Agenda and minutes

Venue: Town Hall, Moorgate Street, Rotherham.

Contact: James McLaughlin, Head of Democratic Services  The webcast can be viewed at http://www.rotherham.public-i.tv

Items
No. Item

198.

Welcome from Councillor Steele, Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board

Minutes:

Councillor Steele welcomed everyone to the special meeting of the OSMB which was once again supporting the Children’s Commissioner’s Takeover Challenge (CCTOC) by working with Rotherham Youth Cabinet (RYC).  Several young carers were also present and it was a pleasure to have them there.

199.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from:-

 

Councillors Beck, Hoddinott, Lelliott and Reed

 

Rotherham Youth Cabinet:- Jonathan Badger, Iqra Chowdhary, Maks Golus, Abigail Smith, Sam Jones

 

Rotherham Young Carers:- Ella

 

Sharon Kemp and David McWilliams (RMBC)

 

200.

Response to Recommendations from Rotherham Youth Cabinet's Children's Commissioner Takeover Challenge Spotlight Review on Work Experience pdf icon PDF 108 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cllr Watson – Work experience was discussed in depth last year at the CCTOC. We spent a lot of time talking about the reasons why work experience was important and why some schools found it more difficult to deliver valid work experience for every student. Having spent time doing that, there was a need to do an in-depth review. Those of us who work in education could see why it was very valuable to have work experience but understand the challenges associated with it for schools, who would really like the whole year group out at once. This would mean needing 200/250 places for each small area of Rotherham that students would want to look at, so actually this would mean 400-500 work experience placements for a sensible choice. Schools tend to want to do it towards the end of year 10 – so it becomes more of an issue if six schools were all choosing the same two weeks, meaning you would really need 3000 places at the same time. So it was viewed as problematic even though those of us who had been on work experience and those who worked in education had seen the value of work experience on attitudes to learning when people returned. We knew it was really valuable but it was about making it work and the spotlight review was very helpful.

 

Jon Stonehouse - Reiterating some of Cllr Watson’s comments, Pepe and I met with Youth Cabinet a few weeks ago to talk about how to progress some of the recommendations that had been made. We talked about central Government education policy and difficulties that it presented in meeting all the recommendations made.  We spent a considerable amount of time discussing variability of current provision and what might be done through Rotherham Education Strategic Partnership and the new Skills Plan to advocate on behalf of young people to increase and improve work experience. We heard personal experiences of Youth Cabinet Members in respect of the responsiveness of schools to their desire to be involved in work experience, which presented a varied picture. We agreed to think about how we can promote good practice that exists in the borough with a view to encouraging all schools to adapt this and take it on. We are very happy to continue ongoing dialogue with Youth Cabinet as we attempt to take this work forward.

 

Cllr Sansome – The Employment and Skills Plan cannot just be around public sector employers, it has to capture all employers across the borough. “Blue Flag” employers should be involved.

 

Paul Woodcock – That is exactly right and one of the reasons for recommendations to put this in the Employment and Skills Plan is that the plan goes through the Employment and Skills Board and the Growth Board. A sub-set of which is business led around employment and skills. It is pleasing that they are engaged across the field.

 

Last week was one of the biggest events with young people –  ...  view the full minutes text for item 200.

201.

Introduction and presentation from Rotherham Youth Cabinet - Young Carers pdf icon PDF 895 KB

(Rotherham Youth Cabinet and Young Carers to present)

Minutes:

 

1.      What is already in place for young carers to access? Linda

 

Laura Selby – I work with the action group in Sheffield where the pilot was introduced for reduced rates for leisure activities. We are looking to roll this out more widely with 200 cards this year which should reach a lot of young carers, but not all. A carer card for both adult and young carers, similar to DNA in Doncaster is being introduced with various discounts in places like Star/Jump which should hopefully give people a bit more access.  What people in Sheffield have been saying is that travel is really important as well as leisure access because if you are unable to get there then it does not really work on its own. So Sheffield has the carer’s card and the leisure card for this year.

 

Nichola BladenSYPTE worked with Sheffield Young Carers, after being approached by them to see if SYPTE could help with free travel.  A small pilot scheme with a set budget resulted where the travel offered was just for school holidays. As everything is on smartcards, access is through a portal and Laura’s team were given access to the portal. A young person’s Megatravel or 16-18 pass was also needed as the travel had to be loaded on the smartcard. Young carers were encouraged to apply for smartcards, which is usually done online, but they accepted manual applications. One of the barriers was cards needed to be activated at kiosks or interchanges which meant the young carers travelling there to activate them. Going forward, they could load a monthly pass so this would only need activating once. It was a pilot scheme, but SYPTE would not have the budget to cover every young carer’s scheme.

 

Cllr Steele – I have been tasked with looking at the Rothercard scheme and what we could build into that but it comes down to cost and I cannot  guarantee anything. Cllr Alam might wish to look at it?

 

Cllr Alam – I will look at it and see what we can do.

 

Emily Newman – I was involved in the Sheffield Young Carers Scheme, based at Graves where the free provision was provided and would be happy to replicate this in Rotherham for young carers if that was something they would like to do. Following that we issued a card to young carers, similar to the Rothercard, and would be happy to do that so they could use any of our leisure facilities at a discounted rate. Plus if there were any funded projects Places for People Leisure (PFPL) could also pass relevant information on to the young carers. It was clarified that the discounted rate was 20%.

 

Chris Siddall – We can discuss this at the Rotherham Active Partnership which comprises a host of leisure providers, including social enterprises and charities, to see about other wider offers beyond what the Council and PFPL can offer. The network is meeting in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 201.

202.

Question and Answer Session with Officers and Partners

Minutes:

 

1.     What is already in place for young carers to access? Linda

 

Laura Selby – I work with the action group in Sheffield where the pilot was introduced for reduced rates for leisure activities. We are looking to roll this out more widely with 200 cards this year which should reach a lot of young carers, but not all. A carer card for both adult and young carers, similar to DNA in Doncaster is being introduced with various discounts in places like Star/Jump which should hopefully give people a bit more access.  What people in Sheffield have been saying is that travel is really important as well as leisure access because if you are unable to get there then it does not really work on its own. So Sheffield has the carer’s card and the leisure card for this year.

 

Nichola Bladen – SYPTE worked with Sheffield Young Carers, after being approached by them to see if SYPTE could help with free travel.  A small pilot scheme with a set budget resulted where the travel offered was just for school holidays. As everything is on smartcards, access is through a portal and Laura’s team were given access to the portal. A young person’s Megatravel or 16-18 pass was also needed as the travel had to be loaded on the smartcard. Young carers were encouraged to apply for smartcards, which is usually done online, but they accepted manual applications. One of the barriers was cards needed to be activated at kiosks or interchanges which meant the young carers travelling there to activate them. Going forward, they could load a monthly pass so this would only need activating once. It was a pilot scheme, but SYPTE would not have the budget to cover every young carer’s scheme.

 

Cllr Steele – I have been tasked with looking at the Rothercard scheme and what we could build into that but it comes down to cost and I cannot  guarantee anything. Cllr Alam might wish to look at it?

 

Cllr Alam – I will look at it and see what we can do.

 

Emily Newman – I was involved in the Sheffield Young Carers Scheme, based at Graves where the free provision was provided and would be happy to replicate this in Rotherham for young carers if that was something they would like to do. Following that we issued a card to young carers, similar to the Rothercard, and would be happy to do that so they could use any of our leisure facilities at a discounted rate. Plus if there were any funded projects Places for People Leisure (PFPL) could also pass relevant information on to the young carers. It was clarified that the discounted rate was 20%.

 

Chris Siddall – We can discuss this at the Rotherham Active Partnership which comprises a host of leisure providers, including social enterprises and charities, to see about other wider offers beyond what the Council and PFPL can offer. The network is meeting in May and also  ...  view the full minutes text for item 202.

203.

Closure of the Meeting

Minutes:

Cllr Steele – Before closing the meeting as Chair of OSMB I can assure you that we will follow up on the report.  OSMB is currently carrying out a review of Rothercard and its future remit so I am going to recommend that we co-opt either a young carer or Youth Cabinet member to attend the next meeting of that review.  We will schedule the meeting so that they will be able to attend and input your ideas.  I cannot guarantee that you will get everything you want as we know money is a consideration.

 

It is important to thank everybody for attending, to thank the Scrutiny Officer for organising the CCTOC and to thank the guests and the young people who have come along. This day has grown significantly since we first started a few years ago when we would struggle to get people to attend but your voice gets heard and that is the important thing.

 

Resolved:

 

1)    That the OSMB will co-opt a young carer or a member of RYC to attend the next meeting in the review of Rothercard.

 

 

204.

Date and time of next meeting

The next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board will be held on Wednesday 10 April 2019 at 11.00 a.m. in Rotherham Town Hall.

Minutes:

Resolved:

 

1)    That the next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board be held on Wednesday 10 April 2019 commencing at 11.00 a.m. in Rotherham Town Hall.