Agenda and minutes

To consider and approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on 5 March 2024 as a true and correct record of the proceedings and to be signed by the Chair.

Resolved: - That the Minutes of the meeting of the Improving Lives Select Commission, held on 5 March 2024, 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 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 of business on the agenda that required the exclusion of the press and public from the meeting.

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 all the items regarding communication were covered on the agenda.

To receive a high-level presentation on Children’s and Young People’s Services (CYPS) performance.

This agenda item provided a presentation on introduction to Childrens and Young People’s Services (CYPS) Performance. The Chair welcomed to the meeting Anne Hawke, Head of Service for Performance and Quality and invited Anne to lead on the presentation, during which the following was noted:

What is Performance Management:

·       The Local Government Association definition for performance management was “for councils, performance management was about using data to inform action that would improve outcomes for people. The umbrella term ‘performance management’ included a range of processes, techniques, and methods to identify shared goals and various measurements of progress towards these. It was also closely related to the concept of governance and making sure arrangements were in place so that an authority’s objectives can be achieved.”

CYPS Performance Management and Reporting:

·       There was extremely robust performance and data reporting across CYPS.

·       There was strong Governance, which included the following:

o   Performance Scorecards

o   Directorate Leadership Team

o   Monthly Performance Board

o   Quarterly Assurance Board

o   Corporate Parenting Partnership Board

o   Place Board

o   All performance and data were linked to the Council Plan and Year Ahead Delivery Plan

o   Improving Lives Select Commission.

·       The service used data to recognise the need to focus on key areas of performance.

·       Performance management was a collaborative process across the whole directorate.

·       There was frequent benchmarking.

·       There was a focus on activity and demand.

Quarterly Members Scorecards included the following:

·       The measures included in the scorecard were agreed and developed with elected members the year before via a workshop setting.

·       The Scorecard included Key Performance Indicators.

·       Social Care and Early Help Performance.

·       Education Performance, which was timely throughout the year due to the timeframes of the academic year and assessments.

·       Linked Council Plan measures.

·       Timeline and whether the measures were a monthly, quarterly, or annual report.

·       Data notes.

·       Three months performance was provided at once.

·       Year to date and annual trend information was included.

Good performance on the scorecard included the following:

·       Direction of Travel (DOT) had a coloured arrow.

·       Red, Amber, Green (RAG) rating was included.

·       Targets and tolerances.

·       Year on year performance and trend was included.

·       Latest available benchmarking information was included.

·       There was also a glossary to assist interpretation of the scorecard.

Example One and Things to Note:

·       An example scorecard was provided on the presentation slide and the officer discussed how to interpret the data on the scorecard example.

·       In relation to this example, the following was advised:

o   Good performance for this indicator would be high.

o   The DOT indicated that when compared with the previous year performance had decreased.

o   This example indicated that current performance was in-line with the amber tolerance target (84%+)

o   Note the previous performance and peaks and troughs in the year-to-date trend lines.

o   Note that performance was consistently high and in-line with benchmarking for both statistical neighbours and national averages.

Example Two and Things to Note:

·       Another example scorecard was provided on the presentation slide and the officer discussed how to interpret the data  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To receive a high-level presentation on the Early Help Strategy.

This agenda item provided a presentation on the introduction to the Early Help Strategy. The Chair welcomed to the meeting Kelly White, Interim Assistant Director for Early Help and Business Support who was also the LINK Officer for the Commission, and Kirsty Woodhead, Locality Manager. The Chair invited Kelly to lead on the presentation, during which the following was noted:

The Background:

·       The Early Help Strategy 2024-2029 was recently approved at Cabinet.

·       There was a government review called Stable Homes Built on Love which completed in 2023, this was a long-standing piece of work with lots of engagement with individuals who had lived experience in early help. This review defined a significant change to children’s social care and set out key ambitions, known as the six pillars of reform. One of the pillars focused on including the need to provide family help, to help ensure all children and families could get the right help at the right time and in an easy way.

·       Working Together to Safeguard Children was statutory guidance, which was refreshed in 2023, which alongside the Childrens Act. The guidance stated what organisations and agencies should do to help, protect, and promote the welfare of all children and young people. Ensuring a child-centred approach, while bringing a whole-family focus, to embed a strong, effective, and consistent multi-agency child protection practice.

·       The Early Help System Guide outlined a national vision and descriptors that were shared by the Department of Education and the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities. It also provided a toolkit to assist local strategic partnerships. 

·       The National Supporting Families Framework 2012 focused on sustaining improved outcomes for families, facing complex challenges and problems. The programme promoted a whole family approach. 

The Vision and Key Principles:

·       The Early Help Team worked with key partners to develop the key principles, ensuring children and families were kept at the centre of the principles. All agencies worked together to ensure that children, young people, and families could have their needs identified early and could receive swift access to targeted help and support.  

·       The Key Principles developed were as follows:

?   Children, young people and families were at the heart of everything in the service.

?   Early Help was a shared responsibility and was everyone’s business.

?   Children, young people and families would receive the right support, at the right time, in the right place, from the right person.

?   There service was committed to promoting fairness, respect, equality, dignity and supporting autonomy.

?   The service would have purposeful conversations and provide support to improve outcomes.

?   The service would work restoratively with children, young people and families. 

?   Prevention and early help support was better than late intervention. 

?   Public, voluntary and community sector organisations combined to create the early help system and worked together to meet the needs of children and their families.  

?   Expectations of family help to ensure early help would provide the right support at the right time, so that children could thrive with their families.

Early Help:

·       Early help was working together  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To receive a high-level presentation to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), including SEND Sufficiency.

This agenda item provided a presentation on the introduction to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and SEND Sufficiency. The Chair welcomed to the meeting Cary- Anne Sykes, Head of Service for SEND and Mark Cummins, SEND Transformation Project Lead. The Chair invited Cary- Anne and Mark to lead on the presentation, during which the following was noted:

What is the SEND Strategy:

·       The key line of the proposed Strategy was “My Life, My Rights”. This was captured via feedback from the young people during the strategy consultation period.

·       This proposed strategy covered the period of 2024-2028 and set the vision for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in Rotherham. It would drive forward the improvements already started across the local area and help services in education, health, and social care to work together to ensure children and young people in Rotherham would achieve the best outcomes.

·       The proposed strategy had been written in a way to engage young people, as this was requested in the consultation feedback for the Strategy. The SEND Strategy had been approved for consultation.

·       The service listened to children, young people and their families, to find out what needed to change. This highlighted that some parts of the system in Rotherham were working well and the experience of families was good. However, this was not the same for all children, young people and families, there was several areas that required improvement.

·       The proposed strategy was co-produced with partners such as the children’s disabled council, young people and families and would go to wider consultation.

·       Ambition, inclusion and equity was identified as key principles by the consultation.

The Four Cornerstones:

·       The service would continue to imbed the Four Cornerstones and recognised that when the cornerstone values were integrated into practice, then trust would be developed and progress in achieving outcomes for children and young people would be made. The service recognised that without trust, systems, partnerships, organisations and families could not work together effectively and meaningful partnership work could not be achieved.

The Commitment to Young People with SEND:

·       The following three commitments were identified as priority areas of development and monitoring via consultation with young people.

?   The number of permanent exclusions and part time timetables for children and young people with special educational needs.

?   The number of disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs missing school, due to health concerns, including mental health.

?   Having a clear process for engagement with children and young people.

Next Steps:

·       In August the service would begin a borough wide consultation on the Strategy to ensure all communities would be reached.

What is SEND Sufficiency:

·       In Rotherham 20.4% of pupils had either a statutory plan for SEND, known as an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP), or were receiving SEND support (which was previously known as school action and school action plus).

·       This compared to an average of 17.1% across all England Authorities. To ensure the educational needs of children and young  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To seek a representative from the Improving Lives Select Commission (ILSC) to sit as a member on the Health, Welfare and Safety Panel.

Meeting dates for 2024-2025:

·       Thursday 11 July 2024

·       Thursday 17 October 2024

·       Thursday 30 January 2025

·       Thursday 24 April 2025

The Commission was asked to nominate one representative to sit as a member of the Health, Welfare and Safety Panel for 2024/2025.

Resolved:- That Improving Lives Select Commission appointed Councillor Brent as it’s representative on the Health, Welfare and Safety Panel for 2024/2025.

To consider and approve the Commission’s Work Programme for the next meeting in July.

The Committee considered its work programme, and the following was noted:

·       The work programme for July’s meeting was included in the agenda pack for members to consider.

·       There would be an additional meeting for all scrutiny Commissions, to discuss and agree work programmes for 2024/2025.

Resolved: - That the work programme for the next meeting in July 2024 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 30^th July 2024 commencing at 10:00 am in Rotherham Town Hall.

Resolved:- That the next meeting of the Improving Lives Select Commission take place on 30 July 2024 commencing at 10am in Rotherham Town Hall.