Invitees:

Mark Shephard, Chief Executive;

Lindsay Harvey, Corporate Director - Education and Family Support;

Cllr Charles Smith, Cabinet Member for Education and Regeneration;

Susan Cooper, Corporate Director - Social Services and Wellbeing

Nicola Echanis, Head of Education and Early Help;

Mark Lewis, Group Manager Integrated Working and Family Support;

Cllr Dhanisha Patel, Cabinet Member for Future Generations and Wellbeing

The Group Manager Integrated Working and Family Support presented a summary of the main points in the report entitled update on Bridgend Youth Justice Service Improvement Plan.  He outlined the background of the report including the statutory duty to prevent offending, and further explained the decision to migrate health services for Bridgend from ABMU to Cwm Taf, which took effect from 1 April 2019.  An inspection by HMIP in December 2018 of the Western Bay Youth Justice Intervention Services (WBYJEIS), published in March 2019 concluded that the WBYJEIS receive an overall rating of inadequate. The service is now subject to monitoring and a significant level of scrutiny from a variety of sources. 

He continued to explain the current situation in that in April 2019, the Cabinet had agreed to the disaggregation of the WBYJEIS and that the new arrangement would be for Bridgend’s Youth Justice Service to sit within the portfolio of an existing Group Manager with the Education and Family Support Directorate.  To progress the recommendations from the HMIP, senior managers from within the local authority now meet YJB colleagues on a fortnightly basis to monitor progress against the improvement priorities.  A new management board was formed, and is jointly chaired by the Chief Executive of BCBC and the Cabinet Member for Communities and will oversee the delivery of the 14 recommendations within the inspection report.

The Group Manager Integrated Working and Family Support advised members that a consultation to review the current structure had closed at the end of August and an advertisement for 2 lead practitioners, that were social work qualified, had already been placed. It was felt strongly the need to be social work qualified to progress. He added that to progress the 14 recommendations within the inspection report, a Management Board had been set up which meets on a monthly basis.

In summary The Group Manager Integrated Working and Family Support advised that BCBC has disaggregated and Bridgend Youth Justice Service created. They have progressed with a restructure of the service that will provide a robust governance arrangement and meet regularly with health colleagues to ensure the recommendations within the improvement plan are progressed.

The Head of Education and Early Help confirmed that Cwm Taf has an existing service with Swansea and NPTCBC having a stand-alone service. BCBC took the decision at the time to ensure our service was in a good position before any new collaboration was considered.

The Chairperson noted that Bridgend had previously had a good service and that it appeared problems had occurred when the service was part of the WBYJEIS.  The Head of Education and Early Help acknowledged that Bridgend was classed as having a good Youth Offending Service (YOS), when compared to other families of YOS’s, when measured. However, key performance indications (KPI’s) are quite limited and one of the pieces of working being undertaken is to look at a new framework to interrogate the service.

A member asked if we could learn from the ‘outstanding’ rating given as part of the HMIP Inspection Report.   The Group Manager Integrated Working and Family Support explained that this was linked to the report on WBYJEIS, and related only to a single element of the report in terms of Joint Working and Assessment.  The Head of Education and Early Help acknowledged the recent HMIP Inspection reports on Wrexham YJS, which had received a ‘good’ rating and that of East Riding, which had received a ‘outstanding’ rating, as an example to learn from.

A member referred to 4.3 in the report and asked what the current position was regarding the restructure. The Group Manager Integrated Working and Family Support advised that at time of writing the report, the consultation was still live. The Group Manager Integrated Working and Family Support advised that the structure had now been finalised and was happy to send the structure out to members.

A member asked how many young people currently receive Youth Justice Services from the Authority.  The Head of Education and early Help confirmed there were approximately 100 children known to the services, 70 on prevention and 30 statutory cases.  She added that there were lots of the actions in the Post Inspection Action Plan that were blue, which demonstrated the positive contributions that the Directorate was currently making to the service.  The Group Manager Integrated Working and Family Support advised that most of the budget in this area was in relation to staff costs. 

A member acknowledged, in the Inspectorate report, that a significant amount of work has been but in place, can we evaluate the impact of those recommendations at a later date.

A member stated that the inspection report indicated a lot of stress on staff, and that staffing levels had been affected by both long and short-term sickness.  He asked how this was currently being managed.   The Head of Education and Early Help reminded members that the inspection was based on the Western Bay region with Bridgend managing the overall service; however, sickness absence was managed at a local level and therefore Swansea and NPTCBC data was not monitored by BCBC.  Going forward staff wellbeing and monitoring of sickness levels is a priority and the board will be monitoring this. The Group Manager integrated Working and Family Support added that there had been a number of group sessions and 1:1’s held with staff around the consultation to focus on staff health and wellbeing and to ensure staff felt motivated during that time.

A member acknowledged that whilst there were policy and procedures in place, that discretion should be used where possible in unique cases and short-term sickness.  The member asked how many of the staff were currently on long-term sickness.  The Head of Education and Early Help confirmed that so far, there were no long-term sicknesses and the most recent cases of sickness were during the consultation period and none had yet confirmed that they would be on long term sick.

A member stated that whilst the inspection report was an inspection of the whole of the Western Bay Region and that BCBC had provided a good response and post inspection action plan, it should be noted and recognised that there are other statutory partners, such as the Police and Health Service involved that also have a duty to provide YOS and they should also be held to account on their performance.

The Cabinet Member for Education and Regeneration and the Cabinet Member for Future Generations and Wellbeing thanked officers for putting the report together and felt confident systems were in place for the future.

Recommendations

• Officers to share the staff restructure with Members of the Committee.

• Members wish to revisit the item before the service is re-inspected.  Scrutiny Officers to add to Forward Work Programme with a suggest date of scheduling in Feb/ March 2020 and extend invitation to attend Scrutiny Committee to partners for the Police and the Health Service.