Children & Young People Select Committee Minutes

Date:
Wednesday, 11th February, 2009
Time:
5.00pm
Place:
Ground Floor Committee Room, Town Hall, High Street, Stockton-on-Tees TS18 1AU
 
Please note: all Minutes are subject to approval at the next Meeting

Attendance Details

Present:
Cllr David Harrington (Chairman), Cllr Jim Beall, Cllr Mrs Ann Cains, Cllr Mick Eddy, Cllr Maurice Frankland, Cllr Miss Barbara Inman, Cllr Alan Lewis.
Officers:
P.Seller, S.Willson (CESC); G.Birtle, N.Hart (LD).
In Attendance:
Mr G.Davies, Mr R.G.Lupton (Non voting co-opted representatives).
Apologies for absence:
was submitted on behalf of Councillor Broughton.
Item Description Decision
Public
CYP
67/08		 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Preamble
CONCLUDED that the Declaration of Interest be noted.
CYP
68/08		 MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 29TH OCTOBER 2008 AND 19TH NOVEMBER 2008
Preamble
 
CYP
69/08		 MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 14TH JANUARY 2009
Preamble
 
CYP
70/08		 MONITORING REPORTS:-
- YOUTH SERVICE
- TEENAGE PREGNANCY
- BULLYING
- CORPORATE PARENTING
- SCHOOL ORGANISATION PLAN
Preamble
 
CYP
71/08		 WORK PROGRAMME
Preamble
 
5.00-6.30pm

Preamble

ItemPreamble
CYP
67/08		Councillor Beall declared a Personal, Non-Prejudicial interest in respect of the item entitled 'Monitoring Reports-Corporate Parenting' during discussion of the role of the Multi Agency Looked After Partnership (MALAP); of which he was a member.
CYP
68/08		The Minutes of the Meetings held on 29th October and 19th November 2008 were signed by the Chairman as a correct record.
CYP
69/08		The draft minutes of the Meeting held on 14th January 2009 were agreed as a correct record and would be forwarded to Council for consideration.

The Chairman advised that the Committee's final report on Obesity had been well received by Cabinet; and would soon be considered by the PCT at their meeting on the 26th March 2009. The Chairman expressed his gratitude to the Committee for their contribution and enthusiasm shown during the review, and to all of the officers who had provided the Committee with support and advice. The Committee in turn, expressed its appreciation to the Chairman for his hard work and guidance.
CYP
70/08		The Committee was provided with reports monitoring progress made towards the implementation of recommendations agreed at the outcome of the following scrutiny reviews:-

-Youth Service

The Head of Children & Young People's Strategy referred to the progress made in the submitted monitoring report and advised that much of the work outstanding would be included within a proposed review of the Youth Service over the next six months, that was to commence with a consultation event for providers and other youth provision organisations on the 24th February 2009; followed by a further event on the 20th April 2009 to discuss the emerging findings. It was proposed that this Committee therefore contribute to this review prior to the outcome being reported to Cabinet in July 2009. This would replace the need for further monitoring reports on the previous review to be submitted.

Members made reference to the mobile skateboard park; which had proven to be too expensive a resource to locate around the Borough. With no facility at all in place however, this left the Borough as the only place in the Tees Valley not to have such a facility. It was questioned whether the facility could not now be utilised as a permanent facility in one location within the Borough; thereby at least being utilised? The Head of Children & Young People's Strategy advised that this could be looked at as part of the review.

-Teenage Pregnancy

The Committee was advised that all of the required actions arising from the review were either now complete; or on track but not yet due for completion. The Head of Children & Young People's Strategy advised members that the service had recently been the subject of a major review by the National Support Team (Department of Health) and the Audit Commission; the outcome of which was expected to be known in the near future. It was requested that a draft report of the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy be presented to the next meeting of the Committee for consideration.

-Bullying

Members noted progress made against the recommendations and the impact of recent staffing changes. Details of the identities of the lead schools for anti-bullying were requested to be provided for members of the Committee.

Reference was made to the need for schools to be fully aware of all relevant information regarding pupils and any previous history they may have had in terms of disputes with other pupils, families etc, that might assist schools managing situations in the future. This was particulalry the case with pupils transfering from Primary to Secondary schools.

The signs beginning to show of incidents of internet/social network bullying were noted by members, and the Head of Children & Young People's Strategy advised that this issue was being looked into by the Safeguarding Board.

-Corporate Parenting

Members queried the extent to which Councillors had embraced their commitment to accepting their corporate parenting role. It was suggested that rather than this action being regarded as complete, it should infact be considered as 'work in progress' and that consideration should be given to Councillors making an annual public commitment to their Corporate Parenting role at the Annual Council meeting each year. It was also suggested that members of the Committee monitor the passage of reports to Cabinet to ensure that all Corporate Parenting implications were being identified where appropriate.

-School Organisation Plan

It was noted that all of the required actions arising from the School Organisation Plan scrutiny review had now been fully implemented; and therefore the Monitoring Report could be 'signed off' by the Committee.
CYP
71/08		Consideration was given to potential scrutiny review topics for this Committee for 2009/2010; which were to be considered firstly by the Scrutiny Liaison Forum on the 26th February 2009, and thereafter by the Executive Scrutiny Committee.

Reference was made to the earlier wish expressed to undertake a review of the Youth Service, and suggestions were put forward that consideration should be given to carrying out a review of the Child Placement Service; the Childrens & Adolescents Mental Health Service; and the Extended School Day Programme.

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