Agenda item

To report to the Scrutiny Committee on the performance of the Children and Supporting Families Department.

To accept the report.

The report was submitted by the Cabinet Member for Children and Supporting Families and the Head of Department.

It was reported that the department implemented the Council Plan 2023-2028 and reported on the progress made to the end of March 2025, acknowledging that it was still early days in the context of some of the new pledges in the document since April last year.

It was noted that the Children and Supporting Families Department had two projects in the Council Plan, namely the Autism Plan and Developing a residential provision for looked after children in small group homes plan. It was explained that the Autism Plan was thriving, with a training programme for front-line staff continuing with the aim of being a local authority with an understanding and awareness of autism. It was also mentioned that the collaboration with the Education Department continued with internal and external staff engaging with the third sector. Pride was expressed that there was currently no waiting list for the Autism Team, but it was assumed that this would not continue for long as there was a high demand for the service.

It was explained that the developing a residential provision for looked after children in small group homes plan had significantly developed over the past year. It was noted that staff had been appointed to the first home in Morfa Bychan and two children were welcomed to the placement. It was also reported that two additional properties had been purchased, and preparation work had commenced to get them to a registration standard.

During the discussion, the following observations were made by the Members:

Enquiries were made about the Derwen service, specifically regarding the access criteria for the Derwen service. It was explained that the criteria were if the child had a learning disability or a significant delay in more than one development field. The member noted that he appreciated all of Derwen's great work but that this meant that many families with children who needed a similar service to what Derwen offered were missing out as they did not fit into the learning disability criteria. It was believed that the Council only defined based on 'IQ' and therefore many children, for example children with autism, were missing out on the service that they required. It was explained that the Council did not use 'IQ' for the Derwen criteria, but it was acknowledged that there was a gap and that was the reason for establishing the autism team to try to address part of the gap.

It was asked whether the department could provide assurance that every autism team worker had received training to the highest level in the autism field. It was noted that it was one of the department's priorities to ensure that public-facing staff received appropriate and relevant training for the work that they did. It was explained that they could not say with certainty that every staff member had currently received the training, but the programme was in place and the intention was for all staff in the team to receive the relevant training.

With the Flying Start scheme, it was acknowledged that addressing rural areas was challenging where there was a lack of services and rural poverty. However, it was noted that the Flying Start scheme had increased and spread the provision recently.

Concern was expressed about the funding that the department would lose in 2027 due to lack of grants. It was believed that now was the time to inform the Welsh Government that the scheme provided great support for the people and Gwynedd and that it should not be cut. It was agreed with the member's words and the challenges arising from getting grants and a Government which implemented on the back of grants were noted. It was explained that the funding was given in this format to ensure that the Council was able to apply for more different schemes to show whether they worked and that the benefit came from them, then they could invest more into these schemes.

Attention was drawn to the Fostering department, and it was explained that it would be beneficial to take a more detailed look to see what the exact challenges in the fostering department were. It was asked whether it was possible to have a graph to show whether the situation had improved or worsened over the years. It was noted that the fostering service was now part of a network with the rest of authorities in Wales and collaborated with these. In terms of the statistics, it was explained that they were statistics which were compared across the different counties. It was noted that it was difficult to believe, out of the initial enquiries, that only 17% were approved as foster carers.

DECISION

To accept the report.