Agenda and minutes

To issue a welcome to those present, and to confirm if there are any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Cllr Rae Bhatia.  Cllr Orton substituted.

Cllr Gregg apologised for being absent for the previous two meetings.

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed.

Members were asked to declare any interests they may have had in the business to be discussed.

Members were asked to declare any interests they may have had in the business to be discussed.

Councillor Dr Moore declared that she was Chair of the Advisory Board at Millgate School.

Councillor March declared that she was a governor at Ellesmere College.

Councillor Barnes declared that she worked in alternative education provision.

The minutes of the meeting of the Children, Young People, and Education Scrutiny Commission held on 14 January 2025 have been circulated, and Members are asked to confirm them as a correct record.

It was noted that there was an error in the minutes from 29^th October 2024.  Cllr Greg was erroneously noted as being the Vice-Chair when this was not the case.  Cllr Bonham was the Vice-Chair, who was present at the meeting. 

AGREED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Children, Young People and Education Scrutiny Commission held on 14 January 2025 be confirmed as a correct record.

The Chair is invited to make any announcements as they see fit. 

The Chair reminded members that the task group on the High Needs Block would begin on 3^rd March and encouraged members to participate as their insights would be valued.

Any questions, representations and statements of case submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures will be reported.

The Monitoring Officer reported that none had been received.

Any petitions received in accordance with Council procedures will be reported.

The Monitoring Officer reported that none had been received.

The Director of SEND and Education submits a report setting out the approach that the Council would adopt during the 2025-2026 academic year to the provision of transport assistance to certain individuals who attend schools, colleges or certain other institutions.

The Director of SEND and Education submitted a report setting out the approach that the Council would adopt during the 2025-2026 academic year to the provision of transport assistance to certain individuals who attend schools, colleges or certain other institutions.

The Assistant City Mayor for Children and Young People thanked everyone in attendance for their contributions. It was explained that whilst it was compulsory for all young people to remain in education, employment or training until the age of 18/19 years, there was not a statutory duty to provide Post 16 SEND School Transport. A change in legislation was recommended, to allow funding for said transport. A letter had been sent to the Secretary of State for Education and City MPs were urged to lobby on the issue.   

The Chair noted that questions had been received from members of the public after the deadline for submitting questions. The Chair agreed for the questions to be received, exercising her discretion. A detailed statement from STILL SEND 16+ was taken as read and had been distributed to committee members. A response would be provided by The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education.

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education gave an overview of the prospective Post-16 SEND Home to School Transport policy. Key points to note were as follows:

• The decision was still pending, allowing due scrutiny.
• A formal decision had been made recently to accept the budget proposals for the upcoming year.  
• There was a savings target of half a million pounds for Children and Young People’s services, but this paper did not include a savings proposal.
• Funds normally taken for discretionary provision, could now be utilized for statutory school age transport arrangements.
• Pressures on SEND school transport had increased with the numbers of Education and Health Care Plans (EHCPs), rising National Insurance costs for transport providers, fuel costs and enhanced National Living wage.
• The budget could no longer cover discretionary travel for Post 16 SEND students.
• Efforts had been made to provide clear policy proposals, despite the complexity of legislation.

The Chair invited The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education to provide a response to the statement submitted by STILL SEND 16+ (attached). It was advised that the report covered the areas raised, but the statement could be taken for reflection when forming the final decision.

The Chair took questions submitted by the public as follows:

Question:

Given that it is recognised that the proposed changes are likely to be significantly disadvantageous for affected young people and young adults (and their families), and that all consultation responses opposed the changes, why have you failed to propose an option which makes a serious attempt to mitigate this?

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education responded:

• The consultation responses had been analysed and the strength of feeling was recognised and was unsurprising. It was clear that there would be young people and parents whose lives would be more complicated as a result of this change.
• There would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 128.

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education submits a report updating the Commission on the work of the Local Authority Designated Officers (LADO) for the year 2023-24.

The Head of Service for Child Safeguarding and Quality Assurance gave an overview of the report. Key points to notes were as follows:

• The purpose of the LADO role was to ensure that any allegations of harm were followed up efficiently, ensuring a safe and fair process for children and adults involved.
• Investigation outcomes were tracked annually.
• Within the reporting period, there was a decrease in unsubstantiated outcomes, which is reported positively.
• Substantiated outcomes were at 25% within this period.
• The largest reported category was Physical Harm, this was in line with previous years,
• The LADO Service regularly contributed to training and development with education services.
• The latest Ofsted inspection, recognised the positive use of the Lundy model and the emphasis on the voice of the child.
• Quality assurance feedback for the LADO Service recorded that 93% of respondents had a positive response. 

The Chair welcomed questions from members. Key points to note were as follows:

• LADO did not have a responsibility with registration for private children’s homes. Any questions relating to Safeguarding would fall into the LADO remit.

AGREED:

1)    That report be noted.

2)    That the next due report be presented at Scrutiny.

Director of Children’s Social Work and Early Help will give a presentation on Children’s Services Reforms.

The Director of Children’s Social Work and Early Help gave a presentation on Children’s Services Reforms.

The Director of Children’s Social Work and Early Help gave the presentation.

Key points other than those on the slides (attached with agenda) included:

·       The government had acted quickly following the General Election and an agenda had been set out for what were likely to be substantial reforms in Children’s Social Care. 

·       This built on work from the 2018/19 care review.  The government had expanded on this and taken recommendations from the previous government on developing the Family Help service and developing substantive reforms to take on for this parliament.

·       The four key principles (outlines on the slides), were child-centred and would require substantial changes to current legislation.

·       Previous reports showed that the majority of children in Council care lived with family members or foster carers.

·       The Schools and Children’s Wellbeing Bill was aimed at supporting the key priorities in legislating to keep families together and children safe and removing barriers to opportunity.

·       It was currently seen as good practice to offer Family Group Conferences or Family Network Meetings to explore what was in the family networks and communities to support the child rather than being reliant on agencies as research showed this to be more productive and effective.  The government was now mandating that in situations there the child was at risk of coming into the care of the local authority, such an opportunity must be offered.  A small service could coordinate this activity.

·       In terms of data sharing, having a single identification number rather than separate NHS numbers and unique pupil numbers would help to link databases to allow better data and information sharing.

·       Whilst education had a role in arrangement, education was not currently a statutory safeguarding partner.  The guidance aimed to strengthen the role of education.

·       There had been a large increase in home-educated children since the Covid-19 pandemic, this was a challenge to child protection professionals regarding assurances about children’s safety.  There was currently no legislation to oblige children to attend school as part of a child protection plan.  The planned legislation proposes that the permission of a local authority would be needed before a parent home-educates a child.

·       Corporate parenting responsibilities would be extended to schools, the judiciary and the police.

·       The proposed legislation would make it mandatory that a child’s social worker be supported by the virtual school.

·       The legislation aimed to help care leavers to remain close to the provision that they had been supported by previously.  The local authority had received pilot funding for this, and the programme had been successful.  It was hoped that more funding would follow.

·       In terms of legislating to tackle profiteering, there would be action and planning guidance in the legislation to make it easier to open the right kind of home.  Accountability would be improved through providers with multiple delivery of places.  If Ofsted deemed the care to be inadequate, this would trigger an inspection of the entire organisation.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 130.

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education submits a report on the most recent Leicester City Council Ofsted inspection. This took place under the “inspecting local authority children’s services” (ILACS) framework in September 2024.

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education submitted a report on the most recent Leicester City Council Ofsted inspection. This took place under the “inspecting local authority children’s services” (ILACS) framework in September 2024

The Assistant City Mayor for Children and Young people introduced the report and noted that lots of work had been implemented on the recommendations from Ofsted.  The fact that a number of areas required improvement meant that it was necessary to look at how the Council were moving forward with the service and supporting children and young people.  The work done had been difficult and it was hoped that confidence could be gained on the way it was driven forward.

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education presented the report.

Key points included:

·       The inspection had taken place six months ago, and work had been undertaken since.

·       All areas for improvement from the 2021 report had been improved upon.

·       It was good that social workers had manageable caseloads and knew their children well.

·       Child protection plans had been reported on favourably.

·       There were a number of areas for improvement:

o   In terms of management of information, there were examples of better practice elsewhere.  As a result of this, benchmarking had been undertaken and a lot of data had been collected.

o   Work had been done on the timeliness and robustness of plans and contacts.  The workforce was relatively young with newly qualified social workers from university.  Retaining staff had also been a challenge.

o   There was need for improvement in middle-management and a need to ensure that they were confident.

o   Arrangements were sought to identify safeguarding support in care leavers, particularly around people from unregulated children’s homes.

·       There was support for care leavers in their 20s, including those homeless or in prison, the Council were trying to engage proactively through a rights-based approach.

·       Reforms had given the Council extra income for areas of Children’s Social Care.

·       The city had the lowest number of children’s social workers per head in the East Midlands, so more would be recruited.

·       Functional Family Therapy was enabled to get investment.

·       The feedback from Ofsted would be blended with information from the report into a single plan.

The Committee were invited to ask questions and make comments. Key points included:

·       In terms of the recruitment rate, it was suggested that a target be identified to work on, and this should be monitored.  It was clarified that an impact board existed showing the transformation of the system with reforms, there was also a dashboard of information and an improvement plan with milestone and a red/amber/green rating.  It was further explained that whilst scrutiny input was welcome, movement may not be seen month-on-month.  It was suggested that performance reporting could be reflected on and brought to scrutiny.

·       The headline data was not reflective of the report.  Some of this reflected cultural change.  Since 2021, it was thought that the culture may not have improved over time as maintaining the culture across  ...  view the full minutes text for item 131.

Members of the Commission will be asked to consider the work programme and make suggestions for additional items as it considers necessary.

Members of the Commission were invited to consider content of the work programme and were invited to make suggestions for additions as appropriate to be brought to future meetings.

Improvement Plan Updates would be added to the forward plan.

The work programme was noted.

There being no further items of urgent business, the meeting finished at 8:20pm.