Minute of meeting of 2 December 2022
Perth and Kinross Council · 15 March 2023
Back to Learning and Families Committee — 15 March 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE AND FAMILIES’ PARTNERSHIP Minute of meeting of the Children, Young People and Families Partnership held on Friday 2 December 2022 at 10.00am in Room 239. Present: Councillor L Barrett Councillor M Frampton Councillor C Shiers S Devlin, Executive Director (Education and Children’s Services) S Johnston, Head of Education and Learning, PKC H Robertson, Head of Services for Children, Young People and Families, PKC, L Sharkey, Chief Midwife, Women Children and Families Division, NHS Tayside In Attendance: B Atkinson, Independent Chair of Child Protection Committee; R Drummond, P Davidson and A Taylor (all PKC). S Devlin in the Chair 1. WELCOME AND APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE S Devlin welcomed everyone to the meeting. No formal apologies for absence submitted. 2. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST There were no declarations of interest in terms of the relevant Codes of Conduct. 3. MINUTE OF PREVIOUS MEETING The minute of the meeting of the Children, Young People and Families Partnership of 30 September 2022 was submitted and noted as a correct record subject to the following revisals:- (i) deletion of ‘review’ on line 1 of the fourth paragraph of Item 5. (ii) deletion of ‘the regi of this, with the local implementation of’ on line 4 in the fourth paragraph of Item 6. 4. MATTERS ARISING There were no matters arising from the minute of the previous meeting.
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5. GETTING IT RIGHT FOR EVERY CHILD (GIRFEC) REFRESHED GUIDANCE 2022 H Robertson gave a presentation on the recently published refreshed guidance with regards to Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC). She specifically highlighted the changes in the refreshed guidance to what was already in place and sought the views of the Partnership as to the best way to take forward the updating and the various changes that will be required to be made to the processes, policies and guidance and consider how we do this on a multi-agency basis. A copy of the presentation slides can be viewed via the following link. S Devlin made reference to the number of learning reviews that have been carried out and the specific learning that has come out of these so that any themes running through these can be identified as we look to refresh the GIRFEC guidance. She stressed the importance that the Partnership are seeing the learning from these reviews are being turned into specific actions. R Drummond welcomed the publication of the refreshed guidance, he also highlighted one of the changes in Perth and Kinross and across all agencies has been the significant workforce changes which has proved very challenging in terms of people’s awareness of the original GIRFEC guidance and now this refreshed version. L Sharkey also welcomed the publication of the refreshed guidance, specifically around the guidance of roles around the ‘named person’. She also highlighted from a practice perspective that there has been a significant change in personnel within the workforce, whether that be midwifery, health visiting, FMP, school nursing and the transformation of these roles which can bring benefits and challenges of the history of GIRFEC and the understanding of it for moving forward. She also highlighted that the lead professional role was something that in practice would require a bit more work to be carried out on. Councillor Frampton expressed her pleasure that the refreshed guidance would seem to have the voice of the child or young person at the heart of any decision making. S Devlin made reference to the wide range of third sector and charity organisations that are available and stressed the importance of these types of organisations being involved and how we can access these if they are the most appropriate people to be working alongside families. At the conclusion of discussion, the Partnership: (i) Agreed in principle to the establishment of a Multi-Agency GIRFEC Sub- Group of this Partnership to take forward the important work that is required. (ii) Agreed to identify the appropriate membership of the Sub-Group and for them to be remitted to take forward the necessary review and revamp of the amended Act.
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6. PERTH AND KINROSS CHILD PROTECTION COMMITTEE STANDARDS AND QUALITY REPORT 2021/22 There was submitted a report by the Chief Social Work Officer (G/22/293) (1) describing the Child Protection Committee’s achievements, key strengths and areas for improvement; and (2) providing an update on the Child Protection Committee’s Improvement Plan and also confirming that the CPC continues to focus on learning and improvement and has prepared a programme of improvement work for 2022 and beyond The Standards and Quality Report is published by the Perth and Kinross Child Protection Committee, in compliance with Scottish Government guidance. The Standards and Quality Report for the academic year 2021-2022 provides an overview of the key activities and work of the Perth and Kinross Child Protection Committee to protect children and young people from harm, abuse and exploitation. R Drummond advised the report highlights CPC and in particular partner strengths and details some achievements and the capacity for further improvement. He further advised that it also demonstrates that as a CPC we are a listening and learning partnership and that we are benefiting from and using data to inform the work carried out. Councillors Shiers made reference to the resilience of staff given everything that they have gone through over the last two years, particularly around the issues of child protection concerns when working from home and the challenges that would provided staff. In response, H Robertson confirmed that the resilience of staff has been tested to the limit and we are seeing tired and exhausted staff who have somehow managed to pull out all the stops during the pandemic. She also confirmed that whilst working from home was incredibly complex, we encouraged people to come together as quickly as that was possible and that they have been working in teams from as soon as that was permitted. The Partnership: (i) Noted the wide range of work carried out by Perth and Kinross Council, and partners through the Child Protection Committee, to provide high quality services to protect children and young people, in particular the high level commitment to continuous improvement through self-evaluation. (ii) Endorsed the contents of this report and the Child Protection Committee Standards and Quality Report 2021-2022 and the contents of the CPC Improvement Plan 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2023. 7. UPDATE ON THE CHILD PROTECTION COMMITTEE R Drummond provided a verbal update to the Partnership on the recent activities of the Child Protection Committee. The update covered the various points detailed below:-
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• Self-evaluations activities underway with Partners • Presentation to be delivered at CPC on 6 December 2022 providing a detailed analytical report on management information in this year’s standards and quality report. • Improvement Plan looking to refresh this following feedback received at Scrutiny Pre-Agenda. • GIRFEC Refresh • Learning Reviews The Partnership noted the update. 8. WHOLE FAMILY WELLBEING FUND SUB-GROUP – TERMS OF REFERENCE There was submitted for information and approval a copy of the terms of reference (G/22/183) for the recently established ‘Perth and Kinross Whole Family Wellbeing Fund (WFWF) Executive Sub-Group. H Robertson advised that the Whole Family Wellbeing Fund Programme Manager had now been appointed and will commence the role on 8 December 2022. S Devlin made reference to Section 5 – Membership and queried whether it was the intention to put names in the frame or would it be whoever was the current named member on this Partnership representing those agencies who would be the representative and it would be two out of the three elected members who were available. In response, H Robertson confirmed that was correct and was the main reason for bringing the TOR to the meeting today. She further stated that it was the aim to be as inclusive as possible and to have all the partners represented. Councillor L Barrett stated her opinion that depending on what the decisions are we may require an online meeting to be convened if it is a particularly complex issue that requires discussion. S Devlin confirmed that this type of flexibility would be built into the TOR depending on the nature of the decision required. The Partnership: (i) Agreed to look at what constitutes being quorate for a Partnership meeting and mirror this for any meeting of the WFWF Executive Sub-Group. (ii) Agreed that any two of the three Elected Members can attend meetings of the Executive Sub-Group depending on availability and if all three can attend then this also be allowed. (iii) Agreed to the flexibility being retained to call a quorate online meeting for anything that will require some extensive discussion. 9. THEMATIC APPROACH TO PERFORMANCE REPORTING There was submitted a report (G/22/182) by the Executive Director (Education and Children’s Services) (1) concluding the seventh year of thematic reporting
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for performance/outcome information focused on children, young peoples and families; and (2) setting out a suite of information focused on contextual and inequalities information, for consideration and scrutiny by the Partnership In summarising the report, P Davidson highlighted to members with regards to young carers in schools we were seeing a general increase in this, he also advised that we were seeing a downward trend in exclusion rates in schools with attendance continuing to be impacted by covid down to isolation and sickness. Councillor L Barrett made reference to the slight percentage increase in teenage pregnancy as detailed on Page 2 of the report, in response P Davidson stated it was a complicated one due to the numbers being so small over a three-year period and confirmed that we would need to see more data over a longer period to confirm whether this was a trend or not. The Partnership: Noted the information as set out Report G/22/182. 10. ANY OTHER COMPETENT BUSINESS There was no other competent business. 11. DATES OF MEETING 2023 It was agreed that meeting dates for 2023 would be circulated to Members via e-mail for approval as soon as possible.