Apologies were received from Councillor S Harvey.

To confirm the record of the meeting of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee held on 26 November 2020, and also the records of the joint meetings held with the Adults and Health Scrutiny Committee on 21 January 2021 and 27 January 2021 (previously circulated).

The minutes of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 26 November 2020 and  the minutes from the joint meetings held with the Adults and Health Scrutiny Committee on the 21 and 27 January, were 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 and revised by Council on 14 September 2020. (Please see link: Revision to Virtual Meetings Protocol.)

The total time allowed for this is 30 minutes.  Petitions, deputations and questions will be dealt with in the order in which they are received and any which are not considered within the time limit shall receive a written response after the meeting.

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 from Members had been received.

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 receive Report No.47/2021 from the Director of Children’s Services.

Report No. 47/2021 was received from the Director of Children’s Services. To introduce the report a presentation (appended to the minutes) was given by Bernadette Caffrey, Head of Service - Early Intervention, SEND and Inclusion and Louise Crookenden-Johnson, SEND Capital Programme Manager.

During the discussion, the following points were noted:

·         The Rutland context regarding SEND services and inclusion was outlined in which smart working and effective joint commissioning would be vital.

·         There was an increased demand for SEND Services

·         The service was dealing with more children with more complex needs

·         The impact of the Covid pandemic and the restrictions on families and services would need to be assessed and factored into future service developments and design.

·         SEND Case Officers had ‘getting to know you’ meetings with families, which was unique to Rutland and which supported the assessment process and the relationship with RCC

·         Commissioned services included Educational Psychology and ADHD Solutions.

·         Families were encouraged to support each other.

·         The High Needs allocation for 2021/2022 was £4.65m.  0.5% was transferred from the Schools Block to the High Needs Block.

·         The SEND Recovery Plan produced detailed the investment of £375k in a 5-year plan.

·         An Education Inclusion Partnership had been established, which worked with primary schools to assess children and identify the appropriate support package for each individual child to prevent cases from escalating.

·         An Education Inclusion Partnership would also be established to work with secondary schools.

·         The future SEND Services and Inclusion would require a collective change in behaviours by everyone involved.

·         Mr French stated that he had visited The Parks at Oakham Primary School and had been very impressed with the provision and the professionalism of the staff.

·         Councillor Razzell asked how the service was prepared for the support of children affected by the Covid pandemic. Ms Caffrey stated that the service had received an increase in the number of children experiencing anxiety during the pandemic mainly regarding family issues and the return to school.  The DfE’s Returning to School Wellbeing Project had been run in schools and training for school staff had been given by the Local Authority’s Educational Psychologists team.  There was a new initiative of Emotional Health and Wellbeing practitioners going into schools to provide help and support.  There had also been an increase in the number of children being electively home educated but there were no safeguarding concerns being identified regarding the children and/or the education provided.  Feedback from schools about pupils and their return to school had been positive.

·         Mrs Godfrey confirmed that the service had seen increased demand and was anticipating a further increase in demand as the pandemic eased.  However, reserves had been included in budgets to cover an increase in demand if required, and costs and budgets would be constantly monitored and reviewed. 

·         Councillor Begy commented on the current overspend on the high needs spending and queried what impact this would have on the Council’s overall budgets. Ms Godfrey stated that the funding for the high needs budget came from central government  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To receive Report No.48/2021 from the Director of Children’s Services.

Report No. 48/2021 was received from Dawn Godfrey, Director of Children’s Services.

During the discussion, the following points were noted:

·         The re-referral rate remained higher than expected but a full audit had been done to understand the reason why. Regional colleagues had also investigated Rutland’s re-referral rate and both outcomes deemed that the depth of information gathered for the assessments was not sufficient.  Work was being done to improve the quality of the assessments and the matter had been added to the service’s improvement plan.

·         An Advanced Practitioner now tracked every re-referral submitted and ensured that robust assessments were completed.

·         The report highlighted a lot of improvement within the service particularly with the council’s care leavers. The majority were in employment, education or training and were in appropriate accommodation.

·         The targets and the data collected were being reviewed to improve the information given by the analysis of the performance data.

·         Mrs Godfrey confirmed that the committee would receive quarterly updates of the performance data but reminded attendees that the data for Rutland dealt with small numbers so that any change in the numbers resulted in a large change in the percentages.

·         Mrs Godfrey informed the Committee that she was immensely proud of the staff in Children’s Services, particularly those in Children’s Social Care who had worked all through the pandemic and the way they all had adapted to new work arrangements. The Committee passed their thanks on to all the staff in Children’s Services for all their hard work and support.

·         Councillor Ainsley requested that further information regarding the success of the Education Inclusion Partnerships be included in the next quarterly performance data.

AGREED:

That the Committee:

1.    Notes the performance information as at the end of quarter three (April – December) 2020.

To review items for inclusion in the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee work programme.

·         The annual work plan was approved. 

·         Mental health was to be added to the plan and the dates confirmed.

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

None

This is the last meeting of the municipal year 2020-21. The next meeting of the Childrens and Young People Scrutiny Committee will be confirmed after the Annual Council meeting in May.

The date of the next meeting of the Committee would be confirmed at Annual Council on the 10^th May 2021