Agenda and minutes

This is where Councillors who are attending as substitutes will say for whom they are attending.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Amanda Pinnock and Cllr Richard Smith.

The Councillors will be asked to say if there are any items on the Agenda in which they have disclosable pecuniary interests, which would prevent them from participating in any discussion of the items or participating in any vote upon the items, or any other interests.

No interests were declared

To approve the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 2 July 2020

The minutes of the meetings of the Panel held on the 2 July 2020 were agreed as a correct record.

Most debates take place in public. This only changes when there is a need to consider certain issues, for instance, commercially sensitive information or details concerning an individual. You will be told at this point whether there are any items on the Agenda which are to be discussed in private.

All items were considered in public session.

The Committee will receive any petitions and hear any deputations from members of the public. A deputation is where up to five people can attend the meeting and make a presentation on some particular issue of concern. A member of the public can also hand in a petition at the meeting but that petition should relate to something on which the body has powers and responsibilities.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 10 (2), Members of the Public should provide at least 24 hours’ notice of presenting a deputation.

No deputations or petitions were received.

The meeting will hear any questions from the general public. Due to Covid-19 restrictions any questions should be emailed to executive.governance@kirklees.gov.uk no later than 2pm on 12 August.

No questions were received from the public.

To provide Scrutiny Panel Members with an update on progress for Children with SEND during the Covid outbreak and the SEND Improvement Plan.

Contact Officer: Ronnie Hartley – Head of Educational Safeguarding and Inclusion.

The Panel received an update report in respect of the impact on children and families with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) of the Covid 19 public health pandemic. The report also provided an update on progress in relation to the SEND Improvement Plan.

The report set out the challenges faced with regard to increased demand for Education, Health and Care Plans and the subsequent rise in costs. This has led to significant pressure on the ‘High Needs Block’, which can only be tackled collectively across the whole SEND system. To ensure that needs, provision and spend are tightly interlinked the Council need to ensure the SEND system is joined up and easier to navigate for everyone. Kirklees is fully committed to implementing the SEND Reforms and has support from Kirklees Council Cabinet and all partners in the SEND system. It was reported that Kirklees has also invested in the right support to progress the improvement journey at pace, this has included commissioning Impower as an improvement partner to support us in clarifying our collective ambition for children and young people with SEND and appointing a range of professionals who bring a wealth of experience and skills in improving the SEND system and outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

As a result of the pandemic, changes to Section 24 of the Children and Families Act had been made by Government which resulted in the Local Authority and commissioning health bodies still being required to carry out Education Health and Care Assessments, undertake Annual Reviews and finalise plans, however if the statutory process takes longer as a direct result of Covid 19, the statutory timescales can be extended to take this into account, but this must be actioned as soon as reasonably practical.

Covid 19 Risk Assessments were required for all children with an EHCP and the report provided an analysis of the risk assessments returned to the Local Authority.

With regard to the SEND 10-point improvement plan which had been developed in October 2019 , it was reported that progress had been achieved across all areas. Details of key updates from the improvement plan were set out in the report.

Questions and comments were invited from Panel Members and the following issues were raised:

·       In response to a question concerning EHCA requests, Ronnie Hartley acknowledged that the initial lockdown period had allowed for more resource to be allocated to annual reviews. It was explained however that when comparing data over the years in respect of this issue, there is a pattern to how resource is utilised.

·       With regard to the threshold for assessment, an undertaking was given to include an analysis of the reasons not to assess as part of a future update report.

·       With regard to the issue of children with SEND attending school, it was acknowledged that parents are anxious about the risks of sending children to school. Work is ongoing on a case by case basis with parents to re-assure parents and build confidence to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To provide Children’s Scrutiny Panel with an update of the work of the Kirklees Safeguarding Children’s Partnership relating to the Child Exploitation Strategy.

Contact Officer: Sara Miles – Head of Quality Assurance and Safeguarding.

The Panel received a report providing an update in respect of the Kirklees Exploitation Safeguarding Strategy 2019 -2021, which was launched earlier this year. The strategy provides the strategic framework to develop and strengthen the response in the identification, assessment and intervention with children, and young people, through the implementation of a contextual safeguarding approach. The approach provides an understanding of, and response to, young people’s experiences of significant harm beyond their families. It extends the focus of support and intervention from the individual child and their family to their wider social context; working with young people, families, organisations, services, communities and others to increase the ability of parents, carers, communities and services to prevent and protect.

The report set out the current picture which includes the development of the Children’s Services Risk and Vulnerabilities team, which operates with partnership involvement in the Front door of Children’s Social Care has enabled a more coordinated approach and delivery of services to children vulnerable to, at risk of exploitation and their families.  It was reported that all child exploitation and children missing from home or care cases are discussed daily in the multi-agency meetings and further explored and actioned at weekly Exploitation Screening Panels. Alongside these MACE meetings (multi agency Child Exploitation Meetings are embedded) and work is ongoing to further develop partnership information sharing pathways. The multi-agency approach to safeguarding children vulnerable to, at risk of exploitation will be further strengthened through the implementation of the Youth Engagement Service (YES)

During discussion of this item, Members of the Panel supported the development of of an overarching strategy in respect of exploitation, acknowledging that the issue does not sit in isolation and overlaps into distinct areas such as Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and criminal exploitation, which require a multi agency partnership approach.

RESOLVED-

The Panel noted the report and highlighted the work of the Practice Learning Review as a means of informing the work of scrutiny in this area

Members of the panel will consider the work programme and agenda plan for the 2020/21 and will consider issues for inclusion.

Officer: Leigh Webb, Principal Governance and Democratic Engagement Officer

The Panel considered the progress on the work programme during the 2020/21 municipal year and considered issues for inclusion.

RESOLVED –

1.    That the progress on the 2019/20 work programme for the Children’s Scrutiny Panel be noted.

2.    That following the end of the Autumn term, the Panel receive a report setting out analysis of examination results; and a report on the social and emotional wellbeing of pupils as a result of missing school.