Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber

Contact: Earl Piggott-Smith  Tel: 01902 551251 or Email: earl.piggott-smith@wolverhampton.gov.uk

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Welcome and Introductions

[The Chair to welcome everyone to the meeting. The Scrutiny Officer will then read out a list of those invited to the meeting to confirm who is in attendance.]

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cllr Rita Potter, Chair, welcomed everyone to the meeting and advised it was also being live streamed to the press and public. Cllr Potter advised that she was not expecting any exempt or restricted items on the agenda. A recording of the meeting would be available for viewing on the Council’s website at a future date.

2.

Meeting procedures to be followed

[The Chair will explain how the meeting will proceed, how questions are to be asked and any matters of meeting etiquette.]

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Minutes:

Cllr Potter explained the protocol to be followed during the meeting for asking questions and reminded everyone that microphones should be muted and cameras off unless they have been invited to speak.

3.

Apologies

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no apologies recorded for the meeting.

 

4.

Declarations of interest

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest recorded.

 

5.

Minutes of the previous meeting (10 March 2021) pdf icon PDF 486 KB

[To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record]

Additional documents:

Minutes:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 10 March 2021 be approved as a correct record.

 

6.

Education Excellence Strategy (pre-decision scrutiny) pdf icon PDF 317 KB

[Brenda Wile, Deputy Director of Education, and Phil Leivers, Head of Service Educational Excellence, to present report]

 

This item is being considered as pre-decision scrutiny and will therefore not be available to call-in once a decision is made by the Executive.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair invited Cllr Mike Hardacre, Cabinet Member for Education, to introduce the report.

 

The Cabinet Member thanked the panel for the opportunity and advised that the draft strategy is presented for both scrutiny and challenge. The views of the panel were sought to ensure that the approach to the development of the strategy document was appropriate.

 

The Cabinet Member highlighted that the strategy document should be seen in the context of a background of continuing and improving educational success in Wolverhampton schools. The Cabinet Member commented on the increase in the number of the number of schools rated as being either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.

 

There is an expectation that the number of schools rated as ‘requiring improvement’ will be reduced further in the future. The Cabinet Member advised the Panel that the local authority has a duty to monitor the effectiveness of schools. The Cabinet Member commented on the positive working relationship with schools.

 

The Chair invited Phil Leivers, Head of Service Educational Excellence, to introduce the presentation.

 

The Head of Service outlined the background to the development of the strategy and how it links to the priorities detailed in the Relighting Our City Plan. The Head of Service commented on the importance of improving the opportunities for young people, both in their school environment, but also when they leave school and move on into further and higher education and employment. 

 

The current strategy replaces the previous School Improvement and Governance Strategy which has had a positive impact on educational results and standards in the City. The Educational Excellence Strategy intends to build on this success and has been extended to cover Early Years settings.

The Head of Service advised the panel that the service has consulted with school representatives to get their views on what elements of the current strategy should be kept and areas where changes are needed. The work was informed by several task and finish groups that included representation from the leaders in the early years, settings, and school heads. The approach to involve schools at the early stages of developing the strategy was welcomed in the reported feedback on the process.

 

The strategy will be presented to Cabinet for final approval before it is launched formally in September 2021. The Head of Service outlined the support that would be offered to schools based on their category and the criteria that would be used to determine this. All schools would get a minimum of one day of support from a School Improvement Adviser.

 

 

 

The Head of Service outlined further changes when compared to the previous strategy, for example a specific reference to offering induction to newly appointed Headteachers. The findings will be reported to the Regional Schools Commissioner and Ofsted for those schools whose educational performance is of significant concern. In such circumstances the Council might contact a high performing school to offer some support to a lower performing school.

 

The service is developing a performance dashboard to monitor maintained schools jointly with colleagues. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Principal Social Worker Annual Report 2020 - 2021 pdf icon PDF 551 KB

[Jenny Rogers, Principal Social Worker, to present report]

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Jenny Rogers, Principal Social Worker for Children and Adults introduced the introduced the annual report.

 

The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that the report sets out progress against the key priorities during 2020-2021, the response of social workers to Covid 19 and specifically the work done to support the safety and wellbeing of social workers across adults and children's teams. The presentation however would focus on the work done by children social services.

 

The panel were advised that a key responsibility of the Principal Social Worker is to ensure quality of practice and support continual learning and improvement, which has been important area of work during the response to the pandemic.

 

The panel were reassured that during this period children and families continue to be supported to a high standard by social work teams. In addition, quality assurance checks and practice weeks continued using Teams to make sure that the service continued to meet the statutory duties and improve social work practice.

 

The Principal Social Worker reported an increase in the number of case files rated as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ compared to the previous year – 70 per cent of case files were rated ‘good’ or ‘higher’ compared to 57 per cent in 2019 – 2020. In addition, there has been a reduction in the number of case audits rated as requiring improvement or inadequate which is evidence of good progress.

 

The Principal Social Worker commented that another priority of the role is the recruitment and retention of social workers and detailed a number of specific initiatives such as fasttrack social work programmes and social work apprenticeships, as examples aimed at maintaining a future supply of social workers to help the service meet future demand.

 

The Principal Social Worker commented on the national shortage of social workers and highlighted the importance of investing in such programmes. The importance of retaining existing social workers was highlighted. The Principal Social Worker commented on the progression pathway for both adults and children's social workers which was launched last year. The aim of the initiative is to support the learning and development of social workers to encourage them to stay with the Council. The feedback from social workers has been positive.

 

The service has worked with the Council’s Organisational Development team to develop good training opportunities for social workers which has been shown to be successful in the move from offering an in-person support to offering support online.

 

 

The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that the service as continued to hold Social Work briefings. A virtual social work conference was held earlier in the year on the theme of safeguarding, which had presentations from people with a lived experience of the service in the past.  The conference has helped to improve social practice and the feedback from social workers to the event has been positive.

 

The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that all Wolverhampton social workers successfully re-registered in November 2020 with Social Work England, who is the regulator for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Children and Young People's Social Work Self-Evaluation 2021- 2022 pdf icon PDF 6 MB

[Alison Hinds, Deputy Director, Children’s Social Care, to present report]

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair invited Alison Hinds, Deputy Director of Children’s Social Care, to present the report to the panel.

 

The Deputy Director briefed the panel on the headlines detailed in the executive summary of the presentation.

 

The Deputy Director advised the panel there is a requirement for the local authority to complete an annual self-evaluation of its children and young people’s services. The process also gives the service the opportunity to review work done during the previous year and identify what has worked well and what could have been done better.

 

The Deputy Director highlighted the flexibility and adaptability of social workers in managing the restrictions of the pandemic while continue working with and supporting children and families. The Deputy Director praised the efforts of social workers who continued to safeguard the children of the city and maintain strong relationships with families and adapted to the need to work differently. The Deputy Director also praised the role and contributions of partner organisations across the City to protect and work with vulnerable children, supported by a strong and stable workforce.

 

The Deputy Director advised the panel that the service did see an increased demand for support at certain points during the year when schools returned, which was expected. The increase in demand is in line with regional and national trends.

 

The panel were reassured that the service continues to work with families at the earliest opportunity and where it is necessary will use its powers to intervene at the right level and only when required for the appropriate right length of time.

 

The Deputy Director commented on the increased placement stability for children in care throughout the last year, which is supported by a strong cohort of foster carers which has helped to keep children stable during the Covid 19 pandemic. The carers worked hard to support home learning and family time arrangements so children could stay to their family remotely during this period.

 

The Deputy Director commented on the improvements made to the services offered to families, for example the local House Project for care levers which helps young people in care to move into independent living with a range of specialist support. The aim is help young people to successfully take on and maintain their own tenancy at 18. The service has successfully managed to move 10 young people into their own tenancies.

 

The Deputy Director commented on a new project funded by DFE which involves social work teams based in schools. The project involved asking schools to volunteer to take part. At present 12 schools are part of the programme. There are six schools and social workers in, and some feeder schools taking part and six control schools.

The early stages of the project have been positive and has helped build relationships with school colleagues that will help to make sure children and families get the right level of support.

 

The Deputy Director advised that panel that a new multi-agency missing, and exploitation hub service was also set up  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.

Children, Young People and Families Scrutiny Panel 2021- 2022- Draft Work Programme pdf icon PDF 547 KB

[Earl Piggott-Smith, Scrutiny Officer, to present report]

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The panel invited Earl Piggott-Smith, Scrutiny Officer, to present the report to the panel.

 

The Scrutiny Officer briefed the panel on the criteria for selecting possible topics for the work programme and reports scheduled for future meetings. The Scrutiny Officer advised the panel that there were other opportunities for the panel to cover issues of interest, for example, informal meetings with lead officers and site visits. The Scrutiny Officer advised the panel that an extra meeting date has been added to the work programme with the agreement of the Chair and Vice Chair.

 

The Cabinet Member for Children advised the panel about the summer festival programme and that a report on the Yo programme is scheduled to be presented to the panel in October 2021. The programme will be offering over 350 activities and about 50,000 children and young people are expected to take part. There are further details of events on the website.

The Cabinet Member invited panel members to promote the activities in their wards and to encourage children and young people to get involved.

 

The Scrutiny Officer invited panel members to suggest topics for the work programme

 

Cllr Wendy Dalton discussed the local SEND offer. The panel agreed to invite representatives of the Voice for Parents to present evidence when the topic is discussed at the meeting on 19 October 2021.

 

The panel thanked the Scrutiny Officer for the report.

 

Resolved:

 

1.    The panel agreed the proposed changes to the draft work programme report.

2.    The panel agreed to add an extra meeting on 16 March 2022 to the work programme.