Agenda and minutes

J Weeks, Strategic Director People

B Hughes, Head of Services for Children and Families (Interim)

R Jenkins, Services Manager Children and Families

D J French, Scrutiny Officer

To approve the minutes of the informal meeting held on 11 May.

RESOLVED:  That the Minutes of the informal meeting of the Committee held on 11 May be confirmed as a correct record.

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.

There were no declarations made.

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.

There were no Members of the Public present who wished to address the Committee.

The Committee considered a report on the current Work Programme.  Members were advised that the Work Programme was a draft document that at this stage contained a number of items that had been brought forward from the four constituent Authorities and identified as a high, medium or low priority following the Scrutiny briefing session on 27 April.

There were a number of additional items identified by Members:

      Children’s Centres – role, usage and services;

      Costs of transport for young people;

      Provision of support to families.

A meeting had been arranged between the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Committee, the Portfolio Holder and Head of Services for Children and Families to discuss the remit of the Committee and identify any further items considered appropriate for the Work Programme.

It was intended that a Scrutiny Toolkit would be developed to assess potential items for the Work Programme against a standard set of criteria. 

Members of the Committee then suggested a number of other potential items for the Work Programme:

      School admissions process;

      Educational attainment across the Borough (not just South of the Borough);

      Residential placements.

In relation to Residential placements, Members were advised that a decision had been made by Cheshire County Council to close Redsands Residential Children’s Home and in the meantime Ofsted approval had been sought for two replacement units in Crewe.  While this approval was awaited, a decision had been made that it was not in the Redsands’ residents best interests that they remain in the Unit.  All 5 children/young people had therefore had alternative arrangements made.  The two units in Crewe had now been approved by Ofsted and a safe recruitment process was underway to staff the units.  A review of all residential provision in Cheshire East was to take place and the Head of Services for Children and Families suggested this may be a useful area for Scrutiny to consider as part of its Work Programme.

RESOLVED:  That

(a) the current draft Work Programme as submitted be approved;

(b) the following items be added onto the Work Programme as potential items:

      Children’s Centres – role, usage and services;

      Costs of transport for young people;

      Provision of support to families;

      School admissions process;

      Educational attainment across the Borough;

      Residential placements and Review of residential provision; and

(c) the Work Programme be considered further at the next meeting.

To note the current Forward Plan, identify any new items and to determine whether any further examination of new issues is appropriate

The Committee considered the items currently on the Forward Plan that related to Children and Family services.

A question was asked in relation to the transitional arrangements for children with Special Educational Needs who transferred between educational establishments and also when they transferred from children’s services into adult services.  In response the Committee was advised that officers were aware of the importance of having smooth transitional arrangements and that this should be helped by both children’s and adult’s social care services now being within one Directorate.

RESOLVED:  That the Forward Plan extracts be noted.

To note any consultations referred to the Committee from Cabinet and to determine whether any further action is appropriate.

There were no consultations from Cabinet for consideration at the meeting.

To up-date the Committee on matters raised in the Lord Laming Report on Child Protection, particularly in respect of how Safeguarding will operate across Cheshire East.

The report of the Services Manager, Children and Families, is attached for consideration.  Members may also find it helpful to bring their own copy of the Lord Laming Report to the meeting.

The Committee considered a report of the Strategic Director – People on the issues and actions being taken to ensure a comprehensive response from the Council to the issues raised by Lord Laming in his report “The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report”.

The report outlined that there was a significant level of national scrutiny of safeguarding and Lord Laming had made a number of recommendations for improvement.  A detailed Action Plan had been produced for Cheshire East to address both the recommendations of Lord Laming and those identified following the Annual Performance Assessment (APA) of Cheshire held in 2008 which related to:

      Assessment Timescales;

      Securing placement stability for Looked After Children;

      Adoption;

      Private fostering.

The APA was to be replaced by the Comprehensive Area Assessment and there would be an annual inspection of safeguarding.  No notice period would be given and up to 12 Inspectors would be involved, Government Office North West had advised that Cheshire East was likely to be one of the first authorities to be inspected.

The Committee was advised that overall, teams had exceeded the target for completing Assessments within the timescales required but it was important that Assessments were of a high quality as well as within timescale.  There had been an increase in children subject to a Child Protection Plan to 146 children.  The Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) had commissioned an external audit of all children under 5 years of age who were subject to a Child Protection Plan as those children were seen as the most vulnerable.  The results of this audit would be a useful tool for assessing quality of assessment and intervention and highlighting key actions required and may be appropriate for the Committee to consider when available.

The numbers of Looked After Children had risen over the past two years and there were currently 368 such children in Cheshire East.    It was important to secure the most appropriate placement so as to reduce the number of times a Looked After Child was moved between placements. 

Adoption rates remained low but the numbers of children subject to placement orders and placed for adoption (but not yet adopted) had both increased considerably.  It was hoped higher rates of adoption would result in the next year.

The procedure for private fostering arrangements, of which there were 6 in Cheshire East, was under review and a Champion had been identified. 

In relation to the Lord Laming report, a key aspect was to ensure that children in need had early access to effective specialist service as well as indicating that more needed to be done regarding safeguarding and child protection across all front line services.  An experienced social work practitioner had been commissioned by both Cheshire Councils to undertake a review of front line services to ensure there was sufficient capacity and that referral and assessments were timely and appropriate.  The findings for Cheshire East included:

      Staffing – the staffing group was very stable and committed with low turnover and few  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.