Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Mrs J E Killey.

Councillor A M Hall was appointed to occupy the Committee’s vacant seat for this meeting only.

No declarations of Members' interest were made at this stage of the proceedings.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 19 November 2021 be agreed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Councillor Mrs P A Bradwell OBE informed the Committee that the Council had received £1.5m capital funding from Department for Education (DfE) for two children’s homes in Lincoln and Louth. Combined with the Council’s own £1.5m corporate funding arrangements, this would allow for a third home in Bourne.

(To receive a report from Mark Popplewell, Head of Finance – Children's Services, which invites the Committee to consider and comment on the 2022/23 budget implications for the Council's Children's Services activities)

The Committee considered a report which invited them to consider and comment on the 2022/23 budget implications for the Council's Children's Services activities. The Chairman invited the Executive Director – Children’s Services to present the report. Members were advised that, for 2022/23, the budget was balanced, however in 2023/24, 2024/25, and 2025/26 there were budget shortfalls of £9.335m, £6.480m, and £6.909m respectively. The Medium-Term Financial Plan included a number of savings and efficiencies which arose from various projects within the Transformation Programme. The Financial Volatility reserve stood at £44.483m and was considered at an acceptable rate. Members were given a breakdown of Children’s Education and Children’s Social Care Budgets. Children's Education service activities were proposing to make savings of £0.106m in 2022/23, of which smarter working savings contributed £0.105m. The Council responded strongly to a DfE consultation, exploring the removal of the funding for Local Authorities School Improvement Monitoring and Brokering Grant for school improvement activities supporting maintained schools, estimated at £0.585m. The Home to Schools and College Transport delivery and budget responsibility was proposed to be transferred to the Place Directorate from April 2022. It was reported that the Council had budgeted for a 2% pay award. Children's Social Care Services were proposing to make savings of £0.329m in 2022/23, £0.189m would be saved from smarter working arrangements. Children in Care (CiC) saw a cost pressure of £3.013m, through increased CiC numbers reflecting the impact of the pandemic. To address this, earmarked funding from the Council’s reserves was proposed. Additional cost pressures included a £0.386m increase in costs across the composition of placement types supporting this vulnerable group, a two per cent increase to internal foster carers’ weekly allowances from April 2022 and a further proposed cost pressure of £0.273m in relation to growth in the CiC population increasing by 0.5 per 10,000. The combined life costs of the Building Communities of Specialist Provision Strategy capital programme were £86.794m across five years from 2019. The new school funding requirement had reduced by £9.259m over the period to 2033/34 to £33.442m due to lower birth rates. Lincolnshire's indicative Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) allocation for 2022/23 was £675.176m and was used to support all schools in Lincolnshire.

Members of the Committee were given the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present, their responses are included below:

• The Home to School Transport budget had been moved to the Place Directorate as the commissioning of home to school transport was undertaken by Place due to the connections with the public transport network. As a result, this budget would now be reported to the Highways and Transport Scrutiny Committee. A new transport management system had recently been implemented to support the delivery of operations but also to allow better tracking of the budget and the impact of the cost of each contract which would enable the budget to be better predicted. Children’s Services would continue to have oversight of the budget and delivery of home to school transport to ensure some consistency of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

(To receive a report from Sara Gregory, Commissioning Manager - Children's Strategic Commissioning, which invites the Committee to consider and comment on a report whichrecommends the re-commissioning of the Autism and Learning Difficulties (ALD) Service from 1 September 2022, prior to a decision being taken by the Executive on 1 February 2022)

The Committee considered a report which set out the business case for the recommissioning of the Autism and Learning Difficulties (ALD) Service from 1 September 2022, prior to a decision being taken by the Executive on 8 February 2022. The Chairman invited the Head of Service - Children's Strategic Commissioning to present the report. Members were advised that the ALD service was a term time only service commissioned on behalf of Lincolnshire schools and academies to provide support for autistic Children and Young People (CYP). Support included training, workshops and targeted outreach support to empower and up-skill school staff with the knowledge, tools, and confidence to create inclusive autism-friendly environments and encourage mainstream education. The Service commenced 1 September 2015 and was currently valued at £617,500 annually. While the Council had no explicit duty to provide an ALD Service, it supported a number of the Council’s statutory duties. Despite the rising number of CYP with SEND, Lincolnshire saw a decrease in suspensions and exclusions. The ALD Service was rated Good in terms of performance and had received positive feedback from service users who have accessed it. Future modelling would comprise of a greater emphasis on the training and workshop offer, with core, and non-core, training and workshops being available to both carers and professionals to improve understand and support capability. Funding recommendations for future ALD services would not see a reduction in ALD outreach workers despite partners’ staffing model discretion.

Members of the Committee were given the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present, their responses are included below:

• The continuation of the service was supported as it had shown benefits in helping to lower exclusion rates and enabling children with autism and learning difficulties to remain in mainstream education. Early intervention was important to give children the best chance to progress in school.
• There were regular and robust meetings with the schools providing the service to monitor and challenge the performance information and data to ensure that the requests for support were matched with the provision offered and that the services were having an impact.
• The service was first commissioned in 2015 and there have been lessons learned throughout the agreement term. There had been periods of underspends which had been either reinvested to develop the service or brought back within the authority to be utilised in a different way. As the budget had not been fully utilised previously, officers were confident that the same budget would be sufficient going forward. If there was a huge increase in demand in future, then officers would seek a further variation or additional funding. It was suggested that it might be useful to keep the Committee informed of the performance and the levels of demand for the service.
• Consideration had been given to how to refine the service moving forward which had shown a trend for quite a large reliance on the outreach element which provided direct work with children and young people. However, a greater focus on training would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.

(To receive a report from Sara Gregory, Commissioning Manager - Children's Strategic Commissioning, which invites the Committee to consider and comment on a report whichrecommends the re-commissioning of the Behaviour Outreach Support Service (BOSS) from 1 September 2022, prior to a decision being taken by the Executive on 1 February 2022)

The Committee considered a report which set out the business case of the Behaviour Outreach Support Service (BOSS) from 1 September 2022, prior to a decision being taken by the Executive on 8 February 2022. The Chairman invited the Head of Service - Children's Strategic Commissioning to present the report. Members were advised that BOSS was currently delivered by Family Action via a contract for services following a tender process. The contract, valued at £1.292m, commenced 5 September 2016 and was due to cease 31 August 2022, and was funded through the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). The Council’s Pupil Reintegration Team (PRT) help manage referrals to BOSS with a robust screening process and low numbers of CYP were excluded whilst BOSS was supporting. While the Council had no explicit duty to provide a BOSS Service, it supported a number of the Council’s statutory duties. Lincolnshire was now performing better than the vast majority of its statistical neighbours and better than England and East Midlands averages for permanent exclusion and suspension rates. Modelling of the service would continue to deliver training and workshops in person, online and virtually as appropriate, wider non-core training and workshops, a stronger outreach support focus on further reducing permanent exclusions and encouraging education settings to ensure more CYP remain in their mainstream setting.

Members of the Committee were given the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present, their responses are included below:-

• There was a connection between BOSS and alternative provision. Some pupils may be referred for an intervention place at an alternative provision setting such as the Springwell Academy Trust for a period of time while work was undertaken with the child’s mainstream school and the alternative provision to enable that child to return back to the mainstream school. BOSS would support this. If a pupil was permanently excluded, then work would be undertaken to try to set up a managed move to another mainstream school, but if that was not possible, then an alternative provision would be somewhere where pupils permanently excluded would go to. However, the aim was always to try to make alternative provision a temporary arrangement and to have pupils back in mainstream schools as far as possible.
• With regards to the gender balance in alternative provision settings, exact figures were not available but as with BOSS there was a higher prevalence of males than females. In BOSS, 77% of referrals were for male children and young people in 2020/21. This correlated with the national position. However, the ratios in terms of staffing and class sizes in alternative provision were much smaller than in mainstream settings to ensure that they were not overwhelming and were able to support pupils and all of their needs, regardless of their gender.
• In terms of success rates for BOSS, only 2% of pupils were permanently excluded while receiving support from BOSS in 2020/21 and 73% continued in mainstream education with additional support in place.
• There had been no complaints made in relation to BOSS.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53.

(To receive a report from Derek Ward, Director of Public Health, which invites the Committee to consider and comment on a report whichpresents the Director of Public Health’s annual report focused, this year, on the health of children and young people in Lincolnshire, and the impact of Covid-19 on this population)

The Committee received a report from the Director of Public Health which focused, this year, on the health of CYP in Lincolnshire, and the impact of Covid-19 on this population. The Chairman invited the Director of Public Health to present the report. Members were advised that the issues and approaches related to CYP’s health differed significantly from that of adult’s health and it was important to remember that over 20 per cent of the population in Lincolnshire was 19 or younger. There was a significant distinction of the burden of disease identified in 0–5-year-olds compared to 15–19-year-olds, this data was used to arrange the most appropriate care and support to CYP. Non fluoridated water areas, particularly found in the east of the County, were seen to be having a noticeable detrimental effect to the dental health of CYP. It was identified that the Delta variant of the Covid-19 Coronavirus was the dominant variant in schools over December 2021. However, since CYP had returned to school, Omicron has become the dominant stream and was accelerating. Some age bands saw a drop in positive test data; however, this may have been a result of incomplete testing reports. Covid-19 restrictions were expected to have an impact on CYP’s mental health and social aptitude due to the limited face to face peer contact available.

Members of the Committee were given the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present, their responses are included below:

• The benefits of fluoridated water were clear and obvious, as its inclusion in water supply significantly reduced the risk of decayed or missing teeth. Toothbrushing and regular use of fluoridated toothpaste were also of great importance. The availability of fluoridation in the west of the county appeared to favour more affluent areas. The, yet unadopted, Health and Social Care Act proposed that the decision as to which areas receive fluoridated water would be taken by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. It was suggested that a dedicated report offering an overview of the process for water fluoridation could be brought to a future meeting of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee.
• The Council’s health visitor team were fully aware of the issues facing CYP in relation to years lost to disability. In addition targeted CYP’s nurses continued to support CYP as they progressed into school to ensure that treatment continued to be managed. All support offered was done so in partnership with General Practitioners (GPs). In cases of years of life lost, clinically led support was offered through hospitals.
• The issues which were focussed on when issuing public health messaging were matters that could be effectively influenced such as physical activity and proper nutrition. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, children dental health education messaging wasn’t as frequent as previous years, however an oral health promotion service called Lincolnshire Smiles had been commissioned which was targeted at areas of need, such as early years settings, encouraging supervised toothbrushing. A change of Ofsted guidance suggested the introduction of a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54.

(To receive a report from Jill Chandar-Nair, Inclusion and Attendance Manager, which invites the Committee to consider and comment on a report whichpresents the annual data for 2020/21 and commentary on Attendance in Schools, Elective Home Education and Children Missing Education)

The Committee received a report which presented the annual data for 2020/21 and commentary on Attendance in Schools, Elective Home Education and Children Missing Education. The Chairman invited the Head of Education Support to present the report. Members were advised that Lincolnshire schools were, on average, higher than national for attendance across the year for all CYP, including vulnerable children. An expected increase of CYP being electively home educated correlated with the opening and closing of school premises during the pandemic. Large numbers of parents who chose to electively home educate their children had since returned their CYP into the state school system. Throughout 2020/21, there were periods of statutory school attendance which resulted in enforcement procedures for non-attendance where appropriate.  However, there was no desire to fine or prosecute parents of children who were anxious because of the Covid-19 risk who subsequently didn’t attend during the pandemic period. Support was offered to meeting children’s holistic needs during the period.

Members of the Committee were given the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present, their responses are included below:

• The managing attendance package that was provided to schools was an ever-evolving support bundle that changed year on year. Themes were picked as years progressed to identify and address specific issues. Moreover, workshops were provided which offered case studies and situational advice.

RESOLVED

      That the Attendance in Schools, Elective Home Education and Children Missing Education Annual Report be noted.

(To receive a report from Matt Spoors, Head of Service – Children’s Education, which invites the Committee to consider and comment on a report whichprovides an update regarding standards within the sector led system and the recovery response following the Covid-19 pandemic)

RESOLVED

Due to the time sensitive nature of the final item on the agenda, the Committee unanimously agreed to defer the Schools' Standards and Recovery report until the next scheduled meeting of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee.

(To receive a report from Tracy Johnson, Senior Scrutiny Officer, which enables the Committee to consider and comment on the contents of its work programme to ensure that its scrutiny activity is focused where it can be of greatest benefit)

The Committee considered a report from the Senior Scrutiny Officer which invited members to consider and comment on the content of its work programme, to ensure that scrutiny activity was focused where it could be of greatest benefit.

It was advised that the Schools' Standards and Recovery report would be programmed into the 4 March 2022 agenda. In addition, a pre decision scrutiny report on the Single Section 75 Agreement for Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services would be included in the 4 March agenda.

A report on Water Fluoridation in Lincolnshire would be brought to a future meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED

           That the work programme be agreed as amended.

In accordance with Section 100 (A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, agenda item 13 has not been circulated to the press and public on the grounds that it is considered to contain exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12 A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.  The press and public may be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of this item of business.

RESOLVED

That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it is considered to contain exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.

(To receive an exempt report from Matthew Stapleton, Senior Project Manager - Corporate Property, which invites the Committee to consider and comment on a report in relation to Lincolnshire Secure Children’s Home, prior to a decision being taken by the Executive Councillor for Children's Services, Community Safety and Procurementand and the Executive Councillor for People Management, Legal and Corporate Property between 3 – 10 February 2022)

Consideration was given to an exempt report from the Senior Project Manager - Corporate Property, which invited the Committee to consider and comment on a report in relation to Lincolnshire Secure Children’s Home, prior to a decision being taken by the Executive Councillor for Children's Services, Community Safety and Procurement and the Executive Councillor for People Management, Legal and Corporate Property between 3 – 10 February 2022.

RESOLVED

That the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee unanimously supported the recommendations as detailed within the report.