Agenda and minutes
Venue: Committee Rooms 2 and 3, Brent Town Hall, Forty Lane, Wembley, HA9 9HD. View directions
Contact: Lisa Weaver, Democratic Services Officer 020 8937 1358 Email: lisa.weaver@brent.gov.uk
No. | Item |
---|---|
Declarations of personal and prejudicial interests Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting any relevant financial or other interest in the items on the agenda. Minutes: None declared. |
|
Minutes of the last meeting held on 11 October 2012 PDF 128 KB Minutes: That the minutes of the meeting held on 11 October 2012 by approved as a correct record of proceedings. |
|
Brent Youth Parliament update The committee will receive an oral update on the work of the Brent Youth Parliament. Minutes: Brent Youth Parliament informed the Committee of a recent successful trip to Parliament. Work was being undertaken to promote the new Roundwood Youth Centre opening and young people’s views had been used to inform the choice of activity available and how the space would be used. It was noted that a Christmas Ball had been organised to help increase membership as well as awareness and that a campaign was being run to incorporate young people views which included a successful meeting at the Brent Children Partnership.
Brent Youth Parliament currently had 57 members and elections would be taking place on Saturday 15 December 2012 to elect five executive members, including a Chair and Vice Chair. It was explained that AQA accredited training would be taking place to ensure the importance of politics was understood and to offer an educational benefit to members.
The Committee noted the importance of the work being undertaken by Brent Youth Parliament, in particular the encouragement of arts based activities in light of the narrowing of the national curriculum. Brent Youth Parliament highlighted that they were keen to work with as many partners as possible and establish connections through forums and meetings with the next BYM2 forum meeting taking place on 18 December 2012, 5-6.30pm. |
|
Plan for Children and Families in Brent PDF 77 KB The purpose of this report is to set out a three year partnership Plan for Children and Families in Brent (PCFB) for the attention of the Children & Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The Plan builds on the achievements of the previous Children and Young People’s Plan (2010-12) and brings together in a single document our vision and key priorities for improving outcomes for children and families in Brent. The PCFB strengthens the coordination and integration of a range of strategic plans (set out in Appendix C) and is underpinned by a performance management framework, which will help to monitor and drive forward improvements. Report will be presented by Anna Janes Additional documents: Minutes: Anna Janes, Head of Children & Families Policy and Performance explained that the purpose of the report was to set out a three year partnership Plan for Children and Families in Brent (PCFB). The Plan built on the achievements of the previous Children and Young People’s Plan (2010-12) and brought together in a single document Brent’s vision and key priorities for improving outcomes for children and families. It was highlighted that although the coalition government had revoked the legislation requiring the production of a plan however it was felt to be an essential strategic plan and demonstrated commitment to the children of Brent for the next three years. It was explained that the plan took a holistic approach which integrated the family and consisted of the following three priorities:
1. Ensure that children and young people in our borough are healthy and safe 2. Narrow the gap between those children who do well and those who need extra support to thrive, so the aspirations of every Brent child are realised. Also to ensure that there are sufficient school places to meet the continuing increase in demand 3. To fully integrate services to develop resilient families
Promotion work with partners had been undertaken including posters and a briefing pack to ensure all partners were working towards priorities. It was noted that the Child Poverty Strategy Action Plan, which linked to the Children and Families Plan would be launched in January 2013. Given that the PCFB was a 3 year plan, the Brent Children’s Partnership (BCP) Executive had agreed that the partnership would focus on two outcomes within the first year; children and young people being safe, protected from harm and neglect, and living free of poverty.
Anna Janes informed the Committee that the BCP executive had met to discuss issues surrounding the welfare cuts and how the impact on families could be reduced. It was noted that 1500 vacancies were reported across Brent job centres and courses such as CV writing were being offered to help parents back into work. Advice was also being offered to families to address the impact of the cuts and how they could be exempt from the benefit changes to avoid poverty being cast upon their family.
During discussion, it was highlighted that although initiatives were being undertaken to get parents into work, it was felt that the biggest barrier was the cost of child care. It was further noted that there were few jobs that offered suitable ‘school hours’ for parents with children attending school. It was explained that although a fund existed to provide 15 hours of free child care a week for children 2 - 3 years of age, it was felt that ways to make child care realistic needed to be explored. Sara Williams, Assistant Director Early Help and Education informed the Committee of the numerous breakfast and after school clubs in many schools across Brent. She continued to highlight that should a school feel that a pupil/family would benefit from a ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |
|
Working with Families Initiative Verbal update and presentation on how the Council, with it’s partners, will assist families with children and young people in need to ensure they enjoy a good quality of life and develop as confidently and responsibly as possible. How it will improve the educational outcomes and promote the positive well-being of families in Brent. Presentation by Sara Williams Minutes: Sara Williams, Assistant Director Early Help and Education gave a presentation on the Working with Families Initiative. She explained that the initiative included the Council, with partners, assisting families with children and young people in need to ensure they enjoyed a good quality of life and developed as confidently and responsibly as possible. Family resilience was cited as being key to underpinning the project, particularly in light of the lack of early intervention services available to families. It was noted that there was a lack of co-ordination across services and partners with a whole system approach being required to ensure families did not fall through gaps.
Sara Williams explained that the troubled families initiative was a government based scheme which provided an initial fee and also paid upon results. It was hoped that by being able to address a families issues early, it would avoid them appearing later in the system and create savings in the long term. The Government had projected 120,000 troubled families within the UK, of which 810 resided in Brent. The scheme would last for three years, with 300 families being identified to be worked with within the first year of the project. A mapping exercise was currently taking place to establish the services and support currently being accessed by the 300 families identified, with a general approach with agencies to be agreed, particularly in terms of being assertive and persistent with families to realise that improvements need to be made. A multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) would be introduced to the civic centre to allow referrals to be streamlined and escalated appropriately, and reducing the potential of emergency cases being delayed. A family support service team with a key worker would be identified for each family, allowing the needs and requirement of the family to be coordinated and referrals to be made as necessary.
The Committee expressed concern that the project may evolve into addressing families in crisis rather than early intervention and queried how it would be rolled out further to ensure the best support for all. It was clarified that a child or family would only be part of the working with families’ initiative if they had come to the attention of an agency. Sara Williams clarified that it was a more holistic approach as the key worker could determine potential issues earlier, rather than it escalating and affecting the entire family on a greater scale. It was highlighted that some families would have a greater need than others and a set of national and local criteria had been identified to determine the families who would form part of the scheme. It was noted that the initial scheme was hoping to help 810 families as identified by central government and the payments by results and the savings achieved though children not entering the system at a later stage, would mean that greater work on intervention taking place in the future.
Members queried how success would be measured in order to achieve the payment by ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
|
Corporate Parenting PDF 659 KB This report will cover the role of Corporate Parenting and explain the model Brent has adopted through best practice with other boroughs. It provides information on looked after children in Brent, the arrangements for them, their outcomes, including educational outcomes, their views, their work through the 'Care in Action group' participation. Additionally the report will also cover the virtual school arrangements for Looked After Children. Minutes: Graham Genoni, Assistant Director Social Care Division, introduced the report which summarised the key issues relevant to Looked after Children (LAC) in Brent and set out the core principles that ensured the Corporate Parenting Group adopted a locally robust approach to ensure that LAC received at least the same standard of care as would be given by a reasonable and responsible parent. The Care Planning and Children in Care Service supported LAC and care leavers from 0-25yrs. The service comprised of four social work teams delivering a service to Looked after Children aged from 0 to 17 and Care Leavers from 18 to 21yrs (24 plus if the young person was in higher education).
It was reported that the current number of LAC in Brent was 338 compared to 410 previously, with a reduction in asylum seekers and Black Caribbean LAC. It was reported that the majority of children were housed in house foster carers which was approximately £300-£350 cheaper per week than using fostering agencies, with few children in residential children homes.
It was reported that all LAC had a personal education plan and a senior teacher working within the local authority was charged with ensuring improved educational achievements for LAC by tracking their progress. It was reported that a higher percentage of LAC were progressing into higher education as well as successful placements being achieved on the national and local apprenticeship schemes.
It was reported that the safeguarding and LAC inspection that took place in October 2011 rated the service overall as “adequate” with some good features. However, health outcomes for LAC in Brent were “inadequate”. The primary areas of concern were the timeliness and the quality of health assessments. A Health Action Plan was developed by Brent Primary Care Trust as well as monthly meetings being held by the Care Quality Commission to review and monitor the plan. Additionally, a nurse had been hired to address sexual health which had seen a successful reduction in the rate of teenage pregnancies.
Graham Genoni circulated a comparison of Corporate Parenting Groups across several boroughs and noted that they were similar to Brent in terms of constitutional makeup and the issues which they covered.
During discussion members queried that there were no actual parent representatives on the group. It was clarified that there were children and young person’s representatives and that many of the officers and Councillors would also be parents themselves. Members also queried the level of support offered to care leavers when moving into their own accommodation. It was clarified that a care leaver would be given a choice of flats which they would normally visit with their social worker. A fixed future programme will be created with training into basic skills such as changing a fuse etc to assist with the transition from childhood to adulthood. The Chair requested examples that were operating differently to Brent and details of the pros and cons of these models. Members were interested in models adopted by council’s where members had ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
|
Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme PDF 101 KB The Work Programme is attached. Minutes: The Chair requested an update on the recent LAC and Safeguarding inspection. The Lead Member for Children and Families informed the Committee that an interim single agency inspection had taken place with a finding of adequate.
The Chair queried whether there were any additional items to be placed on the work programme. Councillor Al Ebadi requested that the PSHE curriculum be placed on the agenda with particular reference to the sexual education programme delivered in schools. It was noted that an update on school places should be provided at each meeting and a copy of the ‘School Places Provision in Brent’ newsletter circulated to governors would be provided to the Committee. It was noted that there were numerous items which had not been scheduled to a particular meeting and it was agreed to keep this in check.
RESOLVED:-
i.
That the PSHE curriculum be added to the work programme
ii.
A copy of the newsletter be circulated to the Committee
iii.
Unscheduled items would be addressed
iv.
Members noted the work programme |
|
Date of next meeting The next meeting of the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny meeting is scheduled for 12 February 2013 Minutes: The Committee noted that the next meeting was scheduled to take place on 12 February 2013. |
|
Any other urgent business Notice of items raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Democratic Services Manager or his representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 64. Minutes: None |