Decision details

Cabinet considered a report of the Chief Executive regarding support for Children’s Services in Buckinghamshire.

The background of Buckinghamshire’s need for external support following a failed Ofsted inspection was outlined to Cabinet. As a result Hampshire County Council’s Chief Executive had been identified as the DfE Commissioner for Buckinghamshire, with the County Council an improvement partner. In the vein of the context provided by the Chief Executive under the previous item on the agenda, it was explained that this arrangement fitted with the current drive for sector led improvement on a regional basis. The department’s commitments in Torbay were coming to an end following the establishment of a long-term support solution and therefore it was felt that capacity existed to enter into such an arrangement.

With the agreement of the Chairman Councillor Porter addressed Cabinet. She felt there was a need for caution on the same basis as she had identified under the previous item on the agenda. She noted that it was 80 miles to Buckinghamshire and had similar concerns around the pressure on staff especially in combination with the need to achieve T19 savings. Councillor Porter welcomed confirmation that Hampshire children would remain the priority, but found it difficult to see how an impact would not be felt.

The Chief Executive confirmed that in the children’s services environment post Haringey, a number of local authorities are likely to need long term support. This was the position that the Isle of Wight had found themselves in and in providing such support, Hampshire had developed the capacity and experience to be able to support other authorities, such as Torbay and Buckinghamshire to assist them in the short term and enable them to find their own long term solution.

Cabinet welcomed the assurance that any risk associated with partnership work such as this could be managed and were agreed that Hampshire should provide support to others where it was able to do so. It was furthermore noted that other large County Councils, such as Essex were in a similar position and Members agreed that support within the sector was preferable to outsourcing to private companies.

The recommendations in the report were proposed and agreed. The decision record is attached.