To receive apologies for absence (to include reasons where appropriate) from Members/Officers.

To receive declarations of personal and prejudicial interest (if any) from Members/Officers in accordance with the provisions of the Members Code of Conduct adopted by Council from 01 September 2008. (Including whipping declarations).

None.

Invitees

Deborah McMillan, Corporate Director – Children

Cllr Huw David, Cabinet Member Children & Young People

Colin Turner, Head of Safeguarding and Family Support

The Corporate Director – Children presented a report to update the Committee on the progress made to develop a Strategy to define the activity around the early intervention and prevention services in Bridgend.  The Strategy for Bridgend, known as “Early Help in Bridgend”, was attached at Appendix 1 to the report.

The Head of Strategy Commissioning and Partnerships explained the concept of early intervention, which basically consists of local practitioners from across different services, working together to respond to incidents which require multi-agency responses so that they are able to effectively provide an all-encompassing service for vulnerable children and families.  These multi-agency community teams would be able to identify difficulties and intervene before those difficulties reached the point where it could seriously affect the wellbeing and development of a child.  Each family would be allocated a key Family Support Worker who would be the main contact and support for the family throughout, continuing to coordinate the family needs for as long as support is required. 

She informed Members that considerable investment had been put into early intervention over the last few years; part of which involved moving the support services into hubs within the Borough so that services are community based and more easily accessible.  She advised that detailed reports would be available for Members in the next few weeks to explain the Strategy in more depth, including some background and case studies set against the levels of need.

The Committee queried why there did not appear to be any connection with the Western Bay collaboration.

The Head of Strategy Commissioning and Partnerships confirmed that there were good links within Western Bay, with the potential in the future to roll out some initiatives that had already proved successful in Swansea.  She explained that the Directorate was in the process of being restructured, with all services reporting to one Group Manager instead of several Managers and Heads of Service as was the case before.  This move would result in significant financial savings, mainly in the management structure of the teams, which will preserve early intervention services.  She stressed that if the Authority were to disinvest from those services, it would place more pressure on the LAC service in the future.

The Corporate Director – Children explained how the two strategies (Early Intervention and Prevention Strategy and the LAC Placements and Permanency Strategy) would work together, helping to meet the needs of families with complex needs by early intervention.  She advised that they were working to manage demand as the Directorate was now expected to find an extra £5m in savings, which equates to a third of the controllable budget for the Children’s Directorate.  She advised that with the whole reorganisation of the Directorate, the multi-agency community teams would be able to devise individual holistic plans, personalised for each child and their family

The Committee enquired about the makeup of the hubs and how they would prove more sustainable than if services remained centralised.

The Head of Strategy Commissioning and Partnerships advised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 135.

Invitees

Deborah McMillan, Corporate Director - Children

Cllr Huw David, Cabinet Member Children & Young People

Colin Turner, Head of Safeguarding and Family Support

Susan Cooper, Corporate Director – Wellbeing

Debra Beeke, Workforce Development Manager

The Head of Safeguarding and Family Support presented a report to update the Committee on work being undertaken in relation to the recruitment and retention of Social Workers, and the actions undertaken and planned to address these issues.He commented that his team were pleased at the interest the Committee had taken in their work over the years.

     He advised that the biggest resource in the Directorate were the staff and it was important that they had the competence and confidence to carry out their various roles.  Recruiting and retaining qualified Social Workers was a constant feature over the past five years.  He explained that the fundamental issue was that most of the Social Workers are in their first or second year post qualifying, which brought about challenges in supporting them in a highly emotionally charged environment.  He explained that the Directorate worked closely to engage with the other Directorates in getting proactive to address the recruitment and retention challenges.

     The Committee asked whether internal training programmes continued for new Social Workers.

         The Workforce Development Manager advised that the existing Social Care Workers could apply to access the Social Work Trainee position, which replaced the former secondment scheme which had run for many years; however, Managers felt that it was difficult to continue to support this programme, as it would involve those seconded to under social work training to attend two days a week in College and placements in addition to this, with the remaining team members having to manage the workload.  This year the Directorate had embarked on a traineeship programme whereby 213 applications were received for just one position.  The benefit of doing it this way dedicated training is provided during the period of employment, with opportunities to move around different service areas.  Bids will be made to access external funding to enhance that programme further.

         The Committee commented on the retention of Social Workers in that there did not appear to be a breakthrough in solving the problem.  The Committee further asked why the Children’s Social Worker post was treated in the same way as other Social Workers, as there did not seem to be any recognition.

         The Workforce Development Manager explained that there were different pay scales across the 22 local authorities in Wales for Social Workers and information gained from exit interviews suggested that this was not the reason provided on why Social Workers were leaving the Authority.  There was financial recognition paid to them, after two years’ experience, recognising that they are able to work at a higher level and are given more diverse and challenging caseloads.

         The Committee asked whether the new arrangements for flexible working hours had affected Social Workers, and if they were provided with administrative assistance so that they were not tied down with paperwork.

         The Head of Safeguarding and Family Support advised that there had been some negative feedback from Social Workers on the flexible working hours scheme, as they had lost the ability to have two days off per  ...  view the full minutes text for item 136.

Invitees

Cllr Huw David, Cabinet Member Children & Young People

Colin Turner, Head of Safeguarding and Family Support

The Scrutiny Officer presented a report outlining a revised plan for the Member School Engagement Panel which included information on the new National Schools Categorisation System which would incorporate the principles of the Secondary School Banding.   

The Corporate Director – Children advised that until now there had been no categorisation of Primary Schools by WG.  The Secondary Schools had been banded from 1, being the best, to 5, and the Borough currently had one school in Band 5, Coleg y Dderwen.  She explained that the national categorisation being introduced in January 2015 would make the system more robust and include Primary Schools.  There were three steps for categorisation:

·         Analysing data in relation to performance;

·         Looking at ability and capacity of a school to improve

·         Categories are colour coded to red, amber, yellow or green.

She advised that the Authority’s own consortium had for the past 18 months been using the categorisation of the letters A, B, C and D in order to work out how much support schools need.  It had been refined this year and she was confident that the Authority’s own categorisation system was similar to the National Schools Categorisation System, using the same metrics as the Welsh Government.  She was therefore aware of which schools in the Borough were in the red category and the decision made collectively with the other Directors across the consortium was that all schools in the red category would be treated the same in terms of Statutory powers of intervention.  She reported that during the past academic year she had used the statutory powers available to intervene three times in different schools, which showed that the Authority was taking a harder line.

The Committee asked whether local government support would be disseminated and work undertaken by consortia, and if so, whether a parent who had concerns about a particular school would turn to the consortia or the local authority concerned for support.

The Corporate Director – Children explained that the Welsh Government brought out the national model for regional working which clearly set out the role of consortia, and the role of the LA, and the rationale being consistent in terms of functions across all local authorities in Wales; each being allocated the same amount of funding.  Within the national model a number of areas currently sit outside and are delivered by the Authority, including Governor Support Services, Learning Pathways 14-19 and HR for schools.  Councils had until April 2015 to determine how those functions would be transferred to the consortium.   She explained that each Local Authority within the Consortia led on a particular area and hers was the 14-19 work.  In terms of the Governor Support services, she advised that it would make sense to centralise some work, such as training and stated that she was fighting to retain some local provision so that parents are able to contact local Officers with their concerns.  She advised that she would be in a position to report to Cabinet around February/March on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 137.

The Scrutiny Officer presented a report to inform the Committee that Mr Kevin Pascoe has been nominated for appointment as the Secondary School Parent Governor Representative on the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  The vacancy has arisen due to the resignation of the former representative, Mr Geraint Isaac.  Following an election held in accordance with the Parent Governor Representatives and Church Representatives (Wales) Regulations 2001, Mr Pascoe was nominated for appointment as the Secondary School Parent Governor Representative.  It was therefore proposed that he be appointed to the Committee as their representative with voting rights.

Recommendation:       

That the Committee would recommend to Council the appointment of Mr Kevin Pascoe as the Secondary School Parent Governor Representative to the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee for a term of four years.

The Scrutiny Officer presented a report outlining the items due to be considered at the next meeting of the Committee on the 25^th November 2014, and further sought confirmation of the invitees to attend the subsequent scheduled meeting to be held on the 17^th December 2014.

Conclusions:

The Committee noted the topics due to be considered at the meeting of the Committee scheduled for the 25^th November 2014 and acknowledged the invitees to attend the subsequent meeting on the 17^th December 2014.

To consider any item(s) of business in respect of which notice has been given in

accordance with Part 4 (paragraph 4) of the Council Procedure Rules and which the person presiding at the meeting is of the opinion should by reason of special circumstances be transacted at the meeting as a matter of urgency.