Agenda item

A report from the Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Skills.

Following consideration of the Ofsted report at Cabinet, Councillor Tamoor Tariq, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Skills, presented the report which informed Cabinet of the findings of an Ofsted inspection of the Council’s children’s services. The inspection found the services to be inadequate. The report explained the form of intervention by the Secretary of State for Education and the action already taken to implement improvements. The report provided details of the framework for the Improvement Plan which the Council will submit to the Department for Education by 31st March 2022.

A copy of the Inspection report and improvement plan had been circulated to Members ahead of the meeting and in considering the report and the Cabinet Member’s statement the following comments and issues were raised:

Responding to a question from the Chair, the Cabinet Member reported that he and the Director of Children’s Services (DCS) met with staff in Children’s Services following the publication of the Ofsted report, to provide assurance, to thank them for their hard work and to discuss any issues they may have.  Following this meeting further meetings have been scheduled as well as a walking the floor event, to enable staff to raise any concerns with the Cabinet Member and the DCS.

Responding to concerns raised by Members in respect of the financial resources required to fund the improvement work; the Cabinet Member reported that additional resources would be made available to Children’s Services.  In order to address the inadequate Ofsted inspection, the Cabinet Member reported a whole system response is required across all of the different Council departments.

The DCS reported that following the Ofsted inspection findings work has already commenced to address the issues and concerns raised including, a sector led improvement programme.

Responding to a Members question the DCS reported that a quality assurance framework has been developed to review and system check the work undertaken by social workers.

The Cabinet Member reported that he welcomes the interest the Scrutiny Committee has taken in reviewing the Ofsted report. Following the notice of motion considered at Council last night he will ensure that update reports in respect of the improvement plan will be considered at Cabinet, Council and this Scrutiny Committee and would also ask that the Improvement Board minutes be shared with Elected Members.

Responding to a Member question the Cabinet Member acknowledged that there are staffing issues with the Social worker disability team, including the over reliance of agency staff; the development of a work force plan will seek to address this issue.

The Cabinet Member reported that school staff play a significant part in Safeguarding children, the relationships between the local authority and the schools in the Borough has improved considerably.

Responding to a question from a co-opted Member in respect of support for social workers, the Cabinet Member reported that a new social retention and recruitment process for social workers has been developed, as well as financial incentives, reduction in caseloads and a plan to reduce the reliance on agency staff.

It was agreed:

·         The Ofsted Improvement Plan with progress of implementation be monitored by the Council’s Children’s Scrutiny Committee as a standing agenda item until the completion of all actions.

·         A special meeting of the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Committee be convened to discuss the Improvement Plan

·         The Committee recommends to the Democratic Arrangements Forum that the Council Procedure Rules be amended to include at every Council meeting a statement from the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, updating all Councillors on the work of the department.

·         Democratic Services will facilitate a meeting between Members of the Committee and font line social worker ahead of the next meeting.

Cllr Pilkington and Chief Executive Geoff Little, left the meeting.