Agenda and minutes

Councillor Fozia Mubashir - Personal

Councillor Maria Watson   - Other Council Business.

In the interests of transparency Councillor Georgia Power highlighted that she worked for the Children’s Society. This did not preclude her from speaking on any item.

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting held on 25 January 2024

The minutes of the meeting held on 25 January 2024 were confirmed as a true record and were signed by the Chair.

Report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer

Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Portfolio Holder for Children Young People and Education introduced the report on Children in Care Placement Sufficiency. Catherine Underwood, Corporate Director of People Services, Ailsa Barr, Director for Integrated Children’s Services, Karla Banfield, Head of Commissioning, and Roz Howie Interim Director of Adult Social Care and Commissioning attended and gave a presentation highlighting the following points:

a)  Whilst all work possible is done to prevent children coming into care, the Council has a statutory duty to provide sufficient placements for those that do. The Council uses a mix of placement types, from in-house residential provision, all rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, fostering, short term respite care and supported accommodation, as well as external residential placements where necessary.

b)  The Council works with other regional local authorities and with the D2N2 partnership to provide best value placements that focus on the best outcomes for children and young people. The Sufficiency Strategy, originally drafted in 2023 is updated annually to address the changes in demand for placements and works to ensure that placements available for children and young people are right first time.

c)  Issues around placement sufficiency are not unique to Nottingham, it is an issue recognised nationally and the need for reform is highlighted in the findings for the Competition and Markets Authority Children’s Social Care Market Study from 2022. This national completion for placements is exacerbated in Nottingham by the higher levels of deprivation seen in many parts of the city.

d)  The strategy was rewritten in 2023 updating it as the market emerged from the pandemic and the periods of lockdown and is being updated annually, taking into account market changes, partnership working, regional networks and the Voice of the Child. This is the first time that Care Leavers have been specifically included within the strategy. Colleagues within Commissioning are working closely with Children’s Services, creating an action plan and updating the strategy to best fit the current market and demand.

e)  Since the last strategy was published there has been further work around market development in Nottingham, with additional fostering placements and residential placements and specific work with health partners around placement for children with complex needs. Work with the D2N2 partnership has ensured that both Councils are able to maximise benefits of the established commissioning framework.

f)  There are a number of challenges that the strategy aims to mitigate. There are still gaps in provision, particularly for children and young people with complex needs. A number of pilots are being run and the outcomes assessed before bringing them into fulltime use. Commissioning intentions reflected in the strategy will include a drive towards quality and stability in placements to reduce demand, block commissioning through frameworks and maximising use of internal services to drive efficiencies. Commissioning colleagues are in regular dialogue with providers and will continue to do so.

During discussion the following questions were asked, and responses highlighted:

g)  Members asked how the Council would achieve best value whilst still relying on external  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

Report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer

Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Portfolio Holder for Children Young People and Education introduced the report on the Early Help Partnership Strategy. Catherine Underwood, Corporate Director of People Services, Ailsa Barr, Director for Integrated Children’s Services and Veronica Fairly, Supporting families Co-ordinator gave a presentation outlining the strategy and the work currently under way. They highlighted the following points:

a)  Early help support is mainly delivered through the four Family Hubs which act as a single point of access for whole family support and services from conception up to 19 and up to age 25 for children with special education needs or disabilities. The hubs provide a range of services which aim to provide holistic support, clear referral pathways and links to partner organisations. There are four hubs in total, located in Bestwood, Broxtowe, Meadows and Hyson Green.

b)  The Early Help Partnership Strategy was launched in October 2023 as a way of improving partnership working and ensuring a multi partner response to need across the city. The strategy has a number of aims and priorities around building resilience for families, embedding a whole system approach and joined up partnership working.

c)  The five main priorities of the Strategy each had a subgroup working to push forward and establish their work. Priority 1 is to embed a whole system approach with work being undertaken to agree practice guidance, ensure access to all materials in a variety of formats and in the 5 most prevalent languages used in the city. Additional work is ongoing to ensure partnership access to electronic records and information, and to standardise language and documentation.

d)  The second priority is around partnership working, with work taking place to develop an updated communication and marketing strategy. The website has been launched and has had an encouraging number of visitors, and work to refine the collective Core Offer continues with partners. Work is focusing on how to communicate with the harder to reach families, with advertising being placed in a range of public places, such as GP surgeries, and community centres. All Councillors have received details of the family hubs offer and how citizens can access the services.

e)  The third priority is around workforce development across the partnership and developing a cross partnership training plan. A Strategic Steering group has been established and a number of subgroups have been set up to ensure that services across the partnership are aligned. Work is underway to share various training resources across the partnership to allow collaborative and joined up working where all practitioners feel supported and informed. 

f)  The fourth priority is around measuring the impact of the Early Help Partnership and creating an audit tool. Work is ongoing with partners to develop and agree key performance indicators,  and develop a consistent approach to gathering feedback from service users.

g)  The fifth priority is around funding and identifying sustainability options for the Partnership and how funding can be pooled. Work is happening to develop a sustainability strategy for 2025. The Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

Verbal update from the Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People, and Education on the Council’s Improvement Journey

Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Education updated the committee on the work being undertaken as part of the Children’s services improvement plan. She highlighted the following points:

a)  Since the last update to the Committee there has not been a further monitoring visits by Ofsted, however preparatory work for the next one, which will focus on the Children in Care Service, is under way. The visit will take place in mid-April, and the report with comments will be available from mid-May. This visit will be one of the more challenging areas for the Council as there is a higher reliance on agency staff within this area, and caseloads are still high.

b)  Improvement specialists are working with managers looking at funding from the DfE to increase staffing levels, and to make agency staff into permanent team members. Resources are being redistributed to address current need and work continues to address the rising cost of external residential care placements.

c)  Children’s Services recently held its annual practice conference, designed by the workforce, and supported by the DfE. Content was delivered by a wide range of colleagues including frontline staff. Feedback has been positive with staff finding the content helpful.

During discussion the following questions were asked, and answers given:

d)  Members asked how the Council is working to convert agency staff into permanent colleagues. Managers are in regular contact with agency staff to discuss converting their contracts into permanent colleagues. These are both informal and formal discussions which have been successful in a number of cases.

e)  Members asked about the timelines and when the bulk of the transformation work would be complete leading to a more stable service with a Good or better Ofsted rating. Transformation work will continue throughout the services as an ongoing thread of work. There will always be changes within the service as it responds to changing pressures and challenges within the area. Following the completion of the monitoring visits Ofsted will likely complete a full inspection. The monitoring period is likely to continue until September 2025 so a full inspection would be anticipated after that point.

The Chair thanks the Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Education, the Corporate Director for People and the Director for Integrated Children’s Services for attending and for answering the questions put to her by the committee.

The Chair extended thanks and well wishes to the Corporate Director for People on the news that she would be moving on from her role with Nottingham City Council. He thanked her for her hard work through what had been a difficult time for Nottingham.

Resolved that in light of Catherine Underwood, Corporate Director for People leaving the Council, the Committee recommends that the Council considers the establishment of a Corporate Director for Children and Young People (as Statutory Director for Children’s Services), and a Corporate Director for Adults Social Care (as Statutory Director for Adult Social Services) given the large areas of responsibility and share of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

For noting

The Chair introduce the Recommendation Tracker to the committee noting that there were a number of responses outstanding. He asked that responses were received in a timely manner and that outstanding responses be presented at the next Committee meeting.

Report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer

For the Children & Young People Scrutiny Committee Work Programme 2023/24 to be signed off as complete

The Chair of the committee introduced the Work Programme, highlighting that as this was the last meeting of the municipal year there were no further items. Work to collate the 24/25 work programme was underway. The Chair asked that any suggested items be forward to the Scrutiny and Audit Support Officer.

Members requested that an item around the cost of living crisis and child poverty be considered for the 24/25 work programme. The Chair would scope this item further with officers to determine how best an item can be scheduled into the Committee’s Work Programme.

The Committee signed off the 23/24 work programme.