Agenda item

Report of Strategic Director, Care Wellbeing and Learning

Committee received the six month performance update report, which provided an update on performance against strategic outcome indicators.

In terms of achievements in education it was reported that the take up of free two year old places was 84%, against the national take up of 70%. The percentage of outstanding schools in Gateshead is 38.3% which surpasses the national average of 19% and the regional average of 21.4%. It was also reported that the number of children offered their first preference school has improved to 96%. KS4 attainment remains better than the regional average with the attainment of looked after children better than the national and regional averages. In addition the results for children attaining an ‘expected standard’ at the end of KS1 and KS2 was good.

Achievements in social care were reported for the last year, with 100% of Child Protection reviews being held within timescale. The number of looked after children remains high, however the number who had three or more placements was within target at 5.9%. The stability of placements has improved with 88.8% of looked after children remaining in the same placement for more than two years. In addition, 98.8% of looked after children had a review within timescale.

It was noted that the level of engagement in children’s centres remains steady at 55%, which meets the Ofsted requirement to engage with the ‘majority of families’ (51%).  The rate of young people remanded to custody continues to decrease and is below the regional and national averages.  It was reported that 1545 families have been engaged with under the Troubled Families programme, to date a total of 459 families have had successful outcomes and payment by result has been claimed. At the end of the financial year a total of 24% of the overall target has been achieved.

Areas for improvement were highlighted, including the increase in permanent exclusions to 0.26% from 0.19%. The increase in Gateshead is not duplicated nationally or in statistical neighbours.  It was noted that the number of pupils offered their first preference secondary school has reduced from 92% last year to 88% this year and remains below the target of 95%, although this is above the national average of 84%. 

In terms of areas to improve in social care it was highlighted that overall performance remains positive, however there is increasing demand on the service due to the high numbers of looked after children and children with protection plans. The rates for these both remain above the regional and national averages.  In relation to care leavers engaging in education, work, apprenticeships or training remains a challenge and a dedicated group has been set up with representatives from the LAC Team and Connexions to ensure outcomes are improving for care leavers.

It was reported that there remains challenge in relation to reducing the rate of re-offending. Also, the number of registered childminders has reduced by 22 since 2015, work is ongoing to publicise the introduction of the £500 government start up grant.

Over the next six months work will continue to strengthen the Early Help Strategy to empower families, professionals, the voluntary sector and local communities to work collaboratively to improve outcomes for children and families.  Thus, helping divert families from more expensive specialist interventions.  Work is also ongoing to understand the significant rise in child protection plans, this is alongside the new planning framework which seeks to make plans smarter.  The SEND Joint Commissioning arrangements will be overseen to ensure the key actions identified are delivered.

Committee was advised that a number of pieces of work will be undertaken over the next six months, for example; Connexions and REALAC Team coordinating work to improve outcomes for care leavers including developing opportunities for apprenticeships within the Council. In addition, Education Gateshead will continue focused work around narrowing the attainment gap for the most vulnerable young people.  A Task and Finish Group has been set up to look at the increase in permanent exclusions to identify issues and recommendations arising.  The Early Years and Childcare Service will focus on preparing for the increase in statutory free childcare entitlement from 15 to 30 hours for three and four year old children, from September 2017.  The Supported Housing Review is a pilot informing the future commissioning of Supported housing for care leavers and looked after children.

Committee commented that the information contained in the report is useful and should not be abridged in the future.

It was questioned as to why permanent exclusions have increased and whether there are any improvements that can be made quickly. It was acknowledged that there are no quick fixes and the LSCB has commissioned a report into the reasons why there has been an increase and what can be done to improve this.  It was questioned as to which schools are permanently excluding the most pupils and whether there is any scope to pressure those schools with the highest exclusion rate to deal with the pupils before permanently excluding.  It was confirmed that in terms of the school breakdown there are no outliers and increased exclusions are across every secondary school. It was also noted that as the vast majority of schools are academies the local authority has limited influence and ultimately the funding for dealing with challenging pupils has gone.  The point was made that as a political organisation it should be made clear that this is a result of academisation and that the cost of looking after these pupils should be subsidised by academies. It was also suggested that overcrowded behaviour services means more damage to individual young people accessing the service and also impacts on their re-inclusion. Committee was reassured that no child would fall through the gaps even though the PRU is full at present, it was noted that the PRU will be converting to an academy due to a poor Ofsted inspection.

It was suggested that the National Troubled Families Programme was unsuccessful and the effectiveness was questioned, as the control group showed similar figures for people getting back into work who were not part of the programme. Committee was advised that this was a programme developed by government, the idea of which was to have a lead practitioner working towards employability within a household. It was acknowledged that there has been some debate as to how this is measured, however there has been some success in Gateshead with some households where the team has affected change.

It was queried why alcohol intake in pregnancy is not measured. It was noted that this is subjective and information would come from the maternity service, however it is not clear how this is recorded.

It was questioned how cost effective the Children’s Centres are but it was confirmed that no cost exercise had been carried out as yet.

RESOLVED    -           (i)         That Committee considered the activities undertaken at

year end 2016/17 are achieving the desired outcomes in the Council Plan 2015-2020.

                                    (ii)        That Committee agreed that the report be referred to

Cabinet on 18 July 2017.