Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest made at this meeting.

There were no questions from members of the public or the press.

The Scrutiny Panel noted that the Youth Cabinet had launched its new manifesto during October 2008, which included the following issues:-

- launch of the Student Council Principles

- Fair Trade information

- promotion of anti-fascism

- promoting diversity and inclusivity

FOR DISCUSSION

Scrutiny Panel members were reminded of the forthcoming visits of inspection to the newly-established Locality Teams, scheduled to take place during December, 2008 and were asked to respond to the Senior Scrutiny Adviser with their availability.

Further to Minute No. 79 of the meeting of the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel held on 8^th February, 2008, consideration was given to a report presented by the Strategic Director of Children and Young People’s Services concerning the progress with the proposed action to achieve the LPSA NEETs target (PSA14) for November 2008 of 7.1% (including the stretch element) and the Not Knowns target of less than 5%.

Subsequently, the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People’s Services had endorsed the following areas for prioritisation to address the NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) target:-

- working with schools to reduce the percentage of young people leaving year 11 to NEET from the 2007 target of 8% (8.4% achieved or 321 young people) to 4.2% (161) in 2008;

- improving systems to identify leavers from post 16 learning and secure a follow on destination - to reduce entrants into the NEET cohort;

- increasing the range and number of learning and employment, with learning opportunities to meet the needs of NEET young people; including the development of public sector apprenticeships (an increase of 50 by November 2008).

The report stated that the overall objective is to try and reduce the NEET cohort by 350 young people (reduction of 161 school leavers and 136 leavers at age 17 from learning and creating 50 apprenticeships).

Members noted that the focused September Guarantee meetings have been held with post 16 learning providers, Connexions providers and with the Learning and Skills Council to plan and monitor support to achieve the 100% target for the September Guarantee for 16  and 17 year olds. As at 30^th September, 2008, 99% of Year 11 leavers from Rotherham schools had received an offer of a guaranteed place in post 16 learning in line with the September Guarantee requirements. This equates to a 4 % improvement on the position at the same time in 2007.

The Scrutiny Panel also discussed:-

- issues causing NEETs within the black and minority ethnic community;

- the need to increase the availability of public sector apprenticeships;

- the development of Entry to Construction programmes within Entry to Employment (E 2 E) programmes.

Resolved:- (1) That the report be received and the progress being made against targets be welcomed.

(2) That the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People’s Services be asked to pursue, at the Children’s Board meetings, the development and provision of public sector apprenticeships for young people.

Consideration was given to a report presented by the Strategic Director of Children and Young People’s Services concerning the 14-19 Learning Plan and the 14-19 Strategy and Resources Board which are now in place following extensive consultation with all partners and key stakeholders within Rotherham. The report stated that this development provides Rotherham with a firm foundation to deliver the changes set out in the Government White Paper ‘Raising Expectations: enabling the system to deliver’. This White Paper details the transfer of responsibility for 16-19 education from the Learning and Skills Council to local authorities, by the end of the decade.

The rationale for the transfer is that local authorities should provide strong, local leadership for all aspects of learning up to the age of 19 and act as the accountable body for all outcomes for young people up to that age (and to age 25 years for those with learning difficulties and disabilities).

The proposed legislation should be in place by December, 2008 and would confer a number of responsibilities on local authorities.

Resolved:- (1) That the report be received and its contents noted.

(2) That this Scrutiny Panel be informed, at regular intervals, of progress with this item.

Further to Minute No. 21 of the meeting of the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel held on 7^th September, 2007, consideration was given to a report presented by the Director of Targeted Services describing the impact over the past twelve months of the South Yorkshire Runaways Joint Protocol and the Rotherham Safeguarding Children Board ‘Action Plan for Services to Runaways’. The report provided up to date information on the scale of the problem in Rotherham, what the analysis of the data says about young runaways and what the multi-agency responses and plans are for prevention and support.

The Government’s Social Exclusion Unit defines a runaway as ‘a child aged under 18 who spends one night or more away from home or care without permission, or who has been forced to leave by their parents or carers’.

The Action Plan for services for runaways was appended to the report submitted. A new performance indicator (NI 71) would be included in the National Indicator Set from April, 2009. The data for this indicator would be collected on a quarterly basis and the indicator reviewed in 2009/10 to ensure that it is driving better collections of data about young runaways and improvements in local services for young people.

The Scrutiny Panel discussed the following salient issues:-

- the distance spread of the children running away;

- the incidence of running away by Looked After Children;

- the reasons for running away;

- whether the rurality of the Rotherham Borough is a factor;

- preventative work with parents;

- work being undertaken with schools;

- evaluation of Safe@Last;

- the financial cost of dealing with runaway children and young people.

The Scrutiny Panel also welcomed Mrs. Tracy Haycock who answered questions about the role of the Safe@Last organisation.

Resolved:- (1) That the report be received and its contents noted.

(2) That the details of the Action Plan for services for runaways be noted.

(3) That a further report be submitted to the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel, in six months’ time, detailing the progress made against the Action Plan for services for runaways.

Consideration was given to a report presented by the Director of Targeted Services providing an update on progress across Rotherham around arrangements to protect children and young people from sexual exploitation.

The report stated that Working Together (April 2006), states that ‘The LSCB (Local Safeguarding Children Board) should actively enquire into the extent to which children are involved in prostitution in the local area. They should assume that it is a local issue unless there is clear evidence to the contrary’. There has to be a recognition that sexual exploitation of young people is a national issue and its management requires both a national and local strategic response.

Rotherham’s response to the issue was to develop a Multi Agency Action Plan and to consider robustly and revise where appropriate, arrangements and processes between key agencies in dealing with children and young people at risk. The Scrutiny Panel had originally reviewed the Action Plan in 2006 (Minute No. 23 of the Scrutiny Panel’s meeting held on 8^th September 2006 refers). Reports to the LSC Board and monitoring by the Sexual Exploitation Steering Group has required regular updates of the Action Plan and the latest of these, from March 2008, was attached to the report submitted. The most recent meeting of the Sexual Exploitation Steering Group has confirmed that a further update is to be prepared and submitted to its next meeting.  Additional or updated notes to those contained within the Action Plan were referenced in this report, where pertinent.

Key areas of note in relation to protecting children and young people from sexual exploitation were:-

- structures in place to take forward the Action Plan (eg: the multi-agency Sexual Exploitation Steering Group);

- the function of the Risky Business Project;

- various activity in response to the requirements of the Action Plan (eg: a text messaging service for young males who may be caught in sexual exploitation).

Members noted that there would be a further opportunity to discuss the detailed implementation of the Action Plan during the visits to the Locality Teams in December 2008.

Resolved:- (1) That the report be received and its contents noted.

(2) That the details of the Action Plan for sexual exploitation be noted.

(3) That a further report be submitted to the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel, in six months’ time, detailing the progress made against the Action Plan for children and young people who are vulnerable to sexual exploitation.

MINUTES

Consideration was given to a report presented by the Policy, Planning and Commissioning Manager about the Lifestyle Survey, which enabled Children and Young People’s Services to determine the views of children and young people about various subjects such as being healthy; their current levels of fitness and activities; how they feel about school; whether they are a carer; whether they feel safe or are being bullied; how often they may smoke, drink or take drugs; plus what their views are about sex and relationship education.  The survey also included questions about their neighbourhood in general.

The survey, conducted in Secondary Schools, had been completed by Year 7 and Year 10 pupils (2,248 pupils in total) during the Summer Term in 2008, with ten schools out of sixteen taking part. The report stated that similar surveys had also been conducted in 2006 and in 2007 and it was the intention to undertake surveys each year in the future. Pupils complete the questionnaire online, often in ICT lessons in school.

The 2008 Lifestyle Survey for Primary Schools began on 20^th October 2008 and would last until 19^th December, 2008.  The report on the findings of this survey, which is aimed at Year 5 pupils, will be available during March, 2009.

The survey summary, attached as an appendix to the report submitted, provided a brief analysis of the results of the 2008 Secondary Lifestyle Survey. The Borough-wide report which includes the findings from the 2008 Secondary School Lifestyle Survey will be made available on the Council’s Intranet. A summary version of the report will be made available on the Council’s Internet website.

The Scrutiny Panel considered that the results of the Lifestyle Survey ought to be used to inform the future delivery of services for young people, both by the Borough Council and by all statutory agencies.

Resolved:- (1) That the report be received and the summary survey results be noted.

(2) That, in an endeavour to ensure that all Secondary Schools participate in future years’ pupil lifestyle surveys, a report be submitted to the next meeting of the Forum of Chairs and Vice-Chairs of School Governing Bodies.

(3) That the results of each years’ surveys be examined for comparative purposes and in order to identify trends in behaviour which may be used to inform the future delivery of services for young people.

(4) That the results of the 2008 lifestyle survey be made available for School Councils and for the Youth Cabinet, in order to link into the citizenship curriculum in schools.

(The Mayor (Councillor G. A. Russell) left the meeting during the Scrutiny Panel’s consideration of this item; the Vice-Chair, Councillor J. Burton, assumed the Chair for the remainder of the meeting)

Resolved:- That the minutes of the previous meeting of the Children and Young People’s Services Scrutiny Panel held on 3^rd October, 2008 be approved as a correct record for signature by the Chairman.

Resolved:- That the contents of the minutes of the meeting of the Looked After Children Scrutiny Sub-Panel held on 24th September, 2008 be noted.

Resolved:- That the contents of the minutes of the meeting of the Children’s Board held on 8th October, 2008 be noted.

Resolved:- That the contents of the minutes of the meetings of the Performance and Scrutiny Overview Committee held on 26th September, 2008 and on 10th October, 2008 be noted.