Agenda and minutes

To consider and approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on 27 October 2020 as a true and correct record of the proceedings.

Resolved: - That the minutes of the meeting of the Improving Lives Select Commission held on 27 October 2020 be approved as a true and correct record of the proceedings.

To receive declarations of interest from Members in respect of items listed on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider whether the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of any part of the agenda.

There were no items requiring the exclusion of the public or press.

To receive questions relating to items of business on the agenda from members of the public or press who are present at the meeting.

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

To receive communications from the Chair in respect of matters within the Commission’s remit and work programme.

The Chair advised that there would be a meeting at 5:30 on 16 December to enable members to comment on the development of the revised Domestic Abuse Strategy. The Chair encouraged members to attend in order to have the opportunity to input into the development of the strategy.

The Independent Chair of the Rotherham Safeguarding Children Partnership, Jenny Myers attended the meeting to present the first Annual Report of the Rotherham Safeguarding Children Partnership (RSCP).

The Independent Chair was accompanied by the District Commander for Rotherham, Chief Superintendent Steve Chapman and Sue Cassin, Chief Nurse at NHS Rotherham CCG. The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children's Services and Neighbourhood Working, the Strategic Director for Children and Young People’s Services, the Assistant Director, Children’s Social Care and the Business Manager, Rotherham Safeguarding Children Partnership were also in attendance.

The report stated that it was a statutory requirement under the Children Act 2004 for an annual report to be produced that detailed the activities that had been carried out by local safeguarding partners in the previous twelve months that also detailed the effectiveness of the activities in the safeguarding and the promotion of welfare of children in the local area. It was noted that as part of the governance arrangements of the RSCP that it was a requirement that the RSCP Annual Report was presented through Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council’s own scrutiny arrangements as well as the other safeguarding partners own governance arrangements.

The Independent Chair advised that the RSCP Annual Report detailed the activities that had been undertaken in relation to its core business and priorities for the year 2019/2020 and considered how well it had worked towards the achievement of the priorities and objectives as detailed in its Strategic Business Plan 2019-2020 that were: 

·       Safe at Home

·       Safe in the Community

·       Safe Safeguarding Systems

The Annual Report detailed the key areas of progress that had been achieved against each of the objectives and areas of priority.  The Independent Chair noted how well the different members of the partnership had worked together and advised that the frequent meetings that had been held between partners had enabled effective oversight to be carried out and actions to be taken to deliver on the key priorities of the partnership.

In addition to detailing what had gone well the Annual Report set out that the areas of activity that could be done differently or better and detailed the challenges faced in achieving the priorities over the year. The areas identified for development that were highlighted in the report included:

·       Budgeting pressures.

·       Ensuring that babies and very young children were kept safe.

·       Further scrutiny of Early Help Strategy and Front Door activity.

·       New developments, including contextual safeguarding in the identification, assessment and response to criminal exploitation and adolescent neglect.

·       Review of the Multi-agency Safeguarding Arrangements and safeguarding plan.

·       Ensuring that the voices and lived experiences of children and young people, families and workforce were represented across the activities undertaken by the RSCP.

The Independent Chair detailed the objectives for the partnership for the coming year and advised that a key area of focus would be ensuring that the voices of children were heard clearly by increased engagement activities so as to ensure that the partnership could meet their needs as effectively as possible.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 120.

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children's Services and Neighbourhood Working, the Strategic Director, Children and Young People’s Services and the Assistant Director, Children’s Social Care attended the meeting to provide a report regarding the current situation in respect of the delivery children’s social care services during the pandemic.

In introducing the report, the Deputy Leader noted that the report showed how well Children and Young People’s Services had continued to deliver vital services throughout the significant challenges created by the pandemic. The Deputy Leader stated that the effective delivery of children’s social care services during the pandemic had been a significant achievement and clearly showed the hard work and dedication of all staff involved in delivering services.

The Assistant Director Children’s Social Care advised that the reintroduction of national restrictions during November had not impacted significantly on the delivery of services.  The Assistant Director noted that having reviewed service delivery in view of the restrictions, it had not been necessary to pause delivery of any service as the guidance and risk assessments that had been put in place earlier in the pandemic had meant that services could continue to delivered safely.

The Assistant Director also advised that since the last report to the Improving Lives Select Commission in September that:

·       Social workers were continuing to undertake their work with the children allocated to them, with most children being seen person. A pre-visit risk assessment process was in place to ensure the safety of staff and families.

·       Staff had continued to use different technologies to engage with children, young people and their families so as to provide flexibility in using different ways to maintain communication between physical visits.

·       Performance against targets in relation to visits, assessments and plans had remained good.

·       Staff had continued to have access to office space at Riverside House, but less frequently than previously due to the reintroduction of national restrictions. 

·       Staff training and development was now being offered and accessed online.

The Assistant Director assured members that the processes and procedures that were in place to enable services to continue to be delivered during the pandemic in a safe way ensuring that children and families continued to be supported were working well. The Assistant Director noted that the caseloads being managed by the service were no larger than at the same point in the previous year.

The Chair thanked the Assistant Director for the progress report and the assurances that the report and the previous reports had provided. The Chair noted her thanks to the Assistant Director and all of the staff in the service who had worked so hard to ensure that children and families in the Borough had been looked after during the challenging period of the pandemic.

The Strategic Director, Children and Young People’s Services advised that Ofsted had undertaken a Focused Assurance of Children’s Services between 20 and 22 October. The Strategic Director noted that the purpose of the visit had been to examine the quality and impact of key  ...  view the full minutes text for item 121.

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children's Services and Neighbourhood Working, the Joint Assistant Director, Commissioning, Performance and Inclusion, Children and Young People’s Services and the Head of Service, Inclusion attended the meeting to present a progress report on the outcomes of the SEND Peer Challenge.

The report stated that the Peer Challenge process had been developed for Children’s Services across the Yorkshire and Humber region and built on the peer review model that had been developed by the Local Government Association.

The Joint Assistant Director noted that the SEND inspection had reviewed how the Council was supporting children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities to achieve the best possible educational and other outcomes, such as being able to live independently, secure meaningful employment and be well prepared for their adult lives.  The Joint Assistant Director advised that the process had been designed in order to not only to hold local areas to account, but also to assist local areas in improving and developing processes and support systems in order that they could become more effective and deliver better outcomes for children and young people.

It was noted that the SEND Peer Challenge had taken place in Rotherham between 28 February and 3 March 2020. It was noted that the findings of the Peer Challenge had been summarised in a letter that had been structured to identify headline strengths and areas for further consideration.

The Joint Assistant Director advised that the Peer Challenge Team had noted the following headline strengths in the feedback letter:

·       Children and young people were at the heart of the services that were provided.

·       There was a long-standing and collective ownership of the SEND agenda at Rotherham.

·       Senior leaders, from across the system, knew their services well. They understood the strengths, areas for improvement and what needed to be done to secure the best possible outcomes for children and young people.

·       There was an ambition to continuously improve, evidenced in part by an openness to scrutiny, by the commissioning of external organisations to support improvement activity and by internal and system strategies and plans, which demonstrated a commitment and drive for better services.

The following areas had been highlighted for consideration and further improvement:

·       That SEND priorities should be considered across the Council more broadly, especially with regards to public health, early help, adult services and social care. 

·       That further consideration be given to autism and how it was managed and to its place in the broader system, both before and after a diagnosis in order to ensure that children and young people with autism had their needs met effectively.

·       That a clearer method of recording and documenting the impact of SEND activity be developed in order to capture the value of the work that was being carried out with children and young and to provide a basis for developing further meaningful activity.

The Head of Service, Inclusion advised that the Council’s Strategic Leadership Team and Rotherham Clinical Commissioning Group’s Operational Executive  ...  view the full minutes text for item 122.

To consider and approve the Commission’s Work Programme.

The Committee considered its Work Programme for 2020/21.

Resolved: -

1)    That the Work Programme be updated as discussed.

2)    That the Work Programme for 2020/21 be approved.

To monitor the progress of recommendations made by the Improving Lives Select Commission

The Committee considered the outstanding actions on the Monitoring Report.

Resolved: - That Monitoring Report be noted.

For the Chair/project group leads to provide an update on the activity regarding sub and project groups of the he Improving Lives Select Commission.

The Chair provided a progress report on sub and project group activity.

Resolved: -

That the update be noted.

To consider any item(s) the Chair is of the opinion should be considered as a matter of urgency.

There were no items of urgent business.

The next meeting of the Improving Lives Select Commission take place on Tuesday 26 January 2021 commencing at 5:30pm as a Microsoft Teams meeting.  

Resolved: -

That the next meeting of the Improving Lives Select Commission take place on Tuesday 26 January 2021 at 5:30pm as a Microsoft Teams meeting.