(Members Code of Conduct – Part 4A of the Constitution)

To receive disclosures of interests from members and co-opted members on matters to be considered at the meeting. The disclosure must include the nature of the interest.

An interest must also be disclosed in the meeting when it becomes apparent to the member during the meeting.

Notes:

(1)       Members must consider their interests, and act according to the following:

(2)       Disclosable pecuniary interests relate to the Member concerned or their spouse/partner.

(3)       Members in arrears of Council Tax by more than two months must not vote in decisions on, or which might affect, budget calculations, and must disclose at the meeting that this restriction applies to them.  A failure to comply with these requirements is a criminal offence under section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992. 

(4)       Officers must disclose interests in accordance with Council Standing Order 44.

No disclosures of interest in matters under consideration were received.

Recommended –

That the minutes of the meeting held on 12 July 2023 be signed as a correct record.

(Kav Amrez / Louis Kingdom – 07929 070228 / 07890 416570)

That the minutes of the meetings held on 12 July 2023 be signed as a correct record.

(Access to Information Procedure Rules – Part 3B of the Constitution)

Reports and background papers for agenda items may be inspected by contacting the person shown after each agenda item.  Certain reports and background papers may be restricted. 

Any request to remove the restriction on a report or background paper should be made to the relevant Strategic Director or Assistant Director whose name is shown on the front page of the report. 

If that request is refused, there is a right of appeal to this meeting. 

Please contact the officer shown below in advance of the meeting if you wish to appeal. 

(Kav Amrez / Louis Kingdom – 07929 070228 / 07890 416570)

There were no appeals submitted by the public to review decisions to restrict documents.

Any referrals that have been made to this Committee up to and including the date of publication of this agenda will be reported at the meeting.

There were no referrals to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Strategic Director of Children’s Services will present a report (Document “D”) which provides an update on the Children and Young People’s Plan.

Recommended –

·         That the Children’s Overview and Scrutiny committee acknowledges the amends to the Children and Young People’s Strategy.

·         That the progress report be brought back 12 months after the date which the Strategy is made final.

(Niall Devlin - (01274) 432009)

The Strategic Director of Children’s Services presented a report (Document “D”) which provided an update on the Children and Young People’s Plan.

The Strategic Manager from Children’s Services reported that the Children and Young People’s Strategy was previously considered by the Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 15 March 2023 and the Committee made recommendations which included a follow up report.

The Strategic Manager from Children’s Services informed members that the Strategy supports the collective district ambition to ensure all babies, children and young people had equality of access to the resources and support available to help them reach their full potential. The Strategy covered people ages 0-25 years old and all public sector, voluntary and community organisations that supported and worked with babies, children, young people, and their families in the Bradford District.

It was clarified that this was a Strategy for Children and Young People and not a Plan as mentioned in the earlier report. There were plans for implementation on each area, where some plans were working well while others were slow in progress, however, the work stream was regularly monitored by the Children and Young People Board and the Wellbeing Board.

It was reported by the Strategic Manager from Children’s Services that all local authorities were required to have a Children and Young People’s Plan under the Children and Young People’s Plan (England) Regulations 2005.

The Children and Young People's Strategy was intended to both fulfil the Council’s legal duty to have a plan and to provide an overall strategy for the district. This was the reason why the document was a Strategy rather than a Plan.

The Strategic Manager from Children’s Services said, following the Committee meeting held on 15 March 2023, a senior officer re-engaged with the statutory and non-statutory partners and amended and extended the priorities from 12 to 18. The revised strategy provided more clarity on how the key priorities would be delivered and the 29 key metrics that would be monitored that would be key in identifying if any difference was being made.

A Member of the Committee referred to page 13 of the report and asked what measures were in place to overcome the problem young people were facing due to racism and not obtaining work placements.

In response to this, the Strategic Manager from Children’s Services reported that this issue would come under the post 16 plan, officers had spent a lot of time working with young people to enable and equip them with the transition to employment skills and knowledge they required.

Members were keen to understand if there were any plans to broaden the horizon for work experience and if more placements would be made available to young people.

In response to members question it was reported that there were plans to offer more work placements, the Post 16 Team were working hard to achieve this and that a specific work stream of the Strategy looked at different opportunities for placements of work  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

The report of the Chair of the Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Document “E”) includes the Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee work programme for 2023/24.

Recommended –

·         That members consider and comment on the areas of work included in the work programme.

·         That members consider any detailed scrutiny reviews that they may wish to conduct.

(Mustansir Butt - (01274) 432574)

The report of the Chair of the Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Document “E”) was submitted to Members for comment and review of the 2022/23 Work Programme.

Resolved –

That the Committee discussed and amended the work programme.

Action:  Overview and Scrutiny Lead

                                                   (Mustansir Butt – 07582 101597)