Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Rooms 2&3 and 4, Trafford Town Hall, Talbot Road, Stretford, M32 0TH

Contact: Fabiola Fuschi 

Note: Public attendance at this meeting is limited and anyone wishing to attend is asked to contact democratic.services@trafford.gov.uk to register in advance as the Council continues to manage the risk of Covid-19. The Council has a duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of staff and others from Covid transmission risks so far as is reasonably practicable and all attendees are reminded of the need for self-isolation where positive cases and contacts have been identified 

Items
No. Item

11.

ATTENDANCES

To note attendances, including officers, and any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Acton, Dr. Barclay, Blackburn and Haughey.

 

Councillor Hynes, Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services informed that could not attend this meeting.

12.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members to give notice of any interest and the nature of that interest relating to any item on the agenda in accordance with the adopted Code of Conduct.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest received

13.

PUBLIC QUESTIONS

A maximum of 15 minutes will be allocated to public questions submitted in writing to Democratic Services (democratic.services@trafford.gov.uk) by 4pm on the working day prior to the meeting. Questions must be within the remit of the Committee or be relevant to items appearing on the agenda and will be submitted in the order in which they were received

Minutes:

There were no public questions received

14.

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING pdf icon PDF 201 KB

To receive and, if so determined, to approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 16th March 2021 and on 6th July 2021

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meetings held on 16th March and 6th July 2021 be approved as correct records.

15.

UPDATE ON CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES (CAMHS)

A presentation will be delivered at the meeting of the Committee by representatives of the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital

Minutes:

In consideration of the increase in the number of referrals of children and young people to mental health services during 2020, the Committee had requested an update on the position of Trafford’s CAMHS (Children and Adolescents Mental Health Services) for today’s meeting.

 

The following representatives of the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital attended the meeting to present the update and answered the questions of the Committee: the Assistant Director Clinical Service Unit, the Clinical Director for CAMHS and the Director of Operations.

 

CAMHS’ representatives informed of the increased volume and complexity of cases. The level of acuity had also increased with consequential higher demand and pressure on services and resources. Officers outlined how referrals operated and the duty system in place to assess needs and signpost to services which were best placed to meet those needs. High need cases were seen on the same day. 

 

CHAMS’ representatives informed of treatments available to children and young people and outlined the “THRIVE” framework: advice and signposting, focused support, specialist therapy and risk support and how clinicians liaised with families, schools, social care and other services to provide a holistic intervention as and when necessary and highlighted the importance of a whole system approach. 

 

Members sought and received clarification on how the CAMHS’s offer could vary between localities in Greater Manchester. Officers explained that this depended on the differences in commissioning but reassured Members that the principles of prioritisation would be the same across Greater Manchester.

 

Officers responded to Members’ question about what services Trafford Council commissioned for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Officers referred to some of the services available such as the Early Help offer which provided support in schools, the voluntary sector input in the community through Greater Manchester funding, 42nd Street presence in six secondary schools in Trafford, KOOTH which provided 24/7 on line access to mental health services for 11-25 years old.

 

Members asked about provision for Autism. CAMHS representatives explained that this was under the remit of Trafford Local Care Organisation (TLCO) and CAMHS would work with TLCO’s consultants.

 

Members asked where a young person from Trafford in need of an in-patient bed would be allocated and CAMHS representatives explained that currently there was a long waiting list. However, a young person from Trafford would experience the same access as young people who resided in other areas in GM. Officers added that, across GM, a “pop-up clinic” approach was being developed to deliver care as near as possible to the place where young people resided. This was part of a whole system approach which amongst its five priorities saw Health and Wellbeing. 

 

RESOLVED that the content of the presentation be noted. 

 

 

 

16.

EARLY YEARS SECTOR, AMBITION PLAN AND SCHOOL READINESS pdf icon PDF 559 KB

Report to follow

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Education Standards, Quality and Performance which provided an update on the Early Years sector, ambition plan and school readiness.

 

The author of the report, the Executive Lead Member for Education and the Early Years Service Manager were in attendance to present the information and answered the questions of the Committee.

 

Officers informed that Trafford had a strong early years sector with 98% of childminders rated good or outstanding compared to 96% nationally. Officers continued informing about the Early Years Strategic Plan Ambitions which saw a well-established 0-5 Board with representation from all key partners. One of the seven priorities of the plan was children’s Social and Emotional Wellbeing. The priorities had been refreshed in June 2021 to reflect the Covid recovery planning and a set of key performance indicators would be developed in January 2022 to drive delivery of outcomes against the seven priorities.

 

Officers brought to Members’ attention the decline in the take up of 2 year education places. Although the take up in Trafford was still higher than national, it was lower than previous years and this would affect school readiness.

 

Members asked whether it would be possible to look at the reasons of the decline in the 2 year offer take up. Officers informed that work was ongoing with other local authorities in Greater Manchester to look at this trend and determine the reasons of such a decline and to look at possible solutions. Officers also advised that opportunities for young children to learn were being promoted via social media, e.g.: the “10 tips for talking” highlighted the everyday things that parents and carers could do to develop children’s speech, language and communication skills from before birth through to starting school.

 

Officers continued informing that there was also a decline in the number of childminders. This was a national trend. Trafford Council fostered a mix early years market to increase parents’ choice.

 

With regards to school readiness, Officers outlined the measures in place to address the issues caused by the pandemic and the period of disruptive learning during lockdown. Speech, language and communication pathways were in place and officers were confident that children would be able to catch up on some of the development that they had missed out on because of lockdown and nursery closures. Officers referred to the ongoing work with NESTA and other local authorities in Greater Manchester to support parents and understand what would be important to them and utilise their feedback to improve services.

 

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

17.

TRAFFORD COUNCIL SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND DISABILITIES (SEND) PEER CHALLENGE pdf icon PDF 387 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Education Standards, Quality and Performance which presented the outcome of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Peer Review Challenge that Trafford Council had commissioned the local Government Association to carry out to look at validation of good practices and support with areas for improvement.

 

The author of the report, the Lead Member for Education, the Corporate Director of Children’s Services and the Service Manager and Advisor for Inclusion attended the meeting to present the information and answered the questions of the Committee.

 

Officers reported that the Peer Challenge focused on a number of lines of enquiry some of which had been identified by Trafford’s partners as priority areas in the Ambition Plan, in particular: response to Covid, quality of the SEND experience for children, young people, parents and carers, transition arrangements – preparing for adulthood and the voice of the child.

 

Officers outlined the six key priorities which had been agreed in partnership with Trafford Parents/Carers Forum such as developing outcome-focused approaches to joint commissioning and integrated working to promote early identification and intervention and maintaining strong outcomes for Trafford SEND pupils, so that they achieved outcomes which were above national expectations for similar pupils and where possible, preventing school exclusions.

 

Officers continued informing members of the next steps and the recommendations following the conclusion of the review.

 

Members sought clarification on a number of matters such as recruitment and retention of staff, preparing for adulthood protocol and employment pathway for young people with SEND, how to gather the voice of the child for those families and children hard to reach.

 

Officers informed that delivering greater local integration and co-ordination of education, health and social care services was one of the ambitions listed in the plan as well as the strong focus on parents’ perspective on transition. The workforce was stable and there was potential to look at quality of plans. The reason for the interim post for the Designated Clinical Officer was to be seen within the perspective of the service redesign.

 

RESOLVED that the content of the report be noted.

 

 

18.

DRAFT EXECUTIVE RESPONSE TO THE CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE'S SCRUTINY COMMITTEE TASK AND FINISH GROUP REVIEW INTO SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND DISABILITIES (SEND) AND SCHOOL EXCLUSIONS pdf icon PDF 280 KB

Report to follow

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Education Standards, Quality and Performance which outlined the response to the information and recommendations made by the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Committee Task & Finish Group Review into Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and School Exclusions in 2020/21.

 

The Committee was pleased to receive the report and to note that all schools had been provided with the Inclusion Charter Pack with a view to signing up to show each school’s commitment to the Charter.

 

RESOLVED that the responses made in the report be noted.

 

 

19.

URGENT BUSINESS (IF ANY)

Any other item or items which by reason of:-

 

(a)       Regulation 11 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012, the Chairman of the meeting, with the agreement of the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee Chairman, is of the opinion should be considered at this meeting as a matter of urgency as it relates to a key decision; or

 

(b)       special circumstances (to be specified) the Chairman of the meeting is of the opinion should be considered at this meeting as a matter of urgency.

 

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business received

20.

EXCLUSION RESOLUTION

Motion   (Which may be amended as Members think fit):

 

            That the public be excluded from this meeting during consideration of the remaining items on the agenda, because of the likelihood of disclosure of “exempt information” which falls within one or more descriptive category or categories of the Local Government Act 1972, Schedule 12A, as amended by The Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006, and specified on the agenda item or report relating to each such item respectively.

Minutes:

None