Archived decisions

132. DECLARATION OF INTEREST

Members were mindful that, where they believed they

had a personal or personal prejudicial interest in any

matter to be considered at the meeting, they should

normally at the time of the debate declare their interest,

and having regard to the circumstances described in

paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the County Council's

Code of Conduct, consider whether to leave the

meeting whilst the matter was discussed save for

exercising any right to speak in accordance with

Paragraph 12 of the Code.

The following Members declared a personal interest in Item 6 - Hampshire Young Carers Strategy:

Mrs. Sally Dace - Connections with Young Carers Project

Councillor P.R. Edgar - Life Member of the National Association of Headteachers.

Councillor D. Kirk - Wife a Trustee of Andover Young Carers

Councillor Mrs. P.A. West - Connections with Andover Young Carers

133. MINUTES

The Minutes of the Committee held on 21 January 2009 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

134. CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

a. Hampshire Primary Headteachers Conference

The Chairman reported that she had attended the Hampshire Primary Headteachers Conference on 11 March 2009,

b. Emma Gordon

The Chairman reported that this would be Emma Gordon's last meeting of the Committee as she was leaving to take up a scrutiny post in Parliament. Members thanked Emma for all of her hard work and wished her every success in the future.

c. Last Meeting

This being the last meeting of the Committee before the County Council Elections in June 2009 the Chairman thanked all members for the support that they had given her. Members thanked the Chairman for her excellent and fair Chairmanship.

d. SACRE

At the invitation of the Chairman Councillor Mrs. A.M. McNair Scott, Chairman of SACRE, advised Members of the position SACRE had taken on the issue of creationism and Darwin's theory as there had been tension between religious and scientific views. It had been agreed that children would be advised about the different opinions, this did not constitute a change in the syllabus. .

135. DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED YOUTH SERVICE

The Director of Children's Services presented an oral report giving an update on the development of integrated youth services. The Chairman reminded Members that this was an update following the briefing note sent to them in December 2008. Most vacancies had now been filled and staff appointed were now in the process of being trained. There was an infrastructure in place to support young people. He explained the links with Connexions and the types of work being carried out. Questions were asked about provision for the under 13s. He advised Members that there was no statutory requirement to provide services for the under 13s but that some services were provided with outside funding. Dedicated resources would be required if services for the under 13s were to be introduced.

136. NOT IN EDUCATION , EMPLOYMENT OR TRAINING

(NEET)

The Director of Children's Services presented an oral report on the current position with NEETs. NEET data was very complex and made up from a range of formula. The January figures for 2008/09 showed an increase of 1.2%, the general economic climate and management information system having an effect. NEET was not a static group and putting more resources to prevent young people becoming NEET would have an impact in the long term direction of travel.

137. HAMPSHIRE YOUNG CARERS STRATEGY

The Director of Children's Services presented a report that was to be presented to the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services seeking approval of the Hampshire Young Carer's Strategy and related Action Plan (Item 6 in the Minute Book). The strategy described the direction that was required in order to sustain and further develop services available to this group of children and young people living in Hampshire as well as identifying partner agencies required to support the agenda. It had been developed in consultation with a wide range of people including those who work in both the statutory and third sector, young carers themselves and their parents. Members were disappointed that only 5 schools had replied to the consultation on the strategy. When answering questions the Director said that there was now a dedicated lead for excluded pupils who were young carers and that finances put into young carers was a tight resource. Members commented that young carers often did not want to share their problems, they also said that young people may sacrifice their education after 16 and raising the school leaving age may cause more difficulties. It was important to enable young people to access information.

RESOLVED:

That it be a RECOMMENDATION to the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services that the Hampshire Young Carers Strategy be approved subject to the removal of the word final in the recommendation.

138. RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION OF HIGH

QUALITY TEACHERS AND HEADTEACHERS

Councillor K. Evans, Chairman of the Recruitment and Retention of High Quality Teachers and Headteachers Scrutiny Review Panel, presented the Panel's report (Item 7 in the Minute Book) which contained 36 recommendations.

Within Hampshire, Members were aware of much anecdotal evidence relating to schools' difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers, but were particularly concerned by data showing the retirement ages of Hampshire's current cohort of headteachers which suggested that a shortage of school leaders could occur from 2009 onwards. In Hampshire, approximately 40% of headteachers were due to retire by 2012, meaning that a large number of heads would need to be recruited in the next five years. Certain parts of the County - notably Basingstoke and Deane - were due to be hit particularly hard by teacher and headteacher vacancies. Certain subjects - particularly Maths, English and Science - also demonstrated recruitment issues.

With a focus on primary, secondary and special education, Members set out to establish a picture of Hampshire's success in recruiting and retaining high quality teachers and headteachers compared with the national and regional pictures. The Panel then focused on the following key questions to conduct their research into the reasons behind difficulties in recruiting and retaining teachers in Hampshire:

· What were the reasons for the varying success in recruiting and retaining teachers in different parts of the County?

· Were any social groups (i.e. age, gender, ethnicity) over or under-represented in the Hampshire teacher/headteacher workforce?

· Were certain school subjects more difficult to recruit and retain teachers for in Hampshire?

· Did existing and potential Hampshire teachers/headteachers view teaching as an attractive career in the long-term? What were the reasons for their views?

· Were there any specific issues relating to the recruitment and retention of teachers and headteachers for special schools in Hampshire

· How was quality measured and assured in Hampshire's teaching workforce?

It was agreed by everyone that the report was positive and an excellent example of scrutiny with all issues thoroughly explored.

That:

a. The recommendations of the Scrutiny Panel be

agreed and presented to the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services for consideration of the recommendations.

b. The monitoring of outcomes of the review be

included in the Committee's work programme.

139. SCHOOL EXCLUSIONS REVIEW

The Director of Children's Services presented an oral report on the progress being made with the School Exclusions Review. He said that there were two issues outstanding:

· The relationship between the Inclusion Service, Behaviour Support Teams and Pupil Referral Units - a report on this topic was to be made available soon.

.

· Deciding on how to find the right balance in investing in prevention and management of exclusion.

He said that until this work had been completed it would not be practical to produce a final report. Some Members were concerned that the final report would not be available before the County Council elections and would, therefore, not be available to those not seeking re-election. The Chief Executive confirmed that all members of the review panel would receive a copy of the final report whether or not they were seeking re-election.

RESOLVED:

That the final report of the School Exclusion Review be presented to the next meeting of the Committee.

140. AIMING HIGH FOR DISABLED CHILDREN

The Director of Children's Services presented a report updating Members on the progress made in addressing the issues raised in the workshop held on 10 March 2008 (Item 9 in the Minute Book). The workshop had been timely in supporting the launch of the County Council's consultation process to explore the best way to approach the service development programme set out in the Government guidance on Aiming High for Disabled Children. A number of consultation events had been held through 2008 and the key messages were very similar to the views expressed by the workshop. As a result of the consultation a commissioning strategy had been adopted as follows:

· Support to parents and carers by providing information and participation networks, including better information to assist families in accessing universal services.

· A targeted short break `offer' for children and young people attending special schools, including evening, week end and holiday short break care schemes accessed without further needs assessment

· An offer to fund the additional care supports those claiming higher rate care and or mobility DLA may need in accessing a short break in a universal service, also accessed without a further needs assessment and to include evening, week end and holiday short break care schemes

· Improvements in specialist services for those with the most complex or severe needs to provide better opportunities for short breaks. These services include care supports within the home, in overnight short break services, access to family link carers and include the use of Direct Payments in appropriate circumstances

Tendering had now commenced in relation to the information and participation service and for services to those attending special schools. Discussions were also under way with sports partnerships, community colleges, extended services coordinators, early years services and youth services in relation to the service offer for those claiming higher rate care and or mobility DLA. It was intended that some new services will begin to be available from July 2009, with full capacity developed during 2010/11.

A further workshop had now been arranged to take place on 12 May 2009 at The Discovery Centre, Winchester to share the progress made so far in addressing the issues raised in March 2008 and be a further opportunity to seek views on the revised eligibility criteria.

141. COMMITTEE'S WORK PROGRAMME

The Chief Executive presented the Committee's Work

Programme (Item 10 in the Minute Book)

RESOLVED:

That the Committee's Work Programme be approved

subject to the issues raised at this meeting.

142 BRIEFING ON SAFEGUARDING: LESSONS

LEARNED FROM BABY "P"

The Director of Children's Services gave a presentation on the post Haringey perspective. He thanked Members for the support that they had given him and outlined the main the Haringey Joint Area Review main findings which were:

· Insufficient strategic leadership and management oversight of safeguarding.

· Managerial failure to ensure full compliance with Victoria Climbie.

· The local safeguarding children board (LSCB) fails to provide sufficient challenge to its member agencies.

· Social care, health and police authorities do not communicate and collaborate routinely and consistently.

· Assessments in all agencies fail to identify those who are at immediate risk of harm and to address their needs

· Quality of front line practice across all agencies is inconsistent and not effectively monitored.

· Child protection plans are generally poor.

· Arrangements for scrutinising performance are insufficiently developed

· Record keeping inconsistent and often poor.

· Too much reliance on quantitative data without sufficiently robust analysis of quality

He put this in context from a Hampshire point of view and said that our support to Haringey was a vote of confidence in Hampshire's services, that Hampshire was better placed than most but still had weaknesses and fragility. New resources would help and the emphasis must be on quality. Nationally the public and political storm was an opportunity for all authorities to take steps to improve services.

The Executive Lead Member for Children's Services be recommended to approve the Hampshire Young Carers Strategy subject to the removal of the word final in the recommendation.

The Chairman communicates the review report to the appropriate Executive Members.

The Scrutiny Officer arranges for copies of the report to be circulated to stakeholders.

The Director of Children's Services presents the final report on the School Exclusions Review to the next meeting of the Committee.