Agenda and minutes

Apologies were submitted by Councillors Margaret Astle and Christine Mitchell.

There were none received.

Referring to page 9 the Committee Chairman requested the timetable for the Children, Young People and Families Transformation work.

Resolved: That the minutes of the previous meeting held on the 8 June 2016 were a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Report of the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People

The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People introduced the report and commented that the item had come to the Committee on a number of occasions prior to implementation and afterwards and at a regular basis since. It was suggested that the service update would be presented to the Committee for the last time as it had now been fully implemented.

A Member queried the savings achieved from properties and how this correlated with the Property Proposal Plan in terms of the savings.

The Project Manager – Capital Programme, confirmed that the Property Plan was ahead of target. All sites had been transferred and the Council was no longer responsible for the running costs at an earlier date than had been proposed, with the exception of Wheaton Aston which had not yet transferred but had been decommissioned so was costing the County Council very little and Stone where there was a proposal for the site to go to a third party so it would therefore not be costing the Council anything in the near future. In addition to the revenue saving forecast, the sites at Brewood and Millward Hall in Leek were likely to be sold and achieve capital receipts in addition to the revenue savings proposed. Since the report was written Chesterton Vision and Knutton sites had been approved and the sites handed over. There were few costs to the County Council and all expected had been achieved.  It was confirmed that the £3.3 million was savings in running costs and other areas. There had been no capital receipts anticipated initially.

A Member requested a breakdown of the successful bids in Lichfield and it was confirmed by the County Commissioner Children’s Wellbeing that this money had been delivered through the District Commissioning Leads and a more detailed breakdown had been shared with the Committee previously.

A Member raised concerns regarding anti-social behaviour at a skate park in Lichfield and the Chairman suggested that this topic could be one for discussion with the Police and Crime Commissioner when he attended the next Committee meeting. The County Commissioner for Children’s Wellbeing explained that it could be useful to discuss this matter with the local District Commissioning Lead and the Member confirmed that the District Commissioning Lead was aware of the issue.

A Member welcomed the increase in volunteers. It was queried however how many and why a small number of schools had ceased to provide the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme.

The County Commissioner for Children’s Wellbeing clarified that three schools had ceased delivery as they had not got the staff with the required qualification to lead the scheme. A number of additional schools had however taken on the licence. In 2011/12 before the transition of youth services, there were 2277 new entrants and in 2015/16 there were 2529. Although the number of awards gained had dropped in 2014/15 an increase was expected in 2016/17.

The Committee Chairman queried if the £3.3million in savings was incorporated within the Medium Term Financial  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

Report of the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People and the Cabinet Member for Health, Care and Wellbeing.

The Cabinet Member introduced the report which detailed the Pilots which were part of the model implementation within the Children and Families System Transformation Programme.

The Commissioner for Culture and Communities introduced the Senior Business Designer who has been working on opportunities to pull together evidence and develop data collection methods from the Pilots. The Building Resilient Families and Communities (BRFC) Co-ordinator, was also in attendance as the Pilots all referenced and aimed to embed BRFC techniques and principles. The Commissioner for Culture and Communities discussed the key strategic outcomes anticipated as detailed within the presentation slide and the work streams to take this work forward. Funding has been secured through a variety of streams for the pilot programmes including through BRFC. Referring to the report, the Commissioner for Culture and Communities provided detail about each of the Pilots being undertaken.

In the course of the presentation it was confirmed by the BRFC Co-ordinator that Girl Power had been set up in Newcastle initially as a result of concerns relating to child sexual exploitation as a number of young people were being influenced and groomed by young men. The model had been successful in preventing sexual exploitation, supporting vulnerable children and had brought schools together. It had been expanded to Chesterton. Wollstanton and Kidsgrove school clusters also wished to do a similar piece of work. The schools community in Newcastle wanted to build on the success of Girl Power.

The Commissioner for Culture and Communities explained that the development of an intelligence system locally would help support Girl Power as it would enable information and data to be shared and provide appropriate and timely support locally.

A Member queried which five primary schools in the cluster would be involved in the South Staffordshire pilot and it was confirmed by the BRFC Co-ordinator that that the pilot had started with the involvement of three proactive Headteachers and had extended as more Headteachers wished to get involved.

A Member queried how and which schools would be involved in the Stafford pilot and the BRFC Co-ordinator clarified that this pilot built on the former extended schools agenda.

The Commissioner for Culture and Communities explained that both the Stafford and the South Staffordshire Pilots built on the Room 21 initiative in Leek and the MAC initiative in Tamworth. In response to the Chairman’s question the BRFC Co-ordinator explained that an organisation had been commissioned in Leek and schools had put forward the number of families who attend. Schools are asked to contribute and not just refer. When the information on referrals had been cross checked, not all families have been appropriate to be part of the project as they already had involvement with some of the County Council’s services. This is a learning and development process with the schools. The schools included Leek High School, St Edward Middle School, Churnet  View Middle School, Beresford Memorial First School and Leek First School.

In conclusion the Commissioner for Culture and Communities emphasised that each pilot was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

Verbal update from the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People.

The Cabinet Member explained that he had considered the Working Group’s report and the recommendations approved by the Committee. The  vast majority of the recommendations were linked with the work being undertaken as part of the Children, Young People and Families Transformation Programme. All the recommendations had been considered and a full written response would be provided to the Committee in September 2016.

Resolved: That a full written response to the recommendations would be presented to the September Select Committee meeting.  

The Scrutiny and Support Manager requested that any lines of inquiry for discussion with the Police and Crime Commissioner at the next Select Committee meeting should be sent to the Scrutiny and Support Manager/Officer to enable the questions to be collated and put forward for response.

A Member suggested that the steep increase in knife crime should be considered.

A Member reported that local crime statistics were no longer available and it had previously been useful to have this information.

It was agreed that the Cabinet Member for Communities and the Environment would be invited to attend the next Committee meeting.

A Member suggested that the Police and Crime Commissioner be asked about work with the Fire Authority.

The Scrutiny and Support Manager referred to the other items on the Work Programme that would come to the next Select Committee meeting.

In response to a query from the Chairman, the Head of Families First confirmed that the change of use of a children’s residential care home had been discussed at the Corporate Parenting Panel.

In relation to the items for discussion at the September meeting the Head of Families First explained that the use of police cells to house young people who had not been bailed was a pertinent issue and a national concordat had recently been signed.

The Scrutiny and Support Manager confirmed that the use of police cells for adults with mental health issues was an item that had been discussed at the Healthy Staffordshire Select Committee. She undertook to confirm with the Cabinet Member why he had raised this issue at the Triangulation meeting.

A Member suggested that the Committee ask the Police and Crime Commissioner about the appropriate use of police cells.

The Cabinet Member explained that the local mental health Trusts had been undertaking work in relation to this matter.

The Scrutiny and Support Manager referred to the Wood report: reviewing the role and functions of local safeguarding children boards which had been published in May 2016.  The Head of Families First agreed that this report could have implications for the Staffordshire Safeguarding Children Board, however it was not clear at the time what the government’s response to the report would be. It was suggested that the November/December meeting may be a good time for the Committee to consider the implications of the report, for example if two separate Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Safeguarding Children Boards were required or not.

The Chairman asked if the information regarding the pilot programmes would be recorded on Care Director.

The Head of Families First explained that this would not be the case as Care Director was not flexible enough to record the wide ranging information. Also external organisations could not access this system. Information would be collated at a local level.

It was RESOLVED that;

·         Knife crime, the availability of local crime statistics, the relationship with the Fire Authority and the appropriate use of police cells would be put forward as items for discussion with the Police and Crime  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

The Chairman to move:-

“That the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business which involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the paragraphs of Schedule 12A (as amended) of the Local Government Act 1972 indicated below”.

Part Two

(All reports in this section are exempt)

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