To receive apologies for absence.

(Cllr Mills in the Chair)

Apologies for absence were received by Cllr Pryer, Cllr McWilliams and Cllr D Evans reported he would be late.  Cllr Story was in attendance as a substitute.

To receive any declarations of interest.

Councillor E Wilson declared a personal interest as his wife and son work education establishments as this was not a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest he stayed and considered the items.

To consider the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 19^th July 2016.

The Part I minutes of the meeting held on 19^th July 2016 were approved as a true and correct record.  With regards to Desborough Colleges Cllr E Wilson asked for clarification on places available and was informed that there were 10 places available in year 7.

Resolved unanimously: that the Part II item be considered as a Part I item with the exception of appendix 2 that remains confidential.

The Panel considered the Cabinet report regarding the details following the due diligence activities that had been undertaken since March 2016, leading to the further development of the outline business case to secure the Royal Borough as a shareholder in Achieving for Children for future delivery of children’s services.

The Panel received a presentation on the proposal that the Royal Borough was looking at changing the way it delivered children’s services to benefit families, residents and staff, while retaining its statutory responsibility.

(Cllr Quick joined the meeting and took the chair.)

The presentation set the background to the proposals and how it was linked to the Council always seeking to be more efficient whilst seeking to provide better services to our residents.  Cabinet had agreed to bring school nurses and health visitors into the local authority to deliver a more integrated service.  Research was undertaken in how best to deliver integrated services and after reviewing a variety of models it was concluded that a Community Interest Company would be the best option.

The Panel were informed that an outlined business case was developed around two options for a community interest company; either a new Royal Borough owned entity or joining an existing company and the Panel were shown the criteria used to asses these options.

Following the review the conclusion was that the council should consider forming a partnership with the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames to deliver children’s services through Achieving for Children (AfC), a community interest company. The company was set up by the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames to help drive up standards and quality, in April 2014.

The Panel noted that both of the London Council’s were rated Good by Ofsted, with Kingston’s rating having gone from inadequate to good once joining the CIC.

The presentation highlighted the benefits of joining the established company, they were:

·         Larger organisation.

·         Increased resilience with staff and services.

·         More integration of services.

·         Opportunities for efficiencies in service provision and support functions.

·         Less constrained procurement.

·         Access to alternative income streams.

·         Achieving for Children has a good track record of delivery.

It was felt that if agreed there would also be improved service provision, and a greater potential for innovation through sharing of best practice between organisations. There would also be opportunity for staff development, leading to a better trained and more stable workforce across all three councils and the ability to employ specialist staff that a smaller authority was not able to do.

(Cllr D Evans joined the meeting)

Due diligence was undertaken and if all partners agreed the Royal Boroughs existing children’s services workforce would be employed by AfC  from April 2017.

A key agreement to getting to this position was that the Royal Borough would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

To consider the Business Plan.

The Panel received a presentation on the Adult, Children and Health Services Business Plan 2016-2017, as it was a new combined directorate the Panel were informed that the presentation would be concentrating on Children’s Services.

The presentation showed the Council’s and thus the Directorates vision and the core business of education, prevention and safeguarding.  The new Directorate structure chart was also shown.

The presentation went on to show the priorities for each of the core business functions starting with health, early help and safeguarding which were:

·         Integrate early help hub and early help processes so that all enquirers are directed to the most appropriate support.

·         Review and deliver an effective Corporate Parenting Strategy.

·         Deliver effective services under the Special Educational Needs and Disability reforms.

·         Review the Sufficiency Strategy to ensure sufficient placement capacity.

·         Review permanence planning processes.

With regards to education the priorities shown were:

·         Continue to raise attainment standards across Key Stages 2 and 4.

·         Narrow the achievement gap for Free School Meals pupils.

·         Work with currently Requires Improvement schools to secure Good or Outstanding judgements.

·         Secure sufficient good school places and achieve a high proportion of parents receiving a school of their preference.

And the priorities for commissioning were shown to be:

·         Robust commissioning – to secure sufficiency of provision for residents.

·         Robust performance and quality assurance framework across the directorate.

·         Efficient and effective systems and support across the directorate.

·         Ensure the voice of residents is heard and positively influences the design, commissioning and delivery of services.

·         Deliver the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

The Panel were also informed that the Business Plan also highlighted the directorate risks and for Children’s services these were:

·         Non-delivery of statutory Children’s Services functions.

·         Needs escalate resulting in budget overspend.

·         Insufficient school places to meet the changing children's population needs in the borough.

·         Educational attainment at all key stages does not meet at least national levels.

·         Non-delivery of high quality, safe educational establishments.

·         Lack of cost effective placements.

The Chairman mentioned that with regards to the three years comparative budget shown in table 3 it would have been helpful to know the number of young people so a true budget comparison could be made.

The Chairman also questioned the speed of diagnosis for young people needing a Education and Health Care Plan and was informed that a new application would take about 26 weeks whist those on existing SEN plans needed to be assessed by next year and this equated to about 700 plans.  It was noted that to get a medical diagnosis there was still a significant wait.

Cllr Story asked for clarification on sections 2.4 where it mentions that a third of young people were leaving school without the requisite qualifications yet section 2.5 goes on to say that 81% of our schools are rated as Good or Outstanding.  The Panel were informed that 64% of pupils achieved 5 GCSEs rated A to C that included English and mathematics, the figures in the report were borough and no national results.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To comment on the Cabinet report.

The Panel reviewed the Cabinet report regarding the Council’s financial performance to date in 2016-17.  The Panel were informed that there was a projected £418k underspend on the General Fund.  The Council had a Development Fund balance of £1.104m bring reserves to £6.198m which was above the minimum £5.27m set by Council.  Details of performance by directorate were included in section 4 of the report.

The Panel were informed that the report also contained a recommendation to approve a £113k S106 capital project for Porny School and the removal of £195k capital budget no longer required for the satellite grammar school feasibility project.

For the Directorate there was a projected outturn figure of £57.4m against a budget of £57.3m this overspend was a reduction of £32k reported to Cabinet in August.

With regards to Children’s services there was a predicted outturn underspend of £62k, the Panel were shown the following predicted outturn figures:

·         Commissioning – staffing costs + 90k

·         Early Help & Safeguarding agency staff +£429k

·         Childcare legal costs +£65k

·         Leaving care services -£111k

·         Children in care placements -112k

·         C&YP Disability Service -£376k

·         Other -£47k

The Chairman mentioned that with regards to young people with high cost placement that it would only take a small change to have a big impact on the budget.

Cllr Jones raised concern with the overspend of £429k on staff and was informed that this was a projected figure if there was no change.  Officers were trying to reduce agency staff and if there was some movement this projected outturn would be reduced. We were looking to replace agency staff with permanent FTE’s and there would be no reduction in service to reduce the figure.

Cllr Jones mentioned that this had been an issue last year and questioned why additional resources had not been added during the budget build.  The Panel were informed that the budget allocated for staff levels was for permanent FTE’s and that Cabinet were aware of the pressure and looking to address it.  Cllr Jones replied that if the administration continued to under budget and decreased Council tax then there would be an inevitable pressure on resources.

Cllr E Wilson mentioned that the Fair Funding petition had mentioned that schools were not receiving S106 funding due to Holyport College, he asked if schools were sufficiently funded and if any had asked for additional resources.  The Panel were informed that every school would welcome additional resources but at present no requests had been made.

Cllr Wilson also asked about the funding for new grammar schools and if this came directly from Government or via the LEA.  The Panel were informed that as this was a national resource individual schools would have to apply directly to Government.. 

Resolved unanimously: that the Children’s Services O&S Panel considered the Cabinet report and fully endorsed the recommendations.

To comment on the Cabinet report.

The Panel considered the Cabinet report showing proposed savings for the 2017-18 budget.  The report highlighted that the Medium Term Financial Plan had identified the need to make savings of £5.6m in 2017-18.  Some of the proposed savings would be subject to further reports to Cabinet for approval.  The final savings proposals would form part of the budget build and be presented to Council.

The Panel were informed that Corporate Services O&S Panel had raised concern that report summary point three and the recommendations implied that officers and Lead Members would be able to implement saving proposals without any formal scrutiny proses.  The Cabinet report had been amended following these comments and revised recommendations were circulated to the Panel.

The Panel were shown savings proposals for the Directorate with the following being highlighted for children’s services:

·         Commissioning for Children’s Services - £210k

·         Schools and Education Services - £90k

·         Health, Early Help and Safeguarding - £387k

·         Non renewal of Family Nurse Partnership contract after 30/9/16 - £110k

·         Integration of Health Visitor service and Children’s Centres - £100k

Cllr Jones reported that the revised recommendation was much more detailed but recommended that there be a further change to recommendation 3 to add ‘once approved by Cabinet’. 

Cllr Jones also raised concern that the proposed decrease in education support services could hinder schools up skilling staff and governors.  The Panel were informed that the cost to schools of buy back services and decrease in free services was not expected to decrease demand as schools found them a valuable tool.  With regards to early years the service provided was being picked up by schools supporting themselves so there would not be a drop in quality.  It was agreed that this would be kept under review.

The Children’s Services O&S Panel considered the Cabinet report and were informed that the report’s recommendations had been changed as a result of comments from Corporate Services O&S Panel.  The Panel fully endorsed the revised recommendations subject to ‘once approved by Cabinet’ being added to recommendation three. 

To consider passing the following resolution:-

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1- 7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act"

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local

Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the

meeting whilst discussion takes place on the grounds that they involve

the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7

of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act.

To note the Part II appendix.

To comment on the Cabinet report.