Public Document Pack AB CHILDREN AND EDUCATION SCRUTINY COMMITTEE THURSDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2018 7.00 PM Bourges/Viersen Room - Town Hall AGENDA Page No 1. Apologies for Absence 2. Declarations of Interest and Whipping Declarations At this point Members must declare whether they have a disclosable pecuniary interest, or other interest, in any of the items on the agenda, unless it is already entered in the register of members’ interests or is a “pending notification “ that has been disclosed to the Solicitor to the Council. Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration. 3. Minutes of the Children and Education Scrutiny Committee Meeting 3 - 14 Held on 20 September 2018 4. Call In of any Cabinet, Cabinet Member or Key Officer Decisions The decision notice for each decision will bear the date on which it is published and will specify that the decision may then be implemented on the expiry of 3 working days after the publication of the decision (not including the date of publication), unless a request for call-in of the decision is received from any two Members of the relevant Scrutiny Committee. If a request for call-in of a decision is received, implementation of the decision remains suspended for consideration by the relevant Scrutiny Committee. 5. Update On Implementation Of The Permanency Service 15 - 20 6. Send Reforms Update 21 - 28 7. Development of Shared Approaches and Resources In Children's 29 - 34 Services To Date And Consideration of Possible Further Developments 8. Education Review Monitoring Report 35 - 56 There is an induction hearing loop system available in all meeting rooms. Some of the systems are infra-red operated, if you wish to use this system then please contact Paulina Ford on 01733 453508 as soon as possible. Did you know? All Peterborough City Council's meeting agendas are available online or via the modern.gov app. Help us achieve our environmental protection aspirations and view this agenda online instead of printing it. 9. Forward Plan of Executive Decisions 57 - 104 10. Work Programme 2018/2019 105 - 112 11. Date of Next Meeting 28 November 2018 - Joint Scrutiny of the Budget Meeting 3 January 2019 – Children and Education Scrutiny Committee Emergency Evacuation Procedure – Outside Normal Office Hours In the event of the fire alarm sounding all persons should vacate the building by way of the nearest escape route and proceed directly to the assembly point in front of the Cathedral. The duty Beadle will assume overall control during any evacuation, however in the unlikely event the Beadle is unavailable, this responsibility will be assumed by the Committee Chair. Recording of Council Meetings: Any member of the public may film, audio-record, take photographs and use social media to report the proceedings of any meeting that is open to the public. Audio recordings of meetings may be published on the Council’s website. A protocol on this facility is available at: http://democracy.peterborough.gov.uk/ecSDDisplay.aspx?NAME=Protocol%20on%20the%20use%20of%20Recor ding&ID=690&RPID=2625610&sch=doc&cat=13385&path=13385 Committee Members: Councillors: J Goodwin (Chair), S Bashir, G Casey, A Dowson, A Ellis, M Farooq, S Lane, M Mahabadi, D Over (Vice Chairman), B Rush and B Saltmarsh Substitutes: Councillors: J R Fox, A Iqbal, D Jones, A Shaheed and J Stokes Co-opted Members Note: The following Education Co-opted members are Members of the Scrutiny Committee and vote when education matters are discussed. Peter Cantley, Peterborough Diocesan Board of Education Flavio Vettese, (Deputy Director of Schools), Roman Catholic Church, Diocese of East Anglia Vacancy, Parent Governor Representative Vacancy, Parent Governor Representative Julie O’Connor, Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (sub for Flavio Vettese) Liz Youngman, Peterborough Diocesan Board of Education (sub for Peter Cantley) Non Statutory Co-optees Alistair Kingsley, Independent Co-opted Member (Non-voting) Rizwan Rahemtulla, Independent Co-opted Member (Non-voting) Parish Councillor Susie Lucas, Independent Co-opted Member (Non-voting) Parish Councillor Junaid Bhatti, Independent Co-opted Member (Non-voting) Further information about this meeting can be obtained from Paulina Ford on telephone 01733 452508 or by email – [email protected] MINUTES OF THE CHILDREN AND EDUCATION SCRUTINY COMMITTEE MEETING HELD AT 7PM ON THURSDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2018 BOURGES/VIERSEN ROOMS, TOWN HALL, PETERBOROUGH Committee Councillors J Goodwin (Chair), S Bashir, G Casey, A Dowson, Members Present: A Ellis, M Farooq, S Lane, M Mahabadi, D Over (Vice-Chairman) B Rush, B Saltmarsh Co-opted Members: P Cantley, A Kingsley, Parish Councillors J Bhatti and S Lucas Also Present: Councillor Sam Smith, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services Cllr Lynne Ayres, Cabinet Member for Skills, Education and University Ben Chapman, Peterborough Youth Council & Deputy Youth MP Erika Nareikaite, I.T. Officer - Peterborough Youth Council Officers Present: Russell Wate QPM - Chair of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Safeguarding Children Board Belinda Evans, Customer Services Manager Gary Perkins - Assistant Director, Education Lou Williams, Service Director, Children and Safeguarding Karen Dunleavy – Democratic Services Officer David Beauchamp – Democratic Services Officer 12. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Apologies for absence were received from Flavio Vetesse (East Anglia Roman Catholic Diocese Education Co-opted Member) and Rizwan Rahemtulla (Independent Co-opted Member representing the Muslim Communities). 13. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST AND WHIPPING DECLARATIONS Agenda item 8, Outcome of Ofsted Inspection of Peterborough's Children's Services, Service Director report and Portfolio Holder. Councillor Saltmarsh declared that she had a non-statutory disclosable interest as a Member of The Adolescent and Children's Trust (TACT). Following advice from the Democratic Services Officer, Councillor Saltmarsh declared that her non-statutory disclosable interest was not of a significant nature and was not likely to prejudice her judgement of the public interest and therefore remained in the meeting for the item. 14. MINUTES OF THE CHILDREN AND EDUCATION SCRUTINY COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON 12 JULY 2018. 3 The minutes of the Children and Education Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 12 July 2018 were agreed as a true and accurate record. 15. CALL IN OF ANY CABINET, CABINET MEMBER OR KEY OFFICER DECISIONS There were no requests for call-in to consider. 16. CAMBRIDGE & PETERBOROUGH SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN ANNUAL REPORT 2017-18 The Chair of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Safeguarding Board accompanied by the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services introduced the annual report which highlighted the significant events during the last year and summarised the work of the Safeguarding Children Board. It highlighted areas of good practice and included statistical information regarding performance. The Children and Education Scrutiny Committee debated the report and in summary, key points raised and responses to questions included: ● Members referred specifically to the figure of 18.7% of Peterborough children living in poverty mentioned on page 27 and to the page 28 which discussed the high levels of deprivation in Peterborough and requested further detail. Officers responded that deprivation and poverty were dealt with by a different sub-group that reported in to the safeguarding board. Deprivation was tackled through the work on neglect and stated that deprivation was an issue for the whole city, not just specific areas. The information was intended to put Peterborough into context rather than referring to the activity of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough safeguarding board who aim to tackle neglect among all children and young people. ● The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services highlighted the Council’s Troubled Families Agenda which included helping parents back into employment or training and helping to ensure children go to school. This agenda did specifically address the demographic concerns raised by members about neglect in specific areas. ● The success of the Local Authority was better measured by the amount of time that a child spent on a child protection plan rather than the number of times. A child who had been on a plan for more than twelve months would be concerning as it would suggest that the safety plan was not working or they were other actions that needed to be taken. ● There was ‘flow’ of children coming on and off child protection plans so the numbers do not always correlate. ● It was more important to measure what actions were being taken to help children on child protection plans rather than the fact they went on them in the first place. The Local authority should continually assess if children were being taken off before they were safe or being kept on too long in which case the local authority should monitor what the plan was doing to keep them safe. ● Members expressed concern about the amount of time that children were on plans and suggested that they were not receiving the level of care needed. Officers responded that they do scrutinise and challenge this area on a continuous basis. The number of children on child protection plans had dropped in Peterborough over four years to be among the statistical norm. ● The Service Director for Children and Safeguarding added that good performance was indicated by not having many child on child protection plans for longer than 12 months. There were currently 35 subject to child protection plans for 12-15 months, none for 12- 18 months and none for longer than this. ● Ofsted were complimentary about the child protection plans, processes and interventions and that performance was good. 4 ● Members stated that the joint nature of the report was beneficial as it gave an opportunity to compare figures between Peterborough and Cambridgeshire. ● Members queried why there were significantly more type 1 disposals in Peterborough than Cambridgeshire. Officers responded that there was no consistency between Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to enable adequate comparisons.