To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 8 March 2023.

To receive the minutes of the meeting of the Ofsted Subgroup held on 15 March 2023.

The Chair welcomed the new Committee Members.

Decisions

1.            To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 8 March 2023.

2.            To receive the minutes of the meeting of the Ofsted Subgroup held on 15 March 2023.

Presentation of the Assistant Director (Children's Services), the Strategic Lead (Early Years) and Tracey Forster, Lead Manager (Children's Community Health Services), Central Manchester NHS Foundation Trust

This presentation provides an overview of Early Years and Health Visiting.

The Committee considered the presentation of the Assistant Director (Children's Services), the Strategic Lead (Early Years) and Tracey Forster, Lead Manager (Children's Community Health Services), Central Manchester NHS Foundation Trust which provided an overview of Early Years and Health Visiting.

Key points and themes in the presentation included:

• Start Well Strategy and Partnership Board;
• Start Well presenting needs;
• Start Well data and impact; and
• Family Hubs Programme.

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

• To welcome the joined-up approach and all the different aspects of this work;
• Skills development for staff to help children who are presenting with high needs but have not yet been diagnosed with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND);
• Identification of children with dyslexia and dyspraxia;
• How were Housing colleagues, including social housing providers, involved in this, noting the impact of housing issues on families;
• Concern about recruitment and retention issues with Health Visitors, noting that this was a national problem;
• The location of Family Hubs and how accessible they would be for families; and
• Children arriving from Afghanistan who did not speak English and needed support.

In response to a Member’s question about the Making Manchester Fairer Kickstarter Programme referred to in the presentation, the Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People reported that this had only been formally signed off two days ago and that Councillors would be informed about how this would be rolled out.  He suggested that the Committee receive a report on Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) and families fleeing Afghanistan and other countries where they were facing conflict or persecution, to which the Chair agreed.  He highlighted some of the challenges facing Manchester families and some of the work the Council was doing to address this, including stating that he would send Members information on what was happening in Baby Week.

The Assistant Director (Children’s Services) confirmed that her service would engage with Ward Councillors in relation to the roll-out of the Kickstarter Programme.  In response to a question from another Member, she outlined how the Thriving Babies programme, which provided more intensive support to parents, linked in with the Early Help and Early Years Services, highlighting the increased investment in midwives to identify at an earlier stage parents who would need this more intensive support, and noting that, once they had progressed through the Thriving Babies programme, families would then still need some support from the Sure Start and Children’s Centre Core Offer which, having built trust through the Thriving Babies programme, they would feel more able to access.

The Strategic Lead (Early Years) outlined work to increase the skills of the Early Years workforce to work with children with Personal, Social and Emotional issues and identify whether they needed specialist support and to identify children who needed extra support with communication and language and refer them to specialist services, where necessary.  The Assistant Director (Children’s Services) reported that Education colleagues were leading on work in relation to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

Report of the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services

This is the first Children’s Community Health Service (CCHS) report received by the Committee, although it should be noted that CCHS provides a partner contribution to a number of Committee reports.  The purpose of this report is to;

• Provide an overview of CCHS
• Provide a short summary of CCHS’s response to the covid 19 pandemic
• Consider the national and CCHS position, post covid, for children
• Share the current areas of focus for CCHS
• Detail a number of recommendations

The Committee considered the report of the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services which provided an overview of CCHS and a short summary of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, considered the national and CCHS position post-COVID-19 for children and shared the current areas of focus for CCHS.

Key points and themes in the report included:

• CCHS within the Manchester Foundation Trust and Manchester Local Care Organisation;
• An overview of CCHS;
• The CCHS response to the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Post COVID-19/living with COVID-19, the national position for children and the CCHS position;
• CCHS areas of focus; and
• Partnership workstreams.

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

• The Asthma Friendly Schools Project
• The take-up of baby immunisations;
• The Impact of the pandemic on young people’s social and emotional development and the impact of dealing with this on the mental health of staff in schools and Alternative Provision;
• The impact of poverty and the cost-of-living crisis on children and families;
• The response to child obesity; and
• Children using e-cigarettes.

Nicola Marsden, Assistant Director, CCHS, reported that factors affecting the schools identified for the Asthma Friendly Schools Project were lack of green space and busy roads, which impacted on asthma.  The Assistant Director (Children’s Services) informed Members about partnership work on asthma, including Adult Social Care and Neighbourhoods Directorate, which was focused on prevention.

Nicola Marsden reported that GPs were responsible for baby immunisation and that there had been a lower uptake since the pandemic and that work was taking place at a local and national level to ensure positive, consistent messaging on immunisation.  In response to a question about the HPV vaccine, she advised that there were concerns about the level of uptake of this, along with other vaccines; however, this was about to change from a two-immunisation programme to a one-immunisation programme which should have a positive impact on uptake.  She also confirmed that, since 2018, the HPV vaccine had been available to both boys and girls.  She recognised the Member’s comments about the impact of the pandemic on young people’s social and emotional development, commenting that similar issues were being seen by Health teams, and advised that the Healthy Schools Team were supporting schools with these issues.  She advised that a lot of studies were taking place on the mental health impact of the pandemic.

In response to Members’ comments and questions in relation to eyesight, Tracey Forster, Lead Manager, CCHS reported that a vision screening programme took place in Reception year and she noted that increased use of small screens during the pandemic, as well as increased screen time, could possibly induce myopia at an earlier age.  The Chair stated that schools should encourage families to get their children’s vision tested regularly.

In response to a Member’s question about “ghost children”, children who had not returned to school after the pandemic, the Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People suggested that this be considered in a separate report, to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

Report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit

This report provides the Committee with the proposed terms of reference and current work programme for the Subgroup. The Committee is asked to re-establish the Ofsted Subgroup for the municipal year 2023 - 2024 and agree the terms of reference, work programme and membership of the Subgroup.

The Committee considered the report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit which provided the Committee with the proposed terms of reference and current work programme for the Subgroup. The Committee was asked to re-establish the Ofsted Subgroup for the municipal year 2023 - 2024 and agree the terms of reference, work programme and membership of the Subgroup.

Decisions

1.            To re-establish the Ofsted Subgroup for the 2023 - 2024 municipal year and agree the terms of reference and work programme.

2.            That Councillor Lovecy be appointed as Chair of the Ofsted Subgroup and that Councillors Bano, Bell, Fletcher, Hewitson, Ludford and Reid and Mr Yonis be appointed to the Subgroup.

Report of the Governance and Scrutiny Support Unit

The monthly report includes the recommendations monitor, relevant key decisions, the Committee’s work programme and any items for information.

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.