Somerset Children and Young People’s Compact Executive
Summary of Discussions:
Wednesday 10 June 2015, 9.30am-12.30pm
Wadham School, Crewkerne
Attendees:
Early Years: Rachel Parish
SAPHTO: Phil Burner (Chair) and Heather Barraclough
SASH: David Derbyshire
SAHSP: Alison Murkin and Liz Hayward
SGSG: Eilleen Tipper
Schools Forum: Helen Rogerson
Cabinet Lead for Children and Families: Cllr Frances Nicholson
Director of Children’s Services: Julian Wooster
Executive Officers: Richard Graydon (SASH), Rob Benzie (SASH), Helen Roper (SGSG), David Hayward (SAPHTO), Sue Gray (Early Years), Harry Dicks (SASHP)
Strategic Commissioner (Education outcomes and VL): Dave Farrow
LA Finance Representation: Sharon Campbell
SSE: Neal Chislett
Public Health: Teresa Day
Commissioning: Jesse Eveleigh
Apologies: Kay Love (SGSG), Rachel O’Malley (EY), Anna Winch (SASH), Julia Ridge, Ian Rowswell (SSE)
Item / Action1a. / Apologies, Welcomes and Declaration of Interests
No declarations of interest were declared.
1b. / Notes of the last meeting 13.05.15 and matters arising
The notes of the last meeting were agreed as accurate and the following matters arising discussed:
· Item 2 – Shane Dangar and Eileen Collard are a time limited resource and Dave Farrow suggested that maximum use is made of them whilst available. Details are to be circulated.
· Item 4 – Work on this is continuing and Dave Farrow will bring further details to the July meeting
· Item 5 – It was suggested that the Diocesan presentation should be available to schools that were unable to attend the event earlier. 3 possible dates are to be circulated to Chair of Governors. Also, the first bullet within Item 5 should read ‘shrinking’, not ‘shirking’.
2. / Somerset Children & Young People Survey – progress update
Teresa Day (SCC) spoke to the meeting about the survey and progress made to date. She said that the emergent theme is around emotional health and wellbeing. The following work has been commissioned in Public Health:
· Emotion Coaching for schools. 54 schools and colleges are participating. It has been rolled out across 5 districts, and in each district the aim is for 20 Emotional Coaches. Details of early years provision was requested by Frances Nicholson.
· Engagement with Young People – 2 people have been recruited to work with the Young People’s Champions. The aim is to talk to young people about emerging themes and this work can be taken back to the Young People’s Champions Group. The young people participating are really enjoying the work, which is due to end at the beginning of next year.
Self Esteem Workshops and resources are also available via Dove. This work will start in schools from September. There will be a twilight session at Chilton Trinity School on 16th September at 4.15pm.
There is a mental health toolkit on the Children and Young People’s website that has numerous resources. The website is being developed to make it more user friendly. The web address is www.cypsomersethealth.org
There will be a conference later this year around emotional health and wellbeing.
Another survey will be carried out next year, but work is continuing this year with Children Looked After and Avalon re SEND to get their views.
Teresa said that there needed to be more accessibility to the survey by mainstream schools. 1,000 college students participated last time, but work needs to be done to develop participation with regards to the quality and scope of replies.
Neal Chislett commented that the data was very valuable and consideration needs to be given to how this can best be used to inform future direction. David Derbyshire added that input from an individual setting would be useful.
3. / PFSA Allocation Formula and update following ‘call for evidence’
This item was presented by Jesse Eveleigh (SCC).
The PFSA’s are still very active and this is a good example of multi-agency working. The PFSA’s are highly valued. The service level agreement will be published later this year. There is a better knowledge within schools of the role of the PFSA’s. However, 2 surveys conducted with schools and the PFSA’s indicates that there is little knowledge of the scope and the responsibilities of the PFSA role and sometimes they can be stretched thinly. The funding formula is being developed as there is the need to give fairness to the allocation of funding to clusters.
The average cost of a PFSA is £31k (including on costs). The formula allocation to clusters would be weighted as follows:
· 80% based on numbers on roll
· 10% Ever6 numbers
· 10% pupil premium numbers
In order to ensure that no cluster is penalized, additional amounts would be allocated to schools to minimize any turbulence caused by the change in rationale (effectively creating protection).
SLA to be launched via the PFSA conference scheduled for 11th September. Line managers are also to be invited to the conference.
Jesse asked the meeting whether they agreed with the 80:10:10 allocation model, or would they like a different ratio.
Helen Roper asked how long the protection would be in place. Jesse Eveleigh said that this was difficult to determine.
Rob Benzie commented that he thought that rurality would be a more useful criterion than pupil premium as a basis of allocation.
Liz Hayward said that some schools employ staff in similar roles to the PFSA’s but they work under a different title. However, these staff should be included in CPD opportunities.
Jesse Eveleigh said that the SLA document should be used to put in place appropriate responsibilities for PFSA’s. It is also anticipated that the conference will be an annual event.
Phil Burner summed up as follows:
· 80:10:10 agreed as the basis of allocation
· Rurality to be considered
· Countywide aspect of the PFSA role to be expanded
· Reference point for managers should be the LA team that put the SLA in place
4. / Children’s Improvement Board update
Julian Wooster presented this item and took the meeting through a PowerPoint presentation.
By the end of June a report needs to be made to the Minister of State about the ability of Somerset to improve.
Julian Wooster told the meeting that the challenge is great, especially within Social Care where 100 additional social workers are needed. Alison Murkin asked about how much impact the low retention rate of social workers has on the overall position, to which Julian Wooster replied that there is no one factor that impacts most on the situation; it is similar to schools requiring improvement. David Derbyshire commented that the allocation of additional funds encourages the conclusion that resources are central to improvement. Julian Wooster responded that resources are not the only element.
Alison Murkin asked what the case load of a social worker should be. Julian Wooster replied that it should be around 14, but some may have 20 – 25, even as high as 40. The issue is twofold: not enough resources and too much work in the system. Investment has been made in other areas over recent years, and as a result, investment in Social Care has declined. Alison Murkin asked about the marketing strategy to attract staff to Somerset. Julian Wooster said that reducing the case load to 14 and for managers to manage no more than 6 social workers would help. Eileen Tipper commented that the culture in Social Services has not been good for children e.g. inappropriateness of some referrals, mistrust of schools and the failure of some agencies.
Julian Wooster told the meeting that the key points are:
· Aim is to get to ‘Requires Improvement’ within 1 year
· Get to ‘Good’ within 3 years
· An additional £6m of funding has been allocated from within the LA reserves (but there is a potential problem after 3 years when the funding is no longer available)
Rob Benzie asked about the possibility of using people who may have trained as teachers or school support staff who could retrain as social workers. There are fast track courses available. But, Alison Murkin asked whether these courses produced social workers of a sufficient quality. If the courses are truncated, does this compromise quality?
The Improvement Plan identifies 9 priorities. During the presentation the following comments were made:
David Derbyshire – good that capacity going back into the LA, but where is the funding coming from? Julian Wooster replied that the £6m (mentioned above) would be used. He also stated that schools are key to the process as they are best placed to identify and address issues for individual children. A key outcome will be to ensure that vulnerable students perform at the same level as children in London from similar starting points / disadvantage.
Rob Benzie remarked that the resources are not in schools currently and therefore the aim needs to be to put more robust systems in place before these outcomes are possible. However, Julian Wooster reminded the meeting that we need to remember that we are still experiencing austerity and this in unlikely to change in the near future.
Rob Benzie also asked about the expectations around different categories of schools i.e. academies, maintained, early years etc, as there are great inconsistencies at the moment. Julian Wooster replied that the programme has worked in London as outcomes have been the driver. David Derbyshire responded by saying that the resourcing level is much lower in Somerset than London, and that there is sometimes tension within schools as there can be a duplication of work, especially around the roles of multi agencies. He added that pupil premium funding merely plugs a gap rather than providing new funding. He added that the complexity of the issue needs to be recognized, and questioned whether we still have the mechanisms in place to support the programme. Julian Wooster commented that all agencies need to support schools.
Neal Chislett added that there are only 5 LA employees to support improvement in schools. Julian Wooster added that therefore it is even more important that schools and the LA work together to maximize their impact.
The LA has a responsibility to promote inter agency co-operation, but this is currently failing. The Working Together 2015 document requires that all social workers are suitable qualified, and this has resulted in the identification of 100 additional posts. In the year to 30/04/15, the following occurred:
· 28,486 communications were made with social care
· 6,464 referrals were made (19.5% of all contacts)
· 5,553 CIN referrals
· 212 initial child protection conferences (0.7% of all contacts)
One of the reasons why there are so many issues in the system is because agencies are avoiding conversations with parents / carers. This needs to be tackled.
The following points were also made:
· There are inefficiencies in the ‘refer on’ culture
· ‘getset’ is not the only early help organisation
· Key providers include health visitors, housing, schools, nurses, Homestart
· Early help is the responsibility of everyone – agencies need to work more smartly together
· Quality of practice needs to improve
· Pockets of good practice are happening
As a result, there needs to be a revision of the Early Help and Threshold Guidance. The Early Help Programme Board held its first meeting on Monday 8th June. There were questions around what early help should look like, and who should be on the Board.
The Somerset Early Help Charter is to be issued to all members of Compact.
Key elements to include are:
· Early help practitioners
· Those supporting early help practitioners
· Early Help Competency Framework to be put in place
Rob Benzie suggested that Compact needs to task a working group to work in conjunction with Julian Wooster to expand the scope and implementation of this work. It needs to include Head and Deputy Headteachers. Julian Wooster said that he has successfully worked with large reference groups in the past: the important thing is that the right people are involved, not the number involved.
David Hayward felt that colleagues in schools needed to hear Julian Wooster talk directly to them, rather than receiving the messages from this presentation via their representatives. There was a conversation around how this could be achieved, but no recommendations were made.
With regards to thresholds, a more simplified structure is being put in place. A workshop is being held in Taunton on 23rd June.
Routes of access to early help are currently being considered.
· Tiers 1 / 2 Locality access hub / multi agency consultation line
· Tiers 3 / 4 Somerset Direct
Rob Benzie suggested that help should be organised around school pyramids / CLP groupings could be the model (Julian Wooster agreed).
David Derbyshire added that the geographical organisation of PEVP could be a potential model. It was agreed this would be explored
Phil Burner talked about the expanded model in Frome, but added that there is an issue around school capacity.
Different threshold guidance documents were distributed for the meetings members to look at. Julian Wooster spoke about the difficulties and questions around what to include in the Somerset document. Phil Burner suggested that a working party or task and finish group was needed to consider the different documents, to which Rob Benzie added that he though a 12 – 15 member group of school leaders should be formed to carry out this work. David Derbyshire added that those colleagues on the working groups should hear Julian Wooster’s presentation before starting work. Friday 12th June was the deadline given for identification of members for the group. Julian Wooster added that the guidance needs to be in place by September.
5. / SEND Review update
This item was presented by Dave Farrow.
There has been a visit from the Department of Education to assess progress.
The Workforce Development Team has delivered 63 events around the County on SEND Reforms.
Joint Commissioning is an area still to be developed.
The local offer will change over the next year and as a result there will be one system to cover both children’s and adults services.
The personal budgets policy is being developed.
A self-evaluation tool is being implemented.
Parent / Carer groups around schools are being established.
A Better Together conference is to take place.
There will be a 360 degree review of the work around the SEND agenda.
Currently, 54% of SEND requests are being approved. There is a similar issue to that in CSC in that there are too many requests being made and as a result it is difficult to meet the 20 week deadline for learning / support plans.
From September, the SEN casework team is being enhanced with colleagues from Careers South West and a new structure is being put in place. The details will be issued to schools when finalised.
6. / Any Other Business
a) Alison Bell (Public Health Consultant – CYP) would like to be invited to future meetings. It was agreed that she could attend, but as a non-voting member. Dave Farrow is to inform her.
b) Updates: Richard Graydon – spoke about the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and affiliation fees. He proposed, after negotiations with Jeff Brown (Service Manager), that affiliation fees are initially reduced to encourage participation, but that these are gradually increased over the following three years. This was agreed.
David Hayward – Early Years and Primary Heads are meeting to discuss transition. This will happen w/c 15th June for the first time.
Helen Roper – Schools and Early Years providers need to nominate members for the new Governors Group.
The next meeting will take place on 8th July 2015. At this meeting a new Chair needs to be appointed form the elected representatives. Sharon Campbell also gives her apologies.
7. / Issues/Updates from Associations, Information Items and update papers
No issues/updates.
Dates and Venues of Future Compact Executive Meetings:
08/07/2015 2-5pm, Wyndham Room
08/10/2015 9.30am – 12.30pm, Dillington House – proposed joint meeting with Schools Forum
24/11/2015 2-5pm, Taunton Library
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