Apologies were received from Mr Wilby and Mr Baines.

To confirm the record of the meeting of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel held on 22 November 2018 (previously circulated).

The minutes of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel held on 22 November 2019, copies of which had been previously circulated, were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

In accordance with the Regulations, Members are invited to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have and the nature of those interests in respect of items on this Agenda and/or indicate if Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

Mr Arnold, Mr Lowe and Ms Waller declared an interest in item 10 of the agenda, Learning and Skills Service Annual Report 2017-18, as they all were School Governors at Catmose College, Catmose Primary School and Ryhall Primary School respectively.

To receive any petitions, deputations and questions received from Members of the Public in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule 217.

The total time allowed for this item shall be 30 minutes.  Petitions, declarations and questions shall be dealt with in the order in which they are received.  Questions may also be submitted at short notice by giving a written copy to the Committee Administrator 15 minutes before the start of the meeting.

The total time allowed for questions at short notice is 15 minutes out of the total time of 30 minutes.  Any petitions, deputations and questions that have been submitted with prior formal notice will take precedence over questions submitted at short notice.  Any questions that are not considered within the time limit shall receive a written response after the meeting and be the subject of a report to the next meeting.

No petitions, deputations or questions were received.

To consider any questions with notice from Members received in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rules No 219 and No. 219A.

No questions with notice had been received from Members.

To consider any Notices of Motion from Members submitted in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule No 220.

No notices of motion had been received from Members.

To consider any matter referred to the Panel for a decision in relation to call in of a decision in accordance with Procedure Rule 206.

No matter had been referred to the Panel for a decision in relation to a call in of a decision in accordance with Procedure Rule 2016.

To receive Report No. 33/2019 from Mark Roberts, Assistant Director, and Paul Williams, Head of Service, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, Families, Young People and Childrens Directorate.

Report No.33/2019 was received from Mark Roberts, Assistant Director and Paul Williams, Head of Service, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, Families, Young People and Children’s Directorate.

The purpose of the report was to detail the current waiting times for children and young people living in Rutland to access Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trusts Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). It also described the work by the organisation to improve the timeliness of access to services and to manage the risks to children and young people whilst they were waiting. Finally the report provided an update on progress to commission a new CAMHS Inpatient Unit.

During discussion the following points were noted:

·         Members applauded the honesty of the report but found it difficult to understand why the longest a Rutland child was waiting without a scheduled appointment for treatment was 58 weeks. CAMHS officers recognised that it was an unacceptable waiting time but had had to prioritise the children most at risk which had resulted in some children waiting too long. Within the resources that CAMHS had access to, officers felt that they were making the right decisions to safeguard children. Unfortunately, the drive a year ago to reduce waiting and assessment times and for children to enter the service had meant that the cohort that was driven through was now backing up in the system.

·         An analysis of capacity demand had been undertaken which showed that with current resources the service would be able to very slowly reduce waiting times but not at an acceptable rate. In order to reduce waiting times by 75%, additional funding of £900 000 to £1m would be needed. Maintaining this acceptable level would be difficult as the level of unmet need was significant and so how many children would come forward was unknown.

·         CAMHS would be seeking commitment from colleagues to reduce waiting times to this level and this would necessitate finding clinicians, the space to do this and the funding to hold that position. They would also stress the need for a corresponding increase in funding if there was an increase in demand.

·         Most of the children who attended A&E as a consequence, or suspected consequence, of their mental health did so because of self-harm. The behaviours behind self-harm were complex and could not be fixed quickly but the likelihood of going to A & E was greatly reduced because the service was prioritising those at greatest risk.

·         CAMHS officers offered to supply Members with a written response as to why there had been an increase over the last year in the number of Rutland children and young people on a waiting list for treatment, as the figures for the number of referrals did not detail why there was a fluctuation.

·         Funding levels for CAMHS services were on an equal footing, per capita, across all of the areas that were served.

·         Currently, there was not a CAMHS social media presence which could be used to chat or connect directly with young people. NHS apps  ...  view the full minutes text for item 566.

To receive Report No. 26/2019 from the Strategic Director for People.

Report No.26/2019 was received from the Strategic Director for People.

Mr Foster, Cabinet Member for Safeguarding – Children and Young People and Armed Forces Champion introduced the report the purpose of which was to give the Panel an opportunity to gain an understanding of the purpose and function of the children and young people’s improving access to psychological therapies programme (CYP IAPT).

A presentation (appended to the minutes) was also delivered by Ceri Mutton, Targeted Intervention Practitioner.

During discussion the following points were noted:

·         CYP IAPT was a way for individuals to learn to manage symptoms and build long term resilience to emotional issues.

·         Young people wanted services that were non-stigmatising, local, and easy to access and that was what IAPT was trying to achieve.

·         IAPT practitioners were trained but were not practising in a clinical environment. The CYP IAPT service did not replace CAMHS but operated in their own right and complemented the early help and mental health services available for children and adolescents.

·         The mother of child C, as referenced in the case study presentation, did not have to go through multiple referral routes to get help for her child. 

·         Where children grow up in families where there is a mental health need they pick up learned behaviours in terms of how to approach challenges. One of the most fundamental things IAPT practitioners did was to support families by addressing basic well-being matters such as diet, sleep and exercise. 

·         In the case of Child C, who was in danger of disengaging from their education as they were very anxious about going to college, the practitioner helped to facilitate practising using public transport; planning the journey, looking at the timetable and physically trying the journey beforehand. In this way, encouraging independent thought to logically think through a problem was achieved.

·         The IAPT programme would work with schools in the hope that mental health would be destigmatised and that young people would recognise that they could take responsibility for their own mental health.

·         By being resilient, students would be able to face and deal with peer pressure.

·         Members commented on paragraph 11.2 of the report which highlighted that children receiving contact or intervention through CYP IAPT met the CAMHS thresholds but were not receiving on-going support from the service.

·         Cross border collaboration on the programme and its governance was being addressed, however the programme was particularly effective in Rutland because of its ability to be responsive.

·         The report had elements that cut across the remit of all three Scrutiny Panels and the portfolios of Cabinet Members responsible for health, and children’s safety and education. Members were assured that mental health was being fully addressed by all.

RESOLVED:

The Panel;

1.    NOTED new developments in the provision of early emotional well-being and mental health support for children and young people in Rutland.

2.    NOTED the benefits of early assessment and evidence based intervention for children’s mental health and well-being in order to assess low to moderate need.

3.    SUPPORTED Rutland’s young  ...  view the full minutes text for item 567.

To receive Report No.27/2019 from the Strategic Director for People and a presentation from Ms G Curtis, Head of Learning and Skills.

Report No.27/2019 was received from the Strategic Director for People and a presentation (appended to the minutes) was given by Ms Curtis, Head of Learning and Skills.

Ms Curtis introduced the report the purpose of which was to provide the Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel with an overview of the key findings from the Learning and Skills Service annual self-review process and to provide assurance that, where performance was not leading to sufficiently high standards, appropriate actions to address priorities for development across the education sector were planned and delivered.

During discussion the following points were noted:

·         Achieving the very best educational outcomes at all stages of development, positively affected job prospects, health and well-being.

·         School accountability measures for December as shown at Appendix A had been updated since publication of the report and the latest accountability measures for January would be appended to the minutes.

·         There was only one Rutland school which came under the remit of the Peterborough Diocese Trust rather than the area Regional schools Commission.

·         All Rutland schools were above average in Progress 8 scores and did not hit a coasting measure however there was a question of whether the more capable students were being sufficiently challenged.

·         Members requested that the Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel be presented with a paper on the High Needs Block funding for children with additional education and care needs.

·         Rutland Primary schools were only attaining average levels for writing in KS2 and ranked 147 out of 152 schools. Members questioned this poor standing considering the affluence of Rutland and the likelihood of high parental support.

·         Officers offered to conduct a workshop for scrutiny panel members to further interrogate all available data.

Mr Gooding, Chief Executive of the Rutland Learning Trust and Mrs Lucas, Head Teacher of Cottesmore Academy were also in attendance to report on and answer questions on the development and delivery of an action plan for Cottesmore Academy.

The following information was reported: 

·         In 2017 The Rutland Learning Trust (RLT) had been approached to explore the possibility of providing intensive support to Cottesmore School as it was feared that it might go into special measures. Standards were found to be low in teaching and learning, leadership and the curriculum. Additionally school facilities were poor and there was a high level of staff turnover and children being permanently excluded.

·         Due diligence was carried out and Cottesmore joined RLT in April 2018. At that time the Trust was promised that the school would not be inspected and that it would be given at least 12 months to improve standards, however the school was inspected by Ofsted in September 2018, after only five months.

·         During this initial period, an assessment of the school had been made, the Trust had identified the most important areas to target and strategic decisions had been made.

·         In light of the short length of time since the Trust had taken over the school, the Ofsted inspector realised that the context of the inspection and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 568.

To consider the current Forward Plan and identify any relevant items for inclusion in the Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel annual work plan, or to request further information.

Copies of the annual work plan and the latest Forward Plan will be available at the meeting. The Forward Plan can be found on the website using the following link:

No relevant items were identified for inclusion in the Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel annual work plan.

To receive any other items of urgent business which have been previously notified to the person presiding.

No items of urgent business had been previously notified to the person presiding.

14 March 2019 at 7pm.

Thursday, 14 March 2019.