To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received by Cllr McWilliams, Mr Cook and Cllr Airey (Lead Member).

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest received.

To consider the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 8 December 2016.

The Part I minutes of the meeting held on 8 December 2017 were approved as a true and correct record.

To consider the report.

Philip Wright, Head of Learning and Community Services, (Slough Borough Council) and Safia Mohamud, Community Learning and Skills Manager, attended the meeting to provide an update on the performance of the Community Learning and Skills

Service in 2015-2016 and the outcomes of the Ofsted inspection of the Service

undertaken in June 2016.

The Panel were informed that the service had worked closely with RBWM’s Head of Commissioning , Adult, Children and Health, to aligned the service with the Adult, Children and Health Services directorate vision and priority outcomes.  Appendix 1 gave details of how the service contributed to the directorate outcomes, with

the majority of the performance targets having been met.

As the responsible authority Slough BC were subject to an Ofsted inspection in June 2016 with adult learning programmes being graded as “requires improvement“, section 2.12 of the report details the strengths and weakness identified in the Ofsted report.  Section 2.13 of the report showed how the service was putting into place a series of actions that would support managers in raising the quality of teaching, learning and assessment.

The Panel were informed that a detailed post-Ofsted action plan had been implemented Progress is monitored by the shared service

management committee.

Cllr Jones mentioned that East Berkshire College had recently been rated as ‘requires Improvement’ and asked if they were on board with the improvements mentioned in the report.  The Panel were informed that one of their strategies was that only good providers of education would be used.  They had written to East Berkshire College about their Ofsted rating and asked for quality assurances.

(Cllr E Wilson joined the meeting)

The Chairman asked if they worked with the Berkshire College of Agriculture and was informed that when there was a tender process no tender was submitted by them.

Cllr D Evans asked for clarification on the ratings for adult education and was informed that there was the entry level, level 1 and the final level 2 which was equivalent to GCSE.  Cllr Evans also raised concern that the report seemed to suggest that there were teachers employed who did not have sufficient skills to teach English.  The Panel were informed that all the teachers were sufficiently qualified.  There were the right tutors with the correct qualifications for specific courses.

The Chairman asked for clarification that all tutors had the correct level of language skills and was informed that all tutors are tested and if there are areas requiring improvement they are encouraged to up skill if they wish to continue with their contract.

(Alison Alexander joined the meeting)

Cllr Evans asked about how the courses helped residents gain employment and was informed that all students had an initial assessment and after the completion of each level they are encouraged to move onto the next level.  There was more then just improving language skills there was also life skills that helped them get employment and settle into the community.

Cllr E Wilson asked if the contract was monitored and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To comment on the Cabinet / Council report.

The Panel received a presentation from the Head of Finance on the 2017/18 Budget which Cabinet were due to approve and would be going to Council.  

The Panel were informed  that the proposed budget contained an increase in revenue investment of about £2.5 million to help protect the most vulnerable people in the Borough.  Examples of increased investment included £1 million added for adult social care, £400k for expanding the practical support for homeless residents, £330k for rising home to school transport for special needs pupils requirements and £120k over three years for increasing early years pupil premium spend.

There was also proposed investment in the Planning Department, for tree maintenance and investment for our voluntary organisations providing community needs. 

The proposed council tax increase was 0.95 percent which was lower than the retail price index There was also a proposal to increase the adult social care precept by three percent.  

The Panel were informed that the proposals meant that a band D property would pay £961.46 for their council tax.

With regards to Fees and Charges the Panel were informed that the majority of charges would see no increase in real terms.  There had been a few increases that brought the borough in line with neighbouring authorities where we had been significantly under charging in the past.

With regards to Capital investment the Panel were informed that over the last few years the Council had decided to make a number of strategic capital expenditure, such as school expansion and new library.  Historically loans would have been taken to fund these projects however it had been decided that instead of loans the Council would use its reserves to fund capital projects saving about £150k in interest rates.  The Panel were informed that, as demonstrated in the Financial Update reports, this policy was no longer sustainable and thus it had been decided borrow money for capital projects.

It was proposed that over the next year about £75 million would be spent on capital projects that included a further £12.1 million for the ongoing schools expansion plan, £14.5 million for stage one of the new leisure centre,  £9.4 million for stage one expansion of Broadway Car Park,  £9.2 million enhancing York House, Windsor, £8.3 million for other property and parking improvement, £4.5 million for the consolidation of the St Clouds Way development site and £1.6 million for LED street lighting.

The Panel were also informed that with regards to Business Rates it was proposed that there would be a local newspaper business rate relief of £1,500 per title, all locally controlled rate reliefs maintained, rural rate relief extended and redefined and relief for reinvigorating vacant retail units to be extended to all commercial and industrial premises.

The Panel were shown specific areas of the Budget relating to Children’s Services including:

·         Fostering fees and charges – core allowance, aligned with national recommendations for DfE.

·         Savings which had been discussed by cabinet in September 2016 and Full Council in December 2016.

·         Growth in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To comment on the Cabinet report.

The Panel considered the latest Financial update report that was projecting a £473,000 underspend on the General Fund which was a further increase of £38,000 since the last reported figure at Cabinet in December 2016. As such the council had a combined General Fund Reserves of £6.33m, well in excess of the £5.27m recommended minimum level.

The Adults, Children and Health directorate project an overspend of £192,000 with significant impacts, both favourable and adverse, coming from demand led services where demand was difficult to predict and small numbers could have significant budgetary impact.

The significant changes from the previous month’s report for the directorate were:

·         £157k increase in the cost of home to school transport.

·         £107k increase in the placement costs of children in care.

·         £70k increase in the placement cost of children with disabilities.

·         £75k increase in the staffing cost of the MASH

·         £153k decrease in the placement costs for adults with a learning disability.

·         £96k decrease in the placement costs for adults with mental health problems.

·         £100k decrease in the cost of providing homecare and direct payments to adults.

·         £50k reduction the cost of meeting deprivation of liberty safeguards

Corporate and Community Services projected an underspend of £64,000, with improved positions in visitor management and in development and regeneration, offset by a small fall in planning application income. Operations and Customer Services continued with an excellent position of £596,000 underspent.

Cllr Jones asked how much borrowing was there at present and was informed there was currently no borrowing.

Cllr E Wilson asked if it was possible to allocate reserves to school projects and was informed that a Cabinet decision would be required to do this but it was important to maintain a sensible level of reserves to cover future risks.

Cllr E Wilson also asked if the reports focus on specific cost management would be maintained when the AFC contract was signed.  The Panel were informed that there would be contract management against spend.  Any variations to the agreed contract would come back to the Council for approval. 

Resolved unanimously:  that the Children’s Services O&S Panel endorsed the report.

To consider the report.

The Panel considered the report and  received a presentation on the Outcome of Local Government Association safeguarding peer review.

The Panel were informed that the Local Government Association safeguarding peer review of children’s services took place between 5 and 9 December 2016. Feedback from the review overall was positive. The outcomes reflected the service’s own self-assessment and the areas for consideration identified by the team are being consolidated into the existing service improvement plan. This plan would form the basis of the business plan for Achieving for Children.

The Panel were informed that the peer team was large with a lot of experience consisting of the following people:

·         Lead peer – Charlotte Ramsden, Strategic Director for Children & Adult Services, Salford City Council

·         Member peer – Councillor David Simmonds, Deputy Leader & Cabinet Member for Education & Children’s Services, LB of Hillingdon

·         Operational peer (Review Analyst/Case Records Review/Audit Validation) – Karen Graham, Assistant Director of Social Care, Health & Wellbeing, Kent County Council

·         Operational Peer  – Jane Wilton, Head of Service, Looked After Children & Adoption, Solihull MBC

·         Operational Peer – Pat Elliott, Independent Consultant

·         Health Peer  – Lynne Tyblewski, Health Visitor, Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust

·         Police Peer – DCI David Newsome, Lead for Safeguarding Children, Hertfordshire Police

·         Shadow Peer – Louise Smith, Adviser, Children & Young People, LGA

·         Review Manager – Jill Emery , LGA

The presentation showed both the strengths and areas for consideration for effective practice, service delivery and listening to the  voice of the child, some examples being:

Strengths; being evidence that child protection plans being increasingly SMART and timely, strong safeguarding practices across health visiting, school nursing, midwifery and Accident & Emergency and Pod working is improving consistency for CYP & families.  These were just a few of the examples in the presentation.

Areas for further consideration were feedback to partners needs strengthening, agreed and consistent use of PARIS  and improve the quality, frequency and recording of supervision.  Again further examples were available in the presentation.

With regards to the outcomes, impact and performance management stream of the review the Panel were shown that some of the strengths were as follows (but not inclusive):

·         Commitment to ensuring stability in management roles.

·         Evidence of routine performance data being available and increasing member focus on performance.

·         Senior management commitment to improve performance.

·         Evidence of child protection plans being increasingly SMART and child outcome focussed.

Whilst areas for further consideration were:

·         Stronger focus on outcomes for children

·         Compliance with performance and practice expectations is inconsistent and lacks supervisory enforcement.

·         Need to ensure consistent application of quality assurance framework and escalation policy.

·         Need to develop a robust learning loop from performance, audits, reflective supervision and appraisal.

With regards to the working together the Panel were informed that there were excellent of collaborative and transparent working with Health and Police, evidence of shared report and planning activity across local boards and partnerships as well as a strong relationship across the school family with the local authority. It was noted that there was some anxiety regarding the transfer  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

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 consider the Part II minutes of the meeting held on 8^th December 2016.