Agenda and minutes

1.1       Apologies for absence were received from the Lead Member for Adult Social Care and Health, Councillor Maynard.

Disclosures by all members present of personal interests in matters on the agenda, the nature of any interest and whether the member regards the interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct.

2.1       Councillors Ungar and Webb declared personal, non-prejudicial interests as Members of the East Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board. Cllr Ungar also declared a personal, non-prejudicial interest as Co-Chair of Eastbourne and Lewes Community Safety Partnership.

Notification of items which the Chair considers to be urgent and proposes to take at the appropriate part of the agenda. Any members who wish to raise urgent items are asked, wherever possible, to notify the Chair before the start of the meeting. In so doing, they must state the special circumstances which they consider justify the matter being considered urgent.

3.1       There were none.

4.1       The Committee considered a report outlining the learning from a Serious Case Review (SCR) undertaken during 2017/18 and a wider Learning and Impact Review undertaken by the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB). The report was introduced by the Independent Chair of the LSCB, Reg Hooke, and the Head of Children’s Safeguards, Douglas Sinclair. They highlighted the associated learning (i.e. points not directly arising from the case but learning which arises from the additional scrutiny provided by a SCR). For example, the issue of non-attendance at school and whose responsibility it is to follow this up or undertake a welfare visit, particularly the circumstances in which the Police or Children’s Services should be involved.

4.2       The following points were made in response to the Committee’s questions:

·         The role of the child’s father was looked at as part of the SCR. The father had some substance misuse issues but was regularly seen at school. The child had indicated that the father was involved regularly but was not in a relationship with the mother and was not part of the household.

·         In relation to the role of the school, action was taken with regard to the child’s non-attendance. The child’s limp was presented as something she had always had and wasn’t a significant issue with regard to the child’s participation in school activities. The Committee was assured that the SCR did robustly investigate the school’s action and processes, and the LSCB was satisfied that the child did not stand out in a safeguarding sense.

·         The Committee received assurance that improvements have been made to communication between different agencies. There is now an integrated service for 0-5 year olds across Children’s Centres and Health Visiting and processes are significantly better with regard to the automatic transfer of records from the midwifery team and birth records to health visitors. The Assistant Director, Early Help and Social Care expressed confidence that the system would not have ‘lost’ the child in the same way had these improved processes been in place at the time.

·         The Learning and Impact Review looked at 147 recommendations across a series of reviews and identified a range of learning around key areas such as domestic abuse, ‘hidden’ children, safeguarding practice in schools and the complexity of working with large families (with three or more children). It was not always clear to see why a recommendation was made and the desired outcome - the SCR process has now been adapted to ensure this is clear. The Review has been discussed by the LSCB in order to identify changes to process and the SCR Action Plan has been signed off by the Board. A recommendations review process has now been built in after 1 or 2 years on to check their impact.

4.3       The Committee concluded that a key issue is having the ability to track a child across the system to ensure they don’t go off the radar. From a County Council point of view this is particularly relevant to health visiting.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.1       The Committee considered a further 12 month progress report on the recommendations arising from the Scrutiny Review of Raising the Age of Participation.

5.2       The following points were made in response to the Committee’s questions:

·         In relation to the Gatsby benchmarks it is too early to say how East Sussex compares to other areas or the position of schools with regard to achieving the benchmarks by 2020. However, the Committee was assured that significant work is ongoing with schools to establish their current position in relation to the benchmarks and there will be a review of progress in a year.

·         The Committee was assured that work on mental health will continue to be aligned with schools.

5.3       The Lead Member for Education and Inclusion, Special Educational Needs and Disability highlighted the importance of this work in relation to Skills East Sussex. East Sussex is leading the way in terms of careers work and expects investment to be attracted as a result.

5.4       The Committee concluded that good progress has been made against the recommendations and that performance against targets is positive. The key issue relates to longer term sustainability but the evidence suggests that the Committee can be reasonably confident that the work is embedded.

5.5       RESOLVED:

(1)   to conclude the monitoring of this Scrutiny Review given the good progress made; and

(2)   to thank officers for their work and for keeping it under ongoing review.

6.1       The Committee discussed its draft work programme which comprised a number of ongoing Scrutiny Reviews, Reference Groups and planned reports inherited from predecessor Scrutiny Committees.

Scrutiny Reviews

6.2       In relation to the ‘Coping with Change – The Way Forward’ Scrutiny Review the Committee RESOLVED:

(1)   to continue the Review on the basis of the updated Terms of Reference within the report; and

(2)  to appoint Cllr Galley to continue to Chair the Review Board and to appoint Cllrs Field, Loe and Whetstone and Matthew Jones to the Board.

(3)  To invite the Diocesan representatives to provide any further evidence to the Board during the next phase of the Review.

6.3       In relation to potential future Scrutiny Reviews, the Committee RESOLVED:

(1)  to appoint Cllrs Clark, Ensor, Liddiard and Sheppard to undertake scoping work for a potential Review of foster care;

(2)  to appoint Cllrs Davies, Ensor, Galley, Ungar and Webb to undertake scoping work in relation to a potential Review on the care home market;

(3)  to add isolation and loneliness and ESBT locality working to the list of potential future topics and to confirm home education as a potential topic;

(4)  to request that details of a current national consultation on home education are circulated to the Committee.

Reference Groups

6.4       Following discussion, the Committee RESOLVED:

(1)  that Cllrs Clark, Davies, Ensor, Ungar and Webb will take a lead role in monitoring the progress of the East Sussex Better Together and Connecting 4 You programmes on behalf of the Committee, including identifying potential topics for Scrutiny Review in these areas;

(2)  to hold a further meeting of the Educational Attainment Reference Group in early 2019 and to request that the Group provides a summary of findings to the Committee. The Reference Group to comprise Cllrs Field, Galley and Whetstone.

(3)  to continue the Early Help Reference Group and that Cllrs Davies, Field, Galley and Whetstone be appointed to the Group.

Future reports

6.5       In relation to future reports for committee agendas and those to be circulated for information the Committee RESOLVED:

(1)  to retain all the reports listed for future Committee agendas;

(2)  to request an update report on Delayed Transfers of Care at the end of 2018 to be circulated for information;

(3)  to request that the SACRE report to be circulated for information in autumn 2018 focuses on issues with regard to participation in religious education and to request that a further annual SACRE report to be added to the Committee’s agenda in March 2019;

(4)  to remove the update report on Health and Social Care Connect;

(5)  to remove the report for information on Children’s Centres as this area will be examined by the Early Help Reference Group.

Forward Plan

6.6       The Committee RESOLVED to note the Forward Plan.

7.1       The Committee considered a report which provided an annual review of Safer Communities performance, priorities and issues which was introduced by the Assistant Director - Planning, Performance and Engagement, Samantha Williams, and the Safer Communities Manager, Justine Armstrong-Smith.

7.2       The following points were made in response to the Committee’s questions:

·         Officers assured the Committee that there is sufficient flexibility within the partnerships and plans to adjust to emerging challenges. Officers provided examples where there has been a shift in emphasis within the Business Plan in response to new threats and challenges such as cybercrime, exploitation, drugs and cuckooing.

·         In relation to funding provided by the Police and Crime Commissioner, this is now focused at district and borough level, plus some funding to work on issues on a pan-Sussex basis. The work of the Safer East Sussex team supports both county-wide and more local work, for example current work around County Lines and cuckooing. The team attends as many local meetings as possible and also plays a key role in translating national and regional policies into local work. Key relationships are in place and there have been recent discussions at Community Safety Partnerships to discuss meeting arrangements going forward.

·         In relation to statistics on the number of people receiving drug treatment, East Sussex has a good record of people successfully moving through treatment first time and not subsequently coming back into the system which impacts on the figures for the numbers entering treatment. The county compares well nationally.

·         Sussex Police are reporting a real challenge in keeping pace with cuckooing, particularly given the age profile which can be as young as 11, and the use of different types of property such as Air B&B and caravans which are less visible. The Lead Member for Children and Families commented on the involvement of Children’s Services and the LSCB in Safer Communities work, for example supporting County Lines work by taking children into care for protection.

·         There are a range of actions underway via partnership working in relation to drug misuse and cuckooing, for example action in schools on exploitation incorporates exploitation related to drugs.

·         In relation to the scale of modern slavery within the county, officers advised that Project Discovery in the Hastings and Rother area had made six referrals to the National Referral Mechanism since the start of year. A further six cases have been referred through other routes as it is not yet clear whether these cases are modern slavery. Eight people have come forward through other initiatives. Project Discovery is due to be rolled out across East Sussex which will enable a clearer picture of the issue to be obtained.

7.3       The Lead Member for Communities and Safety commented that the partnership arrangements in East Sussex work very well and enable partners to be reactive to current issues. There is a need to be engaged at regional level as well as within the county given the nature of crimes and the Police and Crime Commissioner funding arrangements  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.