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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Rooms 1/2/3, Civic Offices Angel Street Bridgend CF31 4WB. View directions

Contact: Mr Mark Anthony Galvin  Senior Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

251.

Declarations of Interest

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).

Minutes:

Councillor Craig Jones declared a personal interest in item 6 as he sat on the Trade Union Group for the Central South Consortium.

252.

Approval of Minutes pdf icon PDF 83 KB

To receive for approval the minutes of a meeting of the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee dated 15 December 2016

Minutes:

The Committee referred to minute 247, Medium Term Financial Strategy 2017-18 to 2020-21 and the Head of Education and Family Support comment that she would investigate the concerns raised by the committee regarding school meals. Members had not been approached regarding this matter and information was still outstanding on a number of other issues. The Scrutiny Support Officer confirmed that this information was still outstanding and she would chase it up.

 

Re Minute 248, Nomination to the Collaborative Scrutiny, at the last meeting, Councillor C Westwood was nominated as a reserve. Councillor Westwood no longer sat on the Committee however Members agreed not to nominate another reserve.

 

RESOLVED                     That the Minutes of the meeting of Children and   Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee

                                         held on 15 December 2016 be approved as a true and accurate record.            

253.

Forward Work Programme Update pdf icon PDF 78 KB

Minutes:

The Corporate Director – Operational and Partnership Services submitted a report, the purpose of which was to present the items due to be considered at the Committee meeting scheduled to be held on 20 April 2017.

 

A report on the FE Sector would replace School Modernisation at the 20 April 2017 meeting. Members were invited to submit items that they would like included in the work programme for 2017-18.  Members suggested an examination of the Central South Consortium and analysing welsh in the Education Plan. They agreed to complete and submit the appropriate forms.

 

RESOLVED                     That Members noted the topics due to be considered at the next Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee. 

254.

Residential Childcare Provision and Looked After Children - Residential and Resource Board pdf icon PDF 110 KB

Invitees:

Susan Cooper, Corporate Director, Social Services and Wellbeing

Cllr P White, Cabinet Member – Social Services and Early Help

Laura Kinsey, Head of Safeguarding and Family Support

Julia Morgan, Strategic Commissioning Officer

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Corporate Director of Social Services and Wellbeing presented a report updating the Committee about the revised service model within Bakers Way, the work undertaken within the placements residential and resource project board, the rota visiting undertaken in respect of the 3 in house residential units and the last 3 inspection reports for in house residential units.

 

Bakers Way had been open for just over 25 years and was a 5 bedded respite unit for children with disabilities. It provided a traditional model of care and the project was set up to ensure that the current service being delivered was meeting the needs of the children and young people accessing the service. The Bakers Way service continued to be delivered from the existing building, offering overnight breaks from Tuesday to Saturday, with no overnight short breaks on Wednesdays, when the outreach service would continue to run. Formal staff consultation would commence in January 2017 over a four week period with a three month change of contract notice period then being served. This would lead to the new service model being operational in May 2017. A bid for capital minor works funding had been submitted to enable adaptation works to be carried out in Bakers Way during 2017 to ensure all children had equal access to the services available within the unit and to adjust the existing door frames to be EU compliant with new larger wheelchairs which were now being utilised.

 

The Committee referred to the CSSIW report on Bakers Way and the recommendation to achieve improvements for children and young people by not making emergency short term placements which necessitated cancelling services for other younger people and adversely affected the support for those families.  The Corporate Director of Social Services and Wellbeing explained that this related to an emergency placement which was the only option available at that time and CSSIW were fully consulted and understood the need for the placement to be made. This issue had been discussed within the Children with Disabilities Board and was one of the reasons why the establishment of a 52 week in house provision in Heronsbridge was being proposed.

 

The Committee referred to the £100k savings linked to the remodelling of Bakers Way and questioned the level of take up. The Group Manager - Commissioning Contracts and Contract Monitoring reported that the 15/16 level was 60% however now it was closed for two days, occupancy levels were more like 90%. The Committee commented on the need to ensure proper support and adequate financing for any changes or developments to Children’s Residential Homes, particularly in light of the need for savings in this area.  The Committee requested that this be considered under the new FWP to monitor the progress and expenditure against savings requirements.

 

The Committee asked if the formal consultation was underway. Members were advised that discussions with HR were still ongoing and the consultation would commence when discussions were concluded.

 

The Corporate Director of Social Services and Wellbeing explained that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 254.

255.

Foundation Phase, Key Stages 2, 3, 4 and Post 16 Outcomes for 2015/16 pdf icon PDF 452 KB

Invitees:

Deborah McMillan, Corporate Director – Education and Family Support

Cllr C Smith, Cabinet Member – Education and Regeneration

Sue Roberts, Group Manager – School Improvement or

Paul Wolstenholme, Bridgend Link Adviser

Mike Glavin, Assistant Director Central South Consortium

Nicola Echanis, Head of Strategy Commissioning and Partnerships

Hannah Woodhouse, Managing Director – Central South Consortium

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Director of Education and Family Support presented a report on Foundation Phase, Key Stages 2, 3, 4 and Post 16 Outcomes for 2015/16.

 

Standards over a three year period were continuing to improve in line with national rates of improvement. Bridgend was improving better than national averages in many indicators and better than similar local authorities, based on national ranking, in most indicators.

 

The Director of Education and Family Support was pleased with progress that had been made compared to the same report in 2012/13. There was self- sustaining improvement and high aspirations for learners. A very strong team was in place and there was a strong partnership with the Consortium and schools. 

 

The second part of the report was a Central South Consortium paper relating to raising standards in Bridgend schools. The three priorities of the Consortium business plan; raising standards, improving the capacity of the system to be self-improving and developing the consortium to a high performing organisation; were highlighted. Since 2012, standards had improved rapidly compared to the national average across the region at every key stage. In 2016 the region continued to show strong improvement and was above the national average at every key stage for the first time and remained above it for the second year in key stages 1,2 and 4. During 2015/16, three local authorities in the region were removed from an Estyn follow up category and all three inspection reports cited the contribution of the Consortium in working effectively to improve outcomes for learners. In March 2016 the Consortium was inspected by Estyn. The inspection report recognised progress in establishing clear strategy, vision, delivery of consistent challenge and support and partnership working. The 2017/18 business plan would be developed in the context of a number of specific strategic challenges as well as areas where self-evaluation indicated areas for improvement.  The final business plan for the financial year 17/18 would be presented to the Joint Committee for approval in March 2017.

 

Members raised a number of issues regarding the report. The report indicated that there were eleven more amber category schools in 2016/17 compared to 2015/16. Members asked how these were identified. Amber category schools were identified by the standards group having taken into account the ability of the school to improve based on performance over three years. Through the categorisation process, more support could be provided through temporary leadership and monitoring schools more closely. The leader confirmed there were fewer schools in amber, none in red and a significant increase in the number in green.

 

Members asked for a % point for the difference in performance between Bridgend and the national averages (Key Stage 2) The Group Manager for Schools Improvement explained that this was a summary within the report and that the actual % point was in the table. There was a combined indicator but 4 percentages were provided to give an overall picture of progress. 

 

A statement had been made in Council that Pencoed was improving however the report  ...  view the full minutes text for item 255.

256.

Urgent Items

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.

Minutes:

None

 

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