Issue - meetings

RESOLVED:

1.    That the progress made delivering the Children’s Improvement programme and the findings from the recent Children’s Commissioner Visit and the fourth Ofsted Monitoring Visit be noted.

2.    That the on-going scrutiny arrangements of the improvement programme for the next 6-12 months as described in paragraphs 16-24 of the submitted report be reviewed and agreed.

3.       That Cabinet would review progress in May 2020 on the delivery of the Children’s improvement programme and the findings from the April 2020 Ofsted Monitoring Visit be agreed.

Reason for decision:

The next Ofsted Monitoring Visit will take place on 7 and 8 April 2020 with publication of the inspector’s findings in late-April 2020. At this point the service is expected to have greater certainty on whether the Surrey’s children’s services will be ready for a full re-inspection from Ofsted this year.

As outlined in the main section of the report, the improvement programme is progressing well with Surrey’s children’s services successfully delivering the actions from the improvement plan to address Ofsted recommendations from the 2018 full inspection. There are comprehensive scrutiny arrangements already in place for 2020 with involvement from council officers, Members, partner agencies, the Department for Education and other key stakeholders.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Children, Families, Lifelong Learning & Culture Select Committee]

The Cabinet Member for Children, Young people & Families highlighted several areas of the latest Commissioner’s report and the Ofsted inspection letter.  The Commissioner’s view was that “sustainable improvement is underway in the Authority and that an alternative delivery model no longer needs to be a consideration”.  Agreement from the Minister on the Commissioner’s recommendation and the publication of the Commissioner’s report was awaited.  She also explained that there was still much work to do and keeping up the pace would be a challenge.  The Commissioner would become an advisory role to Surrey. 

In response to a question about the ‘alternative delivery model’ the Cabinet Member explained that this meant if the Commissioner had found that there was no capacity in the council to take forward improvements then the service could be given over to a charity trust for example.  It was also recognised that improvements needed to be made in the experience of those accessing our Special Education Needs & Disabilities services for children and young people and that there was a focus on that improvement also taking place.

Several Member spoke in praise of the work undertaken by the Chief Executive, the Strategic Director and officers in getting this progress.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the progress made delivering the Children’s Improvement programme and the findings from the recent Children’s Commissioner Visit and the fourth Ofsted Monitoring Visit be noted.

2.    That the on-going scrutiny arrangements of the improvement programme for the next 6-12 months as described in paragraphs 16-24 of the submitted report be reviewed and agreed.

3.       That Cabinet would review progress in May 2020 on the delivery of the Children’s improvement programme and the findings from the April 2020 Ofsted Monitoring Visit be agreed.

Reason for decision:

The next Ofsted Monitoring Visit will take place on 7 and 8 April 2020 with publication of the inspector’s findings in late-April 2020. At this point the service is expected to have greater certainty on whether the Surrey’s children’s services will be ready for a full re-inspection from Ofsted this year.

As outlined in the main section of the report, the improvement programme is progressing well with Surrey’s children’s services successfully delivering the actions from the improvement plan to address Ofsted recommendations from the 2018 full inspection. There are comprehensive scrutiny arrangements already in place for 2020 with involvement from council officers, Members, partner agencies, the Department for Education and other key stakeholders.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Children, Families, Lifelong Learning & Culture Select Committee]