Witnesses:
Belinda Newth, Head of Quality & Experience
Will Balakrishnan, Head of Insight & Innovation
Frank Offer, Head of Market Strategy
Clare Curran, Cabinet Member for Children
Mary Lewis, Cabinet Member for Education
Declarations of Interest:
None
Key points
raised during the discussion:
-
Officers outlined the Children, Schools and Families
Commissioning plan, noting that it set out the challenges and
service delivery objectives for SEND services. It was highlighted
that this Plan feeds into the work of the Children and Young People
Partnership Strategy.
-
It was noted by officers that the service was
working closely with a significant number of partners to ensure
that the service was working to deliver in a cost effective
manner.
-
Several outcomes of the commissioning plan were
highlighted by officers as key points of improvement:
-
Improving outcomes for children and vulnerable
groups; and
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Managing growing demand
- It
was noted that there was an increase in needs based demand, but
that the service must work to manage this growing need with the
requirement to make budgetary savings. It was stressed that Early
Help would be a crucial aspect of ensuring delivery.
-
Officers highlighted that the service was shifting
to a strength based model of delivery, highlighting the Safer
Surrey practice guide as an example. It was explained that these
models would ensure that there was sufficient support available to
improve outcomes for service users.
-
The Committee questioned the proposed new approach
of working with families. It was highlighted that there was a
requirement to change the expectations of families and young people
to how services are offered and delivered. Officers and the Cabinet
Members stressed that this was a key concern, and that there was a
need for a significant culture change in the service to achieve
this. However, it was stressed that the service would maintain an
in depth level of assessment to determine the needs of a child and
what approach is working for the individual child. The Cabinet
Member for Children also highlighted that there would be a
fundamental change in how the service works with families, but that
the service was looking at more inclusive ways of working with them
to help resolve this issue.
-
The Committee questioned the disparity between the
quality of education in general in comparison with poorer outcomes
for vulnerable children. It was stressed that the service
recognised the contradiction between these two outcomes and that it
was a shortcoming of the service that needed to be addressed as
part of this new strategy of commissioning.
-
The Cabinet Member for Education noted that the
service, as part of its new Commissioning Plan, was moving to a
more data focussed approach. It was highlighted that there was a
greater requirement for provision of disadvantaged children and
that improved datasets would help the service focus on individual
children’s needs more effectively and that the service needed
to define the datasets used.
-
Officers responded to Member concerns regarding
places to meet for families and young people. It was stressed that
these were important for the wellbeing of both families and young
people, but noted that there was a need to look into new ways of
delivering these services. Officers explained that the service was
working to build closer networks with partners to deliver services
as part of the new commissioning plan.
-
Members highlighted the requirement for stability
for disadvantaged children, particularly with relation to school
places, but also with the need to ensure that accommodation is
appropriate to ensure that children have good outcomes. Officers
stressed that there was a need to ensure that school stability was
achieved for young people, noting that instability and absence in
schools was a key reason for poorer outcomes for disadvantaged
children. It was also noted by the Cabinet Member for Children that
the service was working closer with Early Help and accommodation
providers to ensure that accommodation was appropriate and
available for disadvantaged children to provide more positive
outcomes and avoid issues in future.
-
Members noted that there was a requirement for
£6.4 million in savings in 2018/19 and that this needed to be
reconciled with how the service presents its key performance
indicators (KPIs), noting that the KPIs for service plans detailed
within the overarching CSF Commissioning plan were not outlined in
the report. Officers stressed that the Commissioning Plan was a top
level strategic document and that there was other data available
within the individual commissioning plans which would be offered to
the committee.
-
Officers noted that savings planned for 2017/18 were
in progress, and that future savings were being identified. Members
questioned whether the service could provide additional information
to aid in measuring savings and targets set. Officers noted that
there was scope to improve the datasets within the strategy. It was
also suggested by officers that individual plans highlighted in the
report could be looked into more closely in future by the
Committee.
-
Officers confirmed that models of good practice in
other comparable local authorities and partners had been observed
and that officers had undertaken scoping visits to identify these
instances of good practice. The Cabinet Member for Children also
highlighted that they had been in contact with their peers in other
local authorities and had identified instances of good practice and
suggested ways to improve the Surrey offer.
-
The Committee suggested several amendments to the
report regarding its role as a public facing document noting
several areas of focus:
-
Members suggested that the language of the report
reflect children as individuals as part of the commissioning
plan;
-
It was noted that there should be a clear definition
of Child Sexual Exploitation and suggested
that it should be highlighted as unacceptable explicitly in the
report;
-
It was suggested that the report should be presented
as a public facing document and that officers note that there was a
requirement to ensure that members of the public understand the
commissioning process.
Recommendations:
The
Committee recommends that:
- The Chairmen to meet with service leads to scope which
Programmes and Commissioning Plans will be considered by the
Committee to assess progress against the CSF Strategic
Actions.
- That a summary of findings from these meetings will be
circulated with the Committee before the next meeting of the
Committee.