Venue: Meeting Room G.01, Ground Floor, City Hall, 115 Charles Street, Leicester, LE1 1FZ
Contact: Ed Brown, Senior Governance Officer Email: Edmund.Brown@leicester.gov.uk
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WELCOME AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE To issue a welcome to those present, and to confirm if there are any apologies for absence. Minutes: The Chair welcomed those present to the meeting.
Apologies for absence were received from; Councillor Russell, Councillor Karavadra and Janet Mckenna (Unison Representative).
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DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed. Minutes: Members were asked to declare any interests they may have had in the business to be discussed. Councillor March declared that she is mother of two children at a Leicester City School and is a Governor at Ellesmere College. Councillor Dr Moore declared that she is the Chair of the Advisory Boardat Millgate School, part of Discovery Trust. Councillor Gregg declared that his business relates to the care of children within Leicester.
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MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING The minutes of the meeting of the Children, Young People, and Education Scrutiny Commission held on 20th August 2024 have been circulated, and Members are asked to confirm them as a correct record. Minutes: Inaccuracies were noted in previous minutes:
This was noted by the Commission.
AGREED: 1) That the minutes of the meeting of the Children, Young People and Education Scrutiny Commission held on 20 August 2024 be confirmed as a correct record. 2) That the minutes of the meetings on 19 September 2023 and 19 December 2023 approved by the Chair be amended in the above respect to correct an inaccuracy subsequently discovered.
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CHAIR'S ANNOUNCEMENTS The Chair is invited to make any announcements as they see fit. Minutes: None. |
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QUESTIONS, REPRESENTATIONS, AND STATEMENTS OF CASE Any questions, representations and statements of case submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures will be reported. Minutes: The Monitoring Officer reported that none had been received.
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PETITIONS Any petitions received in accordance with Council procedures will be reported. Minutes: The Monitoring Officer reported that none had been received. |
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HIGH NEEDS (HNB) MANAGEMENT RECOVERY PLAN AND TRANSFORMATION PROJECT The Director of Education and SEND submits a report providing detail on the HNB Management Recovery Plan that forms part of the transformation plan. Additional documents: Minutes: The Director of Education and SEND submitted a report providing detail on the HNB Management Recovery Plan that forms part of the transformation plan.
The Chair acknowledged that this item had been awaited for some time. Also, the Commission were made aware that the report had gone to the Executive on the 10th October 2024.
The Assistant Mayor for Education and SEND introduced the segment and highlighted recommendations from the recent National Audit Office report on Support from Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs. It had stated that England’s SEND System was in urgent need of reform. The final recommendation had been to develop a vision and long-term plan for inclusivity for SEN children, across mainstream education, where the setting could best support those with SEN requirements. It was suggested that committee members read the report as it linked in with the HNB report.
The Director of SEND and Education reminded the Committee that SEND Education is funded through the High Needs Block, the money is ringfenced and there is currently a statutory override in place meaning that funds cannot be transferred from the general fund and vice-versa. The demand for SEND had been rising nationally and government funding had been struggling to keep up with demand. Leicester City Council is one of the Local Authorities experiencing funding deficit. The Government had put two programmes into place to attempt to mitigate the situation for those authorities with larger deficits than Leicester. However, the Education and Skills Funding Agency had requested that Leicester City Council submits a formal deficit recovery plan. As part of this, a management and transformation plan had been developed. Without this, it has been predicted that by 2030, there would be a cumulative deficit of over a hundred million pounds.
The transformation plan now had six aims:
The Chair welcomed the committee to ask questions – none were raised by Officers. Councillors raised a number of questions and it was noted by two members that the report had brought a welcome level of honesty. Other key points included:
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WORKLOAD AND RESOURCES The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education submits a report to provide the Children, Young People and Education Scrutiny Commission with an overview of current workload and resources available to the two children’s divisions in the Social Care and Education Division.
A presentation will be made at the commission. Minutes: The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education submitted a report to provide the Children, Young People and Education Scrutiny Commission with an overview of current workload and resources available to the two children’s divisions in the Social Care and Education Division. The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education acknowledged complexities faced by the Local Authority and provided an overview of how workload and resources have been affected. There was a diverse source of revenue for the Local Authority to manage. Growth in external division markets, trading services, grants and commissions contributed to this large network. When applied to Local Authority staffing, there were 623 members of staff. Around 89,000 children now resided within the city and the rate of growth increases vastly each year. This was impacted by migration from within the UK and from overseas. The Local Authority is under pressure to best manage resources within challenging circumstances. A discussion took place and a member of the public wished to raise a question. The Chair explained protocol and advised on the question submitting procedure. Clarification was provided on a section of the report which hadn’t formatted correctly. The content had explained that statistics quantifying numbers of EHCPs included not only children residing within the city permanently, but also looked after children from other Local Authorities who had been placed in the area.
AGREED:
1) The benchmarking figures on agency staff be shared. 2) That the report be noted. 3) That comments made by members of this commission to be taken into account by the lead officers. |
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ADVENTURE PLAYGROUNDS UPDATE The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education will give a verbal update on the current position regarding adventure playgrounds. Minutes: The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education gave a verbal update on the current position regarding adventure playgrounds.
Key points included:
The Chair requested that final feedback on parachute payments and licences be brought to the Commission.
AGREED: 1) That the report be noted. 2) That final feedback on parachute payments and licences be brought to the Commission.
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LEICESTER SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN PARTNERSHIP BOARD - YEARLY REPORT 2023/24 The Strategic Director for Social Care and Education submits the Leicester Safeguarding Children Partnership Board Yearly Report for 2023/24.
The Commission is invited to comment on how effectively Leicester safeguarding partners (police, health, and local authority) have jointly reported on the activity they have undertaken in a 12-month period, with a focus on multi-agency priorities, learning, impact, evidence, and improvement. Additional documents: Minutes: The Strategic Director for Social Care and Education submitted the Leicester Safeguarding Children Partnership Board Yearly Report for 2023/24. The Commission were invited to comment on how effectively Leicester safeguarding partners (police, health, and local authority) have jointly reported on the activity they have undertaken in a 12-month period, with a focus on multi-agency priorities, learning, impact, evidence, and improvement.
The Independent Chair of the Partnership presented the report.
Key points included:
The Assistant Mayor for Education and SEND thanked the Independent Chair of the partnership for the report. She reported that she had attended the meeting and found it interesting and was pleased that education would now be a part. The Commission were invited to ask questions and make comments. Key points included:
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Members of the Commission will be asked to consider the work programme and make suggestions for additional items as it considers necessary. Minutes: 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.
As agreed during the meeting, the following items would be added to the workplan:
The work programme was noted.
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ANY OTHER BUSINESS Minutes: There being no further items of urgent business, the meeting finished at 19:50. |