Agenda and minutes

The apologies of Councillor Mitchel and Appointed Member Rob Sanders were noted.

Appointed Member Claire Rogers had stood down from sitting on the Panel.

The Panel noted that the Service Manager - Special Educational Needs and Disability, Tammy Marks was unable to be present in person due to reasons relating to the transmission and incidence of coronavirus.

RESOLVED that consideration of this item would be deferred to the next meeting of the Panel.

The Panel considered the report of the Chair of the Children and Families Scrutiny Panel, which recommended that the Panel considered the appended briefing paper on mental health support for children and adolescents in Southampton and discussed the content with the invited guests.

Robert Henderson, Executive Director of Children and Learning, Southampton City Council; Alasdair Snell, Operations Director, Child and Family Services West - Solent NHS Trust; and Chantal Homan, Service and Quality Manager, Solent NHS Trust were present and, with the consent of the Chair, addressed the Panel.

In discussions with the officers, the Panel noted the following:

·  Factors which influenced the higher rate of mental health needs in the City were the high level of deprivation and the high level of domestic abuse in the City.

·  Children needed services that delivered more than just the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Support Service (CAMHS) and investment in strong partnership working was required.

·  The I-Thrive framework was a national approach looking at the whole system of intervention to provide a forum to look at what role everyone can play in the prevention and early promotion of mental health and well-being.

·  Mental Health and Wellbeing services had been developed to include a broader range of pathways for support in addition the specialist support of the CAMHS service, which included Mental Health Support Teams in schools, a specialist Building Resilience and Strength service and workshops with parents and carers to encourage them to think about how they can support young people and family outreach services as research had shown that intervention was most effective when the whole family received support.

·  The Mental Health Support Teams in Schools would cover 90% of the whole city’s school and college population by January 2022, their mandate would be to promote a whole school approach to mental health and increase the tool kit for teachers through a solution focussed reflective forum.

·  Autism and ADHD required more that just a CAMHS assessment and support service.  Pathways had been streamlined to make them more effective at getting the right support to children based on need, by reinforcing the focus on early intervention and providing schools with the level of expertise to provide support early and prevent the needs from escalating.

·  There had been investment in dedicated resources for meeting the emotional and mental health needs of children who are looked after, this included staff in specialist CAMHS teams dedicated to working with Looked After Children as well as specialist CAMHS practitioners based within the Children’s Services Teams.

·  There were also workstreams to:

o   develop a Shared Training and Assessment for Wellbeing (STrAWB) initiative,

o  review the consultation model to ensure the service was accessible to teachers, carers, social workers, and children alike

o  develop an emphasis around emotional and mental health with children and families in Strength and Difficulties Questionnaires that were used in assessments by Children’s Services.

o  develop a digital offer for self-lead support

RESOLVED: That, reflecting the overview of the innovative STrAWB initiative  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

The Panel received the report of the Executive Director of Children and Learning, which provided the Panel with and update on progress against the revised Children and Learning Improvement Plan.

Southampton City Council Officers, Robert Henderson, Executive Director for Children and Learning; Steph Murray, Deputy Director for Children and Learning: and Jo Feeney, Performance Manager for Children and Learning

were present and, with the consent of the Chair, addressed the Panel.

In discussions with the officers, the Panel noted the following:

·  The improvement plan was clearly gaining momentum, with some good partnership working and governance from the Improvement Board.  The key priorities of the improvement plan were included in meetings with Service Leads and Team Managers.

·  A new set of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) had been developed that were bench marked with the national statutory indicators and will track the journey of the child from referral through to fostering or adoption or leaving care.

·  Some of the new KPI’s would have to wait for Care Director to go live as PARIS doesn’t have the capacity to capture that data.  A new performance infographic tool was also being developed, which may include digital access to the data.

·  The new set of KPI’s would be utilised in assurance audits and stretch and challenge sessions with Service Leads, both of which were being carried out on a weekly basis.

·  Care director would be launched in Jan- April, allowing any structural changes from the Destination 22 consultation to be incorporated. 

·  The new audit and performance reports would be developed taking into consideration feedback and comments from the Panel.

·  Feedback from the Support and Challenge advisor to the service had indicated the service was moving in the right direction.

·  This year the service had focused on getting the staffing structure in order and had embarked on the Destination 22 consultation.

·  Next year the service would be focused on getting the leadership and management team in place to provide the strategic drive to improve delivery.

RESOLVED: That, to provide greater context to the Children’s Social Care reduction model and targets, the Panel would be provided with information that presented the data and performance trends over a longer period.

The Panel considered the report of the Director, Legal and Business Operations which enabled the Panel to monitor and track progress on recommendations made at previous meetings.

The Panel noted that all the requested information had been provided and utilised to inform the discussion of the agenda items.

RESOLVED that regarding Post 16 Education, Employment and Training Provision and Participation, the Panel requested a precis of the key findings from the Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET) conversation with Bristol City Council and Coventry City Council.