Issue - meetings

RESOLVED:

1.    That the progress made since publication of the Ofsted full inspection report on 14 May 2018 in transforming Children’s Services in Surrey was acknowledged and the implementation of the new structure and delivery of improvement work wherever it was needed was fully supported.

2.    That a further review of progress made on the implementation of the new structure and the delivery of the Children’s Improvement Plan following the April review by the Commissioner and the subsequent publication of his report and recommendations to the Department for Education and Secretary of State come back to Cabinet.

Reason for Decision:

The Department of Education (DfE) appointed Children’s Commissioner will be reviewing progress in April 2019 and reporting to the DfE and Secretary of State in early May 2019. 

The new structure for the Children, Families, Lifelong Learning & Culture directorate will be in place from April 2019 with the services progressing to the next stage of the transformation and improvement journey as described in paragraph 19.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Children & Education Select Committee]

The Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Families introduced an update report on the progress of the service restructure and transformation work to develop and implement the new model for Surrey’s Children’s Services. She highlighted the action chart and some of the examples of improvements detailed in the report.  She stated that all of the children’s improvement work had been undertaken by looking outwards as the Council had been deemed too insular in the past.  Whilst much work had been undertaken in the last year it was acknowledged that this was the foundation stage and there was still much work to be done.  She also later referred to the sharing of good practice between Adult Social Care and Children’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities as evidence that silos were breaking down in the Council and that good practice was being shared internally.

In response to a Member question about the use of a family safeguarding model the Cabinet Member explained that this model was an evidence based model that was approved by the Department for Education who had proposed to roll the model out nationally.

The Leader gave credit to the Executive Director and staff who were focussed on achieving the necessary outcomes for an improved service. He praised several aspects of the work including self-audit and the service academy.

The Deputy Cabinet Member for Environment & Waste stated that some reports had been critical of all agencies and not just the Council and asked if the report recognised the coming together of other agencies.  The Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Families responded that improvement relied on partner agencies working with the Council and that partners were getting on board.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the progress made since publication of the Ofsted full inspection report on 14 May 2018 in transforming Children’s Services in Surrey was acknowledged and the implementation of the new structure and delivery of improvement work wherever it was needed was fully supported.

2.    That a further review of progress made on the implementation of the new structure and the delivery of the Children’s Improvement Plan following the April review by the Commissioner and the subsequent publication of his report and recommendations to the Department for Education and Secretary of State come back to Cabinet.

Reason for Decision:

The Department of Education (DfE) appointed Children’s Commissioner will be reviewing progress in April 2019 and reporting to the DfE and Secretary of State in early May 2019. 

The new structure for the Children, Families, Lifelong Learning & Culture directorate will be in place from April 2019 with the services progressing to the next stage of the transformation and improvement journey as described in paragraph 19.