Agenda and minutes

[The Chair to welcome everyone to the meeting.]

Cllr Qaiser Azeem, Chair, invited those in attendance to observe a minute’s silence to remember Cllr Ian Brookfield, Leader of the Council.

The Chair, welcomed everyone to the meeting and advised it was also being live streamed on the Council’s website to the press and public.

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

The Chair explained the procedures to be followed for the meeting.

Apologies were received from the following members of the panel:

Cllr Christopher Haynes

Cllr Chris Haynes - Cllr Wendy Dalton substitute

Cllr Dr Michael Hardacre

Cllr Jennifer Cockayne

Cllr Jane Francis

Apologies were also received from the following:

Alison Hinds, Deputy Director Social Care

Brenda Wile, Deputy Director of Education

There were no declarations of interest recorded.

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

That the minutes of the meeting held on 15 March 2023 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

[Laura Collings, Head of Policy & Strategy, to present report]

[This item is being considered as pre-decision scrutiny and will therefore not be available for Call-in once a decision has been made by the Executive].

The Chair invited Cllr Louise Miles, Cabinet Member for Jobs and Skills, to make some introductory comments about the Education, Skills and Employment Strategy 2030 report.

The Cabinet Member advised the panel that the report was being presented for pre-decision scrutiny before approval by Cabinet.

The Cabinet Member highlighted the main aspects of the presentation,

·         the range of existing schemes and programmes,

·         the successes achieved to date,

·         the number of collaborative partnerships that the Council is involved in across Wolverhampton,

·         an assessment of the different challenges facing the Council in trying to get as many people as possible, particularly young people into work.

The Cabinet Member added that the future strategy will be focused on looking at a more coordinated approach to improving skills, with a particular emphasis on targeting disadvantaged groups and promoting lifelong learning throughout the City.

The Chair invited Laura Collings, Head of Policy and Strategy, to give the presentation.

The Head of Policy and Strategy commented on the links between the draft strategy and the broader objectives as detailed in the Our City: Our Plan and that the aim is to deliver more local people into good jobs and training.

The Head of Policy and Strategy commented on the good progress being made across the City in terms of improving education achievements - 89% of schools in the City are rated as either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, increasing employment opportunities in health and social care and investment in first class learning facilities such as the development of the City Learning Quarter.

The Head of Policy and Strategy highlighted the challenges some residents face when trying to access learning and work opportunities, for example, one in 10 local people do not have any formal qualifications. The Head of Policy and Strategy advised that this situation has created two key challenges, the social impact on the on individuals and families which may prevent them getting into higher paid work and the wider economic challenge to the City in creating good quality jobs. The strategy is aimed at working with local partners collectively to improve skill and employment outcomes for local people in this situation which will help them access higher skills job opportunities.

The issue led to the development of the education, skills strategy draft for 2030 and the aim is to create a generational shift, led by the Council with the support of partners with a focus on holistic whole life approach.

The Head of Policy and Strategy advised the panel that the strategy will focus on achieving the following five overarching priorities:

·         children have the best start in life,

·         high quality education which prepared young people for work,

·         post 16 provision which meets the needs of city employers,

·         lifelong learning and employment pathways to good quality work 

·         new employer support.

The Head of Policy and Strategy added that the priorities are supported by three cross cutting principles.

The Head of Policy and Strategy commented that the City is working closely with representatives from regional,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

[Alison Hinds, Deputy Director Social Care, to present report -

The panel are asked to consider the following recommendations:

a)    to receive and comment on the Wolverhampton Children and Young People’s Self-Evaluation 2023-2024 report

b)    to note the achievements for 2022/2023 and priorities for 2023/2024

The Chair invited Emma Bennett, Executive Director of Families, to present the report on behalf of Alison Hinds, Deputy Director Social Care.

The Executive Director of Families gave apologies on behalf of the Deputy Director who was not able to attend the meeting.

The Executive Director of Families advised the panel that the Wolverhampton Children and Young People’s Self-Evaluation 2023 – 2024 report is presented annually to the panel for discussion and comment. The publication of the report is a requirement of Ofsted under the inspection of local authority for children's services framework.

The Executive Director of Families advised the panel that the document is refreshed at the end of the financial year and new draft is published in June 2023 and then shared with Ofsted as part the annual conversation. In addition, there are regular meetings with Ofsted throughout the year to review progress. The report is used to provide the opportunity to reflect on practice, celebrate areas of success and identify areas for improvement.

The Executive Director of Families gave a brief commentary on key findings from the presentation.

The Executive Director of Families commented on key achievements for 2022 - 2023 against the strategic Council priority - Strong families where children can grow up well and achieve their full potential.

The Executive Director of Families commented on the priorities for 2023 - 2024 and advised the panel that the aim was to continue embedding restorative approach into social work practice, to continue the journey of aiming for excellence in social work practice using the quality assurance framework.

The panel were invited to comment on the report and the presentation.

A panel member thanked the presenter for period and queried the support for children who are asylum seekers and details of the numbers of cases. The Executive Director of Families advised the panel that the end of March 2023 there were 33 young people in care who were unaccompanied asylum seekers. The previous year the figure was 25 young people.

The Executive Director of Families commented on quality of work done by the Council to support unaccompanied asylum seekers. The Executive Director of Families outlined the processes followed under the National Transfer Scheme Protocol for Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children for managing referrals.

The Council has a good relationship with colleagues at the Refugee and Migrant Centre who support the offer to unaccompanied asylum seekers. There is also monthly health and wellbeing panels specifically for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children  and their needs.

A panel member queried the impact on the service of the reported increase in the number of referrals to the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), compared to statistical neighbours at the end March 2023.

The Executive Director of Families commented that referral rates to the MASH have been consistent and there were no specific concerns about the current trend which is much lower when compared to historical figures. The overall view is that case referrals numbers to the MASH are appropriate.

A panel member queried the criteria for not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

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

The Chair invited Jennifer Rogers, Principal Social Worker, to present the annual report.

The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that the role covers both children and adults’ social workers which aligns with the think family approach. The main remit of the role is the around the recruitment retention social workers, learning and development of social workers quality assurance. The role also links to the priorities in the Our City Our Plan.

The Principal Social Worker advised the panel that the presentation would focus on the work done in children services in 2022 – 2023 to improve the quality of social work practice.

The Principal Social Worker gave highlights of the work done in the areas listed below over the last 12 months:

·         Quality of Practice – Children’s Services

·         Workforce

·         Professional Standards and Practice Development

·         Raising the profile of social work and connecting with practice

·         Challenging inequality

The Principal Social Worker commented on the key work priorities for 2023 – 2024 highlighting continued work to improve the recruitment and retention of social workers and responding to the challenges detailed in the report. There will be further work to develop quality assurance with a focus on feedback from social workers and triangulating this with information from practice and inspection reports.

The Principal Social Worker commented on the need to build on the good Ofsted inspection report in March 2023 and to continue improving practice and to prepare for the next inspection.

The Principal Social Worker will be co-ordinating the response to the Government consultation on the national independent review of children's social care published in February 2023, focusing on exploring trauma informed approaches to help support the wellbeing of social workers and people with secondary trauma better in supervision sessions.

The panel were invited to comment on the report.

The panel welcomed the plans for increasing the number of social work placements and more training for social workers.

A panel member welcomed the plan to encourage people to consider a career in social worker and to retain existing social workers. The panel discussed the idea of members attending the social work conference event and queried if this would be possible.  The Principal Social Worker commented on the plans for the annual joint adults and children’s social work conference in November 2023 and agreed that panel members would find the keynote speakers and workshops sessions very helpful.

The Chair suggested that any panel members interested in attending the conference should speak to the scrutiny officer.

A panel member thanked the Principal Social Worker for honesty in talking about the challenges that social workers experience in the report.

A panel member queried the reference in the report to the policy of reimbursing social workers locally for the costs of renewing their annual professional registration with Social Work England and if the offer is open to current social workers and the impact on retention rates. A panel member also queried if there were any conditions attached to the social workers getting this help, for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

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

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

The Scrutiny Officer outlined the draft agenda for future meetings of the panel.

The draft work programme would be updated to take account of the recommendations arising from the reports presented to the panel.

The panel were invited to comment on the draft work programme and to suggest further topics they would like further information on. The Scrutiny Officer advised the panel that Wolverhampton Youth Council have been asked to submit topics to panel work programme.

A panel member was concerned about the number of the agenda items for the next meeting of the panel in October 2023. The panel discussed with the Executive Director of Families the timing and content of agenda items. The panel suggested the issue should be discussed further at the agenda planning meeting. The panel supported the idea of adding a further date to the panel work programme if needed to help ensure there is time to give the topics due consideration.

The panel thanked the presenter for the report.

Resolved:

1.    The panel agreed to note report.

2.    The Scrutiny Officer to note the comments of the panel about the panel work programme.

The panel wanted to formally record their thanks and appreciation to the Executive Director of Families on all the work done and leadership of the service during her tenure, with such integrity and honesty. The panel congratulated the Executive Director of her successful appointment as Chief Executive of Walsall Council in July 2023.