Agenda item

Report of the Corporate Director for Children and Adults

Helen Blackman, Director of Children’s Integrated Services, introduced the report which identifies key headlines, challenges and an overview of areas relating to children and young people. Helen highlighted the following:

Priority 1 – Promoting the health and wellbeing of babies, children and young people

(a)  achievements include consistently high breastfeeding rates at 6-8 weeks, a reduced number of hospital admissions for mental health conditions for those aged 0-17, reduced rates of re-offending by young people, and a lower number of first time entrants to the youth justice system;

(b)  the percentage of women smoking at the time of delivery is higher than the England average and remains static. A smoking in pregnancy pathway is in development, which will be supported by a specific smoking in pregnancy service;

(c)  the percentage of children obese at Year 6 remains higher than the target but is lower than the statistical neighbour average. Work is taking place across the city with children and their families to encourage healthy eating and physical activity;

(d)  the number of hospital admissions for self-harm for those aged 10-24 has increased. There has been an upward trend nationally but Nottingham still has a higher than average number. The city’s Behavioural, Emotional and Mental Health single point of access is now co-located with Children and Families Direct;

Priority 2 - Safeguarding and supporting children and families

(e)  achievements include a reduction in the number of children subject to a child protection plan, a slight reduction in the number of A&E admissions for children aged 0-4 caused by deliberate or unintentional injuries, performance with regards to review timescales being maintained, implementation of a new model for children’s services front door, and a rating of Good overall in the recent pilot Ofsted inspection;

(f)  the percentage of children subject to a child protection plan for a second or subsequent time within 2 years has increased;

(g)  the number of offences where children and young people are the victims has increased. To support this the front door is being developed into a MASH type model, with Police colleagues now sitting within Duty;

(h)  nationally, recruitment and retention of the Children’s Social Care workforce remains a challenge and demand for services remains high. The ‘grow your own’ social work development scheme is in its final phase, with a view to starting the fast track degree in September 2017;

(i)  the implementation of the Liquid Logic system has presented some challenges and additional pressures, but managers and specialists are addressing outstanding data issues from migration;

Priority 3 - Supporting achievement and academic attainment

Patrick Fielding, Director of Education, highlighted the following:

(j)  achievements include a good level of development in the Early Years Foundation Stage, an increase in the percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard for phonics in year 1, strong attainment in maths and English, higher than average progress in writing and maths at key stages 1 and 2, good numbers of pupils achieving the expected reading and writing standard in key stage 2, an increase in the percentage of eligible 2 year olds accessing free nursery provision, an increase in the number of schools rated as Good or Outstanding for overall effectiveness, and higher progress scores in the three main subjects for disadvantaged and SEND pupils;

(k)  the main concerns in this area are around higher than average absence from learning, and high rates of primary and secondary permanent exclusions;

(l)  areas for future progress include driving the Education Improvement Board strands of work around literacy, maths, transition and teacher recruitment, comprehensive monitoring and tracking of performance data for all groups, delivery of ‘Continuing Professional Development’ across the age range, and developing the LA affiliated Education Trust.

RESOLVED to note the activity against the CYPP Action Plan.