Agenda and minutes

To consider and approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on 27 July 2021 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 July 2021 be approved as a correct record of proceedings.

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

There were no declarations.

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 that required 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.

There were no communications.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People’s Services, the Assistant Director - Early Help and Business Support and the Service Manager - Youth Offending Team and Evidence Based Hub attended the meeting to provide a progress report on the Youth Offending Team (YOT) Inspection Action Plan that had been put into place following the Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) inspection of the Rotherham Youth Offending Team that had taken place in September 2020.

The report stated that due to the impact of the pandemic that the inspection had been carried out remotely. The inspection had looked at YOT activity over the three domains of Organisational Delivery, Court Disposals and Out of Court Disposals. The Inspection report had been published on 17 December 2020 with the Overall judgement being “Requires Improvement”. The inspection report had made five recommendations that were:

The Chair of the YOT Management Board should:

1.    Make sure that Board members understand the specific needs of children known to the YOT and advocate on their behalf in their own agencies.

The YOT Management Board should:

2.    Ensure the partnership understands the reasons for the significant number of Looked After Children known to the YOT and reviews the policies and practices of all agencies to minimise the possibility of children entering the criminal justice system unnecessarily.

3.    Undertake a comprehensive health needs analysis of YOT children to better understand the health provision being delivered and what needs to be developed.

4.    Review the quality and accessibility of education, training and employment provision for post-16-year-old children known to the service.

The YOT Service Manager should:

5.    Review the quality of risk of harm work and improve the effectiveness of management oversight in all cases.

In response to the outcome of the inspection report an action plan had been put into place to address the areas of concern. It was noted that of the 46 identified actions contained in the plan that 43 had been completed. The full action plan was attached as an appendix to the officer’s report.

In introducing the report, the Service Manager - Youth Offending Team and Evidence Based Hub noted the significant progress that had been made against the objectives contained in the plan to address the five recommendations that had been made in the inspection report including the development of the role of the YOT Board and its members, and the training that had been provided for YOT Board members and YOT staff. It was noted that this development work would be continued and developed moving forwards.

The Service Manager provided information around the activity that had been carried out to develop and improve management oversight and risk management processes in the YOT. The Service Manager advised that the recording processes used by the YOT had been overhauled so as to enable information and data related to cases to be recorded in such a way that all actions could be clearly seen, and assurance could be given on the work that was being  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People’s Services and the Assistant Director – Children’s Social Care attended meeting to provide a report on the impact of the One Adoption South Yorkshire regional adoption agency since its launch on 1 January 2021.

In introducing the report, the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People’s Services noted that the launch of the new regional adoption agency involved a significant amount of planning and development as it had been essential that the new agency continued to deliver the high levels of service for children and adoptive families that had been provided by the Rotherham adoption agency.

The Assistant Director – Children’s Social Care advised that One Adoption South Yorkshire was a ‘partnership’ model Regional Adoption Agency where the majority staff, apart from a small hub of administrative and strategic staff, remained employed by their original local authority. It was noted that this approach both enabled staff to retain their terms and conditions, and for each local authority involved to gain the benefits and efficiencies of pooled resources in order to maximize outcomes for children and adopters. The Assistant Director advised that the Regional Adoption Agency approach was now widespread across the country.

The Assistant Director noted that a set of targets and performance indicators to measure the performance of the new regional agency over its first year of operation had been agreed. The Assistant Director advised further that as the new agency had only been in operation for eight months, and as a full year of data wasn’t available, early analysis of available data had shown that the new agency was on track to meet its performance targets across all of its key performance targets.

It was noted that targets had been set around the following objectives.

·       the recruitment of adopters.

·       the number of children placed for adoption.

·       the reduction of the number of interagency placements.

·       the delivery of post-adoption support.

The Assistant Director advised that despite the challenges created by the pandemic, that the key area of activity surrounding the recruitment of adopters had continued throughout the period with indicators showing that the new agency was on track to meet its target of recruiting 92 new adoptive families during the year. The Assistant Director advised that with regard to interagency placements that the trends were looking positive with fewer interagency placements for children from Rotherham than in the comparable period during 2020. The Assistant Director noted that while it was important to reduce the number of costly interagency placements and to keep as many children as possible in the local area, interagency placements would always be needed in order to ensure that each child was placed with the most suitable family for their needs.

The Assistant Director provided information around the provision of, and development of effective post-adoption support, noting that it was essential that potential adopters knew that support was available to them whenever they may require it in the future. The Assistant Director advised that the completion of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People’s Services, the Assistant Director - Early Help and Business Support, the Outreach and Engagement Manager and the Outreach and Engagement Senior Practitioner  attended the meeting to provide a report on the operation of the activities provided by the Council’s Healthy Holidays programme that had been funded by the Government’s Holiday Activities Fund Grant over the Easter and Summer holidays. The report stated that the purpose of the grant was for local authorities to make free places at holiday clubs available in the Easter, Summer, and Christmas school holidays in 2021 for children who were eligible for, and received benefits-related free school meals.

In introducing the report, the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People’s Services noted the success of the Healthy Holidays programme and how the offer provided by Rotherham that had been funded by the Government’s Holiday Activities Fund Grant had been a much more comprehensive offer by than similar schemes offered by other local authorities. The Cabinet Member noted the successful visit from the Department for Education that had taken place during August where officials had been shown the Healthy Holidays programme in Rotherham and who had given excellent feedback on the scheme.

The Cabinet Member noted her thanks to Amy Woodhead the Outreach and Engagement Manager for ensuring the smooth running and successful delivery of the Healthy Holidays programme and to the Catering Service and volunteers from Rotherham Heroes for preparing and delivering the meals that had been an integral part of the successful delivery of the programme.

The Outreach and Engagement Manager and the Outreach and Engagement Senior Practitioner made a presentation to the meeting that provided information on:

·       the Holiday Activities and Food Programme grant including eligibility criteria and the minimum requirements of what local authorities needed to provide.

·       how delivery partners including Rotherham Heroes, the Early Help team, the school meals service and Voluntary Action Rotherham, amongst others had played an integral part in the delivery of the Healthy Holidays programme.

·       how the programme had been delivered over the Easter and Summer holidays.

·       the types of activities that had been offered as part of the programme.

·       the positive feedback that had been received from both children and parents regarding the programme.

·       the planning activity that was taking place in preparation of the delivery of the programme during the Christmas holidays.

The Chair and members welcomed the report noting the positive feedback that they had received regarding the Healthy Holidays programme from residents. Members noted that the scheme had given children a welcome opportunity to spend time away from screen, relax and to make new friends whilst participating in a wide variety of activities.

Members noted that the Council had not been given specific targets regarding the number of children who attended the holiday clubs but asked whether the monitoring of uptake that had been carried out had shown any areas of the Borough where attendance had been lower than had been hoped. The Outreach and Engagement  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

To consider and approve the Commission’s Work Programme.

The Committee considered its Work Programme for 2021/22.

Resolved: - That the Work Programme for 2020/21 be approved.

For the Chair/project group leads to provide an update on the activity regarding sub and project groups of the 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 was no urgent business.

The next meeting of the Improving Lives Select Commission take place on Tuesday 5 October commencing at 5pm in Rotherham Town Hall.

Resolved: - That the next meeting of the Improving Lives Select Commission take place on Tuesday 5 October 2021 at 5pm at Rotherham Town Hall.