Local democracy

Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 3 - City Hall, Bradford. View directions

Contact: Sheila Farnhill 

Items
No. Item

21.

DISCLOSURES OF INTEREST

(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 may remain in the meeting and take part fully in discussion and voting unless the interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an interest which the Member feels would call into question their compliance with the wider principles set out in the Code of Conduct.  Disclosable pecuniary interests relate to the Member concerned or their spouse/partner.

 

(2)       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. 

 

(3)       Members are also welcome to disclose interests which are not disclosable pecuniary interests but which they consider should be made in the interest of clarity.

 

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

 

                                                                        (Sheila Farnhill – 01274 432268)

Minutes:

No disclosures of interest in matters under consideration were received.

22.

MINUTES

Recommended –

 

That the minutes of the meeting held on 10 September and 5 November 2018 be signed as a correct record (previously circulated).

 

(Yusuf Patel – 01274 434570)

 

Minutes:

Resolved –

 

That the minutes of the meeting held on 10 September and 5 November 2018 be signed as a correct record.

23.

INSPECTION OF REPORTS AND BACKGROUND PAPERS

(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. 

 

(Sheila Farnhill - 01274 432268)

 

Minutes:

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

24.

PROGRESS REPORT ON B POSITIVE PATHWAYS pdf icon PDF 83 KB

In January 2017 Bradford was awarded £3.2 million over 2 years from the DfE Innovation Fund.  There are 3 elements to the award:

 

1)        Reducing the need for children to come into care through stronger edge of care work.

2)        Improving our ability to provide high levels of care within our residential homes  through embedding a therapeutic “PACE” approach.

3)        Setting up two “mockingbird” hubs to improve support to foster carers working with  children with more complex needs.

 

After consultation with the Children in Care Council, the programme was named B Positive Pathways (BPP)

 

The Assistant Director (Children’s Social Care) will submit a report (Document “L”) which sets out elements of the programme and progress to date.

 

Recommended –

 

That the Corporate Parenting Panel note the content of this report and

the progress of B Positive Pathways.

 

(Jim Hopkinson - 01274 432904)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

In January 2017 Bradford was awarded £3.2 million over 2 years from the DfE Innovation Fund.  There were 3 elements to the award:

 

1)        Reducing the need for children to come into care through stronger edge of care work.

2)        Improving our ability to provide high levels of care within our residential homes  through embedding a therapeutic “PACE” approach.

3)        Setting up two “mockingbird” hubs to improve support to foster carers working with children with more complex needs.

 

After consultation with the Children in Care Council, the programme was named B Positive Pathways (BPP)

 

The Assistant Director (Children’s Social Care) submitted a report (Document “L”) which set out elements of the programme and progress to date.  The following aspects of the programme were highlighted:

 

·         That as of 15 November 2018, the outreach staff held an active caseload of 88 “edge of care” adolescents and had already closed 102 cases, of which 91.7% of those young people did not enter the care system.

 

·         That the Mockingbird Programme was launched on 10 February 2018 and currently we had 26 young people in the Mockingbird Model, and since February 2018 there had been no breakdown of stability within this cohort.

 

·         That the Department for Education had agreed to profile funds into the 3rd year in order to continue with the programme.

 

·         That we were now in a position to analyse the emerging cost savings for Police partnership. In addition the BPP had made a direct saving to the Police in its reduction of calls for service.

 

·         That at this current time we did not have enough data from our health partnership to be able to accurately analyse cost benefit analysis, however early indications show that the health partnership is having a positive impact.

 

·         That an evaluation framework of BPP had been agreed and the evaluators will concentrate on the impact of the hub homes, the outreach team and the Mockingbird constellations.

 

During the discussion Members asked a number of questions, the questions together with the responses are detailed below:

 

In response to a question regarding the timeframe for re profiling the funds, it was explained that the contract end date was March 2019 and that the re profiling was specific to the health element and this will extend this element to March 2020.  There was also a discussion to be had with the Police of the intention of utilising PCSO’s.

 

In relation to a question on the recruitment of the new educational specialist, it was confirmed that this specialist would be part of the virtual school team.

 

In relation to a question on whether the Ofsted inspectors had made any criticism of the effort to keep the number of children going into care down.  In response it was explained that no criticism had been expressed by Ofsted, in addition all care planning was done in conjunction with Social Workers and any issues were flagged up.

 

In response to a question on whether the Service was confident that the thresholds for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

25.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE VIRTUAL SCHOOL pdf icon PDF 325 KB

This is the statutory annual report of the Virtual School Head and Virtual School for the City of Bradford Metropolitan Borough Council. This report highlights the work of the Virtual School; the Local Authority and partner agencies to improve outcomes for children in care from the early years up to targeted care leavers aged 25. The report of the Deputy Director Children’s Social Care (Document “M”) covers progress and attainment at all key stages. The report also outlines the activity of the Virtual School Head Teacher, the Virtual School and the 2018 educational outcomes of children in care which are available currently. It reflects on achievements and progress against the development plan and also identifies areas of development to achieve the best outcomes for children in our care.

 

Data contained in this report, is for children who were in the care of the City of Bradford Metropolitan District council) for a year or more as at 31 March 2018.

 

Recommended -

 

That the Corporate Parenting Panel note the report.

 

(Ken Poucher – 01274 439623)

Minutes:

This statutory annual report of the Virtual School Head and Virtual School for the City of Bradford Metropolitan Borough Council highlighted the work of the Virtual School; the Local Authority and partner agencies to improve outcomes for children in care from the early years up to targeted care leavers aged 25. The report of the Deputy Director Children’s Social Care (Document “M”) covered progress and attainment at all key stages. The report also outlined the activity of the Virtual School Head Teacher, the Virtual School and the 2018 educational outcomes of children in care which were available currently. It reflected on achievements and progress against the development plan and also identified areas of development to achieve the best outcomes for children in our care.

 

Data contained in the report, was for children who were in the care of the City of Bradford Metropolitan District council) for a year or more as at 31 March 2018.

 

The Primary Achievement Officer gave a brief overview of the Virtual School and the notable achievement’s, which were detailed in report.

 

During the discussion Members made the following observations on the Virtual School:

 

In response to a question regarding the success of the reading programme, it was stressed that the Dolly Parton reading programme was still running as well as the reading champions programme.

 

In response to a question regarding the high percentage of Looked After Children with Special Educational Needs, Officers acknowledged that the percentages were high and this was even more remarkable given the progress these children made.  The Member stressed that given the extra challenges faced by Looked After Children educational outcomes had to be looked at in context.

 

In response to a question regarding how schools dealt with issues faced by Looked After Children, such as on the issue of exclusions, it was stated that there was a dedicated link officer to the school, who would be the first point of contact in case an issue cropped up, and appropriate one to one support would be provided to support the child in school.

 

In response to a question regarding schools where Looked After Children were placed, it was explained that generally they would be placed in a good or outstanding rated school, however they were sometimes placed outside of these schools, where the Authority was confident good support would be offered and we had a good relationship with that particular school in terms of supporting a Looked After Child.

 

In response to a question regarding the increase in the proportioned retained by the Virtual School and the extra funding, the Primary Achievement Officer stated that Bradford’s Virtual School was the fourth largest in the country and that during the recent Ofsted inspection the Inspector challenged us around the Virtual School and its impacts on the lives of Looked After Children, so the additional money and staff would enable us to improve our provision further.

 

In relation to a question on a change in Social Worker for a Looked After  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

26.

INDEPENDENT MONITORING AND QUALITY ASSURANCE OF CHILDREN'S HOMES, REGULATION 44. pdf icon PDF 104 KB

The Assistant Director (Children’s Social Care) will submit a report (Document “N”) which aims to inform of Independent Monitoring of Children’s Homes (Regulation 44 independent person, visits and reports) and recognise the role of elected members in visits to Residential Children’s Homes.

           

Recommended –

 

That the Members of the Corporate Parenting Panel agree to participate in three announced monitoring visits of residential and respite homes per year.

 

(Suzanne Lythgow - 07581 100936)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Assistant Director (Children’s Social Care) submitted a report (Document “N”) which aimed to inform Members of the Independent Monitoring of Children’s Homes (Regulation 44 independent person, visits and reports) and recognise the role of elected members in visits to Residential Children’s Homes.

 

The Assistant Director stated that there had been a decline in the number of visits made by Members and given the statutory responsibility we had, it was important that we addressed this issue as member involvement was a key component in ensuring there was oversight and scrutiny.

 

During the discussion a number of suggestions were made around how Member involvement could be improved and it was therefore agreed:

 

Resolved –

 

(1)       That the Chair meets with officers to discuss a way forward to   improve the number of Members visiting residential children’s           homes.

 

(2)       That Members of this Committee, including Co-opted Members and alternates make a commitment to visiting residential        children’s homes.

 

(3)       That consideration be given to approaching Councillors who have      a residential children’s home within their ward, with a view to             encouraging awareness and accompanied visits with a Reg 44        Officer.

 

Action: Assistant Director Children’s Social Care

 

 

 

27.

CHILDREN LOOKED AFTER OUTCOMES REPORT AND ADDENDUM: UPDATE ON MISSING FROM CARE pdf icon PDF 102 KB

The Assistant Director (Children’s Social Care) will submit a report (Document “O”) which 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.

 

The report covers the period April 2017 to October 2018.

 

Recommended –

 

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

 

(David Byrom - 01274 432986)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Assistant Director (Children’s Social Care) submitted a report (Document “O”) which highlighted 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.  The report covered the period April 2017 to October 2018.

 

The Assistant Director stated that this report had been resubmitted from a previous meeting, as a result of some minor discrepancies in the previous report, and that it now contained the correct data.  Members welcomed the report and it was therefore:

 

Resolved –

 

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

 

ACTION: No Action

28.

WORK PLAN 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 90 KB

The Panel’s Work Plan for 2018/19 is submitted (Document “P”) for Member’s consideration.

 

(Jim Hopkinson – 01274 432904)

 

Minutes:

The Panel’s Work Plan for 2018/19 was submitted (Document “P”) for Member’s consideration and following a brief discussion, the following amendments were made to the work plan.

 

Resolved –

 

(1)       That the proposed report on Children Missing from Care be        omitted from the 11 March meeting of the Panel.

 

(2)       That consideration be given to bringing the report on Citizenship         and Access to Passports for Looked After Children forward to the            15 April meeting of the Panel.

 

ACTION: Assistant Director Children’s Social Care