Draft minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 23^rd May, 2012, were approved as a correct record with the addition to Joyce Thacker’s apologies.

Dorothy Smith reported on the very successful Children’s Festival that had recently taken place over 9 nights.  A variety of activities had taken place which had showcased the talents of Rotherham young people and was something that no other authority in the country did on the same scale.  It was unfortunate that none of the events had been picked up by the local press.

Ofsted Inspection

Joyce Thacker reported on the recent inspection that had taken place where the authority had been judged as “adequate”.  There were no systemtic they identified failures, clear areas for development and the report reflected an organisation that had improved over the previous 3 years.

Joyce gave a resume of the feedback.

The inspection had been conducted under the new arrangements; next year it would become a multi-agency inspection based on this year’s.  The Inspectors had asked for information on Children in Need, Looked After Children, Children on Common Assessment Framework etc.; they looked at children that had just come into care, those that had been stepped down from a Plan and those who had been on a Child ProtectionPlan for some time.

A workshop session would be held shortly which would greatly benefit agencies to attend.  The format would be similar to that of the inspection i.e. selecting cases and challenging agencies as to why they acted as they had.

A public announcement of the inspection report would be made on 10^th August, 2012.

Agreed: That the feedback be shared with members of the Partnership.

LAC Council

At the suggestion of 1 the care leavers, the LACC was looking to produce a DVD on role models for young people who were in care with the involvement of the City Learning Centre in Rawmarsh.

Youth Cabinet

Safe Havens, an anti-bullying project operated in some schools, was a project very important to the Youth Cabinet.  The issue of funding the project would be raised at a meeting of the Schools Forum.

It was also noted that Scrutiny who had undertaken a previous review on the project, were going to do a progress update.

Parent and Carers Forum

The Forum was made up of parents and carers of disabled children in the Borough lead by parents for parents and was still seeking accommodation in the Borough due to it having outgrown its current premises.  Work was taking place to assist in this endeavour.

Work was taking place on post-16 placements reassuring parents that there were facilities for their children within the Borough without having to leave Rotherham.

StephDockerty, Performance Officer, presented a performance position statement from April, 2011-March, 2012 against key Safeguarding National Indicators and selected Local Indicators.

Out of the 11 National Indicators:-

Status Green (on or above national/statistical average):-

NI64    Child Protection Plans which have ceased lasting 2 years or more

NI65    Percentage of children becoming the subject of a Child Protection Plan for a second or subsequent time during the year

NI66    Looked After Children cases which were reviewed within required timescales

NI67    Percentage of child protection cases which were reviewed within required timescales

NI68    Percentage of referrals to children’s social care going onto initial assessment

BI59a  Percentage of Initial Assessments carried out within 10 working days of referrals

Status Amber (below local target but on or in line with national statistical average):-

NI59    Percentage of Initial Assessments of children’s social care carried out within 7 working days of referral (Ofsted Green)

NI62    Stability of placements (12 months) of looked after children: number of placements (3 or more) (Ofsted Green)

Status Red (below target/below national/statistically average)

NI60    Percentage of Core Assessments completed within 35 working days

NI61    Timeliness of placements of looked after children for adoption following an agency decision that the child should be placed for adoption

NI63    Stability of placements of looked after children : length of placement

As part of the Balanced Score Card approach, local measures were currently under development.  The measures shown at Appendix B of the report submitted were established local measures.

Discussion ensued on the report with the following issues raised/clarified:-

-              If a case did not make it into the Social Care Team, it would be referred to the Early Help Team

-              The Improvement Panel, established at the time of the Intervention Notice, still met

-              Work required on improving analysis and not just the provision of data

-              There were a significantly number of children with decision for adoption but there were some delays in the processes.  If more adoptive parents could be identified then the number of children adopted would increase

Agreed:-  That the current position and the actions being taken to address any areas of underperformance be noted.

Joyce Thacker, Strategic Director of Children’s and Young Peoples Services, submitted for information the Children’s Safeguarding Performance Information Framework which was currently out for consultation.

The Framework was broken down into 5 themes with national performance information items and approaches to local information for each:-

§               Outcomes for children and young people and their families

§               Child protection activity (including early help)

§               The quality and timeliness of decision making

§               The quality of Child Protection Plans

§               Workforce

It was crucial for local areas to get feedback from children and young people and their families to inform learning and drive Service improvement.  It was also key to understanding the impact of the Service and the difference children, young people and their families felt had been made to their lives.

Discussion ensued on how agencies could be confident they had captured the wishes and feelings of children, how a conversation was recorded and that they fully understood what had been said.

Agreed:-  That the document be circulated to all partners.

Joyce Thacker, Strategic Director, Children’s and Young Peoples Services, presented a comparison of the resources available in support of the Children and Young People’s Plan for 2011/12 and 2012/13.

The Appendix submitted gave details of the funding allocated to the Four Big Things in 2011/12 and 2012/13 excluding budgeted expenditure on overheads.

The amount of resource contributing to each of the Four Big Things, from a Council perspective, had changed due to the restructure of the Directorate and re-alignment of resources.

Partners were requested to undertake a similar exercise and update the figures for 2012/13.  This information to be sent to Joyce by the end of August at the latest.

Agreed:-  (1)  That the analysis behind the figures be circulated to Partnership members.

(2)  That each partner update their information for 2012/13.

Anna Jones, Health Improvement Specialist, NHS Rotherham, presented a report on the above.

Between 2008 and 2012, 12 children under 1 year old had died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS0 in Rotherham.  Co-sleeping, nationally and locally had been identified as a significant risk factor that was particularly so when associated with smoking and alcohol use.

In Rotherham, the Child Death Overview Panel and Public Health had worked together to consider the sudden unexpected death of infants in an attempt to reduce all avoidable deaths.  They had produced a risk indicator tool for frontline staff to utilise and record their findings and discussions with families.  In addition, a Safe Sleeping Assessment was in the process of being implemented.

The production of a Risk Assessment Tool for SIDS had been devised from the findings to be used by practitioners (particularly Midwives and Health Visitors) to further re-enforce safe sleeping messages.  Following its development, work had taken place to implement the Derby City and Derbyshire County Safe Sleeping Procedures that had significantly reduced SIDS deaths across Derbyshire in the last 18 months.  As part of their interventions, they had implemented Safe Sleeping Assessment and observations through their Midwifery and Health Visiting Teams where, in addition to advice, Workers asked to see where the baby slept and how they put their baby down to sleep.

In Rotherham, the Midwifery Service would undertake the assessment for all babies within 5 days of hospital discharge.  The Health Visiting Service would undertake assessments not completed by Midwifery.  The Safe Sleeping Assessment form would be included in the Parent Held Record (Red Book).

Training would be provided to all frontline staff who had contact with families with a child under 1 year from June, 2012.  Training would also be provided to local social care teams, children’s centres and wider services including South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.  This would create an awareness of safe sleeping as well as when and how to intervene if necessary.

Agreed:-  (1)  That the Safe Sleeping assessment and observation to be carried out by Midwives and Health Visitors be supported.

(2)  That Safe Sleeping assessments in General Practice (particularly to vulnerable families and those who smoked and/or drug and alcohol problems) be promoted.

(3)  That the Child Death Overview Panel be supported in continuing to develop further opportunities to reduce SIDS and promote safe sleeping.

(4)  That discussions take place with the Director of Housing and Neighbourhoods regarding linkages with the Deprived Communities work.

(5)  That the report be submitted to the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing for information.

Dorothy Smith, Director of Schools and Lifelong Learning, reported that KS2 performance had been a key priority area for the Authority due to the underperformance in that area.  Provisional data showed that there had been marked improvement:-

Floor target - 60% or more pupils achieve Level 4 in English and Maths 

This year 75.9% were soon to be achieving Level 4

Last year 69.3% - increase of 6.6%.  The previous year there had been a 2% increase on 2010/2011

Last year 12 schools performed well below the floor standard

This year 6 performing below the floor standard

This year 87.1% of pupils were found to be making 2 levels of progress in English

Last year it had been 81%

Last year the national average for English had been 84%

This year 85.7% of pupils were found to be making 2 levels of progress in Maths

Last year it had been 79.9%

Increase of 5.8%

Several key Head Teachers had worked across 2/3 schools.  It was noted that where there had been Executive Headships the Schools had done very well.  Schools that had been causing concern had regular challenging meetings with Chairs of Governors, regular reviews and indepth look at the work in the classroom, discussion of work, scrutiny and looking at children’s work and all had shown improvement bar 1 learning community

Agreed:-  That a follow up performance clinic be held in October 2012, once that results had been validated.

The minutes of the Safeguarding Board held on 15^th June, 2012, were submitted for information.

(A)  Welfare Reform

Sara Graham queried whether there would be any reporting to the Partnership on the Welfare Reform and how cuts would impact on the children of Rotherham.

Martin Kimber, Chief Executive, reported that it would take some time to fully understand all the implications of the new Act but a position statement would be available soon from the LSP.

(B)  Priorities 2013/14

Joyce Thacker requested that members give consideration to priorities for 2013/14 e.g. the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, refreshed Children and Young People Plan, Ofsted recommendations, Welfare Reform etc.  To be an agenda item for the September meeting.

Agreed:-  That a further meeting be held on Wednesday, 19^th September, 2012, commencing at 2.00 p.m. in the Rotherham Town Hall.