L £1,500…”. |
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Redesign of Children's Social Care To receive a presentation by Lorraine Butcher, Head of Services for Children and Families, on the Redesign of Social Care. Minutes: The Committee was briefed by Lorraine Butcher, Head of Services for Children and Families, on key actions undertaken in relation to safeguarding services in Cheshire East. Cheshire County Council had received a rating of 2 - Adequate for its Safeguarding Services following the Annual Performance Assessment 2008 with a number of issues identified:
The position at April/May 2009 was:
A number of actions were now underway:
During discussion of the item the following points were raised: ... view the full minutes text for item 37. |
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To consider a report of the Strategic Director People on the issues and recommendations arising from the recent visit of the National Support Team in relation to Teenage Pregnancy in Cheshire East. Minutes: The Committee considered a report of the Strategic Director People on issues that had arisen from the National Support Team’s visit to Cheshire East which had arisen due to sustained underperformance in the reduction of teenage pregnancy rates across Cheshire.
Lorraine Butcher, Head of Services for Children and Families, explained to the Committee that the Government’s Teenage Pregnancy Reduction Strategy 1998 had set a target for Local Authorities to reduce by half the numbers of conceptions among under 18 year olds by 2010. In Cheshire the rate had not reduced by a sufficient amount. Under 18 conceptions were focused in small geographical areas with the pattern of conception being significantly greater than would be expected in these areas indicating that deprivation was only one of a number of responsible factors. Such “hot spot” areas had historically received prevention services but rates had remained steady or increased. Some areas had shown high levels of single or repeat terminations and there was concern for vulnerable groups such as care leavers.
The National Support Team had produced a formal report after the visit with the key recommendations being:
During discussion of the report the following issues were raised:
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Summary of School Performance 2008-09 To consider a report of the Strategic Director People summarising the performance of Schools in Cheshire East across all phases for 2008-9. Additional documents:
Minutes: The Committee considered a report of the Strategic Director People outlining a summary of school performance across schools in Cheshire East for 2008 – 09. Members were advised that the report provided an early overview of results and more detailed information would be available at a later date which would allow clearer comparisons to be made.
The main headlines were that:
During discussion of the report the following points were made:
RESOLVED: That the initial results be noted and a further report be submitted to a future meeting when more detailed information is available.
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Performance and Outcome Reporting Arrangements - Children and Families To consider a report of the Strategic Director People on the interim arrangements for the reporting of performance across Children & Families Services Additional documents:
Minutes: The Committee considered a report of the Strategic Director People outlining interim arrangements for reporting performance across Children and Families Services.
Currently a performance score card was being trialled showing key priority areas matched against National Indicators, progress data against each priority, explanatory commentary and actions required with timescales and staff responsibility.
A Performance Steering Group was to be formed to look at ways of aligning Children and Families Service’s performance systems with those across other parts of the service. The report showed the current score card that was being used in the interim and two other formats – an excel structure giving data for Looked After Children and a format used by Salford City Council which was felt to be an example of good practice.
RESOLVED: That
(a) the current arrangements using the interim score card be supported;
(b) for any future performance score card the Committee would support the following approach:
(c) a presentation be made to the next meeting of the Committee on the new Ofsted framework. |
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To consider a report of the Strategic Director People on some of the dimensions of the Think Family agenda and how this agenda might be taken forward by Cheshire East Council and by the whole system in Cheshire East.
Minutes: The Committee considered a report of the Strategic Director People on the Think Family agenda which had been one of the Big Ideas underpinning the proposals for establishing two new Unitary Authorities in Cheshire. The Big Idea had a number of strands:
When adopting a Think Family approach it was important to use “family” in an embracing and inclusive way that embraced families of every sort. Think Family could be seen as an aspiration whereby the Council would not respond to people’s needs in a narrow way but rather would put services together in ways that reflected people’s lives.
The report outlined that “Think Family” had its origins in the Social Exclusion Task Form and the Department for Children, Schools and Families who had made additional resources available:
The Appendix to the report listed a number of other Think Family issues including Obesity whereby good work could be done in school but it was important to also focus upon the family environment.
RESOLVED: That the report be received and the Think Family approach be supported.
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To consider a report of the Borough Solicitor on the Work Programme. Minutes: The Committee considered an update report on the current position with the Work Programme.
A number of items on the Work Programme had been progressed and the Committee was to receive training on Corporate Parenting on 25 September 2009.
RESOLVED: that the current position with the Work Programme be noted. |