Apologies were received from Mr Menzies, educational co-opted member.

To confirm the record of the meeting of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee held on 27 February 2020. (previously circulated).

The record of the meeting of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee held on 27 February 2020 was confirmed as correct.

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.

No declarations of interest were received.

To receive any petitions, deputations and questions received from Members of the Public in accordance with the Virtual Meetings Regulations (s1 2020 392) and the subsequent RCC Procedure Rules agreed at Council on 20 May 2020. 

Section 3 (Public Participation) of the Procedure Rules states:

i.      Public statements, questions, deputations and petitions can be submitted in advance of the meeting in writing by no later than 12 noon on the second working day before the meeting is to take place;

ii.    Public statements, questions, deputations and the text of any petition will be made available to all members of the virtual meeting, however members of the public will not be able to present their statements in the virtual meeting;

iii.   Public questions will receive a written response. No supplementary questions will be permitted;

Public petitions will be noted as being received by the chair of the meeting without debate and sent to the relevant executive member, committee or council officer for a response.

No petitions, deputations or questions had been received.

To consider any questions with notice from Members received in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rules No.218 and No.218A.

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 219.

No notices of motion had been received from Members.

To appoint a vice-chair of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor Webb was nominated for the position of Vice-Chair of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee by Councillor Burrows and this was seconded by Councillor Harvey. Councillor Webb gave a short speech to Members outlining her suitability for the role and there being no other nominations, a vote was taken and a unanimous vote for Councillor Webb was given.

To receive Report No.101/2020 from the Interim Director for Children’s Services and a presentation from the Children In Care Council.

Report No.101/2020 was received from the Interim Director for Children’s Services.

The purpose of the report was to inform the Committee on the actions taken in response to the areas for improvement identified by Ofsted and their progress, including the governance of the improvement plan. The Committee was further invited to share their views on any areas where they felt progress was slower than expected and how these might be mitigated.

As a prelude to discussion on the report, two young people representatives spoke to the Committee about their experience of the Ofsted process and how they felt being interviewed by the inspectors.

The Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People, Councillor Wilby also gave a short introduction in which he emphasised that since the Ofsted report a huge amount of work had gone into improving the service including a change of management structure and processes to embed the new culture.

During discussion the following points were noted:

·         The young people who met with Ofsted would have preferred individual interviews because of the sensitive nature of the questioning which centred on their life stories. A group session should have been used only at the end to answer more generic questions.

·         Some of the terminology used by the Ofsted inspectors had not been understood.

·         The young people felt that if the answers they gave were not what was expected, then the inspectors continued to probe which left the young people feeling they had not been properly listened to.

·         Overall those involved with the Ofsted interviews felt that the experience had been a negative one.

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The Chairman thanked the young people for their insights and echoed Councillors’ comments that these should be shared with Ofsted.  The young people then left the meeting and did not return.

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·         Mrs Godfrey, Interim Director of Children’s Services, confirmed that Ofsted were satisfied with the improvement plan that had been submitted to address the findings of the inspections.

·         The Plan’s main focus was on taking a new approach to the governance of improvement and this had included the setting up of the Children’s Services Improvement Board which reported directly to Cabinet on the progress being made.

·         Management oversight and decision making underpinned all good practice and the importance of this was again emphasised by Mrs Godfrey.

·         From the 1 September there would be an entirely new and permanent front line management team.

·         The culture change had been made more challenging as straight after the Ofsted inspection the Council had gone into lockdown which had inhibited the pace of change. However there was now a golden opportunity to progress with the introduction of the new management team and more people moving back into the office.

·         Management was not yet fully satisfied that all care plans were good enough but they were confident they would get there.

·         The quality of pathway plans for care leavers had improved and more work had been done in conjunction with care leavers to achieve this.

·         Signs of Safety was the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To discuss substantive items for scrutiny and inclusion in the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee work programme for the municipal year 2020-21.

The Committee discussed items that had been provisionally included in the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee work programme for the municipal year 2020-2021.

During discussion the following points were noted:

·         The Committee had requested an additional meeting in the first term to review Rutland schools’ responses to Covid 19 and the factors affecting the wellbeing and resilience of our young people. Mrs Godfrey commented that it would be better timing to hold this meeting in the Spring when much more data would be available and schools would be in a position to effectively feed into the report and any analysis.

·         Councillor Begy had concerns that time was moving on and children had mock exams in January that could be affected.

·         Councillor Burrows was particularly concerned about the effect that disrupted schooling had had for vulnerable children but was reassured by Mrs Godfrey that the work of the Childrens Improvement Board allowed the department to capture any immediate concerns about individual children.

·         The Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services and Education would provide the Committee with the expected and actual numbers of children starting back at school.

RESOLVED:

That the draft annual work plan as attached be APPROVED subject to an option to review and add the item on Rutland Schools’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the factors affecting the wellbeing and resilience of our young people, to the November, rather than March meeting.

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

There was no other urgent business.

Thursday, 26 November 2020 at 6pm.

The next meeting of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee would be held on Thursday 26 November 2020 at 7pm.