To receive apologies for absence from Members of the Committee

Apologies had been received from Sian Lines, Diocesan Board of Education.

Members are reminded that they must declare their disclosable pecuniary interests and other registrable or non-registrable interests in any matter being considered at the meeting as set out in Appendix B of the Members’ Code of Conduct and consider if they should leave the room prior to the item being considered. Further advice can be sought from the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

Councillor Hilary Luff declared an interest as she runs a children’s nursery.

Councillor Ruth Houghton declared an interest as a family member attends Severndale School.

The minutes of the last meeting, held on 8 February 2023, are attached for confirmation.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 8^th February 2023 be confirmed as an accurate record and be signed by the Chairman.

To receive any public questions or petitions from the public, notice of which has been given in accordance with Procedure Rule 14.  The deadline for this meeting is 5pm on Thursday 23 March 2023.

There were no public questions.

To receive any questions of which Members of the Council have given notice. The deadline for this meeting is 5pm on Thursday 23 March 2023.

There were no Members’ questions.

Providing feedback and key points from the recent Children and Young People (CYP) Complex Needs Summit.

Contact - Claire Parker, Director of Partnerships and Place, NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin

Prior to the commencement of the item, the Chairman advised that agenda item 7 – Children and Young People Complex Needs Summit be brought forward to this point in the meeting.

Claire Parker, Director of Partnerships and Place, NHS Shropshire Telford & Wrekin presented the report summarised the key themes and next steps from a system wide summit held on March 6th 2023 to review issues for children with complex care needs and their families.

Members were advised that the summit had focussed on three main topics; mental health support for CYP with complex care needs, preparing for adulthood/transition to adult services, and early help support and intervention.

Members were encouraged by the partnership working and stressed the importance of continuing to do keep a joined up approach. It was acknowledged that there is a lot of focus on adults, ambulances and the acute trust but there needs to be more discussion around young people and their families.

The Executive Director for People advised that they were committed to reviewing pathways and would bring the priority workplan back to the committee to demonstrate progress. It was noted that it was the role of the committee to make sure all partners were held to account and Members were encouraged to get ahead of the curve to see how all the systems are coming together and to identify key performance indicators.

RECOMMENDED:

To ask the Children, Young People, Families and SEND system partnership board to take the outputs of the summit and monitor delivery and provide assurance against the actions within the CYP workplan.

An update on the Ofsted-CQC Area SEND Inspection Revisit in November 2022 and Next Steps following publication of the Inspection Report in February 2023.

Contact: David Shaw, Assistant Director of Education and Achievement

David Shaw, Assistant Director of Education and Achievement introduced the report and drew Members’ attention to the updated draft Accelerated Progress Plan (APP) which could be found on the website for the meeting.

It was suggested that Members go through the plan line by line, to highlight the agreed actions designed to lead to improvement within priority areas.

Jennifer Griffin (Designated Clinical Officer for SEND, NHS Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin) gave an overview of actions within Priority Area 3: Significant wait times for large numbers of children and young people on the ASD and ADHD diagnostic pathways, and Priority Area 4: Significant waiting times for those needing assessment and treatment from the speech and language therapy service, and the impact measures to be achieved within each Priority Area.

Karen Levell (Service Manager SEND) gave an overview of actions within Priority Area 5: Inconsistency in the quality of input from education, health and care into EHC assessment and planning and the impact measures to be achieved.

Members acknowledged that the APP was a draft, developing Plan but expressed their concern that it was not ready to be submitted to the Department for Education (DfE) and NHS England (NHSE) by 5^th April 2023. It was noted that the Area SEND Partnership Board was responsible for the delivery of the Plan and that the DfE and NHSE will hold them to account if the Plan is not delivered. Members were advised that a period of monitoring would commence once the final APP had been signed off by the DfE and NHSE and a monthly progress report would be received. The final APP would also be shared with Members, demonstrating how it connects to the SEND Strategic Plan. It would then be published.

It was suggested that there should be a dedicated budget for each discipline in the APP to demonstrate where priorities lie and to ensure funding is available to deliver each action.

The Executive Director for People advised Members that demand and capacity across the system would be looked at, recognising that across all the system partners there has been an increase in demand; resulting in further gaps in provision. There is a commitment to understanding whether the right services are being commissioned and if there are enough of them, which will lead to discussions with the Strategic ICS Board regarding further investment across health and social care.

Members felt that communication was imperative with regards to waiting times for diagnoses and that this could be improved more proactively. The Parent and Carer Council representatives advised that there may not be a dramatic reduction in waiting times, but there was an emphasis on the support available to an individual whilst on a waiting list and that communication with young people and their families was a vital element to enable them to be ‘waiting well.’

RECOMMENDED:

That the People Overview Committee:

·       Voice their concerns regarding the Health sector’s ability to commission and deliver the Accelerated Progress Plan to Cabinet; and that Cabinet may  ...  view the full minutes text for item 94.

Verbal update from the Scrutiny Manager

Members noted that the scrutiny arrangements were under review and would be confirmed at the next Council meeting taking place on Thursday 30^th March; therefore it was not possible to discuss the work programme at this time.

The Chairman gave her thanks to Members and Officers for their hard work and commitment to the committee over the past year.

To note that the next meeting of the People Overview Committee will be held at 10am on Wednesday 24May 2023.

Members noted that the next meeting of the People Overview Committee would take place at 10am on Wednesday 24^th May 2023.