Agenda and minutes

1.1   Apologies for absence were received from the following members of the Commission:

- Cllr Alastair Binne Lubbock

- Cllr Anya Sizer

- Richard Brown (Co-opted member)

1.2  The following members connected virtually:

- Jo Macleod (Co-opted member) .

2.1   There were no urgent items and the agenda was as published.

3.1    The following declarations were received by members of the Commission:

- Jo McLeod was a Governor at a primary school in Hackney and a parent of a child with SEND.

To review a summary of activity across children’s social care for the period 2021/22 (to be taken alongside budget monitoring).

4.1  The Children and Families Service (CFS) Annual Report is presented annually to the Commission.  However, this report was not available to be included within this agenda, therefore a brief summary of children’s social care activity for the period 2021/22 was presented.

4.2   A budget monitoring report for Children and Families Service accompanies this report (agenda item 5) to enable members to scrutinise policy and budgets in alignment.

Children and Families Service

4.3   The Director of Children's Social Care brought to the attention of the Commission the following:

·  CFS noted that although referrals had increased, the number of assessments had decreased, which suggested that the early help offer was proving to be effective;

·  The number of looked after children (LAC) in the care of the authority had declined from 431 to 405, a significant drop which was attributed to improvement in local assessment processes and appropriate application of care thresholds;

·  It was acknowledged that there were staffing challenges within the service with particular pressure on the recruitment and retention of social workers.  Hackney was signed up to the London Pledge to prevent competition for social workers and the service had recently developed a staffing strategy to support recruitment;

·  Similarly, it was noted that there was an equally competitive market for children’s social care placements which was driving up costs for children and families services.

Questions from the Commission

4.4 Given the confirmed trend in adolescents entering care, how has staffing and service organisation within CFS adapted to meet the needs of this cohort?  What datasets are the service using to help identify and support this cohort, for example SEND services?

·  Officers reported that there was a good youth based offer via Young Hackney.  There was also the Edge of Care Service, which offers dedicated support to adolescents helping them to step-down or step-up into care as needed.  CFS was also looking at how to provide further early help to prevent more adolescents coming into care.

·  The LGA were invited to review CFS work with adolescents earlier this year who were complimentary about the local offer to young people, which was also supported by assessments made by Ofsted.  Young Hackney worked closely with a number of organisations (statutory services, in schools, and in youth centres) as part of this early help offer to adolescents.  The service was very aware of disproportionalities in this data, particularly among young black boys and men, and services were working to ensure that this cohort was supported to help them remain connected to education and other family and welfare networks.

·  In terms of children's social care data, the service regularly undertakes thematic reviews into various cohorts of children which are interrogated for patterns and trends.  The service also reviews complaints data to identify areas for service development and improvement.  Data on socioeconomic status is not collated, but data is analysed alongside census data to further inform how resources should be prioritised.  In relation to SEND, this is kept on a separate MOSAIC system within Education, but  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To review in-year budgets for the Children and Families Service, including progress against agreed cost savings.  To note, additional data has been requested for corporate parenting budget.

5.1  Budget monitoring is a key function of overview and scrutiny and each year the Commission reviews the in-year budgets of the Children and Families Service.  The aim of this item is to:

·  Review in-year spending and cost pressures;

·  Management actions to reduce any projected overspends;

·  Progress in achieving identified cost savings for 2022/23.

5.2  This item is taken alongside the Children and Families Annual Report so that members can review budgets alongside policy priorities for the service. Additional data has been requested on the Corporate Parenting Budget given the ongoing cost pressures in this area of service.

Corporate Finance Overview

5.3  After the application of reserves, CFS was projecting an overspend of £1.7m for the year end 2021/22 at September 2022.  The most significant area of overspend was corporate parenting which was predicting an overspend of £1.3m after reserves.  Overspends of £0.3m and £0.2m were also projected for Commissioning and the Disabled Children's Service.

Questions from the Commission

5.4 Given that the increased use of in-house foster carers is a key priority (in that they provide better quality of care and are more cost effective than Independent Foster Agencies), the Commission notes that the budget for in-house foster carer team has not changed from 2021/22 to the current year - it has remained static at £2.4m.  In this context, does the current budget for the in-house foster carer team fully reflect the priority for this service given that the team now supports more placements (possible service dilution) and ambitions to extend support (i.e. Mockingbird)?

·  It was noted that there had not been a significant tail-off of in-house foster carers in Hackney as had been experienced in other boroughs during the pandemic, and numbers have been increasing since this time.  These foster carers needed the support of social workers and other staff to help them take on maintain placements of looked after children.  The service was looking at how the local offer could be further improved with additional support and staffing to ensure house foster carers got the help that they needed.

5.5 Given that there is an interrelation between in-house and IFA foster carer use, is this reflected in the way that these respective budgets are viewed (i.e. not siloes).  To what degree can projected budget underspend for IFA (of £760k) be used specifically off-set in-house foster carers budget?

·  Potentially, given how these budgets interrelate this is what will happen.  When budgets are set for 2023/24 finance and service officers will liaise and they will take this into account and will be reflected in budget allocations.  The service will set a budget which reflects the need to encourage more children to be supported via in-house foster carers team, and create budget pressures for IFA foster carer usage.

5.6  At page 25, the management action is to increase the number of young people claiming housing benefit? Can you explain further what this means? Does this refer to care leavers who are in receipt of supported housing, but encouraged to switch  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To note the SEND Strategy 2022-2025 (agreed by Cabinet 21/11/22) and update on the development of a partnership action plan.

6.1  Hackney Education has developed a new SEND Strategy for the period 2022-25 which was approved by Cabinet on November 21st 2022.  The objectives for the Commission for this item is to note the contents and underpinning principles of the SEND Strategy, and to question officers on their plans to deliver key objectives detailed within it.

6.2   The Commission understands that an Action Plan is being developed with partners to support the delivery of the key aims of the SEND strategy, and which itself is being presented to this Commission in February 2023.  It is envisaged that through the ongoing scrutiny of the SEND Action Plan, the Commission will retain oversight of the delivery of key service developments and improvements for SEND services.

Questions from the Commission

6.3  In relation to Priority 4 - Joined Up Services - The strategy indicates that there are currently no jointly commissioned services in Hackney. What are the barriers to jointly commissioned services and how will the SEND Strategy help overcome these?  How will the Joint Agency Plan be progressed in 2023?

·  Much of the resources of local services are tied up in delivery through schools, specialist provision and commissioned services.  The barriers to working together were financial in that there was a limited pot of money available.  Investment in special schools and mainstream schools was important to ensure that they can provide the SEND services needed for local children.  Rising demand and the pressures these places on local services also stifles the ability of services to work together effectively; in Hackney the number of children with an EHCP has increased by 65%.  Finding specialist placements for children with SEND is difficult, which in turn has an impact on schools and other educational settings. 5.3% of all local children now have an EHCP.  This demand has an impact on education, social care and health services.  The SEND strategy is a partnership strategy which agrees priorities across the EHCP system and aligns funding to support those priorities.

·  The JAP is a multi-agency panel which meets to discuss and plan for children with multiple and complex SEND needs.  This group assesses what the best placement would be for the child and agrees funding splits between agencies.  This was a relatively new process and would be evaluating this in the coming months.

6.4  Developing accompanied lines of finance to support the ambitions of the SEND Strategy will be challenging, especially in relation to capital requirements needed for estate redevelopment which underpins a major part of this strategy. Can officers provide some reassurance around capital funding secured thus far?  In addition, there are other financial uncertainties (whether the government will cover the accumulated £18.5m SEND deficit) and ongoing financial pressures (overspend forecast to be £4.6m) for SEND provision in Hackney.  Can officers set out the funding to support the implementation of the SEND strategy thus far and additional funding needed to support the SEND Strategy but yet to be identified?

·  The SEND Green paper was currently working its  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To note the scrutiny response to the Child Q Safeguarding Practice Review.

7.1  Members of both Living in Hackney and Children and Young People Scrutiny Commission met to scrutinise the response to the Child Q Safeguarding Practice Review in June 2023.  A letter setting out the key findings of this joint Commission setting out initial findings and recommendations has been sent to lead officers at key partners for a response  including:

·  London Borough of Hackney;

·  Metropolitan Police Service;

·  MOPAC;

·  City & Hackney Safeguarding Partnership.

7.2  A further follow-up meeting with both Commissions is expected in 2023, once the City & Hackney Safeguarding Partnership have concluded their follow up of the Safeguarding Practice Review and IOPC report has been completed.

7.3  Members noted and agreed the letter.

To note the letter to the Cabinet member for Education, Young People and Children’s Social Care setting out the recommendations of the Children and Young People and Living in Hackney Scrutiny Commission’s work on housing support for care leavers.

8.1  Members of both Living in Hackney and Children and Young People Scrutiny Commission reviewed housing support for care leavers during the spring and summer of 2022 and have made a number of recommendations to the Cabinet appropriate member which were detailed in an attached letter.

8.2   The recommendations of the Commissions are timely given that the Care Leaver Offer and  Housing Strategy are both currently being updated.  It is also noted that the experiences of care leavers will now also form a specific assessment by Ofsted as part of the inspection framework for children’s social care.

8.3  The Cabinet response to the recommendations is expected in January 2023 and this will be published in both Children and Young People and Living in Hackney scrutiny commission agendas.  Follow up arrangements for the recommendations will be agreed across the Commissions.

8.4  The Commission noted and agreed to the recommendations.

9.1  Members reviewed the updated work programme for the remainder of 2022/23.  The main changes to note were:

·  Item on Race, Racism and Social Care has been subsumed into an item on support for young parents;

·  Accessibility of CAMHS services is confirmed for April 2023;

·  Cabinet Q & A for the Cabinet member for families, parks and leisure (Cllr Woodley) is scheduled for February 2023 and the Commission will agree which topics it would like to focus on before the end of the year.

9.2  Members noted and agreed the work programme.

10.1  The minutes of the meetings held on 29th September 2022 and October 31st 2022 were noted and agreed.

11.1  There was no further business.  The meeting closed at 9.15pm and the date of the next meeting was noted to be 16th January 2023.