None.

Apologies for absence were received from Simon Bennett. 

RESOLVED: The Panel agreed the minutes as a true record of the meeting.

Panel agreed to re-order the agenda to the following:

Item 8 – Budget and Business Plan 2015-2019

Item 5 – Looked after children – Annual Corporate Parenting Report

Item 6 – Progress on safeguarding services

Item 7 – Local authority role on reducing particular vulnerabilities faced by girls

Item 9 – Performance Report

Item 10 – Work Programme

Item 11 – Glossary

Councillor Jeff Hanna informed the Panel that the report on the recruitment and retention of female and BME teachers would be circulated to the Panel at the end of November (reference page 4 of the Minutes of the meeting held on 15 October 2014).

Councillor Maxi Martin introduced the report explaining the background to the Corporate Parenting Committee. Paul Angeli added that there has been an increase in regulatory burden on the council which has resulted in the need for the service to raise the bar on what it currently provides. The Corporate Parenting Committee oversees this work.

Councillor Linda Taylor noted the good work undertaken by the council in increasing the number of young people adopted over the past year but expressed her concerns about the increase in the number of 16/17 year olds entering care, asking what sort of help they need. Councillor Linda Taylor also commented on the new handbooks produced for staff and young people but expressed concerns that there was not enough information on getting into employment or on claiming benefits.

Paul Angeli explained that there had been a lot of work undertaken with young people not in employment, education or training. The data in the report appears as though performance is declining in this area, however, this is the result of the way data was gathered on a national level which has shifted. Paul Angeli added that the council are now expected to track 19-21 year old care leavers and demonstrate this activity to central government which means an increased role for the local authority to play in the lives of young people who were in care beyond 19 years of age. A task force has therefore been set up to look at bringing together key agencies to track young people leaving care in this extended age range. The DWP also have new duties to ensure access to education, employment and training as well as what has been done locally. Paul Angeli added that he would ensure that further revisions to the handbook included information on accessing work.

Councillor Marsie Skeet enquired as to why only 62% of visits were completed within timescales and what the corporate parenting board were doing about this. Paul Angeli explained that this was a data quality issue and required further exploration – our case records show a higher level of visiting but the performance reports are not extracting this data. This issue has been raised at the corporate parenting board.. Paul Angeli reassured the Panel that there is a lot of scrutiny in this area to tackle underperformance.

Councillor Charlie Chirico asked if the onus was placed on young people to get in touch with the council about their whereabouts after leaving care and what contact the council made with care leavers. Paul Angeli explained that there are a range of circumstances and often some young people are no longer living in the borough. The council actively track all care leavers however; many young people do not wish to remain in contact with the council. A return of 21% of care leavers tracked has been returned to central government. This may not be reflective of those who are not in suitable accommodation.. However, where young people have opted out of further contact  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Councillor Maxi Martin introduced the report.

Councillor Marsie Skeet asked about the statement regarding 400 children going missing from their homes and care each year, what duration these children were missing for and what measures were in place to tackle this.

Paul Angeli explained that the 400 figure related to episodes of children going missing, not 400 separate cases. Government have recently changed guidelines and Merton has rewritten their protocol in response working with the police and the missing person’s team. Paul Angeli added that a high proportion of children going missing in Merton are being cared for by other local authorities but are placed in the borough. The council look into the case of a missing child from another borough as part of this revised protocol. Jigsaw4u has also been commissioned to engage with parents and young people to reduce episodes of children going missing.

Paul Angeli informed the Panel that in addition to the statutory duties placed on councils, the department are working with the police and engage with the child and parents to attempt to reduce the number of episodes of a child going missing.  Strategy meetings are also held to ensue that young people stay in placements and that the departments work is co-ordinated with the police in this area. Within this cohort, many of the girls and young women that go missing are at risk of sexual exploitation and the council are working on this.

Councillor Jeff Hanna asked if any child that had gone missing had not been found. Paul Angeli confirmed that although rare this was occasionally the case and that those children who had not been found may have potentially been trafficked. The council are in on-going dialogue with the police on these cases. Merton has one such case at present.

Councillor Katy Neep asked if 500 child protection investigations of children at risk was a high figure we should have concerns about. Paul Angeli explained that this figure was slightly higher that other authorities and meant that Merton was actively assessing risk of harm. However, the conversion rates from investigation to child protection plans being set up are not particularly high.

Councillor Jeff Hanna asked about the information that had been received in relation to data shared with the UK by the Canadian Police Force on potential offenders. Yvette Stanley confirmed that she had written to the Borough Commander to determine if any notifications had been received about activity in Merton. Yvette Stanley highlighted that Members of the Panel would be aware of national initiatives to tackle paedophilia and identify those accessing child pornography. There are large volumes of these cases found by Police which are now being addressed at national level.

Yvette Stanley explained that the police command is split into the work undertaken by the Borough Commander, child protection teams and other Police teams outside of the borough.. This can make it difficult to get an overview of perpetrators when cases are being overseen by a number of police  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Yvette Stanley introduced the report noting that there are a range of issues that fall under the category of vulnerabilities faced by girls and that responding to such issues is not managed or led solely by the Children, Schools and Families department. This work was also undertaken previously by Safer Merton and by our safeguarding board partner agencies.  A recent DV Strategic Needs Assessment recommended strengthening governance arrangements around delivery of these services and a broader brief for the council is to now bring together partners to look at the issues as outlined in this report.

Councillor Marsie Skeete asked if all schools have procedures in place to report concerns when girls from certain cultures are taken on holiday to certain places by families where the child is potentially at risk.  Yvette Stanley confirmed that all schools do have a procedure and report this to the council. Further to this a designated teachers group meets every six weeks to discuss issues. The council also works in line with pan London protocols and undertake the relevant assessments to determine any risks to the child. There is however still a lot of work to do in the health economy as referrals made previously were not coming through to the council. This has provided the local authority with some challenges. Furthermore, there is a need to develop an understanding amongst families of these issues.

Councillor Charlie Chirico asked what counselling services were offered to young girls and women that had experienced FGM. Paul Angeli explained that there isn’t a significant provision nationally or locally in this area at present but that a number of specialist teams operate out of hospitals which provide support. The Afuka charity also offer support to young people and adults.

Councillor Katy Neep asked what provision or funding was in place to support those with mental health problems resulting from these experiences, as provision was found to be quite poor nationally, what emotional well being support the council offered to young girls and what preventative work was undertaken in schools.

Paul Ballatt explained that mental health service provision is split between three tiers ranging from universal (tiers 1 and 2) to specialist provision (tier 3). At tiers 1 and 2, many schools have commissioned targeted mental health provision to ensure there is a counselling service available within the school.  Access to this service can be through self referral or through teaching staff recognising when students have problems or may benefit from counselling. At Tier 3, more specialist services are akin to the traditional CAMHS model. This includes training for non specialist staff to equip them with the skills to provide an initial level of intervention and support to students. Practioners follow national standards and national service frameworks in this area, yet there is a degree of specialism practioners possess which means that services provided can often be less connected to strategic need identified and more to their interests and area of expertise. 

Paul Ballatt added that the council can  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Caroline Holland introduced the report which was considered by Cabinet at their meeting on 20 October 2014 and set out the updated medium term financial strategy (MTFS), reflecting revisions to the budget and identified savings in line with confirmation of the government grant funding to be received. Departments were asked to review the current MTFS and present alternative savings which were outlined in the report. Furthermore, the updated capital programme also accounted for the school expansion programme. Caroline Holland explained the changes within the schools expansion programme would impact on revenue and the budget overall. Paul Ballatt added that the Panel received a report detailing the financial information on the capital programme and expansions programme at the last Panel meeting. Paul Ballatt also outlined the substantive changes in this years bidding round which included reducing permanent primary expansions by 2 forms of entry, and secondary expansion by 6 forms of entry and providing additional funding for enhanced special school provision which were not in earlier projections.

Caroline Holland informed the Panel that there was a council wide budget gap of £32 million which needed to be addressed and future savings proposals to achieve this would be brought to the next round of scrutiny in January 2015, along with revised service plans.

Councillor Jeff Hanna noted that the report was difficult to read in part due to the font size of the service plans. Councillor Jeff Hanna informed the Panel that he had contacted the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission, Councillor Peter Southgate, to raise this as a concern and to ask for the next round of budget and business plan proposals to be circulated with the agenda on A3 to make them easier for the Panel to read.

Paul Ballatt outlined that some of the savings previously agreed had been replaced as outlined and should be considered in conjunction with the equalities impact assessment.

Councillor James Holmes asked for information on the SEN Transport budget. Paul Ballatt explained that SEN transport is a replacement saving as the budget is under significant pressure. The ability to deliver this saving was questioned and this saving has therefore been removed and needs replacing. Paul Ballatt added that the Panel had received reports on this budget and the issues faced at previous meetings.

Paul Ballatt informed the Panel that a working group was established just under 3 years ago which led to minor changes in policy on the provision of SEN Transport. The department have looked at other forms of SEN transport beyond institutionalised forms which have been built into this transport policy and will ensure greater choice as well as value for money. There is now better liaison with the Environment and Regeneration department and the transport hub, with a post recently recruited which ensures liaison with parents regarding provision and choice. This has resulted in the achievement of some savings however; demographic growth has brought additional budget pressures and has impacted on the projections and savings that can be made  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Councillor Jeff Hanna informed the Panel that a meeting had been arranged to review the current set of performance indicators that the Panel receives and that there would be a report back in January to the Panel on the outcome of that meeting.

Paul Ballatt expressed his thanks to the Panel for attending the performance monitoring training session delivered on 20^th October. Panel returned their thanks to Naheed Chaudhry and Paul Ballatt for delivering the session.

RESOLVED: Panel noted the report.

Yvette Stanley informed the Panel that Jan Martin, Head of Education, was due to retire shortly.

RESOLVED:  Panel noted the work programme and wished to record their thanks to Jan Martin for her hard work to date and to wish her well in her retirement.

RESOLVED: Panel noted the glossary and thanked Paul Ballatt for producing the document.