To receive apologies for absence from Members of the Committee

78.1    Apologies for absence were received from Mr Austin Atkinson, Cllr. Andy Boddington, Cllr Vince Hunt and Mr Mark Hignett

78.2    Cllr. Roger Evans substituted for Councillor Andy Boddington and Cllr. Paul Wynn substituted for Cllr. Vince Hunt

Members are reminded they must not participate in the discussion or vote on any matter in which they have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest and should leave the room prior to the commencement of the debate.

79.1    None were made

The minutes of the last meeting, held on 4 February 2015, are attached for confirmation.

80.1    Resolved: -

That the minutes of the meeting held on 4 February 2015 be approved as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

80.2    The Director of Children’s Services advised Members that there were currently 193 children being home educated in the County, 67 of primary age and 126 of secondary age. She commented that it was very difficult to compare these figures with the Authority’s statistical neighbours as they were much larger than Shropshire, and consequently had larger numbers of home educated children.

80.3    The Chairman asked whether the information on safeguarding had been included in the Governors Circular.  The Director of Children’s Services confirmed that the information had been included in the Circular which was due to be published shortly.

80.4    The Chairman confirmed that the Committee’s amendments to the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licencing Policy had been agreed by Cabinet and added to the policy.

To receive any questions, statements or petitions of which members of the public have given notice.

Deadline for notification is: 5.00pm on Friday 27 March 2015

81.1    There were no questions from Members of the Public

To receive any questions of which Members of the Council have given notice.

Deadline for notification: 5.00pm on Friday 27 March 2015

82.1  Cllr. Mrs Kidd had asked the following questions and the Director of Children’s Services had provided the following responses.

1. Much was made of using the youth service to deliver safeguarding around child sexual exploitation. With a reduced youth service, how are we going to have a robust service, especially in the rural areas?

Keeping children safe is everybody’s business – and the children’s workforce play an important role in identifying risk, seeking advice and support, and making appropriate referrals.  A recent campaign “Say Something if you See Something” has been launched to raise public and professional awareness. 

Shropshire Council will commission positive activities at a locality level through LJCs, with resources allocated to areas with most need, i.e. vulnerable children and young people.  This means that youth activities will continue but delivered in a different way.  Following “Working Together” requirements (multi-agency guidelines for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people 2103) the commissioning of services requires providers to meet safeguarding requirements in relation to training and safe recruitment of staff.

 All youth providers will be expected to follow established procedures where they have concerns about the safety or welfare of children.

To ensure a consistent level of quality, engagement with young people and support for all local providers of youth activities the Council has commissioned an infrastructure support provider (SYA and Energize).  The purpose of the contract is to support the LJC's to become confident commissioners of youth activities and to provide training, policy and procedure development, equipment loan, opportunities to collaborate, added skill and expertise to providers. 

The infrastructure support provider is starting by training the Community Enablement Team in safeguarding awareness, in order they have a good awareness of promoting the welfare of children and safeguarding when they are working with the LJC's and community in identifying needs.  We have also asked this team to have a specific training in relation to child sexual exploitation (CSE) from one of the children’s safeguarding training officers.

Our aim is to increase knowledge and awareness, not reduce it. 

Targeted Youth Support provision has been retained by the Council.  This team has developed and run Empower, a targeted youth programme for young people at risk of CSE – they have received specialist training, and receive referrals direct from the CSE panel. This programme is evaluated and reviewed regularly and used as evidence in the Shropshire Safeguarding Children’s Board (SSCB) Annual Report.

Targeted Youth Support is made up of 11 workers and a senior practitioner.  This team work across the county, working closely with schools, receiving targeted early help referrals and at Compass assisting in the triage and assessment of early help.  This team also conduct 'return from missing interviews' with young people.

The SSCB Multi-agency Strategy and Pathway established and endorsed by the SSCB in 2011 (under review) sets out a CSE Pathway and Panel to identify and respond to CSE.

Raising Awareness of CSE activity across Shropshire involves raising awareness of both statutory, non-statutory partners  ...  view the full minutes text for item 82.

Report to follow

83.1  Members received the report of the Service Manager – Safeguarding and Review which gave details of the activity and development of the Independent Reviewing Officers (IRO) Service over the past year.

83.2  The Service Manager advised Members that every looked after child would have an IRO appointed who would monitor their case and provide an independent overview to ensure that the authority provided good outcomes for the young people in its care.  He introduced Jon Walshaw who acted as an IRO.

83.3  A Member queried whether there were sufficient IROs to cover the increasing workload.  The Service Manager advised that there were sufficient staff to cover the current workload and that over time the implementation of the LAC Strategy should reduce the number of Looked After Children (LAC).  The Director of Children’s Services commented that a constant review was undertaken to monitor workloads.  Mr Walshaw commented that some cases required a lot of input and others less so.

83.4  A Member commented that the report stated that the recommendations of LAC reviews would be moved onto Carefirst and asked what this was.  The Service Manager advised that it was the system where all social care records were held and reports would be added to the system so that all information was held in one place.

83.5 The Chairman thanked Mr Walshaw for attending and for all the good work carried out by the IROs.

83.6  Resolved: -

That the contents of the report be noted and the role and the impact of the Independent Reviewing Officers be acknowledged.

This Annual Report describes the educational achievements and outcomes for the cohort of Shropshire LAC who were continually in the care of Shropshire Council between 1^st October 2013 and 30^th September 2014.

84.1    Members received the report of the Head of LAC Education and Health Team which set out the educational achievements and outcomes for the cohort of Looked After Children (LAC) who were continually in the care of Shropshire Council between 1 October 2013 and 30 September 2014.

84.2    The Head of LAC Education and Health advised Members that the total LAC cohort for 2013-14 was 181 children of which 152 were of statutory school age and of these 31.6% had a statement of special educational needs (SEN). 18.4% were supported at School Action Plus which provided support to address concerns around learning or behavioural and emotional difficulties which required specialist support in the schools and the advice of external professionals.

84.3    The Head of LAC Education and Health reported that education achievement and outcomes had been excellent at KS4, with 23.8% of pupils achieving 5 GCSEs at grades A* to C including English and Maths, the national average for LAC being 12% with the majority continuing in some form of further education.

84.4    The Head of LAC Education and Health commented that a major change had taken place in the way pupil premium was received which meant that the Virtual Head Teacher had a greater role in how the pupil premium was allocated which had allowed the money to be targeted to an individual’s needs.

84.5    A Member asked how well CAMHS worked.  The Head of LAC Education and Health informed Members that there were two CAMHS workers in his team and that on the whole the system was working well and added that speed of referral was key to a good outcome.  The Director of Children’s Services commented that problems experienced with CAMHS in Shropshire were the same as those experienced nationally and that resourcing of CAMHS was a major concern.

84.6    The Chairman thanked the Head of LAC Education and Health for his report and congratulated him and his team on their tremendous work for the looked after children of Shropshire.

84.7    Resolved: -

That the Young Peoples Scrutiny Committee –

a)    Congratulate Shropshire’s LAC on their educational achievements in 2013 – 14 particularly at Key Stages 1 and 4, which are above the national average performance for LAC;

b)    Congratulate Shropshire’s LAC on their school/educational attendance rates throughout 2013 -14: and

c)    Congratulate Shropshire LAC on their post 16 year destinations in 2013 - 14

Lindsay MacHardy Associate Director- Public Health will give a verbal update

85.1  Members received a written update on the transfer of commissioning arrangements for 0 – 5’s (Copy attached to the signed minutes).

85.2  The Director of Public Health advised Members that Public Health England was undergoing reorganisation and that the key point of contact had left which was delaying the process.

The current Scrutiny Work Programme and Cabinet Forward Plan are attached

86.1  Members received copies of the Committee’s Work Programme and the Cabinet Forward Plan.

86.2  A Member asked for an update on the work of CAMHS.

86.3  A Member asked for an update on Child Sexual Exploitation especially the changes to policy and practise post Rotherham and the trends going forward.  The Director of Children’s Services advised that the Safeguarding Board held the overview on CSE and was in the process of setting up a project, and that she would be happy to report back on the completion of this work.  

86.4  A Member questioned whether the report from the Childhood Obesity Task and Finish Group would be the final report. His understanding, as a member of the group, was that it would go on to consider further topics.

86.5  A Member stated that she had attended and event on autism and had received several comments about how difficult it was to access services.  The Director of Children’s Services advised the meeting that a report would be brought to a future meeting of the Committee on the SEND reforms and the “local offer” of the local authority.  

Members are reminded that the next scheduled meeting will take place on Wednesday 24 June 2015 at 10.00am at the Shirehall

87.1    Members were reminded that the next scheduled meeting would take place on Wednesday 24 June 2015 at 10.00am at the Shirehall