To receive any apologies for absence from Panel Members.

Apologies for absence had been received from Councillor Gosling and Tony Wilson.

Councillor Sharpe was attending the meeting as a substitute for Councillor Gosling.

To receive any declarations of interest from Panel Members.

Councillor C Da Costa declared a personal interest as she voluntarily gave up a portion of her Councillor allowance to Kickback and children in care.

To consider and approve the minutes of the meeting held on 6^th June 2023.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes from the meeting held on 6^th June 2023 were approved as a true and accurate record.

The purpose of the report is to share with People Overview and Scrutiny the annual complaints and compliments report for 2022/23 before it is published on the council’s website. Whilst Local Authorities are not required to produce an annual report on complaints relating to corporate activities, and are only required to do so on those submitted about Adults and Children’s Services, this report details all compliments and complaints made by or on behalf of customers, that are investigated under the:

·         Adults Statutory Complaints process

·         Children’s Statutory Complaints process

·         Children’s Corporate Complaints process

·         RBWM’s Formal Corporate Complaints policy

The Panel are asked to note the report and agree that the report is published on the council’s website and that the annual report continues to be produced and presented at future Overview and Scrutiny Panels.

Nikki Craig, Assistant Director of HR, Corporate Projects and IT, explained that there was a statutory requirement on the council to publish compliments and complaints data on adult and children’s services but RBWM published complaints data for all service areas. In total there had been:

• 1,408 contacts made with the complaints team.
• 269 contacts were progressed as complaints.
• 16 were for adult services and 85 were for children’s services.
• 50% of adult services complaints had been responded to within timescales.
• There had been 38 compliments recorded for adult services.
• The vast majority of complaints on children’s services were partially upheld.
• 45% of children’s services complaints had been responded to within timescales.
• There had been 69 compliments recorded for children’s services.

The report included narrative on areas of improvement and lessons learned by service areas in response to complaints. The council was performing well compared to similar local authorities.

Lin Ferguson, Executive Director of Children’s Services and Education, added that complaints in children’s services could be complex and therefore took time to resolve. She was disappointed that timescales were not as good as they could be but the relationship between the social work team and the complaints team had improved. There was a lot of learning done from complaints and action was taken to make improvements.

Kevin McDaniel, Executive Director of Adult Social Care and Health, said that the vast majority of complaints in adult services stemmed from disagreements about the cost of care and contributions required from residents. Additional resource had been focused on improving communication around this to residents.

Lynne Lidster, Director of Commissioning – People at Optalis, explained that a debt prevention officer post had been created. This role looked at developing an ongoing financial awareness training programme, to hold surgeries with practitioners, to develop a secondary care dashboard and supporting residents from getting into debt with the council.

Councillor C Da Costa expressed her concern at the number of complaints which had not been responded to within timescales. She asked if the additional deadline was not being requested or was this deadline also being missed.

Lin Ferguson said that staff were not always requesting the additional deadline. Work was being done to change this and make sure that deadlines were recorded correctly. This was also important in ensuring that families were kept up to date and aware of why complaints could take time to be resolved.

Councillor Shaw noted that the response time to complaints in adult services had improved. He asked if there was any particular reason which could be associated with this improvement and if this could be used to improve response times in children’s services.

Kevin McDaniel said that the team had ensured that complaints did not become stuck between different teams and that complaints were progressed through the system in a timely manner. Learning had been shared between the service areas and it was hoped that there would be improvements shown in future years.

Councillor Story noted that children’s statutory complaints had gone  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.

The Achieving for Children (AfC) Board of Directors has now approved the 2022/23 Impact Report, Equalities Report and Annual Report and Accounts. These annual reports provide information about AfC’s impact and performance across the boroughs of Richmond, Kingston and Windsor and Maidenhead between April 2022 and March 2023. They are being presented to Cabinet to support the Council’s oversight of AfCs performance in its role as joint owner of AfC.

The Panel are asked to consider and scrutinise the report and make any relevant comments or recommendations for consideration by Cabinet, who will be considering the report at the end of October.

Lucy Kourpas, Chief Operating and Finance Officer at Achieving for Children, explained that the annual reports were being presented to Cabinet as the council was a joint owner of Achieving for Children. The annual report was made up of the impact report, the equalities report and the accounts. The impact report outlined the strategic priorities, values and key impacts on families. Good progress had been made against these priorities with independent inspections showing positive results. A number of case studies were included, particularly around supporting families in the cost of living crisis and strengthening the local offer of support for those with SEND. There had been an escalation in mental health need and a programme of support had been rolled out across schools.

The equalities report provided information around the approach as an organisation, infographics about the workforce and residents who used Achieving for Children’s services. There had been a focus on improving training and development for staff and awareness around the protected characteristics. A mentoring programme had been introduced and this had been popular, while a virtual support hub had also been introduced.

The accounts contained information on the financial performance and position for Achieving for Children and followed national reporting standards. Independent auditors had audited the accounts and they had concluded that it reflected a true and accurate financial performance. The overall value of Achieving for Children had improved by £73 million but the net worth was -£5.3 million. This was because the local government pension scheme was offered to all employees who worked for Achieving for Children.

Councillor Story asked if it was normal for the value of the pension fund change to be reflected in the accounts of an organisation.

Lucy Kourpas said that the pension fund was valued every three years and this informed employer contribution rates. The last valuation had come in from 1^st April 2023 and there had been a small increase in the employer contribution rate. Achieving for Children was a community interest company, therefore it was likely that it always owed more than it owned and this explained why there was a negative net worth. There was an asset lock in place, so if Achieving for Children was ever wound up, the three joint owning councils would have access to these assets. The organisation had not been set up to deliver a profit, it had been set up to deliver services on behalf of the council.

Councillor Story noted that the families first scheme had over 100 families being supported in Kingston and Richmond, but there were only 11 being supported in RBWM.

Lin Ferguson said that Achieving for Children had been running the families first scheme in Kingston and Richmond for a number of years. Funding had recently been secured to run this scheme in RBWM and had only been run since July.

Councillor Story asked if staff had to attend all of the training sessions which were listed in the report. He questioned whether this was taking up  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.

Produced by RBWM and its partners from across the health and education sectors, this Children and Young People’s Plan examines what we know about the health and wellbeing needs of our children and young people. It also sets out how, as a system, we are committed to working together and alongside families to address health inequalities to ensure all children and young people – including the most vulnerable – can enjoy happy, healthy and fulfilling lives.

The Plan was considered by the Health and Wellbeing Board in July 2023, a referral was made by the Board for the Panel to also consider and scrutinise the Plan.

The full Plan can be viewed on the Achieving for Children website. It is recommended that Panel Members read the Plan in advance of the meeting.

Lin Ferguson shared a video with the Panel which highlighted the Children and Young People’s Strategic Plan and detailed the priorities which formed the plan. This was the first time a plan of this kind had been adopted by the council. On the ‘be healthy’ priority, there was an aim to improve access to mental health, increasing the number of children who were breastfed and increasing the number of child immunisations. On ‘be safe’, there had been campaigns on water safety and safety outside of the home. It was important that all children were ready for school and that attainment for vulnerable groups was increased. The partnership was a written commitment between a number of agencies and would lead to a number of positive changes for children and young people, with many benefits already being seen.

Councillor C Da Costa commented on the video which had been shared, this was well put together and clearly explained the plans priorities. She questioned the higher than average number of children with SEND in the borough, was there any reason for this.

Lin Ferguson said that in more affluent areas there was a trend of children with SEND being identified at an earlier stage.

Councillor C Da Costa said that 6.3% of young people aged between 16 and 17 were not in employment, education or training. This was a high figure compared to the rest of Berkshire and England.

Lin Ferguson said that the Deputy Director of Education was currently writing a report on the reasons for this figure which would be presented to the Schools Forum. The pandemic had an impact on children wanting to learn and staying in education.

Councillor C Da Costa said it was disappointing to see that there were no free drop-in breastfeeding clinics in the borough. Early help needed to be protected as it was a really important service.

Councillor Sharpe asked why this was the first Children and Young People’s Strategic Plan which had been brought forward.

Kevin McDaniel explained that there was a statutory requirement to have a children and young people plan and the council had always had one. This plan had been developed in coordination with other teams and organisations which meant the plan was shared widely and was more prominent as a result.

Councillor Sharpe asked if there were any obstacles which officers could see getting in the way of priorities in the plan being achieved.

Lin Ferguson said that the biggest challenge would be finance and budget. All agencies were working together in collaboration on issues which were important to children and young people. There had not been many barriers experienced so far, with active workstreams complimenting the five key priorities.

Councillor Sharpe asked whether joining up with other organisations had decreased the cost of the service overall.

Lin Ferguson confirmed that it was too early to say, it was about thinking differently to achieve positive results.

Mark Jervis, Co-optee, noted that there were no Key Performance Indicators included  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

To review the ongoing work programme.

The Panel are also asked to consider the two scoping documents attached.

Mark Beeley, Principal Democratic Services Officer – Overview and Scrutiny, updated the Panel on the work programme. He said that two scoping documents had been completed, on support for children with SEND and support for home educated children in the borough. The Panel approved both of the scoping documents.

Councillor Shaw commented on the impact of the government decision on support for asylum seekers, as this was in relation to the change from 28 days to 7 days to leave their currently occupied space. This had a knock on effect for asylum seekers and Councillor Shaw was keen to understand what support was in place.

The Chair suggested that it could be worth inviting the housing allocations team to present to the Panel at a future meeting.