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Items
No.
Item
1.
Apologies for Absence and Substitutions
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To report any apologies for absence and
substitutions
Minutes:
Apologies were received from Committee Members
Liz Bowes, Robert Evans, Simon Parr, Alex Tear, Mike Wainhouse and from the Cabinet Member for All-Age
Learning Mary Lewis.
To agree the minutes of the meeting of the
Children and Education Select Committee (2017/18) as a true and
accurate record of proceedings.
Minutes:
The minutes of the previous meeting were
approved as a true and accurate record of proceedings.
3.
Declarations of Interest
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All
Members present are required to declare, at this point in the
meeting or
as
soon as possible thereafter:
i.any disclosable pecuniary interests and /
or;
ii.other interests arising under the Code of Conduct in
respect of any item(s) of business being considered at this
meeting
NOTES:
·Members are reminded that they must not participate
in any item where they have a disclosable pecuniary
interest;
·as well as an interest of the Member, this includes
any interest, of which the Member is aware, that relates to the
Member’s spouse or civil partner (or any person with whom the
Member is living as a spouse or civil partner); and
·Members with a significant personal interest may
participate in the discussion and vote on that matter unless that
interest could be reasonably regarded as prejudicial.
1.
A question was received from Cllr Chris Townsend. The question is
attached to the minutes as Annex A. There was a response received
from the Cabinet Member which is attached as Annex B.
2.
Cllr Chris Townsend asked a supplementary question, expressing
concern that this was still a
significant issue and questioning whether the current supply of
educational psychiatrists was being utilised in the most effective
manner. Officers explained that there was a struggle to recruit to
these posts, but that those that were in post was of good quality
and were being utilised well. Members asked whether there was a
potential for this issue to be looked at in greater detail in the
next year.
Recommendations:
1.
That an item of Educational Psychologists (EP) and the issues
facing the service regarding recruitment and utilisation of these
be brought to the Committee in early 2019.
Purpose of the Report:To set out the response of Children’s Services
to the areas of concern raised in the Ofsted Inspection of
Children’s Services which was published 16 May 2018 and to
show what action is being taken to address these.
Dave Hill, Executive Director
of Children, Families and Learning
Jacquie Burke, Interim Director for Change Safeguarding and Early
Help
Claire Burgess, Chair of the Surrey Safeguarding Children
Board
Clare Curran, Cabinet Member for Children
Key
points raised in the discussion:
Officers highlighted
the headlines of the report and noted that the Children, Families
and Learning Directorate was undertaking a comprehensive response
to the challenges faced in Children’s Services following the
report of Ofsted (2018). It was noted that the Department for
Education (DfE) had appointed a Commissioner to determine Surrey
County Council’s capability to improve. It was also explained
that draft feedback had endorsed the current plan of improvement,
but stressed that the challenges of longstanding and severe
deficits of services remained high.
Officers stressed
that the service was taking a whole system approach, including
partners in the redesign. It was explained that the service was too
risk adverse and that the universal level of service was too
incoherent. Officers gave evidence of planned improvement in this
area with the introduction of the “windscreen” levels
of need model which would create a clear, system-wide understanding
of thresholds. It was stressed that the service wanted to ensure a
clear, single practice model which could be followed by the service
and partners.
Officers highlighted
that they were introducing the “Family Safeguarding,”
“No Wrong Door” and “Mockingbird” models
across respective services to help improve current practice. It was
stressed that these models had been employed successfully to
improve in other comparable local authorities.
Officers noted the
significant changes in leadership structure and the requirement to
introduce high level strategic value in the service.
Members questioned
how the service was planning to improve working relationships with
partners and what the potential barriers to good partnership
working would be. Officers explained that they would be working
closely with statutory partners on the plans for service
transformation. It was also noted that the service was including
children and young people in the service redesign proposals to
ensure that they are engaged in the process.
The Director of
Children, Families and Learning stressed that Early Help
transformation and the better utilisation of Early Help to reduce
reliance on statutory services was essential to reducing cost and
improving outcomes for children. It was also highlighted that this
work could only be undertaken with partners and that it was
important for the service to closely work with them.
The Chairman of the
Surrey Safeguarding Children Board noted that there had been
significant engagement with partners and that statutory partners
were keen to be involved in the change process. It was noted that
previous barriers to partnership work were that individual services
had worked in silos and that this needed to be improved.
Members questioned
the importance of partners understanding of thresholds in
Children’s Services, which was an issue highlighted by the
Ofsted report as a key area of concern, and how the service was
planning to improve upon this. Officers explained that the
Directorate had revisited the levels ...
view the full minutes text for item 5.
Purpose of the Report: To
set out plans to establish an Academy to drive and
co-ordinate learning and development across the whole
children’s workforce in Surrey.
Minutes:
Witnesses:
Sheila Norris, Consultant on the Surrey Children’s
Services Academy Design
Dave Hill, Director of Children, Families and Learning
Clare Curran, Cabinet Member for Children
Key
points raised in the discussion:
Officers explained that the scope of the proposed
Academy was to work with the core and wider workforce and was
designed to be ambitious in its scope. It was explained that the
creation of the academy would develop the workforce and
ensure:
that it is confident and successful;
that it would create a single unified model for the
workforce and partners;
and that it would aim to change the culture of
working.
It was noted that the Academy was in its early
stages of development and concept design.
It was explained that the service was looking to
redesign the current learning and development offer and were
working alongside partners and staff to aid in shaping the design
of this model. Officers noted that there were plans to include
common areas of induction with partners and potential shared
leadership training.
Officers noted that the new Academy would, when
active in early 2019, fit into the Children, Families and Learning
Quality Assurance Directorate.
The Committee questioned whether it would be
possible to explain the role of Members and how they can be
utilised as a means of improving the support network for frontline
workers as part of the proposed learning and development
programme.
Members questioned retention figures and asked how
the Academy would work to resolve the current issue of retention of
social workers. It was noted that there was a trend of a drop off
in retention after two years of employment. Officers noted that
there was the current Newly Qualified Social Worker (NQSW) Academy
and that this was designed for NQSW’s only, with a drop off
in support after two years. While it was noted that the NQSW
Academy had received praise in the Ofsted report (2018), it was
explained that the new proposals hoped to expand upon this success.
It was explained that the new Academy was aimed to provide support
for staff and partners on a longer term basis, which aimed to
improve morale and long term retention.
Members questioned the performance indicators of the
new Academy; including the success criteria and potential response
to the proposals not meeting these criteria. It was noted that
success could be measured by retention of social care staff and
management improvement evidenced through audit. It was suggested
that these could be built into the launch of the Academy.
It was noted that officers had been looking at best
practice across similar models in other authorities, such as Essex
County Council, where a similar model had been implemented for
social workers only. It was noted that best practice in
implementing support and progression for staff and partners had
been looked at to help develop this project.
Officers noted that there was a potential for future
provision for the recruitment of apprentice social workers, noting
that the service was keen to explore ...
view the full minutes text for item 6.
Purpose of
report:To update the Committee on the
progress of Member Practice Conversations that have taken place so
far, analyse key themes identified and to outline a procedure for
future Practice Conversations to take place.
Minutes:
Witnesses:
Kay Hammond, Chairman of the Children and Education Select
Committee
Chris Botten, Vice Chairman of the Children and Education Select
Committee
Lesley Steeds, Member of the Children and Education Select
Committee
Key
points raised in the discussion:
Members noted that taking part in the practice
conversations was an interesting an informative
experience.
Members highlighted that there were several common
concerns raised by social workers, including caseloads, management
oversight and administrative issues. Members suggested that there
could be several quality of life improvements that could be made,
such as recruitment of administrative staff to help social workers
undertake administrative duties that they do not have the capacity
to undertake.
The Committee endorsed the idea of implementing
Member Practice Conversations on a regular basis, and asked whether
conversations could be held sooner than was scheduled. Officers
noted that this was possible and could be arranged for Committee
Members.
Recommendations:
It
was agreed:
That
Members endorsed the proposed plan to implement Member Practice
Conversations for the Committee,
That
actions and findings are reported quarterly to the Committee;
and
The
proposal for a programme of Member practice conversations for
2018/19.
Purpose of
report:To propose an Out of County
Placements Task and Finish Group to the committee based on the
terms of reference outlined and ask for Members to consider their
interest in joining the group.
Dave Hill, Executive Director of Children, Families and
Learning
Richard Plummer, Democratic Services Officer
Key
points raised in the discussion:
Members
endorsed the idea and scoping plan of the Out of County Placements
Task Group. Members stressed that this was a key area of concern
for the Council.
The
Executive Director noted that this was an ideal opportunity for the
Committee to feed into work that was going in within the
Directorate on this issue and that work should start on this Task
Group as soon as feasible.
The
Committee agreed the Membership of the task group to be the
following:
Members had no
additional comments on the forward work programme.
Members agreed the
proposal for future work on the Transition Task and Finish Group in
the forward plan and agreed that the Chairman would represent the
Committee in any future work.
10.
Date of the Next Meeting
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The
next meeting of the Select Committee will be held 16 November 2018
in the Ashcombe Suite at County Hall.
Minutes:
The next
public meeting of the Committee will be held at County Hall on 16
November 2018.
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