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 Linda Summers. The Chair welcomed Councillor Yusra Hussain to her first Panel meeting and placed on record thanks to Cllr Aafaq Butt for his valuable contributions to the Panel.

To approve the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 13 August 2020

The minutes of the meetings of the Panel held on the 1 October 2020 were agreed as a correct record.

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.

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.

All items were considered in public session.

The meeting will hear any questions from the general public. Due to Covid 19 restrictions, questions should be submitted in writing via executive.governance@kirklees.gov.uk no later than 2pm on 30 September

No questions were received from the public.

The Panel will consider a report setting out an overview of the reopening of schools at the end of the first week of the autumn term.

Contact: Jo-Anne Sanders – Service Director for Learning and Early Support.

The Panel received a report providing an update about the work undertaken in preparation for re-opening schools for the Autumn term, and the planning undertaken with school colleagues to enable a positive and safe return to education for children, young people and their families. It was reported that dialogue with schools about autumn term opening has taken place during the summer holiday period and builds upon the work of the Education and Learning Partnership Board, and the working groups established in May 2020 that ran weekly to the end of the school term.

During the Summer holidays, the Council has continued to meet as part of its Business Continuity planning to prepare for the return of schools, keeping in focus the Department for Education guidance as and when this has been updated. In addition, three focussed workshops have been run with council wide representation to consider the support schools, as well as families and children may need, with a further workshop planned to pick up any emerging issues as term gets underway.

It was reported that, in advance of term starting week commencing 7th September, schools were contacted by the Learning Service/HR Partners to check that plans were in place for a return for pupils, to offer support and to understand if there were any barriers to reopening. Further contact was made during the first week of term and there was a high level of confidence that all schools were fully open for pupils by Monday 14^th September (allowing for a range of usual transitioning arrangements that take place at the beginning of an academic year, including INSET days).

The weekly engagement with a representative group of Headteachers and Multi Academy Trust CEOs resumed prior to the beginning of term and feedback was largely positive about readiness for re-opening and the opportunity to welcome children back.

The report concluded that the reopening of all schools across Kirklees has been hugely positive for thousands of children and families, and overall attendance levels so far have been good. However, given the scale of the pandemic, many schools across the country will need to close ‘bubbles’ or ask certain people to self-isolate at some stage, which is already happening, including in Kirklees. The Council will continue to work in partnership with our schools as the academic year progresses.

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

·         In response to a question concerning measures to ensure isolated children are not disadvantaged Jo-Anne Sanders referred to Government funding available to schools to support pupils and acknowledge that no one size fits all model is appropriate. Schools are looking at working in partnership to share good practice and resources to deliver effective remote and blended learning programmes. A focus on how pupils are monitored is also key to the success of the delivery of remote learning.

·         With regard to the issue of catch up funding, discussions have been undertaken with schools to support pupil led interventions. It was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Panel will consider a report setting out the number and profile of children in care, including information related to the number placed outside of the District.

Contact: Julie Bragg – Head of Corporate Parenting.

The Panel received a report providing an update relating to the number and profile of children in our care, including information related to the number placed outside of the District. The report also set out comparative data with statistical neighbours

The number of children in care currently stands at 689, which equates to a rate per 10,000 population aged 0-17 of 68.8. This compares to a statistical neighbour average of 91.6 and a national average of 65.0 based on recently published data for March 2019. With regard  to breakdown by age and gender of the children in care it was reported that the largest age group for boys is 10 - 15 years with 153 children and the largest age group for girls is 10 - 15 years with 127 children.

It was reported that the number of looked after children placed outside Kirklees District and 20 plus miles from their home address was 81 on 31 August 2020. This follows a continuum of decline from 127 in 2017.  The majority of our children and young people placed out of area are placed in foster care, the remainder are placed in children’s homes, semi-independent homes, a small number in youth custody or other specialist settings.   

During discussion of this item, the Panel highlighted the issue of how to reduce the number of children placed outside Kirklees. Julie Bragg referred to local campaigns for Foster Carers and reported that more local provision had been provided as a result of the use of emergency placements. An update in respect of sufficiency for looked after children was provided.

RESOLVED-The Panel noted the report and requested that a refreshed sufficiency assessment for looked after children be submitted to a future Panel meeting.

The Panel will be updated on the Early Years and Beyond Summit that was held on 29^th January 2020 and the next steps which include proposals to develop and implement an integrated 0-19 (25) Early Support offer (Family Hubs)

Contact: Michelle Wheatcroft – Head of Service, Early Support

The Panel received a report setting out an update on the Early Years and Beyond Summit and the resulting next steps. The Summit was held on 29^th January 2020 and had around 100 attendees including internal and external stakeholders.  The aim of the event was to engage with partners to contribute to shaping the vision and development of a 0-19 (25) integrated Early Support Offer for children and families of Kirklees.

There were a number of speakers throughout the event which included a keynote presentation from Professor Brid Featherstone (Huddersfield University) titled ‘How we can work together to ensure Early Support Services are invested in and valued by Families in Kirklees’. Presentations were also heard from Andy Petrie, Local Services to you, about joining local community work to wider systems and Allison Simpson from BBEST Community Hub presented their School Readiness Project.

A draft vison for a hub to hub model was appended to the report.

It was reported that Kirklees commissioned a review of the Early Support Services in 2019. This review was undertaken by a company, Peopletoo, who have extensive experience in supporting transformation projects in children’s services.  The recommendations from the Peopletoo work, that were outlined in the report to Scrutiny in November 2019 have been actioned, these included the development of an Early Support Task and Finish Group chaired by the Kirklees Safeguarding Children’s Partnership (KSCP) which is still meeting and is supporting the developments of the service.  It also included a recommendation to increase management capacity within the Early Support Service, three Service Managers were recruited into the service, which are a lead for Youth, Family Support and the Children Centre/Community Hub Offer and were all in post by 23^rd March 2020.Early Support service are also in the process of recruiting and Outcomes, Data and Performance Manager to complete the management team supporting the Head of Service.

The report highlighted that the added capacity into the service has enabled the Early Support Service to develop with some pace including the proposal for an Integrated 0-19 (25) Early Support Offer, which we are proposing will be called Family Hubs.

                 During discussion of this item, Panel Members recognised the importance of early intervention and supported the model.

                 The Chair, Councillor Marchington, highlighted the importance of tracking the effectiveness of early interventions to prevent children becoming looked after and improve educational outcomes. An update was provided in respect of a number of specific interventions and the opportunities for increased partnership work through the hub model.

                 RESOLVED- That the report be noted.

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 the recommendations from the Elective Home Education Group would be monitored by this Panel.