Agenda and minutes

In the absence of Councillor Carole McCulloch, Vice Chair Councillor Maria Joannou chaired the meeting.

To note that Councillor Cate Woodward has been appointed to fill a vacant seat on the Committee

The Committee noted that Councillor Cate Woodward had been appointed as a member of the Committee.

Councillor Carole McCulloch – unwell

Councillor Maria Watson - personal

None

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 28 July 2022

The minutes of the meeting held on 28 July 2022 were approved as an accurate record and signed by the Chair.

Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Schools, Catherine Underwood, Corporate Director for People, Ailsa Barr, Director of Children’s Integrated Services, and Sam Morris, Head of Strategy and Improvement, attended the meeting to discuss the recent Ofsted inspection of children’s services.  They gave a presentation highlighting the following information:

a)  Children’s services are some of the most important statutory responsibilities of the Council and therefore are subject to a robust and rigorous regulatory regime, which focuses on the effectiveness of services.  The effectiveness of children’s services is of importance to the whole Council.

b)  The inspection took place over three weeks in July and included the sharing of the Council’s self-assessment.  Initial feedback was provided to the Council and the report was published on 5 September.

c)  The Council was judged to be ‘Requires improvement to be good’ in the domains of the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families and the experiences and progress of children in care and care leavers and ‘Inadequate’ in the domain of experiences and progress of children who need help and protection.

d)  While the outcome of the inspection judgement as ‘Inadequate’ is disappointing, the Council considers that overall the report is balanced detailing where improvements need to be made but also recognising where progress has been made and areas of strong practice that can be built on.  It is recognised that due to the grading for the domain of children in need of help and protection, the rating for overall effectiveness could not be any higher, despite the higher rating for other domains.

e)  Ofsted identified eight specific areas for improvement:

  i.  Effectiveness and timeliness of responses to children’s needs when first presented to the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) – there are significant weaknesses in this area, with decision making needing to take place much more swiftly.

  ii.  Management oversight and direction of front-line workers and the local authority designated officer

  iii.  Social work capacity so that social workers and first-line managers can respond effectively to children in need of help and protection, and that children in care have greater consistency of social worker – this was recognised as a challenge in Ofsted’s previous focussed visits.  A changing workforce has an impact on the consistency of relationships for children in the Council’s care.

  iv.  Placement sufficiency for children in care and those with complex needs – the main challenge for the Council is finding the right arrangements and other local authorities are also having difficulty with this.

  v.  The service response to care leavers aged 21 or over – the Council needs to ensure that information provided to care leavers is clearer and works to support them.

  vi.  The service response to young people who are aged 16/17 years who present as homeless – the Council needs to make sure that accommodation needs are progressed promptly.

  vii.  The quality and timeliness of return home interviews

  viii.  Oversight of children missing from education and those who  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

The Committee discussed its work programme for the remainder of municipal year 2022/23.  It noted that the Nottingham City Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report 2021/22 will not be available for consideration at the next meeting and will therefore be rescheduled to the meeting in January.  The Committee also noted that due to changes in the budget timetable, consideration of the Medium Term Financial Plan will also need to be rescheduled for the meeting in January.  Following on from discussion earlier in the meeting about the Ofsted inspection of children’s services, the Committee felt that it would be timely to review the Improvement Plan in January.  As a result of these changes, items currently scheduled for consideration in January will be rearranged.

Resolved to:

(1)  consider the following items at the Committee’s meeting in December 2022:

a.  Children’s Services Transformation Programme

(2)  consider the following items at the Committee’s meeting in January 2023:

a.  Children’s Services Improvement Plan

b.  Medium Term Financial Plan – Children’s Integrated Services and Education

c.  Nottingham City Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report 2021/22