Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Trafford Town Hall, Talbot Road, Stretford

Contact: Ian Cockill  Democratic Services Officer

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Items
No. Item

17.

Congratulations

Additional documents:

Minutes:

 

The Council joined with the Mayor in congratulating Councillor Graham Whitham and his wife Christina on the birth of their daughter Lydia.

18.

Children's Social Care

In accordance with Procedure Rule 3 of the Council’s Constitution, an Extraordinary Meeting of the Council has been called to consider the following Motion:

 

“This Council notes the very worrying judgement by Ofsted of ‘Inadequate’ following a Children’s Services inspection in March 2019.

 

This marked change in performance, especially in relation to leadership and governance, follows a previous focused Ofsted visit in July 2018 which noted:

 

    “Internal expertise has been utilised well to provide stability, consistency and a continued focus to improve service delivery for children and their families. Leaders understand the strengths and weakness of their services and use this knowledge well to identify areas for development.”

 

Council therefore considers it irrefutable that a deterioration in leadership and governance to ‘inadequate’ has occurred in less than twelve months.  

In light of this and regrettably, Council considers that it is untenable for the former Executive Member for Children’s Services to continue to serve in another important role on the Executive of the Council.

  

The Council welcomes the appointment of the Deputy Leader of the Council to the portfolio and requests she outlines within six weeks to the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Committee detailed remediation plans. The Council commits itself to work across party to support the required turnaround.

 

The Council calls for the immediate reinstatement of the Lead Member for Safeguarding, to ensure a cross directorate focus remains on this vital subject. 

 

Finally, the Council places on record its continued support and admiration for the tremendous hard work of all the staff in Children’s Social Services under difficult circumstances.”

Additional documents:

Minutes:

 

(Note: In respect of the item of business on the agenda, the Mayor announced that speeches made by Members moving and seconding the Motion or any amendment would be untimed and that all other all speeches would be limited to a maximum of five minutes per speaker.)

 

It was moved and seconded that:

 

“This Council notes the very worrying judgement by Ofsted of ‘Inadequate’ following a Children’s Services inspection in March 2019.

 

This marked change in performance, especially in relation to leadership and governance, follows a previous focused Ofsted visit in July 2018 which noted:

 

            “Internal expertise has been utilised well to provide stability, consistency and a continued focus to improve service delivery for children and their families. Leaders understand the strengths and weakness of their services and use this knowledge well to identify areas for development.”

 

Council therefore considers it irrefutable that a deterioration in leadership and governance to ‘inadequate’ has occurred in less than twelve months.  

 

In light of this and regrettably, Council considers that it is untenable for the former Executive Member for Children’s Services to continue to serve in another important role on the Executive of the Council.

  

The Council welcomes the appointment of the Deputy Leader of the Council to the portfolio and requests she outlines within six weeks to the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Committee detailed remediation plans. The Council commits itself to work across party to support the required turnaround.

 

The Council calls for the immediate reinstatement of the Lead Member for Safeguarding, to ensure a cross directorate focus remains on this vital subject. 

 

Finally, the Council places on record its continued support and admiration for the tremendous hard work of all the staff in Children’s Social Services under difficult circumstances.”

 

It was moved and seconded as an amendment that:

 

“This Council notes the very worrying judgement by Ofsted of ‘Inadequate’ following a Children’s Services inspection in March 2019.

 

This is a significant change from the Council’s previous performance, judged as good with some outstanding elements in the last full inspection in 2015.

 

Council therefore considers it irrefutable that a deterioration in leadership and governance to ‘inadequate’ has occurred since the last full inspection. Council noted that an Ofsted Focused Visit in July 2018 was concerned with Permanence only.

 

In light of this Council considers that it is entirely legitimate for there to be questions asked of those who have had political responsibility for the decisions of the Council in this period. In particular Council notes the role of the previous Leader of the Council and the cuts made to a range of children’s services during his tenure.

 

Regrettably, therefore, Council feels it appropriate to condemn the appointment of the former Leader of the Council as Shadow Executive Member for Children’s Social Care. Council asks the Leader of the Opposition to consider the appropriateness of this appointment and reflect on whether it is acceptable to have such an important role filled by a person with a record of cutting a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.