Councillors and committees

Agenda and decisions

Venue: Committee Room C, County Hall, Penrhyn Road, Kingston Upon Thames, KT1 2DN

Contact: Andrew Baird 

Items
No. Item

1.

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)

    ·         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.

2.

PROCEDURAL MATTERS

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2a

Members' Questions

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    The deadline for Members’ questions is 12pm four working days before the meeting (02/11/2018).

     

2b

Public Questions

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    The deadline for public questions is seven days before the meeting (01/11/18).

     

2c

Petitions

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

     

3.

Expert Assessment Waiver, Children and Young People Safeguarding pdf icon PDF 160 KB

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    Surrey County Council must meet its statutory obligation to ensure that decisions about children and their families are made using robust information. Often this information is obtained through a range of expert assessments (psychological, cognitive and parenting assessments) that support care planning decisions.

     

    The level of demand for expert assessments in Surrey is very high and Surrey County Council’s in-house Children’s Social Care teams are finding it challenging to meet this statutory and in some cases court ordered demand. To cope with this demand and ensure our statutory duties are met, Children’s Social Care teams have been spot purchasing specialist external experts to carry out these assessments. The level of spot purchasing now requires a waiver if it is to continue, whilst new arrangements are developed. 

     

    Decision:

    It was agreed that a nine month waiver for expert assessments is approved to

    allow time for work to take place that will provide a better solution to spot

    purchasing.