No. |
Item |
26. |
Declarations of Interest
Councillors will be asked to make any
declarations of interest in respect to items on the agenda.
Minutes:
There were no declarations of interest.
|
27. |
Minutes PDF 140 KB
To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting
held on 12 September 2023.
Minutes:
The minutes from the meeting that took place
on 12 September 2023 were agreed as a true and accurate
record.
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28. |
Chair's Urgent Business
To receive reports on business which in the
opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent
consideration.
Minutes:
There were no items of Chair’s Urgent
Business.
|
29. |
Tracking Decisions PDF 181 KB
Minutes:
The Committee agreed to note the tracking
decisions log.
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30. |
Council Tax Exemption for Plymouth City Council Foster Carers
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Laing (Cabinet Member for
Children’s Social Care, Culture, Events and Communications)
supported by Nigel Denning (Interim Service Director for Children,
Young People and Families) presented the report to the
Committee.
a)
|
Questions and discussion points from the
Committee included:
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b)
|
Council Tax exemptions for Plymouth City
Council foster carers;
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c)
|
On-going work to formulate a new recruitment
and retention offer for Plymouth City Council foster carers;
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d)
|
Aims to redress the imbalance of Independent
Sector foster carers to Plymouth City Council foster carers which
pressured the Council’s budgets year on year;
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e)
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High cost specialist placements and impacts on
budgets and with good recruitment, this could be addressed;
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f)
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Bringing more children back to the city from
their Independent sector foster placements which were throughout
the country;
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g)
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Life Centre Membership offers;
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h)
|
The upcoming foster carer summit which would
involve foster carers, councillors and cared for young people;
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i)
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New training packages for foster carers which
would include therapeutic parenting;
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j)
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How the Local Authority engaged with people
expressing an interest in becoming a foster carer;
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k)
|
The Department for Education’s virtual
hub which would take over all marketing and advertising of
recruitment of foster carers in the southwest in April 2024;
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l)
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Cost of living impacts on foster carers;
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m)
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Planning permission offers;
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Action: Councillors from the
Education and Children’s Social Care Overview and Scrutiny
Committee to be involved in the Foster Carer summit.
Action: Councillors to be
distributed data as to how many foster carers from them having
interest to then becoming a Plymouth City Council approved foster
carer.
The Committee unanimously agreed to:
1.
Recommends to Cabinet that a Council Tax Exemption for foster
carers was considered following the
conclusion of the consultation on proposed new Support and
Retention Offer to Our Foster Carers.
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31. |
Children’s Improvement Plan and Highlight Report
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Laing (Cabinet Member for
Children’s Social Care, Culture, Events and Communications)
supported by David Haley (Director of Children’s Services)
and Nigel Denning (Interim Service Director for Children, Young
People and Families) presented the report to the
Committee.
Questions and discussions points from the
Committee included:
a)
|
Strong political support and was a key
priority of the Council to rectify;
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b)
|
Partnership working at the Front Door of
Children’s Social Care and the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub
(MASH) to ensure appropriate contacts were made at the right
time;
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c)
|
Gaining consent from families;
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d)
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Stabilisation of the workforce and assurance
the service had the right culture in place to bring about change
for quality and appropriate levels of response;
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e)
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Staff posts had increased to ensure quality
and consistency of work;
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f)
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Reduction in caseloads for better quality and
timeliness of assessments and overall work;
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g)
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Recruitment of a managed team to ensure
appropriate capacity in the Children’s Social Work
service;
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h)
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Permanent recruitment to key management posts
continued;
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i)
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Threshold and consent training for
practitioners across the city had been successful;
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j)
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Staff morale was increasing;
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k)
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Quality of live data capture had
improved;
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l)
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Single assessment timeliness;
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m)
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Practice week within Children’s Social
Care;
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n)
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Involvement of partners across the city at the
Plymouth Children’s Improvement Board which included
Department for Education representation and the Sector Led
Improvement Partner, Dorset County Council;
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o)
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Agency staff within the workforce;
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p)
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High proportion of staff that were newly
qualified social workers and social workers from oversees;
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q)
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Timeliness of Initial Child Protection
Conferences;
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r)
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Improvement of management capacity within the
MASH which was appropriately resourced for the level of contacts
and referrals received;
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s)
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Increases in unplanned admissions into
care;
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t)
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Leaders for Excellence program.
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Action: Councillors to be
invited to Practice week sessions with staff.
The Committee agreed to note the
report.
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32. |
Child Exploitation Update
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Laing (Cabinet Member for
Children’s Social Care, Culture, Events and Communications)
supported by David Haley (Director of Children’s Services)
and Nigel Denning (Interim Service Director for Children, Young
People and Families) presented the report to the Committee.
Questions and discussions points from the
Committee included:
a)
|
County Lines and its disruption to prevent
Child Exploitation;
|
b)
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Adolescent Safety Framework and required
improvements;
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c)
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Child Sexual Exploitation in the city;
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d)
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Children and Young People’s use of vapes
within schools and subsequent work with schools and Health
partners;
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e)
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A spike in the number of missing episodes for
children and young people;
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f)
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Airbnb and an issue around children/young
people using those provisions for underage parties;
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g)
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Training packages available to practitioners
across the city;
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h)
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SHARP and the services it provides to young
people in the city;
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Actions:
1.
|
The Committee to hear what outcomes
were implemented following the
completion of the Children’s Society Missing Children
response assessment tool.
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2.
|
David Haley to discuss with John Clements the
cost of training and to ascertain whether there was an issue in
organisations not undertaking training due to associated costs.
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3.
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The Plymouth Safeguarding Partnership would
have an agenda item on online exploitation and
how the partnership was providing the right materials and messaging
to parents in the city.
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4.
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All Councillors would be
provided with advice and guidance if they were being asked
where to turn to for support in relation to substance
misuse.
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5.
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Further investigations would take place as to
whether exploitation within Airbnb accommodations was a significant
issue for the city which would inform
Plymouth’s response if necessary.
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Recommendation: Faith Groups
and Voluntary Sector organisations to be part of the Plymouth
Safeguarding Partnership Board.
Recommendation: Child
Exploitation would become a yearly report at the Education and
Children’s Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
The Committee agreed to note the report.
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33. |
Q2 2023/24 Performance Report
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Paul Stephens (Performance Advisor) presented
the report to the Committee.
Questions and discussions points from the
Committee included:
a)
|
Data on categories of children and young
people on Child Protections (CP) plans;
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b)
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Enhanced training for practitioners around
sexual abuse which may have driven up numbers of children on CP
plans under that category;
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c)
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Absence monitoring data and work to remedy
absences across the City;
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d)
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The reduction in pupils in Key Stage 4
achieving five plus in English and Maths which was due to a return
to exams following COVID;
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e)
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Children and young people in disadvantaged had
struggled more with the reintroduction of exams;
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f)
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Increase in the number of young people seeking
education, employment and training (SEET);
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g)
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Costs of transport to education
provisions;
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h)
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The SEET strategy and the requirement to drive
it out to the city to partners and organisations;
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i)
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Plymouth City Council had been seeking to
increase its offer of work experience placements within the
organisation, particularly for young people that were care
experienced;
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j)
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Concerns around whether education provisions
in the City would be able to resource the teaching of mathematics
for young people up to the age of 18.
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The Committee agreed to note the report.
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34. |
Children’s Services Finance Report
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Laing (Cabinet Member for
Children’s Social Care, Culture, Events and Communications)
supported by Councillor Cresswell (Cabinet Member for Education,
Skills and Apprenticeships), David Haley (Director of
Children’s services), Nigel Denning (Interim Service Director
for Children, Young People and Families) and Annie Gammon (Interim
Service Director for Education, Participation and Skills) presented
the report to the Committee.
Questions and discussions points from the
Committee included:
a)
|
Adverse variances to the budgets of
Children’s Social Care and Education, Participation and
Skills departments, particularly in relation to placements costs
and home to school transport;
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b)
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A further post had been created within
Commissioning who would drive down placements costs;
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c)
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The requirement for national government to
provide a solution to the year on year concerns of increasing
placement costs with the reduction or stagnant budgets;
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d)
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Home to school transport costs had seen
increases in costs linked to fuel and employments costs which was
partly due to increasing numbers of children being placed outside
of the Plymouth boundary;
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e)
|
Travel training for young people was starting
to take place which would provide a
vital independence skill, but would also drive down costs.
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The Committee agreed to note the report.
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35. |
Local Area Partnership SEND Improvement Plan
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Cresswell (Cabinet Member for
Education, Skills and Apprenticeships) supported by Annie Gammon
(Interim Service Director for Education, Participation and Skills)
presented the report to the Committee.
Questions and discussions points from the
Committee included:
a)
|
Work had been underway to ensure children and
young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities
received better care and support in Plymouth;
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b)
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Concerns identified experiences and outcomes
for children and young people requiring rapid improvements;
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c)
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The Council and partners including Health
worked closely to develop and improvement plan;
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d)
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Improvement work would be overseen by a Board
with various partners and had included the Department for
Education;
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e)
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Placement sufficiency and Health waiting
lists;
|
f)
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Engagement of schools and colleges within the
city;
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g)
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A SEND placement sufficiency strategy was
being developed to address sufficiency issues within the city;
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h)
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The Parent Carer Forum and its importance in
driving improvement;
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i)
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School budgets and their struggles;
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j)
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Professional development of practitioners
across the city;
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k)
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The importance of monitoring exclusions and
suspension figures.
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Action: Members of the
Education and Children’s Social Care Overview and Scrutiny
Committee would be invited to the
planned virtual session with head teachers in the city.
The Committee agreed to note the report.
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36. |
Work Programme PDF 110 KB
Minutes:
Members of the Committee added the following
to the work programme:
a)
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Plymouth Safeguarding Partnership Annual
Report ;
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b)
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Child Exploitation Annual Report;
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c)
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Child death and suicide.
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