Issue - meetings

To receive any questions or petitions.

Notes:

1.    The deadline for Member’s questions is 12.00pm four working days before the meeting (Tuesday, 11 January).

2.    The deadline for public questions is seven days before the meeting(Monday, 10 January)

3.    The deadline for petitions was 14 days before the meeting, and no petitions have been received.

The public retain their right to submit questions for written response, with such answers recorded in the minutes of the meeting; questioners may participate in meetings to ask a supplementary question. Petitioners may address the Committee on their petition for up to three minutes. Guidance will be made available to any member of the public wishing to speak at a meeting.

Witnesses:

Tina Benjamin, Director – Corporate Parenting

Matt Ansell, Director – Family Resilience and Safeguarding

Liz Mills, Director – Education and Lifelong Learning

1. A question had been received from a resident, Maria Esposito.

2. As a supplementary question, the questioner asked what happened when there the systems in place failed. She added that systems were prone to failure and that the boundaries of services were not joined up.

3. The Director for Corporate Parenting responded that there was little that could be added to the written response as it described the systems in place. She apologised for the occasions where failures had occurred.

4. A question had been received from Fiona Davidson.

5. Asking a supplementary question, the Member queried whether November 2020 was the latest data available.

6. The Director for Family Resilience and Safeguarding apologised for the typographical error and explained that the data was from November 2021.

7. A second question had been received from Fiona Davidson.

8. The Member, as a supplementary question, highlighted that data provided in response to an action from the October 2021 meeting of the Select Committee showed that approximately 51% of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans were completed in the south west quadrant, whereas data in the answer to her current question showed a decline in timeliness. The Member asked whether improvement had occurred, as the narrative in the response to her question stated.

9. The Director for Education and Lifelong Learning replied that improvement had taken place, although there was a dip in performance in the autumn term, which was explained in the answer. The Director added that a report on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) was to come to the Select Committee in April 2022, when further information could be provided on performance improvements. 

10. The Member highlighted that data had been requested as part of a supplementary question at the meeting of the Select Committee in December 2021 and had not yet been provided. The Chairman noted this and requested that it be followed up by officers.