Agenda item

To inform the Committee of the work undertaken by Children’s Services on a day to day basis and to update on the progress and implementation of developments.

Mrs Diane Booth, Director of Children’s Services reported that the ‘Journey of the Child’ work had been concluded and that staff within Children’s Services and children and young people were being consulted on the outcomes. She agreed to report back to the Committee in detail at the next meeting.

Members noted the significant reduction in referrals to the ‘front door’ and questioned whether the required improvements had been made. In response, Mrs Booth advised that further reductions could be made and that work was ongoing with the partners to reduce the number of referrals further. She added that secondary schools also presented a number of challenges requiring reflection on the thresholds and how cases were dealt with, but were cooperative and supporting a changing agenda.

Mrs Booth reported that in order to reduce the number of referrals made, the service was offering reflective discussions which were documented and followed up. The introduction of the discussions had taken extra resource, however, the benefits had already been seen with partners demonstrating increased confidence in decision making, the reduction in referrals and, although it was early days, subsequently a reduction in the number of reflective discussions with no corresponding increase in referrals.

The Committee discussed the progress of Head Start and queried whether any outcomes could be documented. In response, Mrs Booth advised that successes had been identified including equine therapy and walk and talk counselling. A number of the initiatives were long term and outcomes were not expected until 2019. She added that she shared the Committee’s concern that outcomes were not visible and advised that a report was expected at the next meeting of the Head Start Board to provide further information on outcomes.

In response to questioning regarding the Opportunity Areas funding, Mrs Booth reported that a large proportion of the £6 million Department for Education funding pot remained unallocated. She reported that the funding must be bid for and spent by schools around three priorities. It was agreed that a more detailed report on how the funding had been allocated to date and how the remainder would be bid for within the next two years would be provided to the next meeting of the Committee. The Opportunity Area Plan would also be circulated.

Members noted the positive news that more pupils would be staying within Blackpool for their secondary education and queried if less cross boarder drift demonstrated an increased confidence in Blackpool’s schools. Mrs Booth reported that she believed three of the seven Blackpool Secondary Schools would realise improved academic performance in 2018. She added that she was proud of the achievement of schools in reducing the number of exclusions. Rather than excluding pupils, schools were focussing on teaching them.

The Committee agreed:

1. To receive a detailed report on the outcome of the ‘Journey of the Child’ work to the next meeting.

2. To receive a report back on Head Start outcomes.

3. To receive the Opportunity Area Plan and a detailed report on how funding had been spent to date to the next meeting.