Agenda and minutes

Venue: Conference Room 3 - Civic Centre. View directions

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies and Changes in Panel Membership (If Any)

To note any changes in membership of the Panel made in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 4.3.

Minutes:

It was noted that following receipt of the temporary resignation of Councillor L Harris from the Panel, the Head of Legal and Democratic Services, acting under delegated powers, had appointed Councillor B Harris to replace him for the purposes of this meeting.

 

 

2.

Election of Vice-Chair

Election of Vice-Chair for the Municipal Year 2015/16.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that Councillor McEwing be elected as Vice-Chair for the Municipal Year 2015/2016.

 

3.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting (including matters arising) pdf icon PDF 56 KB

To approve and sign as a correct record the Minutes of the meetings held on 2nd February, 2015 and to deal with any matters arising, attached.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 2nd February, 2015 be approved and signed as a correct record.

4.

Children and Families - Performance pdf icon PDF 71 KB

Report of the Head of Legal Services, setting out an overview of performance across the Children and Families Division and detailing the performance indicators, used to measure performance, attached.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel considered the report of the Head of Legal and Democratic Services setting out an overview of the performance across the Children and Families Division and detailing the performance indicators used to measure performance.

 

An overview was given to the Panel on work that had been undertaken since the Ofsted review and particularly the work of the MASH (Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub).

 

The Panel looked in detail at the data provided in Appendix 1 to the report.  As an authority a significant number of children were dealt with and levels had increased in the last month.  This had impacted on the trend of the data together with additional pressures being added to the teams due to the changes in business support provided to them.

 

RESOLVED:-

  i.  that officers provide the Panel with information outlining the sources of referrals to the MASH;

  ii.  that the Cabinet Member works with the Head of Service to ensure that appropriate action was taken to address the performance issues created by changes within the Business Support function;

  iii.  that officers contact Portsmouth City Council to develop an understanding of why their levels of Looked After Children were much lower than those in Southampton;

  iv.  that the Panel were provided with a breakdown of the headline reasons why children in Southampton have become looked after;

  v.  that the Chair of the Panel and the Cabinet Member give consideration to how the Scrutiny Panel and the Corporate Parenting Committee can work together to improve outcomes for Looked After Children;

  vi.  that officers incorporate into the performance indicators monitored by the Panel, relevant indicators relating to education, youth offending, NEETS, children’s health, fostering and adoption at appropriate intervals, to enable the Panel to have an overview of Children and Family Services in Southampton,;

  vii.  that commentary be incorporated into the Performance Indicator dataset, to aid analysis; and

viii.  that action be taken to improve performance with regards to Looked After Children having Personal Education Plans in place.