Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Councillors Annwen Daniels, Anwen Davies, R.Medwyn Hughes, Linda Ann Jones, Rheinallt Puw and Catrin Wager.

To receive any declarations of personal interest.

Councillor Elin Walker Jones declared a personal interest in Item 4 (Inspection of Gwynedd Council’s Children’s Services) and Item 5 (Annual Report on Dealing with Complaints and Information Requests by the Children and Supporting Families Department for 2017/2018) as she was employed by the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board and that the head of her service worked for Derwen. 

She was not of the opinion that the matters were prejudicial interests, and she did not withdraw from the meeting during the discussion on the items.

To note any items that are a matter of urgency in the view of the Chairman for consideration.

No urgent items were received.

Cabinet Member – Councillor Dilwyn Morgan

To receive a report on the above  (attached).

Sharon Eastlake, Chief Inspector of the Inspection Team was welcomed to the meeting to submit the Inspection of Gwynedd Council's Children's Services.

The Cabinet Member set out the context and noted that submitting the inspection to this committee was the last step in the process of inspecting the Council's children's services.  He emphasised that he took great pride in the positive messages in the report and he thanked the Chair and committee members for their input into the inspection.

The Chief Inspector gave an overview of the inspection's findings and fields to develop and the Head of Children and Supporting Families Department elaborated on work that was already in the pipeline to respond to recommendations in the report, and noted:-

·         The Department had addressed matters in the report that referred to fields to develop in detail, and rather than developing an improvement programme, the Department had an Ambition Programme as matters that were already being built upon needed to be strengthened.

·         Rather than waiting for the publication of the final report in August, the work of examining the fields to develop in detail had been immediately commenced in light of receiving oral feedback from the inspectors on the last day of the inspection in May.

·         The Department's Management Team discussed quality assurance arrangements and progress monitoring arrangements at every meeting and that discussions were also held in the performance challenging meetings.

·         The Inspectorate would also keep a close eye and that there was a responsibility on the Department to report on progress in the meetings biannually with the Inspectorate.

·         The development of the Information, Advice and Assistance Service since the inspection included:-

Ø  Undertaking work with our partners to draw attention to the services available.

Ø  Adding to the structure within the team so that one front door was available for the statutory service, but also for the early intervention and preventative services. Also, the family information service was now included within this service.

Ø  Developing information for the website so that what was available for families and individuals who required support could be advertised.

Ø  Re-branding the service as the 'Gwynedd Family Hub', and that this was now the new referral portal into the service.

·         The Supporting Families Strategy was a priority under the Council's Strategic Plan. The direction had been reported to the Leadership Team and the Cabinet and an additional resource on a senior manager level had been obtained to develop and lead the supporting families strategy as a matter of priority for the Department and across the corporation.

·         In terms of reviewing care plans for looked-after children, there was a need to examine how to improve the outcome for the child and that the Team of Independent Reviewing Officers, under the guidance of the Senior Safeguarding and Quality Manager, were developing their own work programme that would intertwine with this Ambition Programme.

·         A lack and shortage of suitable fostering placements was a national challenge, and not only for those children with the most complex needs. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Cabinet Member – Councillor Dilwyn Morgan

To receive a report on the above  (attached).

Submitted - the report of the Cabinet Member providing information on the number of complaints received by the Children and Supporting Families Department during the year, the reasons for them and the solutions. The report also contained a summary of the lessons learnt and the action taken on the complaints received, along with details about the number of information requests received during this period.

The Cabinet Member set out the context noting that this statutory annual report was a positive report. Due to the day-to-day nature of the job of workers, who had to make very difficult decisions, he explained that tensions were unavoidable, but that the well-being and safety of the young person was the main consideration. He added that the Inspectorate had not raised any concerns regarding the Council's complaints procedure and he referred to the positive observations listed on the back of the report by individuals and agencies that were partners of the Council.

The Senior Safeguarding and Quality Manager referred to some of the main matters in the report and the Cabinet Member, the Head of Children and Supporting Families Department and the Senior Safeguarding and Quality Manager responded to questions / general observations from members regarding the procedure.

The following points were raised by individual members:-

·         In response to an enquiry regarding the ability to prepare information at short notice for court cases in the event of the relevant officer's illness / annual leave, it was explained that the service had not faced this situation as of yet, but the Department had other individuals that could undertake some parts of the work. It was emphasised that it was detailed work that had to be undertaken carefully and in some situations perhaps the court would have to be informed that it was not practicably possible to achieve the work within the time-scale.

·         It was enquired how many families were clients of the service so that it could be estimated what percentage submitted a complaint about the service. In response, it was explained that the report mainly related to the period in history when there were approximately 600 - 700 cases, which included looked-after children, children in need and children that needed support, but that the preventative agenda had now significantly extended those numbers. As a result, it was currently very difficult to measure whether or not the levels of complaints were on the increase. It was also noted that it was difficult to identify trends as matters raised were very particular and unique to the circumstances of individual families.

·         It was enquired when it would be suitable to bring a concern to the attention of the scrutiny committee. In response, it was explained that the annual report was the product of four quarterly reports, that were drawn up as part of the service's monitoring arrangements to examine whether or not any trends become apparent.  It was confirmed that no matters of concern had been raised in this case. The Cabinet Member added that the Inspectorate kept  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.