Agenda and minutes
PDF 31 KBVenue: Town Hall, Moorgate Street, ROTHERHAM. S60 2TH
Contact: Hannah Etheridge
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Declarations of Interest Minutes: Councillor Allcock declared a non-pecuniary interest in Minute No. 53 (Overview of the Provision and Services for Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) in Rotherham) as he was a member of the SENDIASS Moderating Committee. |
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Questions from members of the public and the press Minutes: There were no members of the press or public present at the meeting. |
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Communications Feedback:-
· Corporate Parenting Panel. · Child-Centred Borough. Minutes: Corporate Parenting Panel Councillor Cusworth had provided Members of the Select Commission with a summary of the last meeting of the CPP and drew attention to the following issues:-
- Initial Health Assessments for Looked After Children (LAC) were still causing concern. Part of the delay was due to partners such as doctors typing up notes. It was hoped that Liquid Logic would alleviate some of the issues with nurses receiving requests for assessments a lot sooner - Recruitment of Social Workers in the area of LAC - Wilmott Dixon had committed to ringfencing a portion of the sixteen apprenticeships to care leavers, waiving the requirement for GCSE Maths and English and supporting the young person to achieve the qualifications during the period of apprenticeship - 67% of care leavers were in Education, Employment and Training compared to the national average of 43% - Rotherham had 12% of care leavers in higher education - The recent Ofsted visit to Liberty House had recognised further improvements
Fostering Panel – 6th March - Recommended approval of one new prospective foster carer - Considered two annual reviews and two bi-annual reviews and recommended continued approval of all - Two foster carers had resigned - The Panel would welcome any Elected Member
Child-Centred Borough Councillor Allcock reported that at the last meeting:- - A representative from Leeds City Council had attended to talk about their approach to being child centred and how they had managed to embed it as an ethos across the whole authority - Looked at ideas that the Authority may start implementing across Rotherham in order to move towards being more child centred and focussed |
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Minutes of the previous meeting held on 1st February, 2017 Minutes: Resolved:- (1) That the minutes of the previous meeting of the Improving Lives Select Commission, held on 1st February, 2017, be approved as a correct record for signature by the Chairman.
(2) That an update be provided to the next meeting with regard to the management of sickness absence amongst staff (Minute No. 46 - Early Help and Family Engagement). |
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Background information:-
o SENDIASS Annual Report (2015/16). o Case Study Rose. o Children and Young People’s Plan (See Outcome 2).
Additional documents: Minutes: Paula Williams, Workforce Development & Quality Assurance Co-ordinator, gave the following powerpoint presentation:-
The Rotherham Context - There were 43,882 children and young people attending Rotherham’s maintained schools as at January 2016 School Census. 7,124 children are identified as having a Special Educational Need (16%) - 2.8% have needs met with support of an Education Health and Care Plan - 21.8% have needs met by a graduated response
Current Provision – what constitutes the current offer - Family Advice and Support - Special Schools - Enhanced Resources - Local Authority Alternative Provision - Post-14 Transitions - Private and Voluntary - Earl Years Support - The Mainstream Inclusion offer - Social Care Provision - The Health Offer
Special Schools (total capacity 595) – current offer - Hilltop – PMLD – age 2-19 95 places Redwood Early Years Resource - Abbey (designation under review) 7-16 90 places (110 from September) - Kelford (SLD, PMLD) age 2-19 100 places Kimberworth Primary Resource - Milton (Autism and Complex Needs) age 5-16 120 places Canal Side Resource - The Willows (MLD) age 7-16 100 places - Newman (Physical needs) age 2-19 102 places Newman Enhanced Resource (highly complex needs and autism 20 places)
Enhanced Resources - Hearing Impaired Resources Bramley Grange Primary age 5-11 11 places - Hearing Impaired Resources Wickersley age 11-16 11 places - Primary Speech and Language Resource Anston Hillcrest Primary age 5-11 15 places - Secondary Autism Resource Swinton Secondary School age 11-16 20 places
Local Authority Alternative Provision - Aspire Primary (19) and secondary (60 places plus 30 in partnerships) Sites currently being reconfigured - Rowan Health Alternative Provision 42 places age 5-19 - Home Tuition 19 places age 5-19 - Private and Voluntary Morthyng Really Neet Co. - Post-16 Providers
RMBC CYPS – SEND/Inclusion within Education and Skills - Education Health and Care Assessment Team - Educational Psychology Service - Inclusion Support Services: Autism Communication Team, Education Other than At School and Central Register, Hearing Impairment Team, Learning Support Service, Social Emotional and Mental Health Team, Visual Impairment Team - Special Educational Needs and Disability Information Advice and Support Services (SENDIASS)
Close liaison with:- - Rotherham Parents Forum - Virtual School for Looked After Children - Elective Home Education
Demographics in Rotherham - Evidence suggests that the population of Rotherham will increase by 1.7% from 2016 to 2021 from 261,400 to 265,800. A growth of 4,400 people - We can assume that although the overall population is growing at 1.7% the adult population is producing a higher ratio of children - There is a greater predicted increase in pupils aged 3-19. If realised, there will be a corresponding increase in the number of school age pupils from 44,626 to 48,858, a growth of 2,231 (an increase of 5%) - It is predicted that the number of pupils with SEND will increase from 7,253 (2016) to 7,616 by 2021 which is an increase of 363 pupils (5%). This represents the total increase in ... view the full minutes text for item 53. |
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Children's and Young People's Services Performance Report - January 2016/17 Additional documents:
Minutes: Mel Meggs, Deputy Strategic Director, presented a summary of performance under key themes for Children’s Social Care and Early Help Services as at the end of January, 2017.
It was noted that this was the first performance report for the Select Commission since the implementation of the new Liquid Logic case management system at the end of October, 2016. The changeover had created a number of challenges in terms of data quality and reporting but significant progress had been made. However, teams were still adjusting to new recording requirements and addressing data migration gaps.
The report highlighted examples of good and improved performance and key areas for further improvement.
Discussion ensued on the report with the following issues raised/clarified:-
- Social Worker caseloads had reduced again across all the teams and were now within the normal bounds – only one with a caseload of 25.
- Currently there was only one Social Worker and one Team Manager vacancy.
- Had there been an improvement since the extra staff had started in the amount work carried out? The caseloads had reduced. The Service had seen its first outstanding audit and the Looked After Children Service had had its first outstanding element of an audit. Ofsted had not deemed any cases to be critically inadequate as nor had the Peer Review; most the cases were deemed requiring improvement which was a better position than that originally. Over the next couple of months “Signs of Safety” would be implemented and a dramatic improvement expected; now that there were the numbers of staff to have the time to do the quality of work desired they now needed the tools to do the work.
- The persistent absence percentage was high and the percentage of children attending school was low. What work was being done – The Government had changed the persistent absence threshold and a student only had to have a few absences for it to be classed as persistent absenteeism; this may account for some of the increase. Clearly there was link between persistent absence and levels of attendance and the Education Welfare Officers who worked as part of the Early Help offer were producing some additional actions.
- Were we looking into how individual schools were tackling persistent absenteeism/low attendance? It relied upon the Local Authority having voluntary engagement with the schools. Schools not maintained by the Local Authority were allowed to make their own decisions with regard to absences and the sharing of information. The Early Help Teams were there to provide support to schools around their absence policies and procedures and clearly had to have that relationship because it was the Local Authority that had the power to take formal action around school attendance. Each school would be expected to have an attendance strategy but that was done with Early Help support.
- Health Assessments should be completed within 35 working days. Was that realistic? A family did not wait long for an assessment where it was known that ... view the full minutes text for item 54. |
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Date and time of the next meeting Minutes: Resolved:- (1) That the next schedule meeting be held on Wednesday, 14th June, 2017 at 1.30 p.m.
(2) That a special meeting be held on 17th May to look at the work programme and to consider the report of the review group on the alternative models for Children and Young People’s Services. |