Agenda and minutes

Councillor Loraine Morgan-Brinkhurst, David Williams and Andrea Arlidge had sent their apologies to the Panel.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officer before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

Councillor Nathan Hartley and Alex Raikes from Support Against Racist Incidents (SARI) had given notice of their intention to make a statement to the Panel. Councillor Hartley wished to speak directly before Agenda Item 9.

Alex Raikes from SARI addressed the Panel regarding the Medium Term Service & Resource Plan, a copy of her presentation can be found on the Panel’s Minute Book, a summary is set out below.

She asked if the Panel knew exactly which services were being cut.

She asked if they were aware of the true impact and consequences of the loss of those services that were proposed for axing.

She stated that to many SARI was considered to be a front line service.

She explained that SARI gave excellent value and that cutting their funding of £8,232 would not solve the Council’s deficit.

She informed them that SARI had an excellent track record for meeting the targets set by the Council and for achieving very positive outcomes. She added that she believed it would be very difficult to re-establish such a service once they had gone.

She spoke of the services that SARI provides to schools, these include; Assemblies, Classroom Sessions, Workshops, School Projects and advice on policies and procedures on tackling racism. She added that they also support Children, Young People, Parents and Carers with re-building relationships with school staff, school complaints, transfers / appeals, referral to play therapy and counselling.

She stated that SARI now has permission to change its Charitable Objectives to cover all Protected Characteristics and all strands of Hate Crime.

Councillor Sarah Bevan asked if it was true that there was a general assumption being made that Polish people within B&NES would be returning to Poland.

Alex Raikes replied that this was not true as many see that there is nothing to go back to. She added that some may return on occasion for health care or dentistry work.

Councillor Liz Hardman wished to commend the sessions she had seen from SARI in the classroom.

Peter Mountstephen commented that he had seen the work of SARI over the last 10 years and felt their service should be retained.

The Chairman asked for the presentation to be passed to the Resources Panel.

Councillor Sarah Bevan asked the Democratic Services Officer to check his notes to see if he had recorded a question from her regarding accessibility at the meeting on September 24^th 2012. She asked that if he had it within his notes could it be added to the minutes.

The Democratic Services Officer replied that he would check his notes after the meeting and respond to Councillor Bevan.

The Panel confirmed the minutes of the previous meeting as a true record and they were duly signed by the Chairman.

The Department for Education is intending to introduce national school funding reforms from April 2013. The final policy will be known in December 2012. These funding reforms affect all areas of schools and colleges, not just SEN, as the indictors used in the funding formula are refined.

The Divisional Director for Learning and Inclusion Services introduced this item to the Panel. He explained that the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) was to be divided into three streams (schools block, high need block and early years block), and the Local Authority (LA) will set the budget it gives to schools according to a much-simplified formula, keeping back cash for a limited number of specified central functions. He added that the LA has to outline its formula to the Educational Funding Authority (EFA), which can act if it thinks the LA's budget is wrong or unfair.

He stated that the Government's reform agenda "aims to encourage the development of high-quality provision", to "improve transparency", to "empower young people and their families" and to "increase choice". The document says the current funding system is insufficiently responsive and may create perverse financial incentives which prevent pupils getting the right educational experience.

The new approach will see provision for high needs pupils and students funded on a mixture of a place- and a pupil-led basis. Under a place-plus approach high needs funding will comprise of three elements, which can be applied across all provision for high needs pupils and students.

• Element 1 or “core education funding”: the mainstream unit of per-pupil or per-student education funding. In the school sector for pre-16 pupils, this is the age-weighted pupil unit (AWPU), while for post-16 provision in schools and in the FE sector this is the mainstream per-student funding as calculated by the national 16-19 funding system.

• Element 2 or “additional support funding”: a clearly identified budget for providers to provide additional support for high needs pupils or students with additional needs up to an agreed level. This is identified as the ‘notional budget’

• Element 3 or “top-up funding”: funding above elements 1 and 2 to meet the total cost of the education provision required by an individual high needs pupil or student, as based on the pupil’s or student’s assessed needs.

He explained how SEN Funding would work in Bath and North East Somerset?

Special schools and units - regardless of whether the school is an academy of not, the school/unit will be funded by the EFA at the rate of £10,000 per commissioned place. This is the place element of the funding. It is important to note that this is not new funding - it will have been removed from our grant. The LA is then responsible for providing any ‘top up’ funding based on the pupils individual needs from the high need block. This will be determined by the SEN team through assessment and a banding mechanism. Other LAs placing pupils in our schools will deal direct with the school as recoupment arrangements will cease.

Mainstream schools – The Government has determined that each school has within its formula budget £4,000 core funding (element 1) and £6,000 additional support funding (element 2) and this funding must be used to support pupils with additional or SEN needs. If  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60.

The draft Children’s Services Medium Term Service & Resource Plan (MTSRP) is presented for consideration by the Panel:

(1) To ensure all members of the Panel are aware of the context for Service Action Planning and budget setting

(2) To enable comment on the choices inherent in the medium term plan

(3) To enable issues to be referred to the relevant Portfolio at an early stage in the service planning and budget process.

Councillor Nathan Hartley addressed the Panel. He spoke of his passion for the Youth Service and said that he was pleased that it would be retained as it provided a valuable support to young people. He added that the Council had one of the best services in the country.

He questioned whether £200,000 should be saved by way of management restructure in 2013 / 14 as the directorate requires a support mechanism.

Councillor Liz Hardman commented that she was concerned as she had interpreted the plan to read that the Youth Service would be reduced to a mainly targeted one.

The People & Communities Strategic Director introduced the Medium Term Service & Resource Plan to the Panel. He explained that the plan was set over three years to give a sense of clarity.

He informed them that the directorate was required to make savings of £4.345m and would only see a re-investment of £1.2m and that this would particularly be in Children’s Social Care. He advised that the savings would be split across Children’s Services (84%), Voluntary Sector (4.7%) and Connexions (11%).

The savings proposals totalling £4.345m set out in Appendix 3 can be summarised as follows:

• Management and service re-structure to remove a range of posts as some service areas reduce in size and scope.

• Discontinue the current Connexions Service contract and create an integrated, mainly targeted Youth/Young People Service combining Youth and Connexions Services.

• Reduced commissioning of additional services for certain groups of children, young people and families. This aligns with Government announcements in further reductions in the Early Intervention Grant.

• Reduced Children’s Centre and Early Years Services leading to a whole-service re-structuring and consideration of new models of service delivery to be fully implemented from April 2015.

He then highlighted the areas within the plan where savings would be made.

£100,000 - School Improvement & Achievement Services: Further re-structuring of our support to schools and consequential restructuring of administrative support.

£60,000 - Children Missing Education Service: In 2013 / 14 cease remaining activity to secondary schools. In 2014 / 15 a £26k reduction is planned, plus income target of £4k.

£13,000 - Post 16 Education Training and NEET: Reduce staff FTE working on raising participation.

£480,000 - Connexions – Discontinuation of current form of service

£178,000 - Reductions in commissioned services. (i) 2013-14 Remove additional funds to commission extra CAMHS type services and cuts. £148,000 of this figure is accounted with no impact upon the 3rd sector.

£100,000 - Reduce Youth Service to a mainly targeted service.

£141,000 - Safeguarding, Social Care and Family Support Services. Review the 117 Service and redesign overall provision of Family Support Services with reducing staffing capacity.

Growth

£234,000 - Increases in allowance paid to B&NES foster carers.

Councillor Ian Gilchrist asked why a lot of the planned savings were back loaded within the plan.

The People & Communities Strategic Director replied that following a debate with the Cabinet it was recognised that the directorate had taken a large  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61.

This item gives the Panel an opportunity to ask questions to the Cabinet Member and for her to update them on any current issues.

The Cabinet Member for Early Years, Children & Youth, Councillor Dine Romero addressed the Panel. On the subject of the Medium Term Service & Resource Plan she stated she would look to fight her corner as much as possible. She added that she hoped to maintain service provision as much as possible and said that conversations were still required on the matter of Children’s Centres and the Youth Service.

The Chairman thanked her for her comments.

The Panel will receive a verbal update on this item from the People and Communities Strategic Director.

The People & Communities Strategic Director addressed the Panel on the following items.

Independent Review Service – The Service has been notified by Ofsted of a thematic inspection on 23^rd and 24^th January 2013. The inspection will involve a review of randomly selected cases, discussions with children and young people, IRO’s, social work staff and managers. B&NES is one of ten local authorities selected and Ofsted will provide a summary report on the effectiveness of Independent Reviewing Services nationally.

Sector Led Improvement – During January B&NES will visit Swindon Council to carry out a Peer Challenge of their Safeguarding thresholds. Also Dorset County Council will visit B&NES to carry out a peer challenge of our services for diverting children and young people from care.

This system has been established across England to help the sector support its own improvement. It is estimated that the time requirement will be approximately 5 days per officer from the ‘donating’ local authority.

Children’s Centres – Ofsted have requested that we allow them to trial a new inspection framework for Children’s Centres that are managed on a ‘cluster’ basis. B&NES has managed on this basis for some time and I am minded to agree given that all Centres are due to receive an inspection over the next 12 – 18 months.

Children’s Social Care Improvements – The Improvement Plan continues to be implemented with very close management of key improvement activities. The emphasis on timeliness of assessments is bearing fruit as timescales have improved significantly. We are also addressing issues of quality and a report will come to a future meeting of the Panel.

The Chairman thanked him for his update.

This report presents the latest Policy Development & Scrutiny Workplan for the Panel.

The Chairman introduced this item to the Panel. She asked if any Member had an item they wished to add to the workplan.

Councillor Ian Gilchrist proposed that following their discussion on the Medium Term Service & Resource Plan the Panel places the general topic of the Budget under its ‘Future Items’ column.

Councillor Liz Hardman asked if a chart could be produced for the School Performance Data relating to Looked After Children. She added that this was in response to the Panel receiving an offline report.

The Divisional Director for Preventative Provider Services replied that this could be arranged.

The Panel RESOLVED to agree with both of these proposals.