Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed new members to the Children's Services Committee, County Councillor Lorraine Beavers and Councillor Louise Edge who was replacing Councillor Stella Brunskill from the Children's Partnership Board Hyndburn, Ribble Valley and Rossendale.

Apologies were received from County Councillor Paul V Greenall.

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

None were disclosed.

The report presented set out the constitution, membership, chair and deputy chair and terms of reference of the Children's Services Scrutiny Committee for the municipal year 2019/20.

Resolved: The Children's Services Scrutiny Committee note:

  i.  The appointment of County Councillors Andrea Kay and Nikki Hennessy as Chair and Deputy Chair of the Committee for the remainder of the 2019/20 municipal year.

  ii.  The new membership of the Committee following the county council's Annual meeting on 23 May 2019.

  iii.  The terms of reference of the Committee.

Resolved: That the minutes from the meeting held on the 13 May 2019 be confirmed as an accurate record and signed by the Chair.

The Chair welcomed Sally Richardson, Head of Inclusion; Hilary Fordham, Chief Operating Officer, Morecambe Bay CCG; Samantha Jones, Chair of Lancashire Parent Carer Forum; and Ajay Sethi, Head of Learning Services and Skills, to the meeting.

The report presented provided members of the Children's Services Scrutiny Committee with a progress update on the Improvement Programme and Plan as requested at the meeting of the committee on 13 May 2019.

A written statement of action (WSoA) was required in response to the joint Ofsted/CQC area review in November 2017. Of the 47 actions, 33 were completed and 14 had continued into the Improvement Plan.

Regarding the Improvement Plan 2019/20 progress to date, of the 94 number of actions, 18 were complete, 46 were on track, 8 were delayed and 22 had not yet started.

In terms of co-producing, publishing and implementing a clear pathway for identifying and meeting need for Children and Young People from 0 – 25 across Lancashire, information and guidance had been co-produced and would be published by the end of the summer 2019. This would have set timelines which the SEND Partnership would work to.

Queries were raised on Working Group 5 – Improving Outcomes. The SEND briefings and general advice had been delivered to all school governors' not just SEND leads and this had been completed. There was guidance for all school governors as well as a training offer. The LCC Governors Service had provided training on the role school governing bodies had in avoiding the needs for permanent exclusion of pupils with EHC Plans. This had commenced in the Spring Term 2018 and would be ongoing. There was a request from the committee for further information on the number of school governors trained so far.

There were concerns raised in relation to the the actions that were delayed and the potential impact of this. The committee requested for a response to be provided to members in September 2019 before the next meeting of the Children's Services Scrutiny Committee in October 2019.

Regarding meeting needs, it was stated that it was difficult to quantify the level of unmet need. It was pointed out however that there were various aspects of the improvement plan which would help close any gaps which currently existed, including the creation of local area partnerships which brought together representatives from statutory services in each locality.

The committee enquired about the commissioning of the speech and language service. It was reported that there were three Lancashire NHS trusts across Lancashire and South Cumbria which currently delivered the service. The proposed changes would ensure a more comprehensive service and could avoid the need for children to be issued with EHCPs. The Lancashire SEND Partnership had agreed the new service specification with the CCGs and awaiting response from providers. Concerns were raised in relation to deadlines for providers to respond to the proposed changes and a request was made for current wait times for speech and language services.

There were concerns raised over children falling  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Chair welcomed Dave Carr, Head of Service: Policy, Information and Commissioning (Start Well) and Rob Dobson, Burnley Borough Council, to the meeting.

The report presented provided an update on the Lancashire Children and Families Partnership arrangements.

The county wide Children and Young People's Trust Partnership was suspended in 2017 pending a review to understand the current position with the Children and Young People's Partnerships and to identify appropriate means of determining and taking forward children and young people's priorities across Lancashire.

In November 2017, discussions were held with a range of partners to consider to most important areas to work on. The discussions had led to the establishment of a county wide Children's Partnership Board, chaired by the Executive Director for Education and Children's Services. There would be particular focus on early intervention and would compromise of representatives from schools, the police, district councils and public health organisations.

The Board agreed a revised vision for children, young people and families. Members were informed that the revised vision would be kept under review and that there were indicators for the board to track and measure to demonstrate progress. The revised vision would be used to focus the board's activity.

It had been agreed that the three Local Safeguarding Boards in Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen and Lancashire would be replaced by new arrangements that would cover all areas.  The new arrangements were called the Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen and Lancashire Safeguarding Children Strategic Partnership Board. Members stated there had to be the appropriate representation on the board.

The committee was informed that Lancashire had a number of children's homes and many cross border children in care. A key priority was in improving the environment where children and young people lived, learned and worked.

Resolved: That;

  i.  The information provided in the report be noted.

  ii.  The progress made in establishing partnership arrangements be considered.

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member’s intention to raise a matter under this heading.

There were no items of Urgent Business.

The next meeting of the Children's Services Scrutiny Committee will take place on Wednesday 9 October 2019 at 10:30am in Cabinet Room 'C' (The Duke of Lancaster Room) at the County Hall, Preston.

The next meeting of the Children's Services Scrutiny Committee will take place on Wednesday 9 October 2019 at 10:30am in Cabinet Room 'C' (The Duke of Lancaster Room) at the County Hall, Preston.