(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.

There were no declarations of interest made.

Recommended –

That the minutes of the meeting held on 26 July 2023 and the Young Person Led Meeting held on 20 September 2023 be signed as a correct record (previously circulated).

(Su Booth – 07814 073884)

Previous Actions

(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. 

(Su Booth – 07814 073884)

No requests were received.

The representative from the Bradford District Clinical Commissioning Group will give a verbal update on the work to understand non-attendance at Initial Health Assessments.

(Jude McDonald)

JM explained the annual report had been completed and would be tabled at the next formal Corporate Parenting meeting.

A lot of work had been undertaken drilling down into data with social work colleagues and looking at how we facilitated getting children to appointments.  There were 60 children who did not attend appointments, which was a massive improvement from last year but lost 60 hours of clinical time were lost.  Work to understand the barriers for the 60 children was being undertaken in more depth.  Triage meetings were set up approximately a year ago due to the large waiting list.  The meetings had Social Care Managers, Designated Doctor and other named professionals attend and look at cases and priorities.  The meetings helped but there was still a long way to go to improve timeliness of children being seen.  There were increasing numbers of children, but this was alongside a national capacity issue for paediatricians. 

AJ agreed now linking together and there was a clear escalation process.  Needed to look at how appointments can be better facilitated, working around their needs, more in the community and at different times to help carers.

There had been an impact on consent which had been holding up initial health assessments.  There were only 20-30% of no consent, the level of which was over 50% last year.

Asked if there were 60 missed appointments, how many appointments went ahead.  JM confirmed there was still a waiting list, previously was 100+ days, now reduced to 30-40 days.  Could not confirm number of appointments attended but would bring further narrative to next formal panel.

Cllr Pollard remained uneasy around lack of consent, however in terms of attendance significantly better, what was the one big thing that has improved this.  JM explained a lot of the non-attendance was older children who voted with their feet, another issue was larger family groups so if one family did not attend, it impacted on figures.  It was complex and Officers were discovering new things on the journey.

Cllr Duffy said there was a need to celebrate that things had moved on and that was because of this meeting, relationships had also moved on.  Thank you to everybody who was involved.

No resolution was passed on this item.

Representatives will give a verbal update on the development of a cross agency strategy arising from Phase 2 of National Panel Work.

(Dr Murray, Jude McDonald, Amandip Johal)

This followed the Hessel report of abuse of children with complex health needs in residential settings.  The report came in two stages and Members had discussed phase one.  The second report was due imminently, JM and AJ had had regular discussions since Phase 1 was released.  JM had today raised the report at the Integrated Care Board, focus was on shared responsibilities, working with the right people i.e. local authority; health; SEND; education to promote the voice of the child and to ensure have robust commissioning. 

Needed to improve quality of provision available and ensure good quality assurance mechanism in place.  Also need to ensure when get Government response it was not a one off and recommendations were embedded into day to day practice.

Needed to work together against written statement of action as some issues/areas would be similar or the same.  Agreed it was a good opportunity to strengthen working together and would ensure Council commissioning and SEND colleagues were invited to the process.

Cllr Duffy felt it was really positive way forward and felt positive energy.

No resolution was passed on this item.

Officers will give a verbal update on action plan/timeline to move Mark Riddell report forward.

(Amandip Johal - 01274 431620)

It was confirmed that contact had been made to arrange visit from Mark Riddell.  A number of streams have been captured and incorporated into day-to-day business, Ofsted and general improvement work.

CR explained the Trust had not been engaged in setting the agenda for todays meeting.  CR formally requested the agenda is agreed between the Trust and Council as more information could have been provided if had known in advance.

Cllr Duffy said we still have a journey to go on agenda settings and has had conversations with Trust and Council, things will get slicker and apologises that the Trust were not involved.  Moving forward will come together in a more coherent way.

Cllr Duffy continued that acknowledgement was needed that progression had not been made on the plan, but as we move forward with a more permanent workforce it will move on, there was also a political timeframe to move this on.  There was a whole host of work needed to get to timelines.

RT felt the Mark Riddell report would be an important part of the session on 5^th December and would galvanise working collaboratively.

No resolution was passed on this item.

The report of the Director, Children’s Services (Document “C”) will be submitted to the Panel in advance of the CPP led self-assessment.  At the request of the Chair of CPP an earlier evaluation to be led by the Interim Assistant Director for Improvement and Partnerships, Children’s Services in August 2023 to highlight areas for development, ambition, and a vision for success. A document that has been produced setting out in detail our current position an where we aspire to be to meet the Corporate Parenting Principles required and more. This will support the soon-to-be held Corporate Parenting Partnership Event on 5th December 2023.

Recommended –

1.    That the areas for development identified in this document and set out in the draft programme plan, are considered by the Corporate centre, Corporate Parenting Panel, Children’s Services and BCFT.

2.    That Project resource is put in place to ensure the success of the necessary improvements identified.  A plan will be developed for what can feasibly be achieved in the next quarter, in advance of the LGA peer diagnostic in the new year.

3.    That a Progress report goes to Corporate Parenting quarterly.

4.    That a development event be held with partners to identify strategic objectives for the Corporate Parenting Strategy. This is scheduled for 5^th December 2023

5.    That Corporate Parenting Panel consider the LGA self-assessment by December 2023.

6.    That The LGA peer team carry out their assessment in January/February 2024.

7.    That The LGA, Corporate Parenting and the Local Authority, agree and implement a training and development programme for Corporate Parenting from February 2024 onwards.

8.    That a follow up self-assessment or peer diagnostic is carried out in 12 months’ time (January/February 2025).

(Picklu Roychoudhury – 07811 088617)

SW explained she had taken over the lead for Corporate Parenting, in terms of the invite to the event it would now be an online booking, along with a follow up email asking Members who were unable to attend to send a substitute colleague who had the seniority to make decisions.

Cllr Duffy would like members from scrutiny to be invited.  Cllr Pollard said he could attend in both roles.

Cllr Pollard raised contradiction in page 6 of minutes and page 16, section 2.3, para 2 of the document pack.  It reads ‘Corporate Parenting are wanting same as scrutiny but want to streamline and not have duplication, need to ensure we do not contradict ourselves.  Reports to scrutiny go into great detail but what is important to Corporate Parenting could get lost in an in-depth report’.

CR thinks the LGA Peer Review would be able to answer this, it would be helpful to have a list of what we want to discuss and needs unravelling. 

Cllr Duffy thinks a forward plan would be useful and is something we do not have currently.

LGA Peer Review

Blank template had been circulated and copies distributed in meeting.

Cllr Duffy wanted group to have sight as the Corporate Parent.  It was important everyone had the opportunity to read and make comments, it was important partners work together to complete the self-assessment.

RT feels the event on 5^th December would help as discussing what is working well, what were the gaps and by the end of the event have the foundations of a strategy document.  May need extra sessions and/or focus groups to look at areas.

CR said the self-evaluation needs to have evidence but also needs people’s opinions.  Need to be honest where we think we are, what doing well and what we need to do next so can develop together.   Need to collectively agree what we want clarity on to help prepare as asking them what we want them to help us with will be valuable.  Inspectors would be interested in the document when they inspect children in care.

JM said that we were good are producing evidence but need to ask “so what”, we meet recommendations, “so what”?  “Need to question if making a difference”.

Data will be key evidence and need to ensure have all school level data available.  Key Stage 4 data does not have children in care separated but incorporated into vulnerable groups.

One question could be “what are we not doing”, It would be an opportunity to look at the good parts but also look at what we could do differently/better.  The journey we are going on will help us unpick this.

CR suggested early February would be a good time for the review.  Allows Members and Officers time after the event on 5^th December to pull together and summarise.

Agreed to have an additional meeting self-assessment and put proposal together.  Next child led panel to be split.  However, the peer review would go ahead  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.