MEMORANDUM Date: November 2006

______

To:All Members of the Panel
Ann Domeney, Justin Donovan,
John Richards, Helen Ashdown, Diane Wagstaff, Felicity Evans
Executive Member: Jane Pitman / From:CountySecretary’s Department
Ask for:Neil Terry
Ext:25413
My ref:
Your ref:

CHILDREN’S SERVICES PANEL

14NOVEMBER2006

M I N U T E S

ATTENDANCE
MEMBERS OF THE PANEL

D E Billing, R J Clarkson, P V Goggins, D W Hills, S M Holmes, S E Jones,

T G M Kent, B J Lamb, A Lee, B Lee, J M Pitman, S Quilty

Upon consideration of the agenda for the Children’s Services Panel meeting on 14November 2006 as circulated, copy annexed, conclusions were reached and are recorded below:

PART 1

ACTION
1. /

MINUTES

The minutes of the Panel held on 6 September 2006 were confirmed as anaccurate record.
David Billing wanted an update on actions listed in the minutes. The following additional information was provided:
  • The re-offending figures for Looked After Children dropped from 5.5 in April down to 4.9 in November – a fall of 10%
  • Angela Hickin will attend the January Panel meeting to provide an update on the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board
Ann Domeney informed the Panel that the number of qualified Social Workers had increased. This has unfortunately led to management issues specifically concerning capacity. The Panel considered:
  • Length of overseas Social Workers induction period
Overseas Social Workers receive a 6 month induction that is delivered one day a week. It was noted that overseas recruitment is not intended for a 1 year period, HCC have tried to encourage 3-5 year periods.
  • The Panel requested that a report be brought to the next meeting of the Children’s Services Panel in January considering:
-Length of service of overseas workforce
-Competitiveness of pay-scales with other authorities
-A risk analysis of a 25% Social Worker vacancy rate
-Training provided for new recruits
Item 4 on the agenda ‘Proposals for the Leaving Care Service’ will be brought to the January meeting of the Panel. / NT
AD
2. / ACHIEVING ECONOMIC WELLBEING
[Officer Contact:Justin Donovan, Chief Education Officer
(Tel: 01992 555764)
Justin Donovan attended the Panel to deliver a presentation and a hardcopy was circulated to the Panel.
The panel noted the following:
  • Primary Support Bases work out to be very good value for money in the long term, if there was more funding to increase provision we would.
  • The number of excluded pupils receiving less than 20 hours provision has been improved from 30 - 80%.
  • Hertfordshire is fifth best,nationally, for having low levels of young people who are not in education, employment or training
  • The key strengths and weaknesses of Hertfordshire provision
The Panel thanked Justin for his presentation and noted its content.
3. / THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT OF CHILDREN IN CARE
[Officer Contact: Felicity Evans, Corporate Parenting Officer)
(Tel: 01992 555926)
Felicity Evans presented a report to the Panel providing a summary ofHertfordshire’s performance in relation to the government targets to improve the educational attainment of children in care.
The Panel were informed about the sustained improvement (above national average) in relation to the target for care leavers achieving a minimum of 1 A* to G at GCSE rising from 57% last year to 60% this year.The target to achieve 5 A* to C is volatile but also rose this year to 10.9% from 6.8% the previous year. Performance in relation to education, training and employment of care leavers remains very good.
A company called Welfare Call are currently being used by HCC to contact schools and check on pupil attendance.
The Panel were informed that 21 young people in care will be going off to university this year as opposed to 4 the year before.
Members expressed concern at the increasing number of children in care missing school for 25 days for any reason (rising in 2005/06 to 16.4%).A percentage breakdown was requested showing the number of young people who were truant and details of whether this figure was rising or falling.
The Panel thanked Felicity for her report and noted its content. / FE
5. / UPDATEON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN’S CENTRES AND EXTENDED SCHOOLS
[Officer Contact:Helen Ashdown, Head of Integrated Children’s Services (0-13)
(Tel: 01992 555521)
Diane Wagstaff, Extended Schools Manager
(Tel: 01992 556377)
A report was presented by Helen Ashdown and Diane Wagstaff providing an update on the development of children’s centres and extended schools in Hertfordshire.
Maps showing the extended school consortia areas with district boundaries were circulated in addition to appendix 3.
It was noted that the outcome of the consultation led to the proposed 32 consortia being expanded to 38 consortia. Details of the consortia, communities and schools were provided in appendix 3 of the report.
Lead agencies have been identified for 42 out of 44 additional communities that will have children’s centres by March 2008.
Following a discussion the Panel requested the following information:
  • which consortia houses St Michaels RC Secondary School?
  • a list of children’s centres with the minutes?
  • whyPark Street CE VA Primary School has been located in the SA10 community?
  • Details of the funding formula.
It was noted that the Funding Formula is currently being completed, it will be brought to a future Panel. / HA
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6. / SURE START GRANT CAPITAL STRATEGY
[Officer Contact:Helen Ashdown, Head of Integrated Children’s Services (0-13)
(Tel: 01992 555521)
Helen Ashdown presented a report informing the Panel about the Sure Start Grant. Members are asked to comment on the principles and deployment of this funding and recommend approval of the 9 individual children’s centre schemes.
The Panel wanted to know if the report would also go to the Education Panel. The Executive Member David Lloyd was in attendance to hear the views of the Children’s Services Panel.
The wording of section 8.4 of the report was agreed on the basis that group spokesman would be kept in the loop when further projects required sign off.
The Panel recommended approval of the 9 individual children’s centre schemes.
7. / CARE MATTERS: TRANSFORMING THE LIVES OF CHILDREN IN CARE
[Officer Contact:John Richards, Head of Policy, Practice, Improvement and Placement
(Tel: 01992 588043)
A report was presented to the Panel by John Richards and a presentation was also circulated at the meeting entitled ‘Care Matters: Transforming the lives of children and young people in care’.
The Panel were informed that officers will commence work in the next week or so and a consultation event to share work with Members is organised on the 5 January 2007.
Concerns were expressed about the length of consultation (5–15 January)and whether it allowed enough time for other parties to be involved?
Officers informed the Panel that they will be meeting carers at an evening meeting in December. Young people will be consulted before a response is returned on the 15 January 2007.
The Panel agreed the recommendations set out in section 3 of the report.
8. / APA LETTER
[Officer Contact:Ann Domeney, Deputy Director (Social Care)
(Tel: 01992 555755)
A report considering the Annual Performance Assessment was presented by Ann Domeney.
Officers informed the Panel that Hertfordshire had been graded a 3 on a four point scale with 3 being good.
The self-assessment document and supporting data for the APA were submitted to our inspectors, Ofsted and CSCI, at the end of May 2006.Ofsted and CSCI have now written to John Harris with the formal, final version of their findings. A copy of their letter, dated 1 November 2006, appears at Appendix 1.
Details of the content and importance of the letter are included within section 3.1 of the report with further background information in paragraph 4.2.
The Panel noted the report.

Note: The next meeting of the Panel will take place at 2.00pm on Thursday 18January 2007.

Andrew Laycock

County Secretary

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061114 Minutes