Agenda item - Strategic Risk MAP Focus: SR15 Keeping children safe from harm and abuse; and SR17 School Places Planning

86.1      The Committee considered a report of the Executive Director of Finance & Resources in relation to the Strategic Risk MAP Focus: SR15 keeping children safe from harm and abuse; and SR17 School Places Planning. The Committee had a role to monitor the effectiveness of risk management and internal control by oversight of the Strategic Risk Register and a Risk Management Action Plan for each risk which is owned by a member of the Executive Leadership Team. The Committee had agreed to focus on two strategic risks at each meeting so that over the course of a year all the MAPs received attention. The Risk Owner responsible for both would be the Executive Director of Children’s Services.

86.2      The Executive Director of Children’s Services introduced both risks and stated that SR15 would always be in the register as it related to keeping children safe from harm and abuse; the authority would always do its very best to mitigate against this and it was hoped that the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub would be fully up and running in the next few months. The number of children and young people on child protection plans and in care was higher than might be expected; however, rather than create artificial targets more work had been done on early intervention. The Executive Director then went on to discuss SR17 and explained that the city had a growing population of children and there was a lot of work to consider admission arrangements already being undertaken.

86.3      In response to Councillor Sykes the Executive Director for Children’s Services explained that the number of adolescents moving into care had increased; work was being undertaken to look at the pathway around this as it was a key issue to focus on.

86.4      In response to the Chair it was confirmed by the Executive Director of Children’s Services that changes under the Children and Families Act had increased the system of support for young people had been extended to 21, and the authority would continue to support key post 18 issues such as accommodation.

86.5      In was confirmed for Councillor Wealls that the spend on youth services had been maintained.

86.6      In response to the Chair the Executive Director of Children’s Services explained that the situation in relation to school places in the city was constrained by the situation of parental preference and there had been an increase in the number of families in central Hove; whilst the population in Portslade had remained largely static. Over the last few years work had been undertaken to look at where capacity could be increased, but some schools were reluctant to do this. It was projected that admissions this year and next would reach their peak followed by a very gradual, but not significant, decline. This would need to be managed across the city. There were also issues in terms of secondary school places and where the academies in the city were below numbers the best use needed to be made of these capacities in the next few years.

86.7      In response to Dr Meleyal the Executive Director of Children’s Services explained that the number of children with special educational needs was not increasing across the city; there were six special schools in the city. There were some issues with the funding around these special schools, and there were greater risks that could affect their budget. A full scale review was due to start in relation to the special educational needs provision. It was important the funds spend in this area were used in the best possible way.

86.8      The Executive Director of Children’s Services responded to Councillor Smith’s questions and explained that the Saltdean Primary School served the community of Saltdean; however, half of the town was located in the city and the other half within the jurisdiction of East Sussex County Council. Parental preference preferred Saltdean Primary School and the authority was working with the school to increase the intake number. It was explained that the funding for pupils came through the dedicated schools grant from Central Government and was based on the number at the school.

86.9      In response to Councillor Sykes the Executive Director of Children’s Services explained that there was a lot of hard work going in relation to secondary school places, and the geographical set up of the city created further problems. There was confidence that a solution would be reached through a range of different options.

86.10   RESOLVED – That, having asked any relevant questions, the Committee note the report.