The Committee held a minute’s silence for the victims of the school shooting in Texas and the children of Ukraine.

The Deputy Director of Children’s Services informed Members about the recent Ofsted Inspection of Manchester Children’s Services, which had judged the service to be “good”.  He outlined the main points within Ofsted’s report, which had been published the previous week.  He highlighted that Manchester now had one of the top performing Children’s Services in the north-west of England and that this represented a significant improvement since the last inspection in 2017.  He offered to bring to a future meeting a report which included the Council’s action plan for addressing the areas for improvement identified in Ofsted’s report.

The Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People recognised the years of hard work that had gone into achieving this improvement, particularly in light of the challenges of austerity and the pandemic, and how Council decisions had enabled this.  The Strategic Director of Children and Education Services also praised the staff in Children’s Services.  He emphasised that, while this was a very positive achievement, the service could not be complacent and would strive for continued improvement and to respond to emerging challenges.

A Member congratulated all those involved in this achievement and recognised the important role of frontline social work staff.  The Chair highlighted how the service had worked to improve since it had been judged as “inadequate” in 2014 and made reference to the late Sheila Newman who had been the Executive Member for Children’s Services, overseeing the improvement journey until her death in 2018.  The Chair also explained the contribution of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee over this period and her own role in the improvement journey.  She also thanked the former Council Leader Sir Richard Leese for his commitment with extra funding for social workers, to reduce caseloads.

Decision

To note the verbal report.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 9 March 2022.

To receive the minutes of the meeting of the Ofsted Subgroup held on 2 March 2022.

Decisions

1.            To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 9 March 2022.

2.            To receive the minutes of the meeting of the Ofsted Subgroup held on 2 March 2022.

Report of Paul Marshall, Chair of the Children Executive Board

The report provides an overview of what the MSP has done as a result of the safeguarding arrangements, and how effective these arrangements have been in practice.

The Committee received a report of Paul Marshall, in his role as the Chair of the Children Executive Board, which provided an overview of what the MSP had done as a result of the safeguarding arrangements, and how effective these arrangements had been in practice.

The main points and themes within the report included:

• Partnership arrangements;
• Communications and engagement;
• Quality assurance and scrutiny;
• Case reviews and learning;
• Workforce development;
• The Independent Chair’s assurance statement;
• Review of MSP Joint Strategic Plan 2020/2021; and
• Strategic priorities 2021/2022.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• To welcome the positive achievements outlined in the report, recognising the challenges of the pandemic;
• To request more information on the changes to the quality assurance arrangements;
• Serious Case Reviews and learning from high profile national cases such as the death of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes; and
• Complex safeguarding work relating to young people at risk from serious youth violence, including work with local communities to address this.

The Strategic Lead (Safeguarding and Practice Development) reported that the Partnership had been focused on identifying, understanding and meeting the needs of children and families during the pandemic and making sure that no child fell through the net during that period; however, it was recognised that the focus of the quality assurance function now needed to re-adjust and should extend to looking at the impact and effectiveness of its work.  She outlined how learning from high profile national cases was used, checking if the findings from that investigation was true of Manchester, and reported that, when undertaking a review in Manchester, national research would be taken into account. 

The Chair highlighted the important role of Health Visitors in identifying and monitoring the welfare of pre-school-age children who were in need of help and protection and suggested that Health Visitors be added to the agenda for a future meeting.  Andrea Patel, Director of Safeguarding, MHCC, reported that reviews in Manchester had been positive about the Health Visiting Service but that if any gaps were identified they would be addressed.

The Chair informed the Committee about a project which was taking place in Gorton on complex safeguarding, which involved the local community.  The Strategic Director of Children and Education Services informed Members about the multi-agency Complex Safeguarding Subgroup and the links with neighbourhoods teams, GMP and schools.  Detective Superintendent Chris Downey from GMP reported that it was a constant challenge to keep young people safe and manage tensions and that he and his colleagues wanted to be able to shift towards understanding the causes of youth violence and focusing on early intervention.  He informed Members that he had recently recruited an additional three police officers to work on early intervention regarding serious youth violence and that this work would be supported by Youth Justice and social workers in the Complex Safeguarding Hub.  He advised that this work was different from their traditional work on Child Criminal Exploitation and needed a different approach. 

In response to a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

The Committee will receive a verbal update from the Director of Education.

The Committee received a verbal update from the Education Business Partner which outlined new developments and significant changes to the current situation, particularly in relation to schools. 

The main points and themes within the verbal update included:

• The number of positive cases in schools, which had reduced;
• Recent changes, including the end of free regular testing, the expanded list of COVID-19 symptoms and the change in guidance for people who suspected that they had COVID-19;
• The government’s withdrawal of the operational guidance for schools on COVID-19 and the incorporation of COVID-19 management into existing health, health and safety and estates management guidance and the publication of a new document for school leaders called the Department for Education (DfE) Emergency Planning and Response document;
• The continued support being provided to schools by the Council’s Education Service and its partners;
• That the Test and Trace Team had become Manchester Health Protection Team and that support would continue and would now cover other diseases, in addition to COVID-19; and
• That there would be a continued focus on Long Covid, in relation to pupils and staff.

In response to a Member’s question, the Director of Education reported that individual schools could decide how quickly they resumed normal activities, such as full assemblies or stay and play sessions, which had been stopped during the pandemic.  She advised that some schools had found that some of the practices introduced due to the pandemic were beneficial to the smooth-running of the school and would continue.  The Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People reported that staff absences could be affecting the resumption of some activities but that he expected activities to return to similar to how they had been pre-pandemic and that Members could speak to him or the Director of Education about any specific cases they were concerned about.  In response to a Member’s question, the Deputy Director of Children’s Services reported that Social Workers had been undertaking face-to-face visits throughout the pandemic, while almost making use of technology.

The Chair advised that the Committee would receive a further COVID-19 update at its next meeting and could then review whether or not it was necessary to continue to have updates at every meeting.  She noted that the Committee would be receiving a report on examination results later in the year and would be able to assess the impact of the pandemic on these.  She suggested that the Committee receive a report on School Governance at a future meeting. 

Decision

To receive a report on School Governance at a future meeting.

Report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit

This report provides the Committee with details of key decisions that fall within the Committee’s remit and an update on actions resulting from the Committee’s recommendations. The report also includes the Committee’s work programme, which the Committee is asked to amend as appropriate and agree.

A report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit was submitted. The overview report contained key decisions within the Committee’s remit, responses to previous recommendations and the Committee’s work programme, which the Committee was asked to approve.

Decision

To note the report and agree the work programme.