Agenda and minutes

There were no Disclosable Pecuniary Interests.

a)  To agree the minutes of the meeting held on 15^th September, 2016

b)  Matters Arising

The minutes of the meeting held on 15^th September, 2016, were approved.

Further to minute 18/16 ‘Quality Assurance Auditing’ the Cabinet Member accepted the recommendations.  

Briefing Note of the Director of Children’s Services

Further to Minute 11/16 the Scrutiny Board noted a joint briefing note which detailed progress on the Children’s Services Improvement Plan, reported to the Children’s Services Improvement Board on 14^th September, 2016, based on data from July, 2016.

The progress report included an update on the six themes aligned to the Department for Education (DfE) Improvement Notice including an update on the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board.

The new Chair of the Children’s Services Improvement Board, Steve Hart was welcomed and discussed progress so far, the next phase of improvement and the new leadership with the Scrutiny Board. 

The Scrutiny Board questioned the Cabinet Member’s, the Chair of the Improvement Board and officers on the following:

·  accelerated progress

·  support with the refocus on early help services and the consistent quality of services

·  working with partners and the voluntary sector

·  Ofsted

RESOLVED that

1)  The progress made be noted

2)  The action plan be noted

3)  Regular updates be received from the Improvement Board with a focus on progress since the last meeting

4)   Updates on Audits be considered when appropriate

Briefing Note of the Director of Children’s Services

Further to Minute 73/15 the Scrutiny Board considered a report of the Executive Director for People which informed members of the progress on the recommendations from the Scrutiny Task and Finish Group on Supervision of Social Work staff over the last six months.

The Board welcomed Lee Pardy McLaughlin (newly appointed Principal Social Worker) and Andrew Brunt (interim Principal Social Worker).  Officers briefed members on the new policy and changes to reflective practice.  The Research In Practice website was recommended to members as it was a useful training resource which provided headline messages for elected representatives.

 The Scrutiny Board questioned the officers on the following:

·  annual appraisals and behaviours framework

·  career path development

·  working with Universities and providing placements

RESOLVED that

1)  Progress in the report be noted

2)  A further report in March 2017 be considered

Briefing Note of the Director of Children’s Services

The Scrutiny Board considered the briefing note of the Executive Director for People which informed members about the current situation and future plans for relationship and sex education (RSE) in Coventry.

The briefing stated that personal, social and health education (PSHE including RSE) was not currently a statutory requirement for schools.  Primary schools can decide not to deliver RSE outside of the National Curriculum Science but must have an RSE policy stating this intention (applies to local authority maintained schools only). RSE is statutory in maintained Secondary Schools (DfE 2014) and schools must teach about HIV, AIDS and sexually transmitted infections.

The Department for Education (DfE) had published supplementary guidance on PSHE education which reiterated previous Government policy on the subject, stating that while PSHE education remained a non-statutory subject, it was ‘an important and necessary part of pupils’ education.  From September 2015 OFSTED’s key judgement Behaviour and Safety had been replaced by the key judgement Personal Development, Behaviour and Welfare. ‘Inspectors will evaluate the extent to which the school successfully promotes and supports pupils’: including “understanding of how to keep themselves safe from relevant risks such as abuse, sexual exploitation and extremism, including when using the internet and social media”.

Teenage pregnancy rates were decreasing nationally.  In Coventry, the rates had fallen by approximately 45% between 1998 and 2014.  Since 2008, the Coventry rates had been falling at a faster rate than nationally.  In 2014, the under-16 conception rate in Coventry was similar rather than significantly higher than the national average for the first time.  Whilst there were many factors which have influenced this decline, high quality RSE was one of the key evidence based areas for action in this area.

Longford and Binley and Willenhall wards had the highest rates of teenage conceptions in Coventry.  However, as conception data was a composite of both live births and terminations (for which ward data cannot be supplied), this masks areas where there were high rates of termination in the City.

There were currently 35 academy schools in Coventry, 5 free schools and 81 maintained schools although this was constantly evolving.  If all schools became academies none of them would be required to teach basic RSE.  However, there were many schools demonstrating good practice with regard to RSE delivery across the City.

Standard lesson plans had been provided to all primary, secondary and special educational needs schools, were updated regularly and were available on www.besavvy.org.uk (Coventry’s public facing information website about relationships and sexual health).  Additionally, the C-card (condom-distribution) scheme continued to be delivered by school nurses and education staff in schools in Coventry. City College and Henley College distributed nearly 1,300 condoms through the scheme during the first quarter of 2016/17.

The Scrutiny Board questioned the Cabinet Member and officers on the following:

·  schools sharing good practice

·  support for wards with higher rates of conception

·  data

·  involving young people

·  the use of social media

RESOLVED that

1.  The suggested recommendations to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

Briefing Note of the Director of Public Health

The Scrutiny Board considered a briefing note of the Executive Director for People regarding the Health Visiting Service, which was commissioned by the Public Health Department.  The report covered a description of the service, performance and the role of the service in leading CAF’s (Common Assessment Framework).  Coventry City Council became responsible for commissioning Health Visiting Services together with the Family Nurse Partnership Programme in October 2015. These contracts had previously been held with NHS England.

The health and well-being of children in Coventry was generally worse than the England average across a number of key outcome measures.  A number of high profile national reports (Marmot, Tickell, Field and Allen) had all highlighted the same issue: if you want to improve the life chances and health outcomes for children, you need to intervene as early as possible in a child’s life, with the biggest return on investment achieved through interventions before the age of two years.  Social ROI (return on investment) studies showed returns of between £1.37 and £9.20 for every £1 invested in the early years.  Public Health England were currently evaluating the return on investment for universal services, which would be published by March 2017.

Health Visitors were responsible for leading on the Healthy Child Programme, which was a series of mandatory reviews, screening tests and vaccinations for children aged 0- 5 years.  In addition to this, Health Visitors offer maternal mental health assessments, parenting support and advice on family health and minor illnesses.  They also carry out physical and developmental reviews which include advice on feeding, weaning and dental health.  Health Visitors provide a universal service to all families with newborn infants in Coventry. Through weekly child case meetings with Social Care, Midwives and Children Centre workers, Health Visitors share concerns and early warning signs picked up through their visits.  As a team, and alongside social care colleagues, a multidisciplinary decision is made about the appropriate response to each case (e.g. CAF level), reducing inappropriate escalation to social care and providing a joined-up response to the needs of the family.

In 2015/16 Health Visitors held an average caseload of 347 cases per Health Visitor.  The data from the first quarter of the financial year 2016/17 shows that there was generally good performance against the national Key Performance Indicators for this service.  Health Visitors have an important role in leading and supporting CAF cases.  Out turn data for the four quarters of the contract indicated that whilst Health Visitors were engaged and making a core contribution to CAF cases, the number of CAF cases newly initiated by Health Visitors was 73 in total during the course of 2015/16 year.  Although this appears low, this was a significant increase to the number held a few years ago.  Additionally, the health visiting service currently had a role in 425 recorded CAF cases.

The Scrutiny Board questioned the Cabinet Member and officers on the following:

·  The target number or average number of CAF’s Health Visitors could hold in the future

·  Training  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

Briefing Note of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator

The Scrutiny Board noted the briefing note of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator regarding outstanding actions requested by the Board.

Briefing Note of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator

The Scrutiny Board noted the work programme.

Any other items of business which the Chair decides to take as matters of urgency because of the special circumstances involved.

1)  Training had been arranged for members of Scrutiny Board 2 on 3rd November, 2016

2)  Cllr Mutton requested members give consideration to a recent article regarding ‘how to scrutinise schools’

3)  Scrutiny Board 2 to congratulate the Child Sexual Exploitation Team that had received an award