Agenda and minutes

To seek nominations and appoint a Chair ‘Pro-Tem’ for this meeting.

Due to the recent resignation of the Chair and Vice Chair of the Scrutiny Panel, nominations were sought for a Chair Pro-tem.  It was clarified that the appointment of Chair and Vice Chair to the Scrutiny Panel would be made by Full Council on 22 September 2021.

Nominations were submitted and seconded.  A vote was taken and Councillor Uddin was duly appointed as Chair Pro-tem.

There were no Declarations of Interest made by Members 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 27 July 2021 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

The Executive Director of Children’s Services will provide an introduction to the Panel’s new Scrutiny Topic – Locality Working (from a Children’s Services perspective).

The Panel will be asked to consider how it wishes to proceed with the review.

S Butcher, Executive Director of Children’s Services, and G Field, Director of Environment and Community Services, were in attendance to provide the Panel with an introduction to the Panel’s new scrutiny topic ‘Locality Working from a Children’s Services Perspective’.

The Director of Environment and Community Services provided a presentation to accompany the report previously circulated with the agenda, giving a flavour of what locality working was and the current arrangements.

The Panel heard that Locality Working was a new way of working in which the local authority delivered services in partnership with other organisations and the community in which it was based.  The Council’s Executive approved proposals, on 8 October 2019, to implement locality working in two pilot areas – Newport and North Ormesby.  The rationale behind selecting the two areas was detailed in the submitted report.

Evidence showed that there were many benefits of having multi-agency teams working from a single location within the community it served, including:-

·        reduction in the number of referrals

·        improved information sharing

·        increased pro-activeness and intervention at an earlier stage

·        improved access for the local community with one single reference/contact point for advice/services

·        raised morale and awareness within the community

In terms of improving the lives of children and young people and their families within the pilot areas, locality working aimed to:-

·        Increase detailed understanding of the needs of children and young people across the Council and partner organisations.

·        Better understanding of the needs of children within those communities across the Council.

·        Understand the key influences and inter-relationships that affect children’s lives within those communities.

·        Engage children and young people in the development of their community.

·        Provide support and services for young people from within their locality where possible, in line with demand.

·        Increase awareness and knowledge of support available to children and young people within the community.

The over-arching objectives of locality working included: improving public perception within both localities – making residents feel safer; reducing recorded crime and anti-social behaviour; improving outcomes for children, young people and their families; improving the physical environment; building stronger communities; and making the population healthier.

The Panel was informed that locality working in the pilot areas had been delayed by approximately one year due to Covid, however, some demand modelling had been undertaken and initial resources had been identified.  This would be kept under review and monitored and was detailed in the report. 

The total number of staff identified to work within the Newport locality team was 43 and 24 for North Ormesby. The Locality Work Teams would be made up of local authority staff from Environment, Community Safety, Public Protection, Education EMAT, Adult Social Care, Early Help Team, Children’s Social Care, Revenues and Benefits; Public Health and partner agencies including Thirteen Housing, and Cleveland Police.

The Locality Working Team for Newport would be based at the Co-operative Buildings, Linthorpe Road and the North Ormesby Team would be based at the North Ormesby Hub.  It was hoped that teams would move into their  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21/11

The Executive Director of Children’s Services will provide the Scrutiny Panel with an update in relation to the Commissioner’s 12-month review report into Children’s Services.

The Executive Director of Children’s Services provided the Panel with an update in relation to the Commissioner’s 12 month review report into Children’s Services.

A copy of the full report had been circulated with the agenda prior to the meeting for information and the Executive Director provided the Panel with a presentation in relation to the key headlines from the report.

It was highlighted that the Commissioner’s report was submitted to the Minister in August 2021.  A decision had been expected from the Minister by 15 September, however, this had been delayed due to a Government restructure and a new Minister, Will Quince MP, had been appointed on 16 September.

The Executive Director provided background information for newer Members of the Panel, including a timeline of events from the Ofsted inspection in November/December 2019, to the present time.

It was explained that the 12-month review took place during the week 12 – 16 July 2021.  The Commissioner viewed a range of strategic documentation; held interviews with key leaders and political leaders; hosted a range of focus groups looking at vital areas including quality assurance, performance, workforce development, practice and partnership working; held discussions with the DfE Adviser, Independent Chair of the Improvement Board, Chair of Safeguarding Arrangements and LGA staff supporting the authority.  The Commissioner shared his findings with key personnel and structured his report against the key enablers for improvement.

The Commissioner’s analysis of key areas yielded the following findings:-

Leadership and Management

·        Credible leadership team

·        Impressive and sophisticated understanding of demand and future progressions

·        ‘Middlesbrough Children Matter’ branding appeared to be providing an ambitious catalyst for change

·        Leaders were more involved on a regional level

·        Significant political leadership changes could destabilise progress.

A Member of the Panel expressed concern that instability in political leadership may destabilise future progress of the improvement journey and hoped that the situation could be resolved quickly.  The Executive Director advised that discussions had been held with the Mayor and Chief Executive and that political leaders needed to be fully supported in order to achieve stability and minimise risk.

Strategic Partnership Approach

·        Effective Improvement Board – with recent engagement of new members (including voluntary organisations and Thirteen Housing).

·        Appointment of the Chair of Safeguarding Partnership bringing energy and enthusiasm.

·        Leadership culture and possibly Covid have brought partners closer together and enhanced engagement with external bodies.

·        The MACH continued to sustain improvements and make additional improvement.

·        There were opportunities to move away from historical narrative and to resolve issues around Police contacts through ongoing debate.

Workforce

·        Trusted relationships between staff and senior and middle management levels and positive feedback from frontline staff on visible, credible leadership.

·        Impressive Strategic Workforce Development Strategy with exceptional modelling work (eg planning levels of staff required as practice improved).

·        Good Learning and Development Programme with flexibility.

·        Plans to enhance recruitment and retention coming to fruition.

·        Some progress with staffing but still too many agency staff.

·        The Annual Health check provided mixed reading – feedback scores from staff were lower around  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21/12

The Executive Director of Children’s Services will provide an update in relation to Covid recovery in Children’s Services, as and when appropriate.

The Executive Director of Children’s Services advised that there were no significant issues to report.  Pupils had returned to school following undertaking two supervised lateral flow tests and were asked to undertake two lateral flow tests at home every week.  Children’s Services was not currently affected by high Covid sickness levels.

AGREED that the information provided be noted.

An update on business conducted at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meetings held on 28 July and 8 September 2021 will be provided.

A verbal update was provided in relation to the business conducted at the Overview and Scrutiny Board meetings held on 28 July and 8 September 2021, namely:-

28 July 2021

·        Executive forward work programme

·        Update from Children’s Services in relation to financial pressures.

·        Scrutiny Panels’ Work Programme report (approval of all Panels’ work programmes).

·        Scrutiny Panels’ Chair’s Updates.

8 September 2021

·        Executive Member update - Attendance by the Mayor

·        Scrutiny Panels’ Chair’s Updates.

·        Final Report – Children and Young People’s Learning Scrutiny Panel – Behaviour, Discipline and Bullying in Schools.

·        Executive Forward Work Programme

·        Chief Executive’s Update

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, 11 October 2021 at 4.00pm.