Agenda item

The Cabinet Member(s) will update the Panel on any relevant issues. Panel members may ask questions on the update provided.

Councillor Paul May, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services addressed the Panel. He offered to speak with Councillor Joanna Wright after the meeting to discuss the issue of School Streets which she had raised.

He said that he was pleased to hear that the DfE had made a decision regarding the Alternative Provision site and thanked the officers involved for their continued work on this matter. He added that this was linked to the Safety Valve project work and that he still intends to provide a detailed report on that to a future Panel meeting.

He highlighted the following areas from his update report.

Budget

The financial pressures still exist regarding the community sector, but any review will be carried out with them. The Children’s Services saving in addition to the committed saving of £1.3m was £300k around Early Help which is contrary to our requirement to invest in early intervention, so this means some careful work moving forward.

He said that the Cabinet Member for Resources had listened to the concerns raised by the Panel and has asked the Executive Director - Chief Operating Officer to work with the Cabinet Member for Adult Services and himself to provide fair and proper solutions, whilst also involving the Voluntary Sector in those discussions.

Care Experienced Young People

The next Council meeting will have an item on the agenda regarding the protected characteristics for Care Experienced Young People. He said that talks were ongoing between the political groups in order to agree the final wording.

Corporate Parenting

There is a reminder for the next Corporate Parent meeting going out to all members. This will be an early evening meeting in Bath. At this stage we are considering meetings going from daytime to early evening so young people can attend from school. We trialled working is small groups at the least meeting and will continue to do this in future. We are going to invite the national lead Mark Riddell later in the year to inspire new ways of working and commitment. He added that the Council is now separately judged on this area of work by Ofsted.

Community Summit

This was a comprehensive conference dedicated to exploring the critical issues surrounding children's well-being and poverty in our region, especially in the areas of mental health, education, justice and discrimination. This event was a call to action for academic researchers, educators, policymakers, community leaders, and concerned citizens to come together to share knowledge as well as professional, personal experiences to inform policies and practices towards a better future for the children in BANES.

Councillor Robin Moss commented that there was no issue with the principle of the Council item regarding the Care Experienced Young People, it was just a matter of firming up some of the wording. He asked what role B&NES played in the Community Summit and whether it had to input any resources.

Councillor Paul May replied that in terms of resources, to his knowledge, there was nothing additional provided by the Council and that officers were involved on this subject matter prior to the event and continue to be so. He said that the main issue of the event was the commitment shown by the community towards the children and young people within B&NES.

Kevin Burnett asked what the aim of the summit was.

The Director of Education & Safeguarding replied that the summit was driven by the St. John’s Foundation and a number of other voluntary sector groups and was part of an ongoing wider piece of work.

Kevin Burnett asked if a decision had been actually taken on the savings to be made within Early Help.

Councillor Paul May replied that no decision had been made and that further discussions were planned to take place with the voluntary sector.

The Chair commented that prevention should be seen as the better action to take in the long term and asked that the Panel be kept informed as things develop.

Councillor Paul May said that the Panel intervention at its budget meeting was important and would update them when he could.

Councillor Ruth Malloy said that she welcomed the invite of Mark Riddell to future Corporate Parent meeting and asked whether he could address the full Council to enable him to address more councillors.

The Chair said that the constitution would need to be checked to see if that was allowable.

Councillor Robin Moss said that briefing sessions have been held prior to a meeting of full Council in the past.

Councillor Liz Hardman asked that the Panel be kept updated on the process regarding Charlton House and its transfer into a new residential school for young people as she said that no consultation had taken place with the staff regarding redundancies until the Cabinet had made their decision.

Councillor May said that he would discuss that matter further with the Cabinet Member for Adult Services, Councillor Alison Born.

Councillor Hardman asked if any update could be provided on whether the Free School Meals holiday vouchers were going to be extended following the Easter two week period.

Councillor Paul May replied that he had not heard of whether a future decision had been made and said he would make enquiries and feedback to the Panel.

The Director of Education & Safeguarding commented that within the recent Budget announcement the Housing Support Fund had been extended for a further six months and so was therefore likely that holiday vouchers for Free School Meals would be covered up to and including the school Summer holidays of 2024.

The Chair asked if any further comment could be given regarding the proposals for new Alternative Provision, SEND Provision and a new school within Keynsham.

The Director of Education & Safeguarding replied that the Council had been successful in making two applications for Free Schools within B&NES and were now seeking appropriate sites for them. He said that they were looking at whether the former Culverhay site was suitable for the SEND Provision alongside the Alternative Provision as no sites for development had been found within Keynsham.

He added that the Local Authority is not responsible building these provisions and that they were working closely with the Free School team to deliver these projects as early as we can. He explained that eight Resource Spaces, as part of the Safety Valve project, were also to be put in place in schools across B&NES to support children with SEND between now and in two years’ time.

The Chair asked for the potential providers of these Free School facilities to be updated as much as possible. She thanked the Cabinet Member on behalf of the Panel for his update.