Agenda item

The Chairman invited Richard Cooke (RC), Head of Children’s Services Improvement, to introduce the update.

RC reported that since he last updated the Board, the LGA had successfully bid in a competitive tender for a 3 year contract to deliver improvement services, worth £1.75m in the coming year. The team also received a £250k grant for early years improvement work.

RC then ran through the process agreed with DfE for prioritising councils for support which included Ofsted inspection results, SEND statements of action, internal and external intelligence, councils with leadership instability and councils facing specific challenges e.g. around court action.

In terms of performance, RC reported that all 14 of the KPIs that the LGA has with the DfE had been comfortably met and these were detailed in the report. For next year, a contract variation around SEND had been agreed worth an additional £350k. There would be a renewed focus on corporate leadership teams in councils with a recognition of their importance in driving performance improvement. Councils’ corporate parenting role, effective scrutiny of children’s services and leadership training for new lead members would also be areas of focus.

The key challenge for the sector moving forward was recruitment, retention and low morale in staffing. The Government’s SEND Green Paper, Education White Paper and Social Care Review would all pose tough questions for the sector but presented opportunities for improvement in the system and for improved outcomes for children and young people.

Members’ comments and questions:

·       Members warmly welcomed the work being carried out to improve children’s services and strongly endorsed the proposed programme for the coming year.

·       In response to a question about the sector coverage of the programme, RC confirmed that the LGA worked with a whole range of organisations involved in improving children’s lives, not just councils.

·       Further clarity was sought on the ‘leadership inexperience or instability’ category for initiating support in a council. RC confirmed that it could include political instability and the definition had been deliberately kept as broad as possible so as not to exclude any councils that could benefit from support.

·       Concern about the rising cost of SEND services to councils was expressed.

Decision:

Improvement & Innovation Board noted the update and endorsed the proposed new areas of support for 2022/23.