Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 3 - Council House. View directions

Contact: Michelle Rose  Tel: 024 7683 3111 Email:  michelle.rose@coventry.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

64.

Declarations of Interests

Minutes:

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests.

65.

Emotional Well-being and Mental Health support to Children and Young People in Coventry pdf icon PDF 170 KB

Joint Report

Minutes:

The Scrutiny Board considered a joint briefing note of the Council, Coventry and Rugby Clinical Commissioning Group (CRCCG), Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust (CWPT), Coventry and Warwickshire Mind, and the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), which provided an update on CAMHS and the wider system, with a particular emphasis on how children were being supported in schools.

 

The note indicated that, nationally, the CAMHS system operated at four levels:

 

·  Universal Services (tier 1) – this included GP’s, primary care services, health visitors, school nurses, schools and early provision. 

·  Targeted Services (tier 2) – this included mental health professionals working singularly rather than as part of a multi-disciplinary mental health team.

·  Specialist Services (tier 3) – these were multi-disciplinary teams of mental health professionals providing a range of therapeutic interventions for children and young people with complex, severe or persistent mental health needs.

·  Highly Specialist Services (tier 4) – these included day and inpatient services and highly specialist services for children and young people with the most serious problems.  It could also include crisis or home treatment services which provide an alternative to hospital admission.

 

Appendix 1 of the note submitted showed the services that were delivered in Coventry, making up the CAMHS system locally.  It was particularly noted that tier 3 supported children aged from 0-18, was funded by the CRCCG and delivered by CWPT.  There were a range of other mental health services in the city, funded by both the Council and the CRCCG.  Coventry and Warwickshire Mind was another significant service provider.

 

Across the UK, child and adolescent mental health problems had been a significant concern for successive governments and it was recognised that problems could have a range of negative impacts on individuals and families which could continue into adult life.  Challenges included a significant increase in demand, which outweighed available capacity and resources. 

 

Since 2015, Government had increased NHS funding nationally to support mental health for children and young people through the CAMHS Transformation Fund.  A multi-agency CAMHS Transformation Board led by the CRCCG was established and a CAMHS Transformation Plan developed.  The Plan was designed to drive improvements across the CAMHS system locally and was refreshed and signed off annually by NHS England. 

 

The NHS 10 year plan was published in January 2019 and made reference to expanding children and young people’s mental health services and made a commitment to the following:

 

·  Improved early intervention / prevention

·  An increased digital offer

·  Mental health funding for children and young people would rise faster than overall funding

·  Mental health support embedded within schools and colleges, funded by central government from the Public Health Grant

·  Crisis and home treatment functions

·  Reduced waiting times for children and young people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

 

The Scrutiny Board noted that the local CAMHS Transformation Plan had made progress over the first three years in relation to the following:

 

·  Improved service responsiveness by CWPT specialist services

·  Implementing the new  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65.

66.

Coventry Parenting Strategy 2018-23 pdf icon PDF 138 KB

Briefing Note of the Deputy Chief Executive (People)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Further to Minute 50/17, the Scrutiny Board considered a briefing note of the Deputy Chief Executive (People), which provided an update on progress made against recommendations and the year 1 parenting action plan.

 

The note indicated that, as children and young people develop, families may face a number of challenges and the extent to which they are able to cope would differ from person to person.  It was recognised that in Coventry the future for young people was not as good as others across the West Midlands and the country as a whole, particularly for more deprived children.  The total number of children and young people 0-19 was 89,200 and equated to approximately 25% of the City’s population.

 

As a Marmot City, those delivering support to families in Coventry were committed to tackling health inequalities, where increasing deprivation was associated with poorer health.  Coventry’s vision for parenting was to have ‘more Coventry children and young people grow up within supportive families and communities’.  The Coventry Parenting Strategy 2018-2023 identified areas for improvements and made key recommendations, bringing together the views of parents, stakeholders and evidence. 

 

Ten years ago there was a key drive by the Council to invest in parenting programmes such as Triple P (an evidence based programme for parents of children aged 0-19 years).  There was strong evidence that there were many benefits associated with Triple P parenting support and, consequently, staff at all levels within the Council were trained in delivering this support to families.  The standard Triple P programme had been shown to prevent crime, violence and anti-social behaviour. 

 

Upon completion of the programme parent’s wellbeing was measured using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS: Lovibond and Lovibond, 1985), a 42 item self-report assessing symptoms of anxiety and stress in adults.  Data for the last 6 years had been analysed for those parents who had completed a Triple P programme to understand the impact of the support offered. From 2012/13 to 2017/18, the scores for depression, anxiety and stress were consistently higher before completion of the programme.  This showed that the investment into parenting support over the past six years had a positive impact on parents and carers in the City.

 

The note summarised the progress made against the key recommendations from the Coventry Parenting Strategy 2018-2023, along with a high level summary of the five year strategic plan at Appendix 1.  The full action plan, developed by the Parenting Strategy Task and Finish Groups was also set out at Appendix 2.

 

The Scrutiny Board noted that feedback from parents / carers was positive, with many indicating that they had benefitted from attending the parenting programme.

 

Having considered the information provided, the Scrutiny Board sought clarity regarding who could make referrals in relation to parents attending the Triple P programme, and particularly whether referrals could be made from GP surgeries and from housing providers, who may be in receipt of information which suggests parents may benefit from attending the programme.  They were advised that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 66.

67.

Children's Services Ofsted Focused Visit pdf icon PDF 66 KB

Briefing Note of the Deputy Chief Executive (People)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Scrutiny Board considered a briefing note by the Director of Children’s Services, which detailed the outcome of the Children’s Services Ofsted Focused Visit held on 26th and 27th February 2019.

 

Ofsted re-inspected Children’s Services on 6th to 30th March 2017.  The outcome published on 13th June 2017 indicated that Children’s Services were judged as ‘requires improvement to be good’.  Children’s Services were no longer considered inadequate.

 

A report on the future arrangements for continuing and sustaining improvements in Coventry was presented to the Improvement Board by the Independent Chair and the Director of Children’s Services on 3rd October 2018.  It was noted that the Children’s Services Improvement Board would be replaced by an Executive Group to retain political and corporate oversight of Children’s Services Continuous Improvement.

 

The note indicated that the Continuous Improvement Executive Group would ensure tighter focus on continuous improvement and Ofsted preparation.  The impact of performance would be managed and monitored by the Group.  This was an interim measure before returning to business as usual in accordance with the revised arrangements for Children’s Safeguarding, and subject to satisfactory inspection by June 2020. 

 

Ofsted’s revised framework included focus visits to local authorities who were judged as ‘requires improvement’ and the first visit was held on 30th and 31st January 2018.  Two inspectors spend two days reviewing the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and speaking to social workers and partners.  Visits were also made to two area social work teams to review children in need cases.  The letter confirming the outcome of the visit was published on 22nd February 2018.

 

A further Ofsted Focused visit was held on 26th and 27th February 2019.  The visit focussed on permanency planning and achieving permanency.  This involved two inspectors reviewing leadership at all levels and specific areas of Return to birth family; Connected (family and friends) care; Adoption; Long term fostering; and Special Guardianship.

 

Feedback from the visit overall was positive with strong evidence of an improving service.  The redesign was having a positive impact for children who experienced less turnover of social workers, life story work was improving and fostering to adopt was an emerging strength.

 

Ofsted stated that the Council knew themselves well, and that the self-evaluation was accurate.  Ofsted recognised that there was a strategic drive to achieve permanence for children, but for some children this took too long and some children experienced too much drift and delay.  In addition, the audit and quality assurance function was complemented, which reinforced how important it was that audits were undertaken each month and the learning fed back into practice.

 

Ofsted identified a number of areas for improvement and the Scrutiny Board were advised that these were in areas where the service expected rather than newly identified areas, and that work was ongoing within these areas to ensure that the improvement continued.

 

Ofsted published a report on the outcome of the visit on 21st March 2019 and a copy  ...  view the full minutes text for item 67.

68.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 61 KB

Briefing Note of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator

Minutes:

The Scrutiny Board noted the work programme and noted that any outstanding matters would be carried over to the work programme for 2019/20.

 

Two potential items of business were identified for consideration during 2019/20, these being ‘Knife Crime’ and ‘Research on the effect that use of extra strong cannabis in the home has on children residing there.   Officers were requested to investigate which Scrutiny Board would be the most appropriate for the consideration of these items and referrals made to those Boards.

 

RESOLVED that the work programme be noted and the additional items indicated above be referred to the appropriate Scrutiny Board for inclusion on their work programme for 2019/20.

69.

Any Other Business

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

Minutes:

The Scrutiny Board requested that their congratulations be passed to Chantelle Murray and Rachel Owen, employees in Children’s Services for winning the Role Model of the Year and Employee of the Year respectively in the recent Phoenix Awards.