Agenda and minutes

Councillor Lucy Hodge and David Williams (Co-opted Member) 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 or a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

Councillor Paul May declared an other interest in respect of agenda item 10 (Director’s Briefing) as he is a non-executive Sirona board member.

There were none.

The Panel confirmed the minutes of the previous meeting as a true record (subject to matters arising being resolved).

The B&NES Community Safety & Safeguarding Partnership (BCSSP) would like to set out the Annual Safeguarding Report for 2019-2020.

Sian Walker-McAllister, B&NES CSSP Independent Chair introduced this report to the Panel.

She explained that in June 2018, the government announced that all local authorities would need to make arrangements to replace their Local Safeguarding Children Board by September 2019. The government wanted each locality to have access to a team of Safeguarding Partners, who work collaboratively to strengthen the child protection and safeguarding system. The government specified that these Safeguarding Partners would be a team of key professionals from three sectors: the local authority, the Clinical Commissioning Group, and the Police.

In response to this, B&NES redefined its safeguarding arrangements to take a

holistic approach and combined its responsibilities for community safety and

safeguarding children and adults. B&NES replaced the Local Safeguarding

Children’s Board (LSCB), Local Safeguarding Adult’s Board (LSAB) and Responsible Authorities Group (RAG) with the B&NES Community Safety and Safeguarding Partnership (BCSSP), which meets the statutory requirements of the three Boards it replaced.

She stated that the Annual Report covers the transitional period as the BCSSP became operational in September 2019, up until that point the report only reflects on the work of the LSCB and LSAB.

She said that the Strategic Plans for the LSAB, LSCB and RAG run through to 2021 and their priorities have been taken up by the BCSSP as they are still relevant to mitigating risk and providing assurance. The delivery mechanisms have altered to align with the new BCSSP governance structure.

All members of the BCSSP have worked extremely hard to establish the groups and sub-groups within the partnership and transition from the previous three boards as smoothly as possible to reduce impacting on delivery. There have been complexities in this process, but as shown in the report, there have been substantial achievements and the dynamic of the Partnership has been positive.

She informed the Panel that Healthwatch had been consulted on the report and had given their approval to it. She added that the report had already been presented to the Health & Wellbeing Board.

She stated that the report details the achievements, plans and priorities of the Partnership and the work carried out by its Sub-Groups and partners.

Councillor Liz Hardman asked what the strengths and weaknesses of the new arrangements are and is the new way of working better at safeguarding children and adults in our area.

Sian Walker-McAllister replied that she felt that the new arrangements have led to a better dialogue between all agencies and had enabled the ‘Think Family’ approach to be at the forefront of everyone’s work. She added that the arrangements have highlighted that particular focus should be given to children in need and their transition into adulthood.

She acknowledged that the Partnership has a large agenda to cover and that the intention is to hone down the strategic plans to enable a better use of time for all partners.

Councillor Andy Wait, referring to the chart on page 24 of the report, commented that a substantial number of years  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

This report informs the Panel about the number and type of complaints and representations, including compliments, received between April 2019 and March 2020 by Children’s Services.

The Complaints & Data Protection Team Manager introduced this item. She explained that the report informs the Panel about the number and type of complaints and representations, including compliments, received between April 2019 and March 2020 by Children’s Services.

She stated that the number of complaints to each team remains relatively consistent with the exception of the Duty Team which saw a significant increase in the number of complaints during 2019 – 20. She added that analysis of the complaints received each month has been carried out to determine whether the increase correlates to any issues with service delivery; however, there is no immediate explanation.

She informed the Panel that the primary purpose of the complaints procedure is to give the service the opportunity to put things right for the individual complainant when they have gone wrong. She added that the statutory guidance also states that:

All local authorities should provide a system for:

o The dissemination of learning from complaints to line managers;

o  The use of complaints procedure as a measure of performance and

means of quality control; and

o Information derived from complaints to contribute to practice development, commissioning and service planning.

She said that to achieve this there are systems in place to collate and then disseminate information gathered at the conclusion of each stage of the procedure.

She stated that a total of 92 complaints about Children’s Services were recorded under the Children’s Social Care statutory complaints procedure or the Council’s Corporate Complaints Procedure and 6 enquiries were received from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

She said that the total number of complaints received across the service had decreased during 2019 - 20; however, the distribution of complaints across the three stages and referrals to the Ombudsman remain consistent and the percentage of complaints which are escalated to Stage 2 remains very similar.

She added that in 2018 – 19, 9% of Stage 1 complaints were escalated to Stage 2, in 2019 – 20, this figure was 7%.

She explained that the Local Government Ombudsman (LGSCO) considered 6 complaints during 2019 – 20. The Council was required to respond to the Ombudsman’s enquiries on two of these complaints. One complaint was upheld. The Ombudsman closed three complainants without any further investigation and the complainants did not pursue the final complaint.

She informed the Panel that a total of 53 compliments were recorded during the year from children, young people and their families and colleagues

working in partner agencies. This is a significant increase from the previous

year when 36 compliments were recorded. This is possibly due to the

Celebration Newsletter that has been introduced in Children’s Social Care

which celebrates positive feedback and encourages staff to share the

feedback they receive. She added that compliments reflect good practice and provide valuable information which can be considered alongside complaints to help establish where the strengths and weaknesses of the service are.

The Chairman said that the service should be commended for the number of compliments  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

The Music Education Hub (MEH) in B&NES is a group of interested representatives from schools and musical organisation in B&NES. They are responsible for ensuring that the National Plan for Music Education (NPME) is delivered across the BANES area.

The Director of Education, Inclusion and Children’s Safeguarding introduced this report. He explained that the B&NES Music Service employs approx. 54 staff, the majority of whom are part time Peripatetic Instrument & Vocal Tutors. He added that the Service works with approx. 2200 pupils and 66 of B&NES's 82 Secondary, Primary, Junior, Infant and Special Schools each year.

He informed the Panel that the Music Education Hub (MEH) in B&NES is a group of interested representatives from schools and musical organisations in B&NES and that they are responsible for ensuring that the National Plan for Music Education (NPME) is delivered across the B&NES area.

He stated that the Music Service is the Lead Organisation for the MEH which attracts funding from Arts Council England (ACE) to deliver musical activities to ensure that every child has an opportunity to engage with music between the ages of 5 and 18.

He said that in May 2019, ACE commissioned a review of the B&NES Music Service. This review was undertaken by A P Benson consultancy firm. The review made several recommendations on how the Arts Council grant is currently being used to deliver the MEH in B&NES and how the Music Service was being operated.

He explained that the core issues identified by the ACE review fundamentally concluded that the Arts Council grant was not being used effectively to deliver the outcomes expected for a MEH and that too much of the grant was being used to support the Music Service and that the service delivery model was not financially sustainable in the long term. It also concluded that the MEH itself needed to be empowered with more of the ACE grant to achieve the expectations of the NPME and have wider strategic impact and increased avenues of delivery.

He stated that since October 2019, the Music Service and the MEH have been supported by Nick Howdle, Head of Wiltshire Music Connect and that Nick has worked alongside the two Co-Managers to carry out a detailed analysis of the delivery of the MEH and the Music Service.

He said that a redesign of the music service delivery model and a review of its processes had been completed to ensure that it will be more efficient in accounting for its use of finance. He added that this activity is designed to free up a significant percentage of the ACE grant, both (time and finance) to enable the MEH’s to expand scope for delivery and capacity to deliver the NPME and ensure that the music service is viable.

He stated that the original objective was to pilot these new ways of working from September 2020 to demonstrate to ACE that the B&NES music service and the MEH were on a journey of improvement. He explained that these timescales have been impacted by COVID 19 and the A P Benson report is not yet completed. However, the current interim managers of the Music Service and Nick Howdle must  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.

The Panel will receive a verbal update on this item.

Kevin Burnett asked if within the Winter Plan for Adult Social Care there was any reference to how relatives can make safe visits to their family members living in Care Homes.

The Director of Adult Social Care, Complex and Specialist Commissioning replied that the response to the consultation was still ongoing and that there were 125 recommendations to address. She added that in her opinion partnership working over the past six months had been remarkable.

Kevin Burnett said that he was worried that in Dr Laurence’s Covid-19 report it says that he is concerned ‘that the whole test and trace system will never catch up’.

The Chairman commented that he felt that during the pandemic the working together attitude of the Council, its staff, their partners and residents had been fantastic and that that this had helped to keep case numbers low in general.

Councillor Jess David asked if the Panel could be updated at a future meeting on the figures relating to how many people had received a Winter Flu Vaccination this year.

The Chairman thanked the Director of Adult Social Care, Complex and Specialist Commissioning for her update.

This report presents the latest workplan for the Panel. Any suggestions for further items or amendments to the current programme will be logged and scheduled in consultation with the Panel’s Chair and supporting officers.

The Chairman introduced this item to the Panel.

Kevin Burnett asked for updates to be provided at future meetings regarding:

·  Former Culverhay School site options

·  Looked After Children / Exploitation

·  Autism Board

Councillor Liz Hardman asked for the Panel to be updated on the issue of Food Poverty.

The Chairman thanked them for these proposals and said that they would be discussed further by himself and the Vice-Chair at their agenda planning meeting with the Directors.