Agenda and minutes

To consider and approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on 17 June 2025, 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 17 June 2025, 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.

This item will include the performance outturn for the reporting year April 2024 to March 2025 for Children and Young People’s Services. It will also include areas of performance that are working well, alongside other areas where a continued focus is required.

This item included the performance outturn for the reporting year of April 2024 to March 2025, for Children and Young People’s Services. Including areas of performance that were working well, alongside other areas where a continued focus was required.

The Chair welcomed to the meeting Councillor Cusworth, Cabinet Member for Children’s and Young People’s Services, Helen Sweaton, Joint Assistant Director for Commissioning and Performance, Cathryn Woodward, Performance and Business Intelligence Manager, Monica Green, Assistant Director for Children’s and Young People’s Services and Stuart Williams, Head of Children’s Provider Services.

The Chair invited the Cabinet Member for CYPS to introduce the report, during which the following was noted:

• The report included a narrative report and associated data scorecard, which contained performance information across children's social care, family health, education and inclusion. The report described how all services were performing against local and national targets.
• There were some positives and improvements during the timeframe that the report included.

The Chair invited the Joint Assistant Director for Commissioning and Performance and the Performance and Business Intelligence Manager to give the presentation, during which the following was noted:

Overview-

·      Performance was considered against local targets, including associated red, amber and green rated tolerances.

·      The scorecard was reviewed annually, and the targets and measures were reset on an annual basis, based on available national and statistical neighbour benchmarking data, as well as the local authority’s performance levels.

·      The performance measures for statistical neighbours related to a group of ten local authorities which were all similar, to ensure that a comparison could be like for like.

·      There was robust governance and accountability in place. This included a monthly Performance Board, which identified any areas requiring further focus, as a result, the service would then deep dive into the relevant data for the identified areas of focus, report back to the Board on their findings and put actions in place to improve performance levels where required. There was quarterly Assurance Boards, which looked at the quality of the data and audits. Service Level Performance Clinics were in place with managers and Practise Learning Days were also held. Alongside the annual Performance Report, members of the Commission also received a quarterly performance scorecard via email. All of the above linked to the Council Plan and the Year Ahead Delivery Plan.

Scorecard Overview-

·      Benchmarking indicators were used on the scorecard, to provide the ability to compare with other local authorities, there was also activity indicators and local indicators.

·      The scorecards could offer a monthly breakdown of the data, as well the quarterly break down and an annual breakdown, to provide a high-level overview of performance over different periods of time. The scorecard attached provided the annual data breakdown for 2024-2025.

Family Help, What Was Working Well-

·      Family Help was the new terminology for Early Help.

·      36.1% of contacts coming through the front door were identified as Family Help, compared to 33.8% in 2023/2024.

·      There was an increase in families engaged from 637 to 817, with timeliness of engagement maintained  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

The Department for Education recommends that every Local Authority has ‘A written policy statement on elective home education, which is clear, transparent and easily accessible by using different formats as necessary, is consistent with the current legal framework and preferably drawn up in consultation with local families who educate children at home so that it can reflect both the challenges and rewards of educating children in this way’.

Rotherham’s Elective Home Education Policy was last agreed in 2021, and a review has been initiated to ensure that it would be easy to navigate and understand, and would accurately reflect the current way in which the Elective Home Education Team works with home educators in the borough. Home educators and partners were key to this process with a period of public consultation taking place following informal stakeholder events.

This revised Draft Rotherham Elective Home Education Policy will be presented to the Commission for pre-decision scrutiny, prior to the presentation to Cabinet for consideration and approval.

This item included an update on the draft Rotherham Elective Home Education Policy, which was presented to the Commission for pre-decision scrutiny, ahead of it being presented to Cabinet for consideration.

The Chair invited to the meeting Sarah Whitby, Head of Access to Education and Rebecca Braithwaite, Senior Officer in Access to Education.

The Chair invited the Cabinet Member for CYPS to introduce the report, during which the following was noted:

·      The Elective Home Education (EHE) Policy was last updated in 2021.

·      Although there were some changes proposed nationally via the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, the service felt that the policy review should still go ahead, as only minor changes were expected if the bill was approved at a later date.

·      The review of the EHE Policy provided the service with a good opportunity to engage positively with home educators across the borough, and to update and refresh the policy in advance of any potential national change. The service aimed to ensure the new policy would be easily understandable and would dispel myths relating to the proposed bill.

·      The consultation on the EHE Policy had provided positive feedback and the proposed draft policy was being presented to scrutiny for pre-decision work, in advance of it being presented to Cabinet for a decision.

·      In relation to key changes, information within the policy had been simplified, the responsibility of all partners involved in the process, and an explanation of those responsibilities had been set out clearly in the policy. The action the service would take if they believed that a child wasn’t receiving a suitable education was also set out clearly in the policy. Information on flexi-schooling had been added into the policy, this was a legal arrangement where a child would be registered at a school and would attend part time, with the rest of their education provided at home.

The Chair invited the Head of Access to Education to give the presentation, during which the following was noted:

• The agenda pack included a written report, the full consultation response summary, a copy of the proposed policy being presented at the meeting and a copy of the presentation.

The need for a policy-

·      The EHE Departmental Guidance was issued in 2019, this was non-statutory guidance for local authorities.

·      The Department for Education recommended that every Local Authority had ‘a written policy statement on elective home education, which is clear, transparent and easily accessible by using different formats as necessary, is consistent with the current legal framework and preferably drawn up in consultation with local families who educate children at home so that it can reflect both the challenges and rewards of educating children in this way’.

Rotherham’s Policy-

·      The policy was last updated in 2021 and was found to be unnecessarily wordy and was often difficult for parents to navigate.

·      Although the new Children and School’s Wellbeing Bill proposed some changes for Elective Home Education Policies, it was felt that the policy review presented a good opportunity to collaborate with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

To consider and approve the Commission’s Work Programme.

The Committee considered its Work Programme, and the following was noted:

·       The Work Programme was attached for members consideration.

·       Following the work programming meeting with the Commission, all agreed items were added to the attached work programme. There were some items left to schedule, due to awaiting date confirmation from the service.

·       The Chair reminded members to provide any suggestions for potential topics via email to the Chair and Governance Advisor.

Resolved: - That the Work Programme for 2025/2026 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 which included the following:

·       A training session had been arranged with the Family Works Charity. The session would be bespoke and would be held on the 4^th August at the Town Hall. The session would be in person only due to the nature of the training. An invite had been issued to all members and members were asked to respond.

·       The Chair encouraged members to attend the training session, which had been specifically designed to assist with the potential up-coming review relating to trauma and children missing education. Therefore, it was important that any members who would like to be part of the review, attend the session.

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.