Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest received at this point in the meeting.

The minutes of the previous meeting of the Children and Young People’s Social Care and Services Scrutiny Panel held on 18 January 2021 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

The Executive Director of Children’s Services will be in attendance to provide the Panel with an update in relation to the findings of the Commissioner for Children’s Services in Middlesbrough’s six-month review report.

S Butcher, Executive Director of Children’s Services, accompanied by R Farnham, Director of Children’s Care, was in attendance to update the Panel with an overview of the Commissioner’s six-month review report in relation to Children’s Services in Middlesbrough.

By way of background, the Panel was reminded that, following the Ofsted inspection findings published in January 2020, the Secretary of State appointed a Commissioner – Peter Dwyer OBE – in February 2020 who began to work with Middlesbrough’s Children’s Services in early March 2020.

The Commissioner submitted his first report in April 2020 and, having seen the potential for the service to improve, concluded: “This is not a Local Authority where we should move quickly to consider alternative delivery mechanisms.”  This recommendation was accepted by the Secretary of State and the Commissioner continued to work with Children’s Services two to three days per month up until November 2020.

The Commissioner produced and submitted his second report in December 2020, reiterating the recommendation from his first report, “not to move quickly to consider alternative delivery mechanisms”.  This was again accepted by the Secretary of State, however, concerns were raised in relation to the authority’s caseloads.

The Commissioner’s report also recognised that Children’s Services in Middlesbrough continued to work with, and through, Covid and was written broadly against the seven enablers of improvement.

The six-month review of the Service was undertaken 9 - 11 November 2020.  Over the course of the three days, the Commissioner met with various stakeholders, including:-

·        Executive Members

·        Chief Executive, Executive Director of Children’s Services and other members of the Senior Leadership Team

·        Independent Chair of Improvement Board and Director of Children’s Services at Redcar and Cleveland (as some of Middlesbrough’s services, such as Safeguarding, were shared with Redcar)

·        Senior Leaders from key partners, including CAMHS, Police, Health.

·        Staff focus groups – front line and middle managers.

·        Focus groups on relevant key themes.

·        Engagement through direct communication with front line staff.

·        Considered performance data and improvement against the plan.

In terms of leadership, the report acknowledged:-

·        Positive new branding ‘Middlesbrough Children Matter’ – This was important as it was instantly recognisable.

·        Political leadership and accountability was significantly strengthened.

·        Greater stability in leadership arrangements. 

·        The local authority operated more effectively corporately on the children’s agenda. 

·        Restructured senior leadership portfolios brought greater coherence to the organisation.

·        The Local Authority knows itself – enhanced approach to quality assurance and performance management.

·        Invested and prioritised resourcing – appropriate use of Covid funding to drive ‘invest to save’ initiatives and national improvement resources.

The Director of Children’s Care referred to the Commissioner’s finding that ‘the Local Authority knows itself’.  This had improved through enhanced quality assurance and performance management processes.  Performance management tools had been developed to ensure: good quality data; services were compliant; and that visits and assessments were taking place within timescales. 

The Panel heard that Middlesbrough had worked hard to develop the audit to excellence programme which had been rolled out across the whole Service.  This looked at individual cases, teams  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20/37

The Executive Director of Children’s Services will provide a verbal update on Covid Recovery in Children’s Services.

S Butcher, Executive Director of Children’s Services, provided the Panel with a verbal update in relation to Covid recovery in Children’s Services.

The Panel was informed that Social Workers continued to work from home, however, it was an expectation that visits to children were face to face, with appropriate PPE, and that virtual ‘visits’ should only be by exception and signed off by a manager. 

Social Workers were expected to visit children at the same frequency, depending on the child’s needs. 

The expectation was very clear that all vulnerable children (ie a child with an assigned Social Worker) should be in school and Social Workers were asked to strongly encourage this.   There were reasons why a child may not be in school such as illness, self-isolating or a carer/other child in the house with health reasons.

When a vulnerable child was not in school, schools were expected to call a dedicated telephone number to inform the local authority.  A risk assessment would then be undertaken and, where appropriate, a safety plan would be completed for the most at risk children.  This was integrated into the LCS system and data could be collated and cross-referenced with Public Health data in terms of children and school staff that were self-isolating.  In addition, the Virtual School monitored children looked after who were not in school on a daily basis.

The Executive Director stated that in general the school attendance figures for vulnerable children in Middlesbrough were not where they should be ideally and it had been decided that resources should be focussed on children on Child Protection plans.  The rationale behind this was that children looked after should be safe as they were in a foster placement, however, children on Child Protection plans were likely to be most at risk as they remained at home with parents and the fact that they had a Child Protection plan meant that the local authority has concerns.

As previously mentioned there were some delays with Court proceedings – now an average of 32.5 weeks instead of 26 weeks.

It was queried whether Children’s Services had a post covid plan and whether the Service was prepared for lockdown ending.  The Panel was informed that there was a recovery plan which existed from the first lockdown and that this was being updated as recovery drew closer.  The Council-wide response to Covid recovery was very positive.

The Director of Children’s Care commented that she was very proud of the workforce and foster carers who had continued to look after vulnerable children during this difficult time.

AGREED that the information provided be noted.

The Chair will provide a verbal update on business conducted at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meetings held on 27 and 29 January and 11 February 2021.

A verbal update was provided in relation to the business conducted at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meetings held on 27 and 29 January and 11 February 2021, namely:-

27 January 2021

Budget Consultation

29 January 2021

Call-In – Nunthorpe Grange Farm Disposal

11 February 2021

·        Executive Forward Work Programme.

·        Middlesbrough Council’s Response to Covid-19 Response – Chief Executive & Director of Public Health.

·        Executive Member update – Executive Member for Regeneration (Councillor Waters).

·        Final Report – Culture and Communities Scrutiny Panel – Social Cohesion and Integration.

·        Scrutiny Panel Chairs’ Updates.

AGREED that the information provided be noted.

The next meeting of the Children and Young People’s Social Care and Services Scrutiny Panel was scheduled for Monday, 22 March 2021 at 4.00pm.

With prior agreement the Chair allowed the Chair of Corporate Parenting Board to raise an item relating to the Corporate Parenting Strategy.

Councillor Hellaoui referred to the seven guiding principles within the Corporate Parenting Strategy and advised that each of the principles would form the basis of a spotlight report to be submitted to Corporate Parenting Board.  Alongside this, the Chair wished to invite interested Members to attend and work in small groups with each group focussing on one of the principles in detail.

For ease of reference, the seven guiding principles were as follows:-

·        Our Home

·        Our Friends and Family

·        Our Education and Employment

·        Our Health and Wellbeing

·        Our Adult Life

·        Our Voice and Influence

·        Our Needs and Wishes

Any Members wishing to be involved were asked to please contact Councillor Hellaoui direct.

NOTED