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 Youth Cabinet had been invited to suggest subject areas for inclusion in the 2009/2010 work programme of the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel.

FOR MONITORING

(1) The Mayor welcomed Mrs. Kate Muscroft, Mrs. Lyndsay Pitchley and Mr. Tony Marvin, co-opted members, to their first meeting of the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel;

(2) Road Safety and the Levels of Motor Traffic outside Schools – there had been another very good meeting of this Scrutiny Review Group on Friday, 20^th February, 2009, with a further meeting scheduled later this month;

(3) the report of the Scrutiny Review of Support for Newly Arrived Children in Schools would be submitted to the next meeting of this Scrutiny Panel.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Carol Weir, Public Health Specialist, NHS Rotherham, about the current progress with the tackling of childhood obesity and the future plans for the childhood obesity programme for the next three years.

The report stated that the Government had published “Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: a cross government strategy (2008) that, amongst other recommendations, aimed to support the Public Service Agreement target ‘to not only stop the rise in the numbers of children who are overweight or obese but reverse it back to 2000 levels by 2020, as part of a wider strategy to reduce obesity in the population as a whole’. In Rotherham, childhood obesity in Year 6 (National Indicator (NI) 56) is a Local Area Agreement target for 2008-2011. Rotherham data was similar to the national picture, although higher than the England average, with around one in three children in Rotherham classified as being overweight or obese.

The Scrutiny Panel’s discussion of this item included the following salient issues:-

- based on Rotherham’s current comparatively high level of childhood obesity, it was predicted that without preventative action, by the year 2050, some 50% to 60% of children in Rotherham would be clinically obese;

- the contracts for the Carnegie (physical activity and fitness) Clubs had been awarded to DC Leisure; and the multi-disciplinary team of professionals dealing with the obese children and young people would be based at the Clifton Medical Centre;

- ways of monitoring the National Indicator and Local Area Agreement targets (eg: most schools joining the ‘healthy schools’ initiative;

- the success of the Carnegie Summer camps, helping children and young people to lose weight and also the follow-up work to ensure the maintenance of healthier lifestyles;

- the need for childhood obesity and preventative action to be considered by school governing bodies;

- consultation with parents about the Government directive (on childhood obesity) to weigh children at age 4 and 5 years and again at age 10 and 11 years;

- parents/guardians being notified direct about their child’s weight, together with relevant advice if the child was considered to be overweight;

- the Scrutiny Review of physical education in schools, which was due to report in the near future;

- the amount of physical education included within the school’s national curriculum; and the provision and cost of extra-curricula physical education;

- sharing of good practice, between health authorities and local authorities, to reduce the level of childhood obesity (and the forthcoming fact-finding investigation of good practice in France);

- the incidence of bullying of overweight pupils in schools and measures being taken to prevent all types of bullying;

- good practice shared by the youth service, via community groups, to try and prevent bullying which happened away from the school campus;

- the need to lobby local Members of Parliament about more action needed to prevent childhood obesity;

- the impact of a healthy diet, combined with regular physical activity, to help  ...  view the full minutes text for item 107.

Further to Minute No. 48 of the meeting of the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel held on 3^rd October, 2008, consideration was given to a report presented by the Principal Catering Officer which provided details of the progress to date on the implementation of the marketing strategy for the increase in take-up of school meals provided by the Education Catering Services.

The report stated that the Education Catering Services had established a partnership with NHS Rotherham, the Healthy Schools Team and with school head teachers, as outcomes for these partners will benefit from increases in school meals take up. This partnership contributed to the preparation of the 2008-2009 marketing plan for the school meals service and the following action points included in the marketing plan have been implemented:-

·        information provided to parents and pupils about the school meals service, by an information leaflet and press coverage;

·        talk and taster sessions held in thirteen schools, allowing pupils and parents to experience school meals food and to inform and allay fears about the foods offered;

·        special theme  days (e.g. Italian day) offered to generate additional interest amongst pupil;

·        pilot schemes introduced and assessed for effectiveness; two schemes have been piloted (a) utilising a pre order system with identification of meal choice by a wrist band and (b) single choice meal;

·        feedback received from School Councils about pupil meal preferences;

·        head teachers have been addressed about the work of school meals and how it fits in with the Obesity Strategy (a multi-agency approach with NHS Rotherham and the Healthy Schools Team).

The Scrutiny Panel’s discussion of this item included the following salient issues:-

- the significant increased take-up of school meals in a number of primary schools (eg: Kilnhurst);

- the expense, value for money and relative success or failure of the school meals marketing plan, involving the production of information leaflets and posters;

- Councillor Donaldson referred to her intention to undertake a survey of parents, at specific schools, to ascertain their views about school meals;

- serving school meals on plastic trays (‘flight trays’) or on individual dinner plates and in bowls/dishes;

- ways of ensuring that pupils and parents are able to comment on and have some influence over the provision of school meals;

- the reasons why some pupils prefer to bring a packed lunch to school;

- piloting of the ‘Inspire Rotherham’ project (beginning at Maltby), as part of which a dvd film about healthy eating, food preparation and a recipe booklet will be provided for parents; one emphasis of the project was working with hard-to-reach groups of people in various communities;

- ways of increasing the take-up and removing the stigma of free school meals (nb: the limitations of the existing school meals budget prohibited the piloting of free school meals for all pupils);

- the existing subsidy of the price of a school meal and whether further subsidy should be sought from NHS Rotherham;

- ensuring that school  ...  view the full minutes text for item 108.

Further to Minutes Nos. 122 of the meeting of the Cabinet Member and Advisers for Children and Young People’s Services held on 11^th February, 2009 and 99 of the meeting of the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel held on 12^th February, 2009, consideration was given to a report presented by the Director of Commissioning, Policy and Performance concerning the findings of the OFSTED 2008 annual performance assessment for this Authority’s Children and Young People’s Services. The Action Plan, prepared in response to the assessment, was appended to the report.

Specific reference was made to the recruitment and retention of foster carers and also to the operation of the SWIFT computer system for recording social workers’ case information.

The Scrutiny Panel noted that the interim report of the consultants’ assessment of Children and Young People’s Services would be available on 31^st March, 2009, with the final report available on 17^th April, 2009.

Resolved:- (1) That the report be received and the contents of the Action Plan, as now submitted, be approved.

(2) That a progress report and update against the areas for improvement be submitted to a future meeting of the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel.

MINUTES

Further to Minute No. 129 of the meeting of the Cabinet Member and Advisers for Children and Young People’s Services held on 11^th February, 2009, consideration was given to a report presented by the Performance Manager which detailed the Children and Young People’s Services performance at the end of the third quarter 2008/09 against targets, with comparisons against 2007/08 actuals and 2006/07 top quartile. In cases where sufficient information was available, judgments had been made about whether indicators were on target and also about their direction of travel since the last quarter.

The report submitted was the third performance report since the introduction of the national indicator framework focusing on National Indicators (NI), stretch Local Area Agreement indicators (LAA) and Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPI). Details of the areas of both success and of under-performance were contained in the report, together with information about the future performance clinics for two of the under-performing indicators.

Members noted that monitoring arrangements and systems of national indicators were still being developed, both locally and nationally and in some cases the Government had still to clarify definitions. The report also included summary details of the National Indicators which were within the remit of the Children and Young People’s Service partnership and an approximation of when data will be available.

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

(2) That the arrangements for the two performance clinics, as detailed in the report now submitted, be noted and the outcomes reported to a future meeting of this Scrutiny Panel.

(3) That the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel members be informed of the up-to-date performance data in respect of BVPI 221 (participation in and outcomes from youth work).

(4) That the Performance and Scrutiny Overview Committee be asked to invite representatives of the Learning and Skills Council to a future meeting.

Resolved:- That the minutes of the previous meeting of the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel held on 12th February, 2009 be approved as a correct record for signature by the Chairman.

Resolved:- That the contents of the minutes of the meetings of the Performance and Scrutiny Overview Committee held on 28th January, 2009 and on 13th February, 2009, be noted.