Agenda item

To question the Cabinet member for Families, Parks and Leisure on (children and families) services within this portfolio.

6.1  Each year, the Cabinet members with responsibility for children services are invited to attend the Commission to respond to questions on services within their respective portfolio.  The Commission welcomed Cllr Caroline Woodley, the Cabinet member for Families, Parks and Leisure, who responded to questions on three policy areas in her portfolio which relate to children and families. The focus of these three policy areas and their responses are given below.

6.2 Can the Cabinet member update the Commission on future plans for Children's Centres? 

- Setting out prospective key decisions (by Cabinet) and timescales for future proposals;

- How proposals for the development of Family Hubs (including additional funding) relate to future re-configuration of children's centres?

Cabinet member response

- The local Affordable Childcare Commission has been established and an independent chair has been appointed and would be confirmed at the official launch of the Commission in March. The Commission would run between 6-9 months and run in parallel with other consultation events (e.g. establishment of Family Hubs).

- Family Hubs, was a national programme which was being rolled out to 75 local authorities to provide extended support for children and families.  Hackney was one of the 75 authorities chosen and would receive approximately £4m of funding over 3 years to support this development.  The focus was on start for life (first 1,000 days) and parental support including parenting, perinatal mental health and establishment of parent carer forums.  It does not however fund childcare.  Although there is no additional funding for 0-19 provision, it will allow services to align with local youth hubs.  There has been extensive consultation with stakeholders to help make Children and Family Hubs part of a more supportive system for local young people and their families.  The first tranche of funding had been received and officers were looking to establish services. 

- Cabinet approval will be sought to transfer 6 multi-agency children centres into multiagency hubs.  The current hub and spoke model over 6 cluster areas would migrate over 8 neighbourhood areas to become coterminous with primary care services.  There are plans to consult the CYP Scrutiny Commission on these plans.  There are also plans to transform 2 children centres into ARP for children with complex needs (1 in north and 1 in south).  Cabinet approval would be sought in autumn of 2023 which would require a consultation on plans to take place in May/June 2023.

- HE would also be looking to cease services at one children centre in response to continuing overspends in this budget.  HE was consulting local schools who provided children’s centres to assess to get a strategic assessment and whether they wished to vary or discontinue from current services agreements.

- In summary the Children Centre review will take recommendations from the Affordable Childcare Commission and Family Hubs process to inform future options for the service, including possible outsourcing to community and voluntary sector services. 

Questions from the Commission

6.2.1 Will there be any mental health provision or emotional support for children and families in the Family Hubs? 

- There will be a broad range of family support from strategic children's centres which will become family hubs, including social and emotional support and DV advice and support.  These centres will continue to be multi-disciplinary providing links to other local services across health, social care and education.

6.2.2 Will Family Hubs also be accessible to families with no recourse to public funds?

- The Cabinet member was not aware of the position of those families with no recourse to public funds.  Whilst the Holiday Action Fund provided some support to those families with no recourse to public funds, it would be challenging to support them through Family Hubs model.  The Cabinet member noted that in part it would depend on the needs of individual families, if this was something which was identified in an open access service (i.e. Stay and Play) and which could be resolved there and then by workers in the children centre, then this would probably not be an issue.  The Cabinet member indicated that they would look further into this issue.

- The Director of Education noted that as this was a DfE funded programme, the authority would need to adhere to set target groups and exclusions.

6.2.3  The Cabinet member noted that a number of schools were considering withdrawing provision and cease the operation of their children’s centre.  How many schools were considering withdrawal and what were the associated risks of this?  If some schools are withdrawing, will HE need to reassess the overall model of provision to ensure equity of access and that the remaining network of centres is accessible to local families?

- Local primary schools were experiencing falling school rolls which was having a significant impact on their finances. For some children’s centres provided by schools there was a real challenge in ensuring that these were financially sustainable. HE would need to reflect on these school decisions and how this would impact on children centre provision in the maintained sector.  The authority has one of the largest networks of children’s centres and was rightly proud of the services that they provide, but decisions taken by schools would require strategic assessment of overall provision.  The early years strategy which was approved by Cabinet in 2022, will help to mitigate the impact of any loss of services.

6.2.4  What is the current status of the two children’s centres (Hillside and Fernbank) which were earmarked for closure within the consultation?  Are all services continuing to be provided from both sites? Are staff being recruited to positions that become vacant? Are sites continuing to operate at the same capacity and accepting children?

- All services at these centres are ongoing.  Whilst there were generally childcare vacancies at the beginning of the year, these generally filled up as the year progressed.  The mitigations will be that two children’s centres will be transformed into early help for children with SEND, but it was acknowledged that a centre would need to close.  HE would review the children centre business case with individual schools and bring in additional expert support if necessary.  This may mean that such children centres might become independent of the local authority in the future.  The reality of the position is that whilst demand was increasing for services areas like SEND, the financial position remained challenging.

6.3 Can the Cabinet member outline support available to parents of children with SEND, in relation to:

- Role of the Parent Carer Forum and plans to restart this?

- Operation of SENDiags, the nature of support offered and accessibility of this service;

- How parents of children with SEND are made aware of their rights in relation to HER legislation;

- Advice, information and support provided to parents in the choice of educational placements for their children;

- What advocacy or independent representation is available to parents e.g. where there is dispute or challenge in relation to assessments / or decisions of their child with SEND.

Cabinet member response

-  It was acknowledged that the current arrangement was not working as effectively as it should and that the SEND Parent Carer Forum (PCF) was being re-commissioned.  It was important that the PCF was effective to support the growing demands and expectations in relation to SEND service development and transformation.  The national SEND PCF had worked with Hackney Independent Forum for Parents (HiP) and agreed that a reset was necessary and a new host organisation be put in place.  The new host would soon be announced but HE would continue to work with HiP, As One and other family support groups.  The aim of the reset will be to ensure that the new host and HE work together with local parent carer forums and that these are properly supported in relation to funding and governance. There would also be a re-evaluation of communications support.

-  In relation to SENDiags, a recent staffing restructure revealed that there was a significant lack of capacity in the service (particularly caseworkers and Educational Psychologists).  This is a small but important service which provides critical mediation support for families and schools as well as what local services are available and what to do when things go wrong for families.  SENDiags also play an important link between Parent Carer Forums and Young People Forums. 

6.3.1  (Hackney Youth Parliament) Those families whose first language is not English face additional problems in accessing SEND advice and information.  How will the Cabinet member ensure that such services remain accessible to all local families?

- A Parent Liaison post had been created within SEND and the ambition of this work was to create a more consistent approach and support system for local families.  As lead for inclusion within schools, the Parent Liaison role will help to ensure that communication and support for children with SEND is universally available across all schools.  In terms of language, HE does try to signpost parents and families whose first language is not English, to sources of information which is accessible to them.  It was acknowledged that this was not the same as having a dedicated worker who may be able to communicate with parents in their first language.  One area of development was the establishment of a network of parent champions who would be able to provide peer support, advice and information in a range of community languages.  SENDiags also hired interpreters where these were needed, though a more systematic assessment was needed to identify gaps in provision and how these may be resourced.

6.3.2 How will the new Parent Carer Forum operate, how will it support co-production and  when will it commence to operate?  In terms of the new host organisation, how has the current host (HiP) been engaged and consulted?  What resources are available?

- The Cabinet member formally thanked HiP for all the support it had provided and continued to provide to parents of children with SEND.  HiP advice and support was critical during the pandemic in ensuring that those families in need were adequately supported.  It was acknowledged that change was difficult.

The Director of Education noted that HiP will remain members of the Partnership Board so will be able to contribute on an ongoing basis.  HE continues to work with a wide range of SEND parent organisations to support local strategy for development of SEND services.  There would be resource for the new host organisation if a DfE grant was forthcoming and there were contributions from local health partners.

6.4 Can the Cabinet member update the Commission on service demand and current waiting times for Speech & Language Therapy (SLT) and Educational Psychology to support children with SEND?  To outline the plan and or priorities among the strategic partnership (health, education, social care) to help reduce waiting times to maintain service accessibility.

Cabinet member response

-  In relation to SLT, the majority of those children waiting longer than 6 weeks to be seen are aged under 5 years of age.  To mitigate these waiting times, staff work flexibility across settings to respond to areas of high demand and offer weekend appointments for assessments.  Whilst HE does retain a high number of Educational Psychologists there is a national issue around recruitment and retention.  There has been a real difficulty in recruiting experienced staff, and trainees were therefore being recruited for on-site training.  Holding and supporting children and families whilst they were waiting to receive therapy was becoming increasingly important, and a number of parent workshops and on-line sessions were being held to provide this pre-diagnostic/ therapy support.

Questions from the Commission

6.4.1   (Hackney Youth Parliament) How will the Cabinet member work to reduce waiting lists for Educational Psychology as this can be a deterrent for young people to seek help?

- It was hoped that additional capacity put in since September 2022 would help to reduce the backlog by May 2023.

- The Director of Education noted that compliance with statutory time limits  for EHCPs (on which access to Educational Psychology was dependent) had increased from 20% in 2022 to over 60% currently.  This was as a direct result of this additional investment.

6.5 The Chair thanked the Cabinet member for attending and responding to questions from members of the Commission.