To
agree the minutes of the previous meeting of the Children,
Families, Lifelong Learning and Culture Select Committee as a true
and accurate record of proceedings.
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.
Chris Botten and Richard Walsh
declared a personal interest in relation to Item 5. This interest
did not prevent the Members from participating in the
discussion.
Declaration: Members of the
Corporate Parenting Board
1.The deadline for Member’s questions is 12.00pm
four working days before the meeting (Friday, 5 March
2021).
2.The deadline for public questions is seven days
before the meeting(Thursday, 4 March
2021)
3.The deadline for petitions was 14 days before the
meeting, and no petitions have been received.
Due
to the COVID-19 pandemic, all questions and petitions received will
be responded to in writing and will be recorded within the minutes
of the meeting.
To provide an overview of the service provided
to looked after children and care leavers. To include the support
and challenge provided by the Corporate Parenting Board and a
summary of the data in key areas as compared with national data for
the year ending March 2020.
Mary Lewis,
Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families
Tina
Benjamin, Director – Corporate Parenting
Key points raised during the discussion:
1.The Director – Corporate Parenting
presented local and national key performance data, for the year
ending March 2020, relating to children who had been looked after
for 12 months or more. The Cabinet Member reminded the Committee
that this was an Annual Report that needed to compare with other
Local Authorities and more up to data was available and provided.
For example, the Corporate Parenting Board (CPB) received and
reviewed up-to-date performance data every six weeks, whilst the
Chairman and Vice-Chairmen of the Select Committee received the
performance compendium every month and met with officers four times
a year to discuss service performance.
2.The Cabinet Member stated that during the
COVID-19 pandemic, Corporate Parenting was more outward facing to
partners and endeavoured to improve joint working. The Cabinet
Member thanked officers for their dedication over the past year and
the Director added that she was proud of the way that staff had
worked throughout the pandemic.
3.The Director summarised the data on the
rate of Children in Care. There was a small increase in the number
of Children in Care in Surrey between 2019 and 2020, which
reflected the national trend. The rate of Children in Care per
10,000 0-17-year olds in Surrey (37/10000) was considered low and
did not change between 2019 and 2020. Due to Department for
Education reporting timescales, the data presented included only
the first two weeks of the pandemic; thus, the impact of COVID-19
was not evident therein. The Director expected significant changes
to be highlighted in the 2021 annual report.
4.The percentage of Unaccompanied
Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) decreased (by 5.3%) between 2019 and
2020 which, again, reflected national decreases.
5.As of 31 March 2020, the majority of
Children in Care in Surrey were placed with Foster Carers (70% as
of March 2020). From 2019-2020, those placed in Children’s
Homes increased by 3% (to 21%) whilst those in Adoptive Placements
decreased (from 31 children to 28). The Director stated the
importance of having a care plan in place for all Children in Care.
There had been a greater decrease in the number Children in Care
placed in adoption in Surrey than nationally.
6.Placing children in county or within 20
miles of their home was a priority for the Service that presented
significant challenges. It was important that children stayed close
to their friends and families and attended Surrey schools. It was
important to report both of the measures - children placed within
Surrey, and children placed within 20 miles - because a child
placed, for example, two miles into Hampshire could still attend a
Surrey school and remain in contact with their support network. The
proportion of children placed within 20 miles of their home
increased between 2019 and 2020 (51% to 53%). The proportion of
children placed within Surrey increased (from 48% to 51%) between
...
view the full minutes text for item 14/21
The Select Committee to understand the role of
adult and community education, including in respect of COVID-19
recovery, the available provision and how it is funded and
delivered, and the challenges and opportunities faced by the
council in this area.
Liz Mills, Director –
Education, Learning and Culture
Francis Lawlor, Interim Head of
Surrey Adult Learning Service/ Service Manager, Surrey Adult
Learning
Jayne Dickinson, Chief
Executive Officer (College Group) and Principal (East Surrey
College)
Key points raised during the discussion:
A Member asked what barriers typically made it more
difficult for adults to participate in education and training and
how adult learners were supported to overcome those barriers. The
Director explained that adult learning offered a range of benefits
to participants, including skills development, enhanced
productivity, career progression and improved health and wellbeing.
There werea broad range of barriers to
adults engaging in education and learning, such as language,
disabilities, disadvantaged backgrounds, ability to travel, access
to technology, anxiety, and knowing what was available. The Service
was constantly looking at the feedback from learners to try and
understand how to make the offer as impactful and accessible as
possible.
The COIVD-19 pandemic
provided the Adult Learning Service with an opportunity to remodel
and rethink the operation and delivery of its services across the
county to better connect with skills development, increase
participation, and ensure that economic changes were well
understood and linked to employment opportunities.
During the pandemic,
Surrey Adult Learning (SAL) was required to cease face-to-face
teaching and the Service diversified its offer quickly to
successfully deliver remote learning and improve digital skills.
Finding alternative ways of delivering adult learning provision was
a big learning curve that generated new ways of working and
presented a wide range of opportunities for the Service by
increasing accessibility and reach into communities. The Principal
– East Surrey College (ESC) agreed that remote learning
brought more people into education and encouraged those who had
previously not considered upskilling or who were worried about
their employment status. ESC was involved in two youth hubs for
19-24 year olds, and was working with local district and borough
councils and the Department of Work and
Pensions to ensure that this cohort was not left behind. Digital
skills developed significantly for students and teachers during the
pandemic and more people than ever had enrolled in teacher training
courses. The Service Manager added that during COVID-19 an
increasing number of learners wanted to have more involvement in
the teaching of the curriculum and pushed their teacher more, and
those with learning difficulties and vulnerabilities had also
started to shape and provide input into the curriculum.
ESC was a vocational
college that focused on employability and skills development,
career progression and retention, and entry into jobs. The college
also focused on social engagement and many students undertook a
range of volunteering and leisure courses.The majority of adult learners at ESC were enrolled on skills or
basic skills programmes to help them get into work or progress onto
the next stage of education. There were 300 adult learners studying
four programmes over two years, adult apprentices, students
studying for their Higher National Certificate and professional
courses, and a large number ...
view the full minutes text for item 15/21
The report provides an update on the
council’s cultural services, the response to and impact of
COVID-19 on frontline services. The report also provides
information about future opportunities and direction of cultural
services.
Marie Snelling, Executive
Director – Communities and Transformation
Susan Wills, Acting Assistant
Director –Culture, Libraries &
Registration
The
Chairman welcomed the recently appointed Cabinet Member for
Communities to the meeting and asked what his aspirations were for
Cultural Services.The Cabinet Member was
excited about the work being done to improve, evolve and expand the
cultural experience for residents of Surrey.
The report
referred toincome lost due to the COVID-19
pandemic and Members asked about the short- and medium-term
implications of this for the Service and whether there were any
planned savings. The Executive Director stated that the pandemic
had and continued to have a major impact on the delivery of
frontline Cultural Services. A loss of £1.5m over the year
was largely due tothe closure of many of the
Service’s income generating services (for example music
tuition in schools). Covid grants from
central government substituted some of this loss and the Service
estimated that it would need to recover approximately £800k
through efficiencies the following year. This deficit wassubject to change as many of the Directorate’s
services depended on customer behaviour and how individuals
accessed services after lockdown. Therefore, close monitoring and
flexibility was important, and the Service worked with the Finance
department to ensure that scenario planning could evolve with the
easing of lockdown restrictions and as patterns of resident
behaviour could be discerned. The Service had put in place a range
of mitigating actions to recover income, if needed, and was looking
at how it could diversify and increase income across a number of
services. It was also looking at measures to reduce back office
costs whilst increasing efficiency to ensure that front line
delivery was not impacted.
The Service
ambition was not just focused on recovery but on growing and
securing additional funding for services. The Assistant Director
informed Members that the Service was looking at and learning from
good practice in other parts of the country by working and building
relationships with colleagues from other Local Authorities and
organisations such as the British Library. Overall, the plan was
ambitious, but the Executive Director and Assistant Director were
confident that it could be achieved.It was
difficult to estimate how many years it would take to recover
losses as it would depend on future public interaction with
services. The Executive Director reiterated Members that
comprehensive scenario planning had been undertaken.
The
delivery of Cultural Services was flexible during the COVID-19
pandemic, with the use of digital and technology increasing choice,
accessibility and efficiency, reducing costs and improving the
offer and customer usage. The Service was committed to
incorporating this new, virtual way of service delivery
post-pandemic and wanted to build on the online events that were
quickly developed from scratch during the first lockdown. The
online services enabled the Service to continue its support of
children’s learning and reading in a fun and interactive way,
and provided an extra resource accessible to children throughout
the school ...
view the full minutes text for item 16/21
Marie Snelling, Executive
Director – Communities and Transformation
Susan Wills, Assistant Director
–Culture, Libraries &
Registration
Key
points raised during the discussion:
The
Executive Director introduced the report and explained that the
Libraries Transformation Programme (‘the Programme’)
aligned with the council’s wider commitment to transform
services for the benefit of residents, whilst supporting the
council’s ‘empowering communities’ agenda which
sought to stimulate local engagement and put residents at the heart
of designing and delivery local services. The ambition of the
programme was to develop modern, inclusive libraries that had
strong community relationships and supported the local economy and
skills agenda. The Programme sought to achieve a number of key
outcomes: improved user experience of a positive, welcoming,
accessible service; increased and improved service offer and
initiatives; a more inclusive and relevant service; increased
partnership-working; a greener library model; improved service
efficiency and innovation; and a stronger and more diverse
workforce. Due to COVID-19, some of the transformation work had
slowed down, such as the co-design work with residents.
Nevertheless, a great number of achievements were still made during
the pandemic and the Service delivered £2.3m of efficiencies
across the programme whilst improving frontline services. The
Programme was complex and would take a number of years to deliver,
but the Executive Director was confident that transformation would
provide residents with excellent spaces to work and
learn.
A Member requested further information regarding the
funding of the Transformation Programme. The Director explained
that the Service delivered £2.3m of efficiencies and there
was an additional £600k built in for 2021/22, with £4m
being delivered over the lifetime of the programme through to
2025.
The
Programme was intended to provide users with better value for money
and efficiencies were being delivered through a number of means,
for example reduction in staffing costs due to a new workforce
model. To date, the Service spent £800k on the Programme and
investment for 2021/22 was projected to be £650k. The
Executive Director was confident that financial savings and returns
on investment would be made and would increase moving into the next
phase of the programme, which focussed on codesigning services
within the local community. The Executive Director stressed that
this was not a savings programme, rather savings were a consequence
of transformation.
A Member
noted that the three categories of library proposed in the
2020-2025 Strategy were not mentioned in the report and asked
whether the introduction of those categories would proceed. The
Assistant Director responded that the Service was committed to the
delivery of 52 libraries and the three categories as stated in the
report. Larger libraries were to be co-located with partners where
possible and flagship libraries would accommodate additional
services and functions. The approach still needed refining, but the
Assistant Director stated the importance of taking a tailored
approach for each place and community.
The types of services, facilities and built
environments that residents could expect of libraries following the
transformation were not all predetermined and depended
...
view the full minutes text for item 17/21
For the Select Committee to review the
attached actions and recommendations tracker and forward work
programme, making suggestions for additions or amendments as
appropriate.
1.
The Chairman noted outstanding actions and requested that the
officers responsible provide their responses to the Democratic
Services Assistant in a timely manner.
PDF 209 KB