Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

No apologies were received.

All Members who believe they have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting must declare that interest and, having regard to the circumstances described in Part 3 Paragraph 1.5 of the County Council's Members' Code of Conduct, leave the meeting while the matter is discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with Paragraph 1.6 of the Code. Furthermore all Members with a Non-Pecuniary interest in a matter being considered at the meeting should consider whether such interest should be declared, and having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 2 of the Code, consider whether it is appropriate to leave the meeting while the matter is discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with the Code.

Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in any matter considered at the meeting they must declare that interest at the time of the relevant debate and, having regard to the circumstances described in Part 3, Paragraph 1.5 of the County Council's Members' Code of Conduct, leave the meeting while the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with Paragraph 1.6 of the Code. Furthermore Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Non-Pecuniary interest in a matter being considered at the meeting they considered whether such interest should be declared, and having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 2 of the Code, considered whether it was appropriate to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with the Code.

Cllr Jackie Porter declared a non-pecuniary interest in Items 6 and 9, as she is the Chair of a Pre-School that receives special educational needs funding, and in Item 8, as she is a Chairman of Trustees in one of the organisations receiving funding for overnight respite services.

Cllr Robert Taylor declared a pecuniary interest in Item 8, as he is a paid part-time employee of Sebastian’s Action Trust, who received funding for providing an overnight respite pilot.

Cllr Malcolm Wade made a non-pecuniary interest, as he is a Trustee of an organisation that has previously received a grant from Children’s Services.

Cllr Peter Edgar, the Executive Member for Education, who has a standing invitation to attend and speak to the Committee, noted a non- pecuniary interest, which is that he is a lifelong member of the National Association of Head Teachers.

To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting

The Minutes of the meeting held on 8 November 2017 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any deputations notified under Standing Order 12.

The Committee received two deputations on Item 8 ‘Proposal to close overnight residential respite homes for children with disabilities as the County Council moves towards a wider range of overnight respite services‘.

Ms Gail Bedding, Chief Executive of the Hampshire Parent Carer Network, made a deputation requesting that the County Council pause making a decision on closing the overnight residential respite homes until the alternative options had been outlined to parents and carers.

Ms Marie-Louise Johnson made a deputation asking members to consider the equalities impact on children with disabilities when considering the report, and requested that the recommendations be reconsidered.

To receive any announcements the Chairman may wish to make.

The Chairman did not make any announcements to the meeting.

To consider the report of the Director of Corporate Services and Director of Children's Services prior to the decision of the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services.

The Director of Children’s Services and a representative of the Director of Corporate Resources attended before the Committee in order to present the revenue budget for Children’s Services for 2018/19 (see report and presentation, Item 6 in the Minute Book).

The presentation outlined the overall County Council financial position. The local government grant settlement announced in 2016 provided provisional figures for authorities for the following three financial years, including 2018/19, to aid financial planning, and the settlement for 2018/19 was mostly unchanged compared to the forecast position. Since this time, however, a pay offer had been made for local government workers of 2% per annum, and changes to the lower pay grades to reflect the move to the National Living Wage. This element was not costed in the finance settlement, and therefore consideration would need to be given as to how to meet this ongoing cost pressure.

There would be a significant draw down from the Grant Equalisation Reserve in 2018/19 in order to support the savings required as part of Transformation to 2019. In a change from previous years, the Government had changed the Council Tax precept cap, enabling a potential increase of 2.99% without consultation, plus 2% for social care. This development would be discussed by Cabinet in February.

A fair funding review had been announced by Government, which would see a consultation on how local government would be financed in future. This review promised to implement any changes by 2020/21. Also announced was a green paper on funding adult social care, although this would not result in any new funding in this area for 2018/19.

An overview of the Council’s reserves strategy and financial position was provided, which set out that of the £524.2m held, approximately £79.4m, or 15.1% of the reserves, were truly ‘available’ to support one-off spending, although most of this was already allocated.

Members received an update on progress against the ‘Transformation to 2019’ proposals, as requested in November 2017. As previously noted, Children’s Services would be receiving cashflow support from County Treasurers to enable delivery of the £30m of savings required from the Department. This was in part due to the need to phase the savings up to 2022/23, owing to efficiencies for the most part being linked to work around ‘partners in practice’ and safely reducing the number of looked after children. As part of the Transformation to 2019 programme, the Department would be leading two consultations; one on short breaks activities, and one on home to school transport.

Members heard details on the proposed 2018/19 budget for Children’s Services. The priorities for the Department remained the same and had been essential in focusing resource where it was most needed. Many of the key Departmental issues and challenges were not new and had previously been discussed with the Committee. The Department would continue to work to manage increasing demand for children’s services, working hard to continue to keep children safe. As previously reported, the issue of unaccompanied asylum seekers was an additional  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

To consider the report of the Director of Corporate Services and Director of Children's Services prior to the decision of the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services.

The Director of Children’s Services and his representatives attended before the Committee in order to present the capital programme for Children’s Services for 2018/19 – 2020/21 (see report and presentation, Item 7 in the Minute Book).

The Capital Programme for Children’s Services continued to be an exciting investment for Hampshire, as this was the most significant schools construction activity for over 30 years, and the largest nationally. To date, an additional 8,088 school places had been built, and it was proposed that provision be made for a further 9,632 primary and secondary places. Overall, the pupil number trends showed that the pressure on primary school places was starting to plateau in some areas of the county. However, an increase was now starting to be seen in secondary schools as children progressed through the education system.

The pupil forecasting model includes new housing figures provided by the planning authorities in Hampshire, so proposed new schools to serve housing developments were dependent on housing schemes going ahead. Any slippage in new housing developments would also be reflected  in the programme.

The County Council had received approval from the Department for Education for a new 125 place free school in Basingstoke, which will accommodate children with special communication needs and those on the autistic spectrum. This was one of only 20 Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) schools approved in a recent free school initiative . In addition to this, national funding of  £215m has been made available for SEND for which Hampshire is expected to receive  £3.7m.

There would be a pressure on the Capital Programme over a five year period, owing to additional need, inflation challenges and concerns regarding construction. The County Council did not have any live schemes being delivered in partnership with Carillion, and the Department would be looking at any historic schemes to see if there will be an impact on the County Council.

The County Council is contributing to the government review of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), and would specifically be lobbying on the restrictions around pooling schemes to pay for major infrastructure projects.

On the 2018/19 to 2020/21 Capital Programme, in response to questions, Members heard:

• Some schemes previously proposed may slip or be suspended if the pupil numbers forecast do not come to fruition. In the case of the Trosnant Schools in Havant, investment would still be taking place, but not at the capacity previous planned due to pupil numbers in Leigh Park not increasing to the number previously forecast.
• Where applicable the Department uses Section 106 funding for new school buildings and expansions,  secured through major housing developments. CIL funds tended to be small investments and there was a limit on how many of these could be pooled, although they were on occasion used for school expansions and improvements. If this was required, negotiations would be held within the County Council  to agree what proportion of CIL funding would be used for schools.
• The school places plan took its forecasting from housing developments  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.

To subject to pre-decision scrutiny the proposals for overnight residential respite in Hampshire, following the consultation heard on this subject.

The Director of Children’s Services and his representatives attended before the Committee in order to speak to the ‘Proposals to close two overnight residential respite homes for children with disabilities as the County Council moves towards a wider range of overnight respite services’ item (see Item 8 in the Minute Book).

The report set out the outcomes of the public consultation heard on the proposals to close two overnight residential respite homes – Merrydale in Kings Worthy (Winchester) and Sunbeams in Aldershot – and to offer a wider sustainable overnight respite service to disabled children and their families. The closure would impact on 35 children and their families currently using these centres.

The report in the Committee’s papers would be considered by the Executive Lead Member for Children’s Services at his decision day later in the afternoon.

In response to questions, Members heard:

·         That currently 23 children and their families used specialist respite care provided through foster carers, and there were 40 foster carers available. These were not currently geographically balanced across the County, so work was ongoing to target areas where there is less respite capacity to ensure that children and their families can access support close to home. The benefit of these specialist foster carers was that families and children could build long-term relationships with individuals, getting to know and trust them to provide respite care.

·         There should be no resultant impact on those children and families accessing overnight respite at Firvale in Basingstoke, as the capacity at this centre was enough that it could support additional children.

·         That if the decision was made to close Merrydale and Sunbeams, this would not take place until May 2018, in order to ensure that all families have an opportunity to meet with their social worker to consider the alternative options for respite care that would meet their needs.

·         Part of the driver for proposing to close Merrydale and Sunbeams and to provide a new offer of overnight respite care was to give children and their families a greater range of options that moved away from traditional overnight stays in accommodation away from their communities.

·         A commitment had been made that no child assessed as requiring overnight respite support would have a reduction in this offer; the changes would instead lead to this offer being delivered in a different way. The eligibility criteria would remain the same, as would the support offered to children and their families; there would be no need for reassessments.

·         A further commitment had been made that families would not be adversely financially impacted by any changes to how overnight respite care is offered, with any additional travel required to alternative services supported by Children’s Services, and agreed with families on an individual basis.

·         All children and their families had been offered a 1-2-1 meeting with their social worker to discuss the proposals and to hold initial discussions about alternative options. Of these, two families had not taken up this offer; it was believed that this was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.

To consider the report of the Director of Children's Services on the attainment of children and young people in Hampshire schools.

The Committee received a report and presentation (Item 9 in the Minute Book) from representatives of the Director of Children’s Services on the attainment of pupils in Hampshire schools, following on from an update provided in January 2017 on the changes to how attainment is measured nationally.

Members had noted during the previous consideration of this item that there had been an unprecedented change in the way performance was measured in schools in 2016, with the introduction of new standards at key stage one, and key stage two, and the introduction of new GCSE courses and methods of assessment at key stage four. Overall, outcomes for children and young people in Hampshire continued to outperform national averages, although direct comparisons could not be made between previous assessment types and those recently introduced. In particular, Hampshire continued to perform strongly against its comparator statistical authorities, particularly in relation to early years and key stage two.

Data from the previous year seemed to suggest that Hampshire schools were performing better with the new attainment and qualification standards than under the previous regime, which may be in part due to the work undertaken by the Department to ensure that schools and their leaders understood the changes and how to meet the new expectations.

The Department were aware that mean scores can often hide the scale of performance, and focus was being given to those schools that were performing less well. From the most recent publication of data, there had been a significant reduction in the number of schools classed in this category.

The changes to how key stage four is tested continued, with more challenging GCSEs for English and Maths rolled out and now scored on a 1 to 9 point scale. Previously the Department would monitor how many children got a C or above in these topics; the focus now was on a five or higher.

The move to ‘Progress 8’ and ‘Attainment 8’ was leading to some tensions with schools who were perhaps considering offering a less comprehensive syllabus in order to increase the chances of children attaining preferred scores when tested. As Hampshire schools currently showed a score lower than the national average in relation to ‘Progress 8’, thought would need to be given as to why this is, and how to help schools increase this figure without restricting syllabus selections. Despite the lower than national average ‘Progress 8’ score, Hampshire schools achieved above average in nearly all performance data metrics.

In response to questions, Members heard:

·         That the data received nationally could be drilled down to individual child level, so children from different cohorts, such as those with an Education, Health and Care Plan or looked after children, could be grouped for analysis. This is something that the Educational Advisory Committee could consider in future, as it fell within their remit.

·         The Department were not aware of any maintained schools changing their offer of non-core subjects as a result of changes to how progress was measured, although this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

To consider and approve the Children and Young People Select Committee Work Programme.

The Director of Transformation and Governance presented the Committee’s work programme (see Item 10 in the Minute Book).

The Chairman noted that this was the last meeting of the 2017/18 calendar of meetings for the Select Committee, and the topics considered to date would be summarised in an annual report to Full Council in the summer. The Chairman invited Members to contribute items for consideration for the 2018/19 work programme. To aid this, Members would have the slides from the ‘Introduction to Children’s Services’ item considered in Summer 2017 recirculated for information.

At the meeting, the following items were suggested:

·         Cllr Oppenheimer asked for an item on school attainment, with a specific focus on ‘requires improvement‘ schools; although it would be important not to duplicate the work of the Education Advisory Panel in considering this matter.

·         Cllr Porter wished to invite other organisations and contributors to speak to meetings.

·         Cllr Branson asked for an item on mental health in schools.

·         Cllr Westbrook raised Home to School Transport, which was already highlighted on the work programme.

RESOLVED:

That the work programme, subject to any amendments made during the meeting, is agreed.