Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies were received from the following Members: Kevin Hamilton, Jillian Heath, John Mallinson, Claire Salisbury, Wendy Skillicorn and Val Tarbitt.  Apologies were also received from Church Representatives Rev Bert Thomas, Alex Scott and Parent-Governor Tracey Jacques.

To report and changes to the membership of the Board

Members to note that Cllr C Salisbury will be replaced by Cllr A Wonnacott for this meeting only

Mr Andrew Wonnacott replaced Mrs Claire Salisbury on this occasion only.

To disclose any personal and prejudicial interests relating to any item on the agenda.

NB   The following is a summary of what constitutes a personal interest and a personal and prejudicial interest.  Please seek advice or refer to the Code of Conduct (paragraph 8) for full definitions.

Personal Interests

You have a personal interest if the issue being discussed in the meeting affects the well-being or finances of you, your family or your close associates more than most other people who live in the Electoral Division affected by the issue.

Personal interests are also things that relate to an interest you must register.

N.B. If the personal interest arises because of your membership of another public body, you only need to declare it if you intend to speak.

A personal interest should be declared as follows:

I have a personal interest in agenda item […] regarding the report on […] because I am […].

Personal and Prejudicial Interests

If you have a personal interest in a matter you will also have a prejudicial interest in that matter if the interest is one which a member of the public, with knowledge of the relevant facts, would reasonably regard as so significant that it is likely to prejudice your judgement of the public interest.  If you have a personal and prejudicial interest you must withdraw from the meeting room for that item, unless you are there to make representations and the public have the same opportunity to do so

NB You only have a prejudicial interest if the matter

·        affects your financial position or that of your family, close associate, employer etc or it

·        relates to a regulatory matter

A personal and prejudicial interest should be declared as follows:

I have a personal and prejudicial interest in agenda item […] regarding the report on […] because I am […].

Advice on this can be sought from staff in Legal and Democratic Services.  Members are requested to seek advice, wherever possible, before the meeting starts.

Mr K Little declared a personal interest in Item 8 on the agenda (Children’s Services Engaging with Health) as a non-executive member of the Cumbria NHS Board.

To consider whether the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of any item on the agenda.

RESOLVED,       that the press and public be not excluded during consideration of any item on the agenda.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Board held on  10 December 2010 (copy enclosed)

Item 24 – Corporate Director’s Report

With regard to the issue of Better Transport (page 6) the Corporate Director updated members on progress.  The recommendations contained in the scrutiny report on School Transport were taken through the budget process and, as part of that activity, the home to college transport was part of a consultation that began on 28 February 2011.  The Corporate Director asked whether Scrutiny Members would be interested in supporting that consultation process, by examining whether, at the end of the consultation, it had been robust and inclusive, as a short piece of scrutiny work.  It was anticipated that this would comprise an observation of officer discussions in gathering and evaluating the responses, with a second session to consider the proposed Children’s Services report to Cabinet.  In terms of timescales, the Children’s Services report was scheduled for consideration at the 26 May meeting of Cabinet.

RESOLVED,       that

                        (i)      the Minutes of the Board meeting held on 10 December 2010 be confirmed and signed as a correct record by the Chair, subject  to the following:

                                 Item 17 be amended to remove the inaccurate statement that Mr Roberts had substituted for Mrs Feeney-Johnson;

                        (ii)     the Corporate Director liaise with a task group comprising Mr Cook, Mrs Rae and Mr Wonnacott to undertake a short piece of work to consider the merits of the consultation process on Better Transport, with Mrs Feeney-Johnson named to attend if Mr Cook is unavailable.

There were no call-in items to bring to the Board’s attention, on this occasion.

For members to be informed of any CCfA received by the County Council and consider whether any further action needs to be taken by the Advisory Board

There were no CCfAs to bring to the Board’s attention, on this occasion.

For members to discuss the engagement of health with Children’s Services and whether to establish a Task and Finish Group on the issue.

Mr Vernon Watson, lead officer for Children’s Services in the PCT and Associate Director of Commissioning Partnerships in NHS Cumbria will be present at the meeting to take part in the discussion

The Corporate Director introduced the Associate Director of Commissioning Partnerships, NHS Cumbria and detailed the discussion at a recent Tripartite meeting that had led to the inclusion of this item on the agenda.  The Corporate Director wanted to ensure that members were appraised of the partnership arrangements that were under development between the two service areas, particularly given the government plan to place some areas of responsibility for public health with local authorities from 2013, which would include some aspects of children and young people’s health.

The Associate Director outlined ongoing activities to create a closer working relationship between Children’s Services and the NHS in Cumbria.  Over the last 2 years, activities have been ongoing to bring all branches of the NHS system together in partnership working.  This included acute trusts, partnership trust (incorporating mental health services, substance misuse and learning difficulties services), community-based services, speech and language therapy, paediatrics etc., with the outcome that there were now effective joint meetings and relationships within the NHS.  This ‘connected’ approach to services included the key aspect of safeguarding.  This approach has been under the leadership of University Hospitals Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, with Paediatrician Dr Paul Gibson as the clinical lead acting across all NHS organisations.  Part of the process had included the use of ‘inclusive’ language rather than traditional bureaucratic terms such as ‘programme board’.

In relation to children and young people, there was a large number of practitioners around the county in both Children’s Services and schools with whom it was important for the pertinent NHS services to build links.  The dynamics of change that were currently underway in the NHS required careful handling.  Historically in Cumbria there has been an inequity in services for children and young people, in terms of the way that these have been delivered, with different practice and approaches in individual areas.  One example would be the number of Health Visitors designated to each area, reflecting neither the number of children nor the levels of deprivation.  Health Visitors also had differing responsibilities dependent on where they were based in the county.  The process of accessing the speech and language therapy services was also currently being examined across the county to identify geographical differences.  The key aim was to ensure a fair and equitable access to services across the county for children and their families.

Meanwhile the GP Consortia - proposed in the recent government Health White Paper – would be structured within the 6 areas of Cumbria, with 6 Consortia in all – lined up with District Council boundaries.  It was currently anticipated that one of these would take the lead as a ‘countywide’ face for the delivery of services for children and young people.

An assessment report - commissioned by the previous government but published under the coalition government (September 2010) - undertook to examined the delivery of NHS services in England and Wales for children and young people.  Authored by Professor Ian Kennedy [entitled:Getting it right for children and young  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.

To receive a report from the Corporate Director Children’s Services (copy enclosed)

The Board received a report from the Corporate Director, Children’s Services which updated them on the following issues within the Directorate:

• Children’s Trust Board;
• Annual Performance Assessment;
• Children’s Services Restructure;
• Youth Offending Service;
• Better for Children;
• Education Bill;
• Sure Start;
• Youth Councils;
• Multi-Agency Looked After Partnership (MALAP)/Corporate Parenting;
• Locality Updates.

Specific details provided, and points raised, on some the above are outlined below.

Children’s Trust Board

The coalition government had stated its intention to remove the duty to co-operate from some partners along with the statutory requirement to produce a Children and Young People’s Plan.  Whilst this requirement still existed, partners held a full day event in November 2010 to consider its achievements to date and how to take this forward in future.  The key agencies involved included Schools, Health, Police, Fire and Rescue, the voluntary and third sector and Children’s Services and discussions were had on shaping a future approach to working together.  It was recognised that the Trust Board membership meant that there were many attendees and this was a time-heavy approach.  Whilst seeking to maintain the advantage of a collaborative forum, partners agreed that this would require a fresh approach in future.  Reflecting this planned change, at the last meeting of the Trust Board on 4 March, it was agreed that this body would be disbanded and reformed as the ‘Children’s Trust Partnership Board’.  The new Partnership would incorporate the key partner representation - including the voluntary sector – that would meet 3 times a year.  High level representation would include the Chief Executive of the Cumbria NHS Partnership Trust, the Corporate Director of Children’s Services and the Assistant Chief Constable.

In addition to the new Executive Partnership, there would be 3 District Delivery Groups [Carlisle and Eden, Allerdale and Copeland, Barrow and South Lakes] with a ‘circular’ model of information and communication between the Executive and District Groups.  The Groups would have representation from relevant partners including from health and local schools, tailored to each area and would feed issues through to the Local Committees.  This new model had been discussed across agencies and work had been commenced in October 2010.  A paper on this new model was scheduled for discussion at Cabinet briefing before submission to the May round of Local Committees.

One member informed the Board that there was already a Children and Young People Working Group in the Barrow area and asked whether the creation of a District Delivery Group would then constitute duplication of activity.  The Corporate Director responded that a solution could be that it could become the District Delivery Group for the South of the County.  The intention of the Trust Board was to develop a streamlined process, utilising existing groups, to create new ones.

The primary purpose of the new Executive Partnership and District Groups structure was quick identification of concerns followed by action to address these.  In preparation for the new structure, work had been undertaken to identify what was currently in operation at a locality level.  The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.

To receive a report from the Corporate Director Children’s Services (copy enclosed)

Members received an update report on the Budget Outturn for Children’s Services from the Senior Finance Manager.  There was a forecast overspend for 2010-11 of £1.373m, which represented a reduction on the forecast at November 2010 of £2m.  This demonstrated that endeavours to reduce the overspend were having an impact.

Officers were keenly aware that there was a need to deliver the budget within parameters.  Good progress had been made on the biggest pressure on the Children’s Services budget, the costs for Children Looked After.  A recovery plan had been established, with a decrease in the number of children looked after observed in the last 3 months.  As a result that there was an anticipated underspend on this budget line of between 600k and 700k.

For the 2011-12 financial year, there had been a budget reduction of £18.6m, with an extra £1m made available to support Children Looked After agreed at the meeting of Full Council on 17 February 2011.

One member commented that, given the recent government cuts, the resultant climate of austerity against a backdrop of rising living/fuel costs, there may well be increased incidents of family breakdown, with a potential increase in the number of Children Looked After.  The Corporate Director responded that this was precisely the argument used to support Children’s Services’ request for additional funding from the authority.

RESOLVED,       that

                        (i)      the Board notes the forecast budget outturn for 2010-11 for Children’s Services;

                        (ii)     the Board notes the forecast overspend of £1.373m and the decrease in the number of Children Looked After.

To receive a report from the Corporate Director Children’s Services (copy enclosed)

Members received a performance report for quarter 3 2010-11 from the Performance Officer, based on the discussion held by the Scrutiny Performance Sub Group.  This included an appended report ‘Make a Positive Contribution’ which provided a thematic overview on activities to effect improvement in the lives of young people.  The National Indicator 145 for young offenders in Education, Employment or Training, was highlighted as one where the Youth Offending Service endeavoured to improve upon.  The Performance Officer noted that a new dataset would be in operation from 1 April 2011 for local authorities to measure activities against.

Councillor Cook was Chair of the Performance Sub Group and he reflected that this was a useful forum for meeting with performance officers from Children’s Services.  In the future, the role of the group would probably grow in significance, in monitoring the service’s progress following recent change.

One member asked whether the government’s review of national indicators could have a detrimental effect on young people’s services and whether there was an argument for the local authority to retain some of these at a local level.  The Performance Officer responded that whilst the government’s stated aim was to reduce the reporting burden placed on local authorities, it was anticipated that for children’s services this burden would potentially increase under the proposed new regime.  The component indicators would be drawn from national and local indicators, with some from both the Service and Council plans.  The Corporate Director observed that the new single dataset would inform the Children’s Trust Executive Partnership discussions and would provide a steer for directing actions for service providers to address issues in Cumbria.

Benchmarking activities - in comparing Cumbria’s attainment with other local authorities – would be continued and included in future performance reporting.

RESOLVED,       that

                        (i)      the Board notes the update performance report for quarter 3 and the merit of having the Scrutiny Performance Sub Group;

                        (ii)     the Board will be informed at a future meeting of the new single dataset for Children’s Services.

To consider a report from the Assistant Director – Policy and Performance (copy enclosed)

The report informs members of new and update items of significance to the Board

The Board considered the following referral from a meeting of Allerdale Local Committee held on 31 January 2011:

            “[scrutiny] be asked to examine the current provision of Youth Services across the County to determine if the services currently delivered are effective; whether there could be a better way of developing Youth Services ‘on the ground’ and whether the contract presented Best Value.”

As a member of Allerdale Local Committee, Councillor Little informed the Board that this referral had come out of a Performance Report provided to the Children and Young People’s Working Group at their meeting on 6 December 2010.  Councillor Little suggested that, as youth services were part of the ongoing re-organisation work, members return to this issue in a few months time to determine whether there was any merit in pursuing this as a topic.  In the meantime, members of the Local Committee could be recommended to find out what community level youth services were being delivered in their own local area.

The Cumbria Joint Scrutiny Manager presented the Board Briefing paper to members drawing attention to the following points:

• outcomes of discussions at the recent tripartite meeting held on 28 January 2011;
• the School Transport Scrutiny Review would be brought back to the Board in 6 months time to identify progress against recommendations;
• the Board’s final report on Connexions was well received by Cabinet on 3 February 2011, with a minute extract of their response appended for members’ information;
• the future provision of Adult Education;
• the scrutiny member training event scheduled for 5 April 2011.

The Joint Scrutiny Manager provided a quick overview of the purpose of the training event, to help determine the future direction of scrutiny in the authority within the context of national change and the potential value in the scrutiny function in ensuring accountability to the local community.

The Corporate Director provided a brief overview of the issues around Adult Education.  Work was ongoing to bring together individual strands of adult education provision into a single unit for ‘Lifelong Learning and Skills’.

Councillor Cook commented that, with regard to the single work programme (appendix 2) there were a number of review topics from other Boards that would have some impact on children and young people, for example ‘Swimming Pools’ under the Scrutiny Management Board.  Councillor Cook asked that this review took account of the important element of any potential impact on children and young people, along with any other similarly relevant reviews.

RESOLVED,       that

                        (i)      the Board notes the contents of the report, and the scheduled scrutiny training on 5 April 2011;

                        (ii)     members reconsider the issue of Youth Services in 6 months time, before determining whether to pursue this as a scrutiny topic;

                        (iii)    the Corporate Director will provide an update report at the next meeting of the Board covering the developments for the Cumbria Youth Council, Lifelong Learning and Skills and recommissioning.

Date:        Tuesday 14 June 2011

Time:       10:00am

Venue:    Committee Room 2, County Offices, Kendal

Members noted that the next meeting of the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Board was scheduled as follows:

      Date:        Tuesday 14 June 2011

      Time:       10:00am

      Venue:    Committee Room 2, County Offices, Kendal