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 and highlighted the following points from his update.

He began by complimenting Councillor Joanna Wright for her work on the ‘Tree of Hope’ which was soon to be planted in Alice Park. He explained that children / young people were going to be asked to help name the tree.

Senior Manager changes in Children's Services

He thanked Chris Wilford for continuing to act as Interim Director of Children's Services following the retirement of Mary Kearney-Knowles last month.

He informed the Panel that Leigh Zywek, our Assistant Director of Children and Young People's Services had been successful in applying for a role in a neighbouring authority and would leave the Council in the middle of June. He said that Leigh has been a fantastic leader and thanked her for all her work.

Councillor Lesley Mansell referred to the Safety Valve update and asked how the delay is affecting the SEND work within the Council. She added that section 3.5 of the SEND Collaboration for BaNES (Safety Valve) – Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) had no actions listed against it.

The Interim Director of Children's Services replied that work continues, especially with regard to Early Help and the SEND & AP Advice Service. He said that fewer complaints were being received as a result of improvement of their timeliness of handling enquiries.

He said that a significant grant was still expected for the new Free Schools and that a full report would be shared with the Panel when available. He added that he would look into the point raised regarding the EIA.

The Chair asked if there was any indication of a timescale for a decision from the DfE.

Councillor May replied that they have been contacted both regionally and nationally and that there was no update at the present time. He said that the delay had the potential to cost the Council £4m a year.

Councillor Liz Hardman referred to subject of Families First and asked how much more funding was required if the £400k provided by the Department of Education to the local authority to implement these reforms falls short of the resources needed to implement all of the changes. 

The Interim Director of Children's Services replied that there was no exact figure being sought and that work was ongoing through the children's transformation programme to ensure multi-disciplinary teams will be in place. He added that he expected the design phase of the work to begin in the next 3 – 6 months.

Councillor Hardman asked for any further information in relation to Early Years Entitlement.

Councillor May replied that the team were experiencing an enormous amount of pressure relating to this work at the present time.

The Strategic Planning & Performance Manager added that each provider will have its own separate running costs and that there was a range of discrepancies as to how they are funded. He added that the Local Government Ombudsman had made a decision to say that providers can’t mandate that parents / carers must pay for the hot meals offered and a choice must be given to families to provide their own alternative.

He stated that the final stage of the process would take place in September 2025 when the number of hours of care would expand to 30. He said that a phoneline and website were now live for further enquiries.

Kevin Burnett asked if providers could decide on how many children they accept through their decision to purchase hot meals.

The Strategic Planning & Performance Manager replied that there were no conditions attached to the Entitlement and the expectation was that any family could apply.

Kevin Burnett asked if families that qualify for auto enrolment into Free School Meals would receive a letter to inform them. He also asked who had overall control of this process.

The Interim Director of Children's Services replied that the Welfare & Benefits team within the Council were overseeing this process and that there was no work anticipated for schools to carry out. He said he would seek an answer as to whether a letter would be issued.

Kevin Burnett asked when the next termly meeting with Ofsted was due to take place and what topics were normally discussed.

Councillor May replied that he did not attend these meetings, but believed that the next one was due to take place in June.

The Interim Director of Children's Services added that it was a fairly open agenda, but recent topics had included the School’s Inspection Framework, SEND Reviews and any concerns regarding schools. He added that in addition there would also be a once a year conversation relating to Social Care.

Kevin Burnett asked if any information could be supplied with regard to funding to the Virtual School.

The Interim Director of Children's Services replied that this funding was normally received year on year and was not expecting it to cease.

Councillor Paul Crossley referred to the subject of Fostering Families and welcomed the work, but asked officers to be mindful of the definition of ‘family’ as that can take its form in differing structures.

Councillor May agreed and replied that they were supporting six families currently on a trial period to attempt to prevent the children from going into care. He added that the idea behind the project had come from within the Council and had received interest from the Chief Social Worker who had visited in order to find out more about it.

Councillor Joanna Wright referred to the issue of Early Years funding and said that she had been contacted by a local nursery to say that they felt under duress to sign the Early Years Entitlement agreement. She asked whether the Council should have waited for further guidance and if they had received any letters of concern.

The Strategic Planning & Performance Manager replied that the agreement was a template supplied by the DfE and that very few Local Authorities had made changes to it. He said that any correspondence received had been shared with the DfE. He informed the Panel that a meeting with providers was due to take place next month.

Councillor Wright asked if due care regarding safeguarding had been carried out in terms of allergies to food being brought into these settings if the hot meals provided are not being purchased.

The Strategic Planning & Performance Manager replied that updated guidance has been published regarding this and that officers and providers were aware of these safeguarding issues.

Councillor Michael Auton stated that a similar issue had been raised within his ward where a provider had only been given a short amount of time to sign the agreement. He asked what the Council was doing to provide support.

Councillor Wright asked the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services to continue to provide information regarding this matter to the Panel when he receives it.

Councillor May replied that he was sympathetic to the providers as there was hardly any leeway in the process.

Councillor Ruth Malloy commented that she welcomed the offer to receive a newsletter from the West of England Music Alliance (WEMA).

The Interim Director of Children's Services replied that the newsletter was not ready to be released yet and that a representative from WEMA would welcome the opportunity to attend a future meeting of the Panel.

The Chair asked for it to be clarified as to how funding is received by the majority of education settings.

The Strategic Planning & Performance Manager replied that this was through the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) received from the DfE, and was based on an annual census / formula basis.

The Chair asked if this was top sliced for SEND.

The Strategic Planning & Performance Manager replied that this was from a different area of the DSG and the figure for this year had decreased to 94% from 95%.

Councillor May added that funding decisions are taken through the Schools Forum annually and that the national formula is applied.

The Chair asked if any comment could be given on the high level of fines that have been issued relating to unauthorised school absences.

The Interim Director of Children's Services replied that he was aware of the increase in fines and would seek comparative figures for the Panel.

The Chair raised the subject of the pending demolition of the former Culverhay site and said that former pupils / residents should be allowed to view the site before this takes place.

Councillor May acknowledged this and said that he had made a commitment to putting such an opportunity in place.

The Chair thanked Councillor May on behalf of the Panel for his update.