(1)          In the interest of transparency all those who were school governors disclosed an interest.

(2)          Councillor Shaheen disclosed a non pecuniary interest in the item relating to Workloads of Children’s Social Care Services (Minute 51) as she was studying for a social work degree.

Action:           City Solicitor

Recommended –

That the minutes of the meetings held on 12 October and 1 November 2016 be signed as a correct record (previously circulated).

(Jill Bell – 01274 434580)

Resolved –

That the minutes of the meetings held on 12 October and

1 November 2016 be signed as a correct record (previously circulated).

The Children and Families Act (2014) placed a requirement on all local authorities to publish a Local Offer with effect from 1 September 2014.  The Local Offer provides information on services across Education, Health and Social Care for children and young people who are aged 0 -25 years and have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).  The Local Offer includes local provision and provision outside of the area that is likely to be used including regional and national specialist provision.

The purpose of the Local Offer is to provide clear, comprehensive and accessible information about the available services and how families can access them.  The aim is to make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs, their parents and service providers in its development and review.

There is a statutory requirement for the local authority to publish an annual report relating to the feedback received through the Local Offer.  The report must be published by 31^st August in each calendar year.

The report of the Strategic Director of Children’s Services (Document “X”) on the development and publication of Bradford’s Local Offer is submitted.

Recommended -

The Committee is asked to note the contents of this report.

                                                                                    (Jenni Leary - 01274 439538)

The Children and Families Act (2014) placed a requirement on all local authorities to publish a Local Offer with effect from 1 September 2014.  The Local Offer provided information on services across Education, Health and Social Care for children and young people who were aged 0 -25 years and had special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).  The Local Offer included local provision and provision outside of the area that was likely to be used including regional and national specialist provision.

The purpose of the Local Offer was to provide clear, comprehensive and accessible information about the available services and how families could access them.  The aim was to make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs, their parents and service providers in its development and review.

There was a statutory requirement for the local authority to publish an annual report relating to the feedback received through the Local Offer.  The report had to be published by 31^st August in each calendar year.

The report of the Strategic Director of Children’s Services (Document “X”) on the development and publication of Bradford’s Local Offer was submitted.

Responses were given to member questions as follows:

·         The Local Offer web site provided the facility to translate.  The Local offer was also available in other formats.  Feedback would be received from families on their requirements regarding accessibility of the information.

·         The ethnic breakdown of people accessing the Local Offer was not recorded but this could be taken up with the Local Offer Officer.

·         Work was undertaken with families that were harder to reach through Incommunities, Children’s Centres and Community Groups to share information on the Local Offer.

·         There was a legal requirement on all schools to publish information on their Local Offer annually.  There was a direct link from the Local Offer web site to individual schools and schools had been asked to put a link from their web sites to the Local Offer web site.

·         Education, which was the top most used category had doubled from 2014-15 to 2015-16.  However it was not possible to conclude whether this had resulted from an increase in assessments or other factors that were creating pressures for special school places.

·         Briefings took place with all school services and health professionals on the requirements of the Children and Families Act (2014) therefore a number of people in schools would be aware of the Local Offer.

·         Clarification would be sought regarding providing information for families on respite services.

A member commended the Local Offer on it’s comprehensive nature and noted the need to update it’s content and style in the light of feedback from users, in order to maintain it’s relevance.

Resolved -

(1)          That the contents of Document “X” be welcomed and noted.

(2)          That a link to the local offer be emailed to members of the Committee and the Governors Service be asked to send the link to governors  ...  view the full minutes text for item 49.

The report of the Deputy Director (Children’s Social Care) (Document “Z”) highlights the work being undertaken in Bradford to prevent children being missing from care the actions taken to protect young people when they do go missing and the provision that is in place to meet their needs.

Recommended -

(1)          That the work being undertaken to safeguard looked after children who go missing in Bradford be endorsed.

(2)          That the Multi-Agency Strategy to safeguard children who go missing be supported and reported to elected members on a yearly basis.

(David Byrom - 01274 437077)

The report of the Deputy Director (Children’s Social Care) (Document “Z”) highlighted the work undertaken in Bradford to prevent children being missing from care, the actions taken to protect young people when they do went missing and the provision that was in place to meet their needs.

Responses were given to member questions by officers and a representative of West Yorkshire Police as follows:

·         The voiceability contract was to be reviewed and officers were looking to strengthen it’s delivery and reconfigure the contract.  The return to home interview was to be strengthened.   When the contract was re commissioned members would be advised of the changes.

·         Children that were at risk were reported as “missing”, if there was no risk they were reported as “absent”.

·         Information on gender, ethnicity, length of time missing and geographic hot spots could be made available to members at as later date.

·         Although West Yorkshire Police had a standard approach, each district reported missing events differently and because of historic issues in Bradford, as soon a child was unaccounted for this was reported.  This was regarded as the best approach in terms of safeguarding children although it did result in a higher number of missing events in Bradford than neighbouring West Yorkshire authorities.

·         All missing children were treated the same whether they were in care or not and work was being undertaken in the hub on how to stop reoccurrences of  children going missing. 

·         There was a reporting strategy for every looked after child. 

·         More secure options had been explored for children who repeatedly go missing but this was not done as part of the strategy.

·         Episodes of going missing did increase is late teens.  There had been issues with leaving care hostels which were not as secure as children’s homes out of hours and options were being investigated to address this.

·         When a call was received and logged the call handlers were trained to undertake a risk assessment and the call was referred to the hub.  At that point a decision was taken to either agree with the risk assessment or downgrade it.  If the risk assessment was agreed a plan was put into action within 15 minutes.  Information was gathered and the risk re-assesed at every stage. 

·         The top 5 children who go missing was a reasonably static group and could be risk assessed quickly.

·         The same procedure had to be followed for children in foster placements as those in a children’s home.  Foster carers received multi agency training and undertook e-learning. 

·         In the case of Bradford children placed outside the district it was confirmed that the outside authority would follow the statutory guidance and the child would be monitored by the Bradford missing co-ordinator.

·         The missing policy was the same for adults as children, including people between the ages of 18 and  25 and a problem solving plan and safeguarding to reduce incidents of missing would be put in place.

·         If there was an immediate risk to a child, care  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50.

The report of the Deputy Director (Children’s Social Care) (Document “Y”) presents the most recent information on the workload of Children’s Social Work Teams and updates Members on key pressures on the service. The workload analysis is based on activity up to 30^th September 2016.

There has been a slight change to the overall workloads of social workers, and pressures upon the service since the last report was presented. The report demonstrates that Social Work Services for Children & Young People in the District remain strong, robust and well managed.

Recommended -

That the Committee consider further reports in the 2016-17 work programme to ensure the continuation of safe workloads and practice into the future given the current financial climate.

                                                (Di Watherston - 01274 437077)

The report of the Deputy Director (Children’s Social Care)

(Document “Y”) presented the most recent information on the workload of Children’s Social Work Teams and updated Members on key pressures on the service. The workload analysis was based on activity up to 30^th September 2016.

There had been a slight change to the overall workloads of social workers, and pressures upon the service since the last report was presented. The report demonstrated that Social Work Services for Children & Young People in the District remained strong, robust and well managed.

A number of social workers attended the meeting and spoke about their experience of working in Children’s Social Care Services.  They reported that newly qualified social workers experienced high levels of challenge and support with formal training and a development plan and a reduced workload.  Staff retention had improved, staff morale was high and the number of agency staff had reduced.  Positive support was received from experienced social workers.

The following responses were given to member questions and comments made:

·         The quantity and quality of work undertaken by social workers was regularly monitored.

·         All team managers were challenged to undertake a random case audit each month and grade work as outstanding, good, adequate of inadequate.  The majority of work is graded was adequate. 

·         Officers were in the process of collating the responses to the staff survey which would be reported to members.

·         With respect to the number of agency workers employed for over 12 months members were advised that an individual could be employed to cover a number  of different posts which would effect these statistics.  It was not in the authority’s interest to employ agency workers other than to cover sickness or maternity leave.  It was noted that 25% of social workers in Kirklees were agency workers and it had received an Ofsted rating of inadequate.  The percentage of agency social workers in London and Birmingham was high which was not the case in Bradford.

·         The trends that had been identified for children becoming subject to a plan for the second time within 2 years were; transient movement out of and into the district; chronic neglect and domestic abuse.

·         Bradford had a good reputation for newly qualified social workers in their Assessment and Supported Year in Employment.

·         Formal and informal supervision was provided for social workers.  It was acknowledged that Bradford was a complex community which made the job of social workers challenging and difficult and staff did move.

·         The sickness analysis showed that stress was an issue, which was not confined only to Bradford but all other social work departments nationally.  There was a need to support staff in building resilliance.

·         Work was being undertaken to identify hot spots and pressure points to balance workloads.  Discussions were taking place about moving people from other sections but this was not undertaken routinely as specialist knowledge was required in specific areas.

·         With reference to the increase in the number of referrals received per month compared to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

The report of the Chair of Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Document “AA”) presents the Committee’s Work Programme 2016-17.

Recommended –

That the Work Programme 2016-17 continues to be regularly reviewed during the year.

                                                                        (Licia Woodhead - 01274 432119)

Resolved –

(1)          That the report to the 14 February 2017 meeting regarding Child Sexual Exploitation include information on historic cases.

(2)          That the Work Programme 2016-17 continues to be regularly reviewed during the year.

ACTION:        Deputy Director Children’s Social Care

Overview & Scrutiny Lead