Agenda and minutes

All Members who believe they have a Disclosable Pecuniary or other Interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting must declare that interest and, having regard to the circumstances described in Section 9 and Appendix B of the Councillors’ Code of Conduct, leave the meeting while the matter is discussed.

There were no declarations of interest.

Resolved – That the minutes of the meeting held on 30 July 2024 be confirmed as a correct record.

Members noted the attendance record for 2024.

Councillor Smith, Lead Member for Improvement & Recovery, Governance and Human Resources, and the Director of Strategy, Change and Resident Engagement, introduced the report.

The report provided an update on the development of a Target Operating Model (TOM) for Slough. The TOM was being developed to help Slough Borough Council to consciously decide how it will operate in the future, within its future budget. Appendix A set out the work to date and the broad approach adopted in developing the TOM.

The report advised that six themes had been identified as focus for improvement in Phase 1 of TOM following discussions by Corporate Leadership Team (CLT). It was anticipated that during October - November 2024 a process would begin to define which functions the Council was going to offer, which functions could be delivered through partners and which functions the Council was no longer going to offer. A public consultation and engagement process was planned for November- December 2024.

The CISC was invited to scrutinise the planned approach and set out their comments so that they could be considered in the shaping of the report to Cabinet on 18 November 2024.

Members made a number of comments on the TOM that was being developed including:

·  What was the difference between the current TOM and the model that was being developed?

·  Does the Council have sufficient resources for the new TOM, including any staffing implications?

·  Does the money allocated for the new TOM include the use of external resources?

·  Were Officers confident that CLT and Cabinet Members had the necessary competencies to deliver the new TOM? 

·  How was local knowledge being obtained in the development of the TOM?

·  The importance of placing Slough residents at the centre of the development of the TOM

·  The communications strategy planned for residents needs to make it clear how the TOM will work in practice.

·  Had Officers engaged with voluntary and community groups on the proposed TOM and if so, what feedback have they received? 

·  Were Officers considering out-sourcing some of the Council’s services?

·  How the Council’s data being used in the development of the TOM?

·  The use of a single “tell us once” customer contact as part of the Council’s overall digital work was suggested.

Officers and Councillor Smith responded to Members’ queries. It was noted that Officers were currently working on how the Council’s data was captured, which would include the “Tell us once” customer contact.

Overall, the CISC considered that it needed further clarification on the proposed TOM, including how it would benefit residents and how it might impact on the Council’s partner agencies including the voluntary sector. Members requested that Officers submit another report on the TOM to the CISC, addressing some of the points raised at the meeting.

Resolved:

1. That the Cabinet place Slough residents at the centre of the development of the TOM by asking for a Communications and Engagement plan to be developed and implemented as soon after its Cabinet meeting in November as is possible;

2. That the Cabinet sets out its expectations for the quality of resident engagement, prior to that engagement commencing, by adopting a set of community engagement standards.  TheScottish standards for Community Engagement.pdf offer a useful model for this purpose.

3. That the Slide Pack/any communications material for the new TOM be re-written in plain English for residents

CISC also agreed the following Actions:

4. That the CISC will scrutinise the Communications and Engagement Plan and Slough Standards for Community Engagement prior to Cabinet sign off

5. That the CISC will seek to scrutinise the TOM again once more detail has been developed by Officers and that key partner organisations will be invited to attend this meeting of the CISC. This is to allow them to understand their involvement, if any, in the TOM and to give them an opportunity to respond to elements of the TOM that may impact on the delivery of their services.

Councillor Bedi, Lead Member for Children’s Services, and the Chief Executive of Slough Children’s First (SCF) and Executive Director People (Children), introduced the reports. The first report (Appendix A) was  a letter dated 12 July 2024 from Ofsted HMI which summarised the findings of a focused inspection’s visit to SCF’s services on 30 April 2024 and 1 May 2024. Appendix A set out a number of headline findings, including some areas which had improved and areas of practice where improvements  needed to be made.

There was also a feedback presentation (Appendix B) which focused on SCF’s work with Children in Need and Children in Need of Protection.

The second report (Appendix C) was a report written by the Department of Education’s appointed Commissioner, Paul Moffat, in which he set out the progress made in children’s social care and Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) services from April 2023 until April 2024. In that report, the Commissioner noted that there had been many areas of improvement over the past 18 months but he also identified areas where there needed to be sustainable improvement.

Officers advised the Committee that progress had been made since the publication of the reports against some of the actions identified as needing improvement. This included carrying out regular audits and making progress in the case recordings. However, further work was still required.

The Committee discussed the report and made a number of comments, including:

·  The progress that has been made in relation to the actions set out in the Business Improvement Plan.

·  Concerns that the improvements to services might slip back.

·  The relationship between SCF and the Council and whether any improvements had been made since the publication of the report.

·  Whether SCF was likely to move back in-house.

·  The timescale as to when the Department of Education’s appointed Commissioner might step back from their work at Slough. 

·  The improvements that were being made to record keeping

·  Whether there would be enough school places in Slough for children with SEND.

·  Issues surrounding SEND complaints and how they were being dealt with and reported on.

·  Whether the CISC provided sufficient scrutiny for services for children or whether a separate Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee should be established.

Officers responded to Members’ queries. In relation to the question of whether a separate Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee should be established, it was noted that this matter was due to be discussed at a meeting that week between the Education Commissioner, Officers and the Chair and Vice-Chair of the CISC. Members indicated that if a decision was made that the CISC should continue to scrutinise children’s social care services, then Officers would need to have a plan in place to ensure that relevant reports such as Ofsted Inspections etc were reviewed by the CISC in good time.

One Member suggested that it would be helpful if Officers could provide a summary/interpretation in bullet point form of the relevant points raised by Ofsted or other external agencies reviewing the Council’s children’s services, rather than quoting paragraphs from the report(s).  Officers agreed to follow up on this action.

Resolved – That the findings of the reports from the Ofsted Inspector and the Education Commissioner, as well as the recent actions being undertaken by Officers in response to the areas of improvement identified, be noted.

Action – That Officers review the style of reporting to the CISC when summarising reports by Ofsted or other external agencies reviewing the Council’s children’s services. 

Key Agenda Items:

·  Report of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley

·  Slough Children First: Annual Report and Business Plan

The date of the next meeting of the Committee was confirmed as 29 October 2024.