Agenda and minutes

Councillor Senior declared a non-pecuniary interest in Minute No. 137 (manager of a charity that works with post-abuse survivors and their families).

There were no members of the public present at the meeting.  The member of the press did not wish to ask any questions.

Councillor Clark

The Chair wished to place on record the Select Commission’s thanks to Councillor Clark for her work as Chair for the past 2 years and also her personal thanks for her help, support and mentoring.

New Members

The Chair welcomed Councillors Alcock and Price to their first meeting of the Select Commission.

Performance Sub-Group

Select Commission Members would be emailed seeking expressions of interest to be part of the newly established Performance Sub-Group.

Member Development

A training session was being held on Thursday, 7^th June 9.30 a.m.-12.30 p.m. on Domestic Abuse Awareness a subject that the Commission had taken a great interest in in terms of its previous work programme.

Corporate Parenting Panel

It was noted that Councillor Jarvis was now a member of the above Panel and would be reporting back to the Select Commission.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the previous meeting of the Improving Lives Select Commission, held on 24th April, 2018 and matters arising from those minutes.

Arising from Minute No. 129 (Ofsted Single Inspection Framework Recommendations), it was noted that a copy of the 8 specific additional actions for the Looked After Children Service had not been circulated to the Select Commission as agreed.

Resolved:- (1)  That the minutes of the previous meeting of the Improving Lives Select Commission, held on 24th April, 2018, be approved as a correct record, for signature by the Chairman.

(2)  That the Assistant Director Early Help & Family Engagement ensure that the Select Commission was provided with the 8 specific additional actions for the Looked After Children Service had not been circulated to the Select Commission as agreed at the previous meeting.

In accordance with Minute No. 62 of the meeting held on 4^th July, 2017, an update was submitted of the key areas of service delivery and responses to the recommendations of the meeting.  The full ReachOut report March 2018 was submitted as Appendix 1 together with the summary report of the Year 2 evaluation of the Service undertaken by the University of Bedfordshire (Appendix 2).

Marie Harris, Barnardos, and Di McLeish, Independent Evaluator, was also present to answer any questions.

The report highlighted:-

-          The number of individual referrals

-          Train the Trainer, ‘Real Love Rocks’ (RLR)

-          Work with Schools

-          Outreach

-          Taxi Driver Training

-          Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Queer (LGBTQ) – Safe Zone

-          Engagement with Children from Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and

Di McLeish gave a brief resume of the evaluation work that had taken place capturing the outcomes for/the feedback from young people which had resulted in a database of over 1,000 participants.  ReachOut was delivered in most of Rotherham’s primary and secondary schools with very positive feedback from both students and teachers.  The Train the Trainer programme had been developed in order to support staff within schools to deliver the programme themselves and make the project more sustainable.  The recent evaluation had shown that approximately 50 members of staff had participated in the training.

Discussion ensued with the following issues raised:-

-          There was no waiting list of schools as all schools who had requested Train the Trainer training had been addressed.  The schools not engaged with the initiative had chosen not to participate.  The majority of schools had been visited over the last 2 years and all those that were interested in taking part had completed it

-          There had been a decrease in referrals from the Education sector from 24% in 2016 to 17% in 2017.  Nationally there were quite low levels of referrals from schools which would suggest that parents went to their GP, CYPS or may be referred as part of a multi-agency arrangement.  When Barnardos carried out the Real Love Rocks work in schools in Year 1 greater number of referrals had been received; what was being seen now was the expected level of referrals as well as the impact of the work by Early Help 

-          There was a lack of referrals from health providers but Rotherham was not unique in this situation 

-          It was hoped to include a CAMHS Worker in the Barnardo’s building

-          2 members of the Commissioning Team would be based within the CCG one day a week

-          A Community Engagement Worker had been employed to work with the Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee (BAMER) community and supporting efforts to forge links between the community and Barnardo’s.  It was also planned to apply for internal funding from Barnardo’s to develop the work further

-          ReachOut had carried out a lot of work with the Roma community which had been identified as a key priority earlier  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

In accordance with Minute No. 62 of 4^th July, 2017, Sean Hill, Commissioning Officer, Children and Young People’s Services, and Rebecca McAlister, Strategic Commissioning Manager, submitted the actions taken to address the recommendations made at that meeting.

The Services had been commissioned in 2016 based on a 2015 Multi-Agency Needs Analysis.  The contracts were let in 2016 and mirrored that analysis.  3 voluntary sector providers bid and were successful for those services.

In July 2017, an update was provided to the Select Commission on the commissioned services.   A Service Review had been undertaken by Children’s Commissioning Team between October and December, 2017, to quantify and understand the pressures on the services. These services were open to anyone who was a victim or survivor of CSE.  It had demonstrated that joint work with the Adult Social Care Commissioning Team was vital to understand the broader context of service provision.  The key findings were set out in the report submitted.

Victims and survivors had been directly engaged with and their views listened to as part of the Service Review with informal meetings held at GROW and Rotherham Abuse Counselling Service (RACS) to seek their views on the impact of the services and quality of support.

The CYPS Leadership Team had agreed the following longer term recommendations:-

-          A whole system approach to commissioning support services be developed with partners (including the National Crime Agency, the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office and the Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Group) to avoid duplication, maximise resources and improve the Service user experience

-          A needs analysis be undertaken to help inform the future commissioning of Services and to inform bids for external funding opportunities.  The needs analysis will take an asset/strength based approach to find out “what matters” to victims and survivors to victims and survivors instead of “what’s the matter”.  It would consider the accessibility of current support services (from all sections of the community) and draw together evidence and first-hand accounts of what works in helping victims and survivors begin to recover and build resilience.  The needs analysis will help identify trends for support over the next 5 years

-          Contracts for the post-CSE commissioned services were extended from 1^st April 2019 to 30^th September 2019 to allow for commissioning of a different service offer following the findings of the needs analysis and whole system mapping

There were some real significant funding pressures on the services and it was a very difficult situation for the service providers to manage.  Without the funding to commission the services it was very difficult to address the need.  A Service Improvement Partnership had been established to discuss the pressures as well as discussions with Adult Commissioning colleagues with regard to managing throughput.

The Chair commended the report but expressed disappointment that the mapping of all the provision across Rotherham, as requested last July by the Select Commission, was still missing.

Councillor Watson stated that it would have been hoped that the mapping of provision  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

In accordance with Minute No. 117 of the Cabinet/Commissioners’ Decision Making Meeting held on 14^th November, 2016, Jenny Lingrell, Acting Head of Service, Early Help, presented an update on the implementation of Edge of Care Services by the Children and Young Peoples’ Services Directorate as follows:-

Family Group Conferencing (FGC)

-          Launched in April 2017 and consisted of a FGC Co-ordinator and 3 Family Group Conference Practitioners.  The size of the team was dictated by the funding that was made available.  An additional practitioner was added to the team in December 2017

-          The focus of the team was to work with families who had a Child in Need (CIN) plan particularly if risks were escalating.  During the initial year following the service launch it had been necessary to be flexible and test work with families with a Child Protection Plan (CPP), families who were already in a Public Law Outline process and with Looked After Children where there may be an opportunity for a child or young person to return home

-          61 FGCs took place in the last financial year

-          25% of FGCs that did not take place during the 6 week timescale.  These were families who required a longer period of time due to family dynamics and availability of family members when arranging a conference date

-          Only 38% of referrals were allocated within 3 days

Edge of Care Team

-          Was a multi-disciplinary team made up of practitioners who had complementary skills and experience developed through working with adults with complex needs as well as with families

-          The Team had the skills to address behaviours linked to adult trauma and its impact and has, at its core weekly group, supervision with a consultant clinical psychologist

-          In addition the Team Co-ordinator had monthly personal systemic supervision, the Team took part in monthly group supervision and an ongoing programme of systemic training

-          The Team consisted of a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, a Team Co-ordinator (skilled in systemic family therapy), a Parenting Practitioner (who could deliver 1:1 outreach support), a Level 3 Social Worker and 3 Family Intervention Workers

-          All referrals were made through the new Edge of Care Panel, a multi-agency Panel chaired by a Head of Service from Social Care, which met on a weekly basis

-          79 families were referred to the Panel between 26^th September 2017 and the end of the financial year

-          The Team was currently at full capacity

-          It was estimated that the average cost for a child in care was £50,000

-          5 children had successfully moved home from foster care following an intervention by the Edge of Care Team with 2 more on caseload representing a full year saving of £350,000

Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST)

-          MST was a shared service delivered in partnership by Rotherham and Barnsley Councils to support families where there was a risk that a child or young person would become looked after or go into  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Resolved:- That the next meeting of the Improving Lives Select Commission take place at the Town Hall, Rotherham on Tuesday, 17th July, 2018, commencing at 5.30 p.m.