Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Simcox, Cllr Caffrey and co-opted members Jill Steer and Sasha Ban.

The Committee is asked to approve as a correct record the minutes of the last meeting held on X

The minutes of the meeting held on 2 March 2017 were agreed as a correct record.

Report of Interim Strategic Director, Care Wellbeing and Learning

The Committee received the second monitoring report following last year’s review of child protection in Gateshead.  A number of recommendations came out of the review, including improving the availability of GP reports at Child Protection Conferences. It was reported that performance has not improved in this area, from April 2015 – March 2016, GP reports were provided to 70.4% of Conferences. However, between April 2016 and December 2016 this figure dropped to 61.7%. The safeguarding unit regularly monitors this with the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and meets quarterly. It was noted that this is a concern raised by the Local Safeguarding Board (LSCB) and work is ongoing to press the GP’s responsibility.

Another recommendation of the review was to identify which schools referrals are made from. It was confirmed that from April 2016 to December 2016, 150 referrals were made from schools, each school is now documented. This allows hotspots to be identified and schools can be fully involved in the child protection process.

Ofsted raised that child protection plans needed to more focussed on outcomes, therefore new plans have been designed based on findings. All Social Workers have been trained in the use of the plans and rolled out to health colleague. Refresher training is also held twice a year. It was questioned what was meant by outcomes and this was confirmed as a breakdown of issues relating to the individual child, for example; ensuring school attendance, attendance at appointments, referral to other services, which all would come under the umbrella of keeping safe. It was noted that Ofsted felt that outcomes needed to be more robust and this is what officers stated as an intention in terms of development work.

It was queried whether the drop in GP reports to Conferences was due to GPs not agreeing that a child is at risk. It was stated that this is not necessarily the case but rather that GPs are not fully involved in the process.  It was suggested that forms should be simplified to help GPs respond to more requests. It was confirmed that each form is different depending on the surgery which is responding. The suggestion was made that, as there is a statutory duty for GPs to respond, sanctions or fines should be given to those not responding. In addition, it was proposed that the LSCB should look at the possibility of other ways of GPs responding, for example an online response. It was agreed that the points would be taken up with the CCG and LSCB.

Committee was advised that the ‘MOMO’ (Mind of My Own) app and software continues to be used for young people to send their views to conferences. It was also noted that development is underway on ‘MOMO Express’ which is for children with communication needs, this has been piloted by Grove House pupils.

RESOLVED    -           (i)         That the Committee noted the progress achieved in the

seven months since the last report in September 2016.

                                    (ii)        That the Committee noted  ...  view the full minutes text for item F41

Report of Director of Public Health, Care Wellbeing and Learning

The Committee received the final report on the review of Children’s Oral Health in Gateshead, as agreed at the last meeting. It was noted that monitoring reports would be brought back to Committee in September 2017 and April 2018.

RESOLVED    -           (i)         That Committee agreed the final recommendations for

the review.

                                    (ii)        That the findings from the review and the

recommendations will be presented to Cabinet on 23 May 2017 by the Chair of the Committee and the Director of Public Health.

                                    (iii)       That an update on the final recommendations for the

review be given to Committee in September 2017 and April 2018.

Report of Director of Public Health, Care Wellbeing and Learning

Committee received a report on the review of 0-19 public health service provision. It was noted that since April 2013 local authorities have had the responsibility for public health services for school aged children, 5-19 years. However in October 2015 the commissioning responsibility for the 0-5 years public health nursing also transferred to local authorities.

It was reported that since the transfer the service has been under review, with a view to remodelling and re-procuring services during 2017/18.

It was noted that the Healthy Child Programme is divided into two elements; 0-5 led by health visiting services and the 5-19 element led by school nursing services. This provides a framework to support collaborative work and more integrated delivery.

New guidance has been published to support the commissioning of the Healthy Child Programme 0 to 19. Safeguarding is a key element and there are four levels of service;

·         Community

·         Universal Services

·         Universal Plus

·         Universal Partnership Plus

South Tyneside Foundation Trust is currently commissioned to provide both the 0 to 5 service and the 5 to 19 service, this contract expires in March 2018.  Public Health are working on developing a new model to re-procure the 0-19 public health service from 1 April 2018.

The aims of the remodel are to embed a robust early intervention approach with greater integration.  A review team will be established to review the evidence base and service model development. Stakeholder engagement will be held through various groups including OSC, Group Management Team and Strategy Group.

A further progress report will be brought back to Committee in June 2017.

Committee raised a number of issues that the review team should consider; the diversity of the population in Gateshead, behavioural issues in schools, obesity in children and the number of schools signed up to the Healthy Schools Programme.

RESOLVED    -           (i)         That the Committee noted the information regarding the

Healthy Child Programme and the progress of the review and re-procurement of 0 to 19 public health services to date.

                                    (ii)        That Committee agreed to receive a report at its

meeting on 15 June 2017 which will cover the findings from the needs assessment and consultation work undertaken and details of the proposed new model/specification.

Joint Report of the Chief Executive and Strategic Director, Corporate Resources and Governance

Any OtheCommittee received its provisional work programme for the municipal year 2017-18. It was noted that an additional meeting in July had been added to the schedule and that the review would cover three meetings, instead of the whole year, as this would be used to shape services. In addition, a complementary case study on early help would be slotted into the programme as appropriate.

RESOLVED    -           (i)         That the Committee agreed the review topic and case

studies for 2017-18.

                                    (ii)        That the Committee endorsed the OSC’s provisional

work programme for 2017-18 and refer it to Council on 8 June 2017 for agreement.

                                    (iii)       That further reports will be brought to the Committee to

identify any additional issues which the Committee may be asked to consider.

Committee was advised that a reply has been received from the QE to its letter around Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Discussions have been held with the QE’s Medical Director, Dr Beeby, and Public Health. An update will be brought back to Committee when appropriate.

Committee was advised that this would be Jon Wilkinson’s last meeting. On behalf of the Committee the Chair thanked him for his contribution to the work of the Committee and wished him well for the future.