Agenda item

To consider a report of the Director of Children’s Services regarding the key priorities of the Leeds Children and Young People Plan to advance at pace integrated working and the strengthening of safeguarding arrangements, and on an outline of the proposed children’s services performance management arrangements for Area Committees.

The Director of Children’s Services submitted a report regarding the key priorities of the Leeds Children and Young People Plan to advance at pace integrated working and the strengthening of safeguarding arrangements, and on an outline of the proposed children’s services performance management arrangements for Area Committees.

Appended to the report were copies of the following documents for the information/comment of the meeting:-

• Presentation slides in relation to improving Safeguarding and Integrated Working (Appendix A refers)
• A report of the Director of Children’s Services entitled ‘Area Committee Performance Management reporting for Children’s Services’ (Appendix B refers)

Jane Maxwell, Locality Enabler, Children’s Services was in attendance, introduced the slides and responded to Member’s queries and comments.

Members attention was drawn to the presentation slides in relation to improving Safeguarding and Integrated Working and were asked to comment on how Children’s Services can work more closely with the Area Committee and the Children’s Champion to drive forward the necessary improvements relating to children’s services.  An overview of current progress in relation to the Common Assessment Framework was also provided as an example of better integrated working.

In addition to the above documents, Councillor P Ewens briefly outlined her role and aspirations as Children’s Champion.

Discussion ensued on the contents of the report and appendices.

In summary, specific reference was made to the following issues:-

• the concerns expressed about the number of CRB checks required for different roles and the need for a radical review in this area by the Chief Executive, Education Leeds

(The Locality Enabler, Children’s Services responded and made reference to pending new ISA legislation. She agreed to keep the Area Committee informed of any new developments in this area)

• the need to continue to engage with the Area Committee’s Children and Young Person’s Sub Group and explore expanding this role in taking the proposals forward
• clarification of the ‘inadequate’ figures outlined in the proposed Area Committee Performance Management Report (Appendix 1 refers) which were seen as misleading and the need to add an ‘adequate’ column in this regard

(The Locality Enabler, Children’s Services responded and outlined the current Ofsted framework and scoring arrangements in relation to presenting data. She agreed to revisit this issue with a view to adding an additional column in future reports as requested)

• the need to focus on benchmarking and to provide details in the checklist of the number of Childminders employed within the city to enable comparisons to be made

(The Locality Enabler, Children’s Services responded and agreed to raise this important issue at the Children and Young Person’s Sub Group)

• clarification of  whom would ‘populate’ the settings and institutions performance figures outlined in Appendix 1 of the Proposed Area Committee Performance Management Report

(The Locality Enabler responded and confirmed that this task would be undertaken by staff located in Children’s Services)

• the need to include local indicators around teenage pregnancy and poverty and to focus on those who might be not known/or missing

(The Locality Enabler, Children’s Services drew Elected Members attention to the proposed indicators for these specific areas)

RESOLVED-

a)  That the contents of the report and appendices be noted.

b)  That the priorities and emerging actions identified in the report be noted.

c)  That, subject to addressing the above comments, the proposed format for local Children’s Service performance management reporting be approved in accordance with the report now submitted.

d)  That a meeting of the Children and Young People’s Sub Group be convened to agree the reporting mechanisms and that full  performance reports be submitted to the Area Committee meeting 

  in January and July of each year.