Agenda and minutes

1.1   Apologies for absence were received from:

·  Andy English (cooptee)

·  Cllr Ifraax Samatar.

1.2  Apologies for lateness were received from:

·  Cllr Margaret Gordon;

·  Deputy Mayor Bramble.

2.1  There were no late items and the business of the meeting was as published.

3.1  The following declarations were received:

·  Cllr Lee Laudat Scott was a member of the Corporate Parenting Committee;

·  Cllr Anya Sizer was a parent of a child with SEN.

To review the children’s social care annual report 2022/23.

4.1The Children’s Social Care Annual Report is a standing item on the Commission’s work programme.  This enables the Commission to have oversight of all activity across all children's social care services including early help, children in need, looked after children and care leavers.  The attached report details activity for the Children’s Social Care Service for the period April 2022 to March 2023.  This report is taken alongside the budget monitoring report (at item 5) so that members can be assured that budgetary and policy commitments are aligned.

4.2 To support the scrutiny process, the Commission held a short focus group with 9 members of Hackney of Tomorrow (Care Council) to talk through some of the issues which were important to them.  Representatives were present at the meeting and agreed to ask some questions on behalf of other members of Hackney of Tomorrow.

4.3 The Director of Children’s Social Care introduced the report highlighting the following key achievements for 2022/23:

·  The service had led a month long series of seminars on developing anti-racist practice across children and education services;

·  An inspection assessed the Youth Justice Service to be good, highlighting the quality of partnership work and anti-racist practice;

·  The new Mosaic primary case recording service has been embedded to help managers oversee and improve practice;

·  Ongoing service alignment with Hackney Education.

4.4 From analysis of the activity data, the Director of Children’s Social Care also highlighted the following:

·  The number of children on a child protection plan has dropped by 15%;

·  The average time taken complete care and supervision proceedings has been reduced from 58 to 52 weeks (close to the national average of 47 weeks);

·  As of September 2023 there were 390 looked after children down from a peak of 470 in November 2020

4.5 Priorities for children’s social care for 2024 were agreed:

·  Proud to be systemic, anti-racist and trauma-informed;

·  Proud to listen to children so they can help shape and inform provision;

·  Proud to work in partnership to keep children safe and deliver the help and support that they and their families need;

·  Proud to work with the workforce so that they can deliver the best possible outcomes for children and families in Hackney.

Questions from the Commission

4.6 The Commission requested further information on the designated safeguarding leads and how these worked with the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO)?

§  The LADO role was well established and had good working relationships with local nurseries and schools, those settings which provide the highest number of referrals for allegations of harm to children from staff and volunteers.  Safeguarding issues are raised in a number of contexts including allegations of direct harm, misconduct and other contextual issues for the school itself.  A new referral system was set up over the past year as the LADO was always caught up on the phone and was therefore unable to triage or prioritise incoming enquiries.  This initial written request process has had good response from users, as this now enables the LADO to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To review in year budgets for children’s social care and education services for 2022/23 (month 7, October 2023).

5.1 Budget monitoring is a key area of the scrutiny function, in which the Commission reviews: In-year budgets; Management actions to address overspends/ underspends; Progress against agreed savings proposals.  Historically, the Commission has taken separate budget monitoring reports for both Hackney Education and Children’s Social Care.  Given the greater alignment of these services, the Commission has agreed to take a unified budget monitoring report, so that there is single oversight of all children’s budgets within the council.

Introduction from Corporate Finance Officers

5.2 The following issues were highlighted by officers in relation to the budget monitoring paper presented to the Commission for the financial position of children and education services to the end of October 2023:

§  After the application of reserves (£3.6m), this directorate was expected to be overspent by £3.8m;

§  The majority of this overspend is linked to corporate parenting (£2.7m) in relation to pressures in placement costs.

§  Other areas of overspend were in Access and Assessment, Safeguarding and QA and LAC.

§  In Hackney Education an overspend of £4.3m is forecast, mainly as a result of ongoing cost pressures in SEND provision. The cumulative overspend for SPEND will be around £21m by the end of 2023/24.

§  Early Years is anticipated to be overspent by £660k as a result of lower than anticipated income arising through the pandemic and changing patterns of children centre usage.

§  OBIS directorate is expected to break even after the application of reserves.

Questions from the Commission

5.3What impact has high levels of inflation had across the service?  Are there any indicators that these inflationary pressures were receding?

§  (HoF) Inflationary pressures were experienced across the service, but particularly within the Commissioning budget, as providers were increasing the cost of services that they provide to the council.  This was the case for commissioned services across both children’s social care and SEND services.  Rising inflation had specifically impacted on fuel costs which has had a significant impact on the SEND transport budget.  As contracts come up for renewal, providers were making the case for increased funding to offset inflationary pressures in relation to staffing, energy and other rising costs.

5.4 Can officers provide further detail around the cost pressures in the corporate parenting team (currently a projected £4m overspend)? What management actions are being taken to address this and are they effective, given that overspend in this area appears to be intensifying / increasing?  How can fewer looked after children (as noted in the previous report) be reconciled with rising costs for corporate parenting?

§  (DCSC) It was noted that corporate parenting costs were increasing as residential placements were in high demand and local authorities were in effect, competing for these places. Safe and therapeutic placements were in short supply and in many cases these were expensive and not local.  In terms of management actions, the 20 highest costing placements were under direct oversight by the DCSC to ensure that children were being placed appropriately in terms of care  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To consider and agree proposals for the in-depth review of school behaviour policies to be planned by the Commission.

(TO FOLLOW)

6.1  An outline scope of the Commission’s proposed review of school behaviour policies was presented to facilitate a discussion so that members can agree:

·  The aims and objectives of the review;

·  Local stakeholder and key contributors for the review;

·  Proposed actions to consult and involve.

6.2 The following comments were noted from members of the Commission to support the review:

Cllr Troughton - it was disappointing that DfE guidance was still using outdated terms such a ‘misbehaviour’ and ‘good behaviour’ which are value laden, especially when behaviours were about the needs of the child.  It was suggested that the review could help ‘move the dial’ around to more progressive terminology such as unwanted behaviour, or behaviour that impacts negatively on other people (i.e. descriptive rather than value behaviour).

Cllr Sizer -  in respect of the special needs aspect to this review, it will be important to assess the role of EHCPs, to test the association between good plans which have been fully implemented and those that have not and how this impacts on behaviour of children in school.

Cllr Conway - one of the biggest challenges for this review is to make sure that the voices of parents and children are heard and reflected in the narrative of the work and its outcomes.  Likewise, engaging schools in this process will also require careful consideration.  It was important to have engagement from local stakeholders, so that the Commission can get ‘buy-in’ from local stakeholders.  The voice of young people should sit front and centre of this review

Cllr Gordon - the context and need for this work was clear.  It would be helpful to incorporate a review of the evidence base and conduct a literature review of this area to start off and to identify experts who can contribute to this investigation. 

Cllr Conway -  it was agreed that a literature review would help to identify from the evidence base what works, noting that this will need to explore definitions of ‘works’, that is, the possible range of outcomes from behaviour policies (children performing well, feeling safe, low exclusions etc.)

Cllr Binnie-Lubbock -  it is rather disturbing to note that within the national survey, that over half of children did not feel safe everyday they went to school and the impact that this may have on pupils and their learning.  The review should examine this aspect of school behaviour policies.  In terms of buy-in from schools, it would be useful to understand if there have been any legal challenges to school behaviour policies or other ways of effecting change.  It would also be helpful for the review to clarify what behaviour policies look like from a parental perspective and how this figures in wider determinants of school choice for their child.

Cllr Conway - in respect of the above, it was noted that there is a legal challenge going through the courts at present which may allow parents of excluded children to claim legal aid. Legal perspectives in this review  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To note the updated work programme for the remainder of the municipal year.

7.1  The Commission noted the updated work programme report.  The main changes were thus:

§  The rescheduled meeting lost through the pre-election period will take place on May 22nd 2024;

§  The item on unregistered educational settings will not take place in January 2024 as scheduled due to the by-election taking place and the need to conform with requirements of the pre-election period.

To note the minutes of the previous meeting held on 30^th November 2023.

8.1 The minutes of the last meeting (30th November 2023) were not available in time for distribution ahead of this meeting and will be included in the agenda for the next meeting of the Commission (15th January 2024).

9.1 There was no other business and the meeting concluded at 9.50pm.

9.2 The next meeting of the Commission will be held on 15th January 2024.