Agenda item

To consider the latest trends, priorities and pressures in terms of departmental performance as reported in the Quarterly Service Report for the third quarter of 2012/13 (October to December 2012) relating to Children, Young People and Learning, giving particular attention to outcomes of Ofsted school inspections, the Family Focus Initiative and youth provision.

Panel members are, where possible, asked to give advance notice to the Overview and Scrutiny Team of any questions relating to the Quarterly Service Report.

Please bring the previously circulated Quarterly Service Report to the meeting.  Copies are available on request and attached to this agenda if viewed online.

Karen Frost, Head of Prevention and Early Intervention, gave a presentation in respect of Family Focus the Government’s Troubled Families initiative.

The programme, initiated in January 2012, was a three year programme which would introduce a systemic change to the way that families that incurred a high cost to the public purse were engaged with and helped. In the first year of the project the Council had engaged with 42 of the 115 families in Bracknell Forest identified as meeting two or more of the criteria set out by Central Government including involvement in crime or anti-social behaviour and children not attending school plus any locally decided criteria including domestic violence, mental health issues and neglect. A further 58 families would be engaged with during the current year.

On a day to day basis the initiative was being run by a virtual frontline team of experts meeting to monitor progress on a fortnightly basis.  Additional support was provided by a multi-agency project team that met three times a year and a stakeholder group acting as a Project Board to provide additional support and guidance when problems occurred.  Each family on the programme was assigned a named worker who worked with the family helping to resolve problems on a holistic basis.  The named worker was also responsible for co-ordinating meetings and ensuring that there was a single family plan reducing the number of visits that a family received from professionals.

The project was well supported by all partner agencies involved and a robust system was being put in place that would enable the secure sharing of case files.  A move that would further enhance the partnership working already taking place.  Extensive training had been put in place for front line staff to help them improve the way that they engaged with families and this was starting to pay dividends.

It was noted that schools were, through their Family Support Advisors, aware of families involved in the Family Focus project.  Where schools did not have Family Support Advisors the development of appropriate links would be explored.

It was agreed that that data relating to the number of Bracknell Forest families within the project meeting the various national criteria would be citculated to the Panel.

The Panel thanked Karen Frost for her update and it was agreed that the presentation would be circulated to the Panel.  It was requested that updates were brought to future Panel meetings.  

The Panel received an update on the provision of Youth Services within the Borough with a particular focus on the on-going modernisation of the service which aimed to provide the young people of Bracknell Forest with a mix of targeted provision and open access youth centres that provided a wide range of activities.  Work tied in with the key outcomes of the Get Us Involved consultation of young people which had highlighted three areas for development: increasing the involvement of young people, providing young people with the opportunity to participate in activities that they wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to do and to give young people the opportunity to try out new activities on an informal fun basis without having to worry about whether they are good at the activity. 

To help improve the targeting and quality of advice given to young people on a range of matters youth workers were being asked to become the designated youth worker with responsibility for particular key areas including: substance misuse, sexual health and relationships and Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme.  Knowledge that would be shared with young people through youth centres and the schools.

It was noted that, although the Youth Services had seen its budget reduced by £405,000 since 2011/12 and three youth centres had been closed, the number of young people accessing youth service provision had only fallen by a relatively small level, from 3569 different individuals in 2011/12 to 3234 individuals in 2012/13, and the number of young people achieving a recognised award through the Youth Service e.g. Berkshire Awards, Duke of Edinburgh Award had increased from 2399 in 21011/12 to 2748 in 2012/13. Statistics that were testament to the provision available and the quality of the work undertaken by youth workers.

Arsing from Members’ questions and comments the following points were noted:

• Contracts with external service providers would include provisions that would enable the Council to monitor and quality assure the standard of the service provided
• Many voluntary organisations providing activities for young people wanted support to help them deal with specific topics and it was questioned whether it might be possible to put a system in place that would enable Youth Workers to train and share their knowledge with volunteers
• The Government had recently published Working Together 2013 and the Local Safeguarding Children Board would be working through the implications of the new Section 11 guidance for voluntary and community groups
• The Panel commended the quality of the provision at the Wayz Youth Club
• It was agreed that updates would be given at future meetings

The Panel considered the Quarterly Service Report for the third quarter (October to December) of 2012/13 and the following points were noted:

·         Examples of compliments as well as complaints would be included in future Quarterly Service Reports

·         Bracknell Forest’s attainment of being 40^th (out of 150) best authority in the Country for the percentage of pupils attending a good or outstanding primary school was to be commended.  It was acknowledged that more should be done to celebrate this achievement particularly in relation to the Borough’s economic development

·         The Panel noted the outcomes of the current and previous Ofsted inspections of Bracknell Forest schools