Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 3B - Town Hall. View directions

Contact: Taiwo Adeoye  Email: taiwo.adeoye@onesource.co.uk.

Items
No. Item

14.

DISCLOSURE OF INTERESTS

Members are invited to disclose any interests in any of the items on the agenda at this point of the meeting.  Members may still declare an interest in an item at any time prior to the consideration of the matter.

 

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

15.

MINUTES pdf icon PDF 358 KB

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 26 September 2019 and authorise the Chairman to sign them.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 26 September 2019 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

16.

PERFORMANCE REPORT UPDATE - QUARTER TWO pdf icon PDF 542 KB

Report attached

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee received the Quarter Two performance indicators (PIs) update. The PIs are the standards by which performance of services are measured within the Council. The update provided an overview of performance against the eight performance indicators selected for monitoring by the Sub-Committee in 2019/20. 

The report outlined that seven of the indicators have been given a RAG status; two have a status of Green, one had Amber and four indicators have a Red.

The report provided the following highlights and potential areas for improvement:

 

      The Number of children missing from educationin Quarter 2 was three, which was the same as the previous quarter and five fewer children than at the same point last year.

      The  latest Department for Education scorecard performance (for the period December 2018 to February 2019) places Havering in the top quintile nationally for the Percentage of 16-18 year olds who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), or not known,  with a three month average performance of 3.1%. This compared to the national performance of 5.5% and a regional average of 4.8% (lower is better). The continued strong performance in Havering was as a result of strong post-16 partnerships with education providers through the termly sub-group meetings with  local apprenticeship providers and Participation Education, Training & Employment panel (PETE group) - an operational panel which case manages Havering ‘s NEET cohort in partnership with local providers, to progress them into participation.

      There have been declines in the number of apprentices recruited in the borough in line with national and regional trends. Havering have seen a greater number of starts than the average for Outer London boroughs. Apprenticeships continue to be promoted as a post-16 option to Havering residents, there was an increased focus on apprenticeships for 2019/20 through the National Apprenticeship Week activities planned.

The areas of Improvements included:     

      The percentages of Initial Child Protection Conferences held within 15 days have improved this quarter but remains outside of the accepted target tolerance. Cases have been referred for conference late by the social work teams are followed up with group managers to review the reasons and address any issues. Other reasons for late conferences this year have included lack of reports or representation from key agencies, and late reports from social workers. This area remains closely monitored by senior managers within the service and improved performance is anticipated in the second half of the year.

      The percentage of looked-after children who ceased to be looked after as a result of permanency was behind its target. There were three potential adoption matches currently being considered by the new service, a number of special guardianship assessments have been filed with the court and several of these are anticipated to result in orders being granted when proceedings conclude.

      Foster Carer recruitment across London and nationwide remains a challenge. In Havering there have been 2 new in-house foster  carers approved during the first half of the year.  The number of prospective carer  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

17.

OFSTED IMPROVEMENT REPORT pdf icon PDF 735 KB

Report attached

Minutes:

At its request the Sub-Committee received a report that updated Members on the Ofsted Improvement Update

 

The update provided an assurance that Havering was meeting its statutory responsibilities and continuing to evidence improvement against Ofsted recommendations,

 

The report outlined progress to improve standards of social care practice, workforce development and associated systems.

 

The Sub-Committee noted the following seven themes and objectives:

 

1.    Pathway Planning and Transitions to Adulthood. The aim of the objective was to further improve the quality of care planning. It was noted that 61% of care leavers wee in education, employment and training.  The Cocoon – Young People Centre recently celebrated its second anniversary. The community space provides care experienced Young People to access support and leisure activities. It was also stated partner agencies have contributed and supported to grow the remit providing additional services at the centre.

 

2.    Strategy and Meetings (Including risk assessments and support for children returning home from care). It was noted that Standards have been agreed regarding holding strategy meetings and attendance by partner agencies was being tracked via the case management system. Workshops are being scheduled which would support skills development and planning.

 

3.    Supervision The aim is to clarify what ‘good’ supervision looks like, and set out clear guidance and principles. A revised supervision template was rolled out across the service in October 2019, following consultation across the service. The new template had been created in line with systemic principles and is designed to enable reflective and purposeful practice.

 

4.    Quality Assurance. This theme considered the auditing and other quality assurance activities across the services. It was noted that a new Quality Assurance Framework and supporting tools were introduced.. The Deep Dive audit tool and monthly case file audits have been developed in Liquid Logic and the services organised a What Good Looks Like’ workshops in June 2019 which was attended by 31 managers/supervisors.

 

5.    Workforce and Practice development. This theme will progress the work of the Social Care Academy and set out a route of professional development for all practitioners and managers within the service. The report indicated that 82% of our social workers are now permanent The service have improved its use of social media to raise the profile of Havering and advertise roles.

 

6.    Adolescent Safeguarding. The aim of the theme was to ensure there were coherent approaches to the range of risk issues that affect young people. It was stated that there were agreement to a multi-disciplinary safeguarding arrangement, involving all main partners. Resources have been secured via funding from the Local Authority and Health partners. Some programmes/projects were already underway, including a £400k investment from the Home Office via the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC)

 

7.    Case recording and data quality. The aim of the theme was to ensure a more consistent approach to record keeping, whilst ensuring practitioners spend significant time engaged in direct work with families. It was stated that with the implementation of Liquid Logic Implementation; the focus had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

18.

SECONDARY OUTCOMES - 2019 (Provisional) pdf icon PDF 457 KB

Report attached

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee received a report that updated on the provisional outcomes of the 2019 statutory assessments within the secondary sector in Havering.

The report informed the Sub-Committee that there were 18 Secondary Schools, all of which are Academies.  Six of the schools have Sixth Forms.  In addition, there are 3 Special Schools, 2 of which are Academies.

 

The Attainment 8 was made up of 8 subjects. Grades 1-9 are translated into a numerical score, the total of which was Attainment 8. The average Attainment 8 score in Havering compared with the attainment of all pupils nationally.

 

The report detailed that standards in the GCSEs in Havering were above the national average.  The average Attainment 8 score in 2019 was 48.3 – marginally above the national average of 46.7, which places Havering in the second quintile nationally and above the majority of its statistical neighbours, and the same as the outer London average.

 

The attainment outcome at A Level or Key Stage 5 have fluctuated over the last few years with the ongoing changes in exams and methodology calculations, however the 6 academy sixth forms have had a 2 year improvement where Havering have outperformed it’s statistical neighbours ranked 1st and 26th nationally.

 

It was stated that the best 3 A-Levels outcomes have also fluctuated.  They have not improved as rapidly as elsewhere nationally, or as other London boroughs. Havering still outperformed it’s statistical neighbours, ranked 3rd and 31st nationally.

 

The percentage of pupils achieving grades AAB or better at A-level for the last 4 years have remained below that of national averages but Havering was still in the  better performing half.  It was explained that both the outer London and Havering’s statistical neighbours have had a 2 year decline resulting in Havering’s position improving.

 

During discussion the Sub-Committee requested a breakdown of the result according to each school. The Assistant Director for Education informed the Sub-Committee that the service had raised concern with the Regional School Commissioner on the performances of some of the Academies. It was also stated that following the change in status to Academy, most of the secondary schools have not taken up the council’s offer to undertake quality assurance.

 

The secondary schools outcome was viewed with concern by the Sub-Committee.

 

The Sub-Committee noted the comments of the report.

19.

OFSTED PROGRESS REPORT ON SEND pdf icon PDF 334 KB

Report attached

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee received a report that updated Members on the progress made to implement the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) action plan following the Care Quality Commission (CQC) /Ofsted inspection of March 2018.

Following the inspection a detailed action plan was produced and has been monitored by the SEND Executive Board, comprising of Partners, Parent representatives, Schools in addition to Local Health and Local Council representation. A SEND Strategy was signed off by the Health and Wellbeing Board in September 2018 and an update was provided to a meeting of the OSSC in November 2019.

The report detailed the following areas for improvement and progress on implementation:

·         The SEND Executive Board was now fully engaged, including parents and partners.

·         Implementation of Havering’s High Needs strategy. The strategy was approved in 2017 and will run until 2022. But an earlier review was carried out. The outcome of the review was that the local priorities remain similar and progress was being made. The main theme of the Strategy remains to ensure Havering had quality and inclusive education for children with SEND.  The provision should be local and reduce the need for children to travel out of borough to school.

·          The strategy guides our development of new provision - plans to build a new £8.5 million free school for children with SEND have been approved by the Dept for Education and the local authority.

·         The strategy indicates the need to deliver a programme of new provision to see a better distribution across the borough and throughout both primary and secondary schools.  Progress have been made in this area.

·         Local Offer – to continue to develop, maintain and keep the local offer up to date, including children, young people and their families to ensure it is responsive to their needs. This work is in progress and the offer is reviewed regularly.

·         EHC Hub - establish the EHC hub, which is an interactive web-based platform to make our EHC assessment and planning process more efficient and transparent, supporting inclusion of all partners including children/young people and parents. The hub is now implemented and being used by parents and carers for new EHC plans from September 2019.

·         Review of EHC planning and processes, to improve the quality of Education, Health and Care needs assessments and plans, ensuring that they paint an accurate picture and are produced in a timely way to ensure need is met at the earliest opportunity. The borough now has approximately 1,600 children with EHC plans, up from 800 former statements of SEN in 2014. New EHC plans are up from 133 in 2016 to 195 in 2018. At January 2019 (the latest published data) 70% of EHCPs in the borough meet statutory timescales, compared with 58% across London boroughs.   Quality of EHCPs is still variable and work is underway to establish a quality assurance process.

·         Jointly Commissioned Services – develop a single joint commissioning process which will inform the commissioning of services for those children and young people with SEND. This  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.