No. |
Item |
30. |
Declarations of Interest
Councillors will be asked to make any
declarations of interest in respect to items on the agenda.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
There were no declarations of interest made by
Members in accordance with the code of conduct.
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31. |
Minutes PDF 93 KB
To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting
held on 6 January 2021.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 6
January 2021.
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32. |
Chair's Urgent Business
To receive reports on business which in the
opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent
consideration.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
There were no items of Chair’s Urgent
Business, however the Chair wished Councillor Laing a happy
50th birthday.
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33. |
Policy Brief PDF 151 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Caroline Marr (Senior Policy Advisor)
presented the Policy Brief to Members and spoke to a presentation
which provided further information since the publication of the
report in the agenda. It was highlighted that:
·
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on 22 February 2021 the Government set out a
roadmap for reducing Covid 19 restrictions and announced the return
of face to face teaching on 8 March 2021;
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schools were able to hold outdoor sports
activities;
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pupils in secondary schools were recommended
to wear facemasks;
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examinations would not be taking place and
scores would be based on teacher assessment grades;
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·
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the requirement of children needing to be
tested prior to returning to school was still being discussed
however households with children of school age were eligible for
free rapid covid tests;
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there was a
£700m package to get children back to school and caught up on
lost learning.
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Key areas of questioning by Members
included:
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how teachers were expected to enforce children
wearing masks in schools;
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how the local authority could support head
teachers and principals;
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were academies,
university trust schools and grammar schools included?
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would parents be
fined for not sending their child back to school if they were
concerned for their safety due to Covid 19?
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would the council
encourage schools to have a lenient approach to their uniform
policies as a result of hardship caused to family finances during
the pandemic?
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Members noted the update.
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34. |
Covid Update - verbal update
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Councillor Laing (Cabinet Member for Children
and Young People), Jean Kelly (Service Director for Children, Young
People and Families) and Alison Botham (Director for
Children’s Services) presented the Covid Update.
The following key points were highlighted to
Members:
·
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the children’s department had continued
to support children, young people and families through the third
lockdown; the majority of frontline practitioners had had their
vaccine in line with Government protocols and safe systems of work
remained in place;
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·
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there had recently been the addition of
lateral flow testing; this continued to improve our protection from
covid;
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vulnerable children and young people and those
with a social worker were encouraged to attend education in a
school setting during lockdown;
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during the course of the whole pandemic,
children in care numbers has risen month on month; there were 488
children in the care of the local authority at the end of January
– this was a net rise of 57 from the beginning of
lockdown;
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less children were leaving the care of the
local authority during the pandemic as some problems were
encountered with care and adoption proceedings due to the pressure
on courts;
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in terms of fostering, officers had recruited
to 22 new placements, 11 households has been approved since April
with two more to be approved shortly; 10 assessments were
progressing and there were 16 active enquiries. Marketing was being
focused towards adolescents.
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Key areas of questioning from Members related
to the following:
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was enough focus
aimed towards prevention and intervention of children coming into
the care of the local authority?
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in terms of
fostering, was Plymouth City Council comparable to the private
sector to attract carers?
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·
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could Councillors
be involved in promoting fostering in Plymouth; specifically
Councillors that had been fostered themselves, were fosterers, or
lived with foster brothers or sisters?
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It was agreed that foster care numbers and
recruitment would be added to the work programme for the next
municipal year.
Members noted the update.
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35. |
NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) PDF 234 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Tina Brinkworth (Head of Skills and Post 16
Education), Councillor Jon Taylor (Cabinet Member for Education,
Skills and Transformation) and Ming Zhang (Service Director for
Education, Participation and Skills)
Key points highlighted to Members
included:
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in December 2020
there were 233 young people age 16 to 17 NEET, this represented
4.3% (higher than the SW 3% and national average 2.7%) in
comparison with 4.1% in the previous
year. There were a further 147 (2.7%) young people with unknown
status, against 2.4% at the same point in 2019;
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SkillsLaunchpad
Plymouth was developed to provide a one-stop open door facility for
all young people, parents and carers with a range of offers to
support young people and minimise the risk of them becoming NEET.
The Launchpad pulled together city wide service providers and
stakeholders engaged in supporting young people and those at risk
of NEET and included; CSW Group Ltd, DWP/Job Centre Plus, National
Careers Service, the Plymouth Careers Hub, the Devon and Cornwall
Training Provider Network as well as links to employers across the
city; the Skills Launchpad had so far supported over 9,000
users.
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Key areas of questioning from Members related
to the following:
·
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what support was
there for children in the care of the local authority who were
NEET?
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were remote working
opportunities further afield from Plymouth explored for placements?
There were large companies outside of the immediate region which
could offer placements remotely;
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it was important for remote working
opportunities to be explored as well as physical placements as this
would increase possibilities;
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how successful was
the Kickstart programme?
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It was agreed that –
1.
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an update report on NEETS would be included on
the panel’s work programme for the next municipal year;
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2.
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a report on the
Barnardos Care Journeys project would be included on the
panel’s work programme for the next municipal year.
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36. |
Child Exploitation (To Follow) PDF 496 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Siobhan Wallace (Head of Service for Children
Young People & Families) and Nick Cook (Assistant Director for
Childrens Services – Barnardos) presented the Child
Exploitation update.
Key points highlighted to Members
included:
·
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the oversight of
work with child exploitation in Plymouth currently sat with the
Plymouth Local Safeguarding Children. Safer Plymouth also
maintained oversight of a number of strands of this work, in
particular reporting online abuse, as part of their role to address
cyber-crime and fraud. This was progressed by the Strategic Missing
and Child Exploitation subgroup of the Plymouth Safeguarding
Children partnership, chaired by Barnardo’s. Under this was
an Operational Missing and Child Exploitation Group, which met
fortnightly and considered emerging patterns and concerns regarding
individual or groups of children, offenders and locations, and
plans disruption activity;
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Barnardos ran a BASE project, offering support
and recovery work to young people affected by child exploitation.
This included young people engaged with statutory safeguarding
services as well as children in need. Other services such as CAMHS,
NSPCC and Firstlight also offered
therapeutic support and intervention as part of their sexual abuse
services;
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the Child
Exploitation Tool was reviewed by Plymouth Safeguarding Partnership
and relaunched. For young people referred to Children Young People
and Families Service following the Joint Targeted Area Inspection
the initiative was taken that all children over 11 years should be
screened for child exploitation using the screening tool. Since 1st
December, 183 child exploitation screening tools had been
completed. Of these 183, 96 young people remained actively open to
Children Young People and Families Services. 11 had been identified
as high risk, 25 as medium risk, 42 as low risk and 18 as no risk.
A piece of work was underway to review the children at high risk to
ensure their plans and assessments reflected the level of risk and
included appropriate interventions to safeguard and support them
from child exploitation;
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throughout COVID
the Strategic Missing and Child Exploitation Group sought assurance
across the system that children and young people at risk of or
experiencing child exploitation were supported. This included the
Operational Missing and Child Exploitation Group increasing from
bi-weekly to weekly sessions for a period of time during the
initial lockdown.
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Key areas of questioning from Members related
to the following:
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what wraparound
services were available for children and young people affected by
exploitation?
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of the children and
young people currently considered exploitation, how many were in
the care of the local authority – were any of these children
considered missing?
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how were children
and young people kept safe online?
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had the action plan
from the Strategic Missing and Child Exploitation Group been
progressed?
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It was agreed that The Strategic Missing and
Child Exploitation Group action plan on child exploitation would be
provided to Members.
Members noted the update.
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37. |
Corporate Plan Performance Report PDF 155 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Hannah Daw (Performance Advisor) presented the
Corporate Plan Performance Report. The following key points were
highlighted to Members:
·
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improvements were seen across the areas
relating to education and children’s social care in the first
half of 2020/21; all five of the key performance indicators that
could be trend rated had shown improvements when compared to the
previous comparable reporting period;
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the percentage of young people in education,
employment or training increased to 90.0% in quarter one 2020/21,
compared with 89.0% in quarter one 2019/20;
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there was a decrease in the percentage of
children subject to multiple child protection plans; at 21.1% at
the end of quarter two, this was better than target (23%) for the
first time in more than a year and lower than the average
percentage of our statistical neighbours (21.3%);
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·
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repeat referrals to Children’s Social
Care (CSC) saw a decrease for the eighth quarter in a row, down to
23.3%, which was a significant improvement on both the end of
2018/19 and 2019/20 positions.
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Key areas of questioning from Members related
to the following:
·
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childrens mental and health and obesity was
labelled red – this was a concern;
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confusion regarding the trend of children with
multiple protection plans and repeat referrals;
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how did Plymouth rate in comparison to other
local authorities of a similar cohort?
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Members noted the update.
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38. |
Work Programme PDF 141 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Members noted the work programme and discussed
the inclusion of the following items for the next municipal
year:
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CSE update;
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Foster Care numbers;
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Kickstart Programme – update;
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Schools Catch-up (due to Covid);
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School Transport;
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School Attainment;
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Youth Hub Update/ Skills for Plymouth
Update;
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Covid specific update
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Under this item it was requested that the
agenda and reports would be easily accessible within the Microsoft
Teams meeting to aid Members in accessing information.
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39. |
Tracking Decisions PDF 180 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Members noted the tracking decisions
document.
Under this item the Committee congratulated
Councillor Mrs Beer on her chairing of the Panel this year and
wished her luck for her office as Lord Mayor for 2021/22.
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