Agenda and minutes

Cllr Richard Watts could not be present to Chair for the opening of the meeting.

Cllr Roy Perry Chaired the meeting as Vice-Chair in the Chair, until Cllr Richard Watts arrives.

There were no declarations of interest.  

Donna Molloy (Director of Dissemination at the Early Intervention Foundation) and Tom McBride (Director of Evidence at the Early Intervention Foundation) will be attending the CYP Board to lead a discussion focussed on the implications for practice and policy at both local and national level.

Edwina Grant, LGA National Children’s Improvement Adviser, introduced the item on a series of research reports examining the effectiveness of the child protection system which had been published by the LGA and Early Intervention Foundation. She explained that the report summarised the main findings from that work.

Edwina gave a presentation to provide further background on the research. In particular she emphasised the importance of place, and taking local context into account when assessing the likely impact of an intervention or practice. Edwina also gave emphasis to how difficult local authorities were finding it to use and generate evidence due to a lack of analytical capacity, and the report’s recommendation that the DfE’s upcoming What Works Centre focuses attention on building local learning capacity as well as generating national evidence. Edwina stated that this would best enable local authorities to make the case locally for introducing new evidence based approaches.

Tom McBride, Director of Evidence at the Early Intervention Foundation, also gave a presentation highlighting the research. He emphasised that this project had brought together 5 separate pieces of research relying on detailed, empirical evidence. He also stated that 2 of the pieces of research were more quantitative. From the key findings of the research he advised the priorities going forward should include building ‘evidence literacy’, working to fill any gaps in the evidence, to continue to support the use of evidence of effectiveness and to understand the needs of a local area.  

Cllr Richard Watts, Chair of the Board, arrived at the meeting and resumed Chairing the meeting.

In the discussion which followed, the Board raised the following points:

·         Cllr Madden emphasised gaps in the evidence available and that the Children’s Social Care Task Group has undertaken a great deal of work ascertaining how to close gaps in the evidence available.

·         Tom McBride advised that the EIF has a clear mandate to close gaps in the evidence and would be keen to be involved in the Task Group’s work.

·         A view was expressed that that the quality of local leadership will be of great importance in taking these priorities forward.

·         A view was expressed that a priority for councils would have to be increasing the permanency of staff and achieving improved outcomes for children and young people without generating additional costs on the public purse.

·         A Member raised a query as to how we could ensure raising evidence literacy amongst local leaders would reach all councillors, including opposition councillors.

·         Tom advised that trustees are very interested in looking into how this priority can be actioned in such a way to reach all local leadership.

Decision

The Board considered the key findings of the research, provided comments and noted the report. 

Action

Officers to incorporate feedback from the Board into future work.

Ian Keating, Principal Policy Adviser, introduced the report proposing key post-election priorities for consideration and discussion by the Board. It focused on education and children’s services, but other issues which are a shared responsibility with other Boards, such as child and adolescent mental health and Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children, were also indicated in the report to continue as Board priorities. Ian highlighted that member councils wanted to see a greater focus on the gap in children’s social care funding and on sector-led children’s services improvement. Regarding the future of councils in education he emphasised the LGA should lobby for a change in policy to allow councils and maintained schools to set up Multi Academy Trusts. Also, regarding school funding, Ian emphasised the Board should prioritise the importance of local flexibility in the implementation of a new national school funding formula.

In the following discussion, Members raised the following points;

·         Issues of school place planning were raised by Members, who advised this should be prioritised by the board going forwards.

·         Members also expressed a view that improvement of Children’s Centres should continue to be of interest to the Board.

·         A view was also expressed that in the coming year strong relationships with central government would be needed to continue the board’s agenda.

·         Members asked that a greater focus on CAHMS should be included in the Board priorities. 

The Chair stated that the Board had expressed their support of continuing to prioritise the Board’s focus on school improvement. He emphasised that Board members were supportive of CAHMS being included in the Board’s priorities for the new political cycle. He also raised the importance of continuing to focus on the gap in Children’s Social Care funding. The Chair also emphasised the importance of coming up with solutions to present to central government.

Decision

The board provided comment and noted the report.

Action

Officer’s to incorporate the Boards comments into the Board priorities report for 2017/18.

The Board noted the report.

Cllr Dick Madden (Essex), Chair of the LGA Task Group: The Future of Children's Social Care Improvement, introduced the report. He expressed his gratitude to the members of the Task Group and the officers who had worked alongside the Task Group, he also emphasised that a lot of research had gone into their work. Cllr Madden provided an update on the work of the LGA’s Member-led task group on the future of children’s social care which had been tasked to develop an evidence-based vision for the future of children’s social care services. Cllr Madden asked Board members for feedback on the draft  plan included in the papers.

In the discussion that followed, Members raised the following points;

·         The Chair gave his support to all points and suggested the plan also look more into how we can better recognise achievements.

·         A view was expressed that recognising the crucial role of the Lead Member and Director of Children’s Services  and acknowledging the importance of a whole council approach to children’s services were of particular importance going forwards.

·         Alison Michalska, President of ADCS, expressed a view that it was clear from the ten point plan ADCS, DfE and the LGA were saying the same thing.

·         Alison also indicated that the plan was rightly focused on good practice and the preservation of social care staff.

·         The Chair expressed a view that the ISOS research was impressive and helpful.

The Chair also thanked the Cllr Madden and the Task Group for their work.

Decision

Members provided feedback and noted the report.

Action 

Officers to incorporate Members feedback into the Task Groups vision for the future of children’s social care services.

The Board agreed the note of the previous meeting.

As the last meeting of the year the Chair gave thanks to the Board, the Vice-Chairs and Deputy-Chairs for a successful year. In particular the Chair expressed his gratitude to Cllr Liz Green for her long service as Deputy Chair of the Board.

 The Board also gave thanks to the Chair.