Agenda item

To receive a verbal update from the Cabinet Members for Specialist Children’s Services and Adult Social Care and Public Health, the Corporate Director of Social Care, Health and Wellbeing and the Director of Public Health.

1.            Mr P J Oakford gave a verbal update on the following issues:-

Met with Essex County Council on 27 March – this was one of a series of meetings from which Kent could learn from colleagues in Essex how their children’s services had progressed from an ‘inadequate’ to a ‘good’ rating, and build what they had learnt into a work plan. This series of meetings was being facilitated by the County Council’s efficiency partner, Newton Europe, from whom a report and action plan was expected shortly.

Visit to Children’s Centres in Dover and Tunbridge Wells – the latest in a series of regular visits had been undertaken with officers from the Early Help and Preventative Services, and Karen Sharp from Public Health, who had discussed issues around the Health Visitor service with Centre staff. 

Visits with Principal Social Work Practitioner – the latest in a series of regular visits had included a visit to the Kings Hill Office.

Children in Care and Care Leavers Strategy – this would shortly be available on line and the Democratic Services Officer undertook to send the committee a link to it. 

New arrangements for Disabled Children’s Services - Disabled Children’s Services, Adults Learning Disability and Adult Mental Health Services had come together in a new division from 1 April 2015. Penny Southern would be the Director responsible for the division, called ‘Disabled Children, Adults with a Learning Disability and Mental Health’. This closer alignment would further improve the support for disabled young people becoming adults.

2.            Mr A Ireland then gave a verbal update on the following issues:-

Disabled Children’s Services – the new Division led by Penny Southern would support more effective care planning and a smoother transition from children’s to adults’ services, and would better support the requirements of the Care Act.  The impact of the new Division would be monitored, and other areas of service would also be reviewed to ensure that they also supported smoother transition.

Children in Care placed in Kent by other local authorities – he had written to the minister and senior civil servants to reiterate Kent’s grave concern about the number of children placed in Kent by other local authorities and these children’s increased vulnerability to child sexual exploitation due to their distance from their home areas.

3.            In response to a question about the age range of children placed in Kent by other local authorities, Mr Ireland explained that Kent did not have full and reliable data on the age range of such children as the required pre-placement notifications were not always made by the placing authority.  However, he said he would estimate that such children would tend to be in older age groups. Mr Segurola undertook to look into the data available and advise the questioner outside the meeting. He added that he chaired a task and finish officer group looking at location assessments, to ensure that safeguarding issues had a suitably high profile. A placing authority also had a duty of care to check, ahead of placing a child, to ensure that their educational and health care needs could be met.  He confirmed that this responsibility remained with the placing authority up to and including the time at which a young person left care.     

4.            Mr G K Gibbens then gave a verbal update on the following issues:-

He had taken three recent key decisions regarding contract extensions for the Kent Community Health Trust: 

14/00146 - Smoking Cessation Service – more needed to be done to address the impact of smoking upon children

14/00147 - Health Trainers Service, and

14/00148 - Healthy Weight Service

11 February - Attended Local Government Association Annual Public Health Conference in London – at which, Duncan Selbie, the Chief Executive of Public Health England, and Simon Stevens, the Chief Executive of NHS England had emphasised the importance of public health as referring to the public’s health, and that the NHS was a Health service, not a health care service, both of which he agreed with and supported.

Health Inequalities – a report was due to be considered by the Adult Social Care and Health Cabinet Committee at its meeting on 1 May. He invited Members of this Committee who did not also sit on that committee to attend the 1 May meeting to discuss and have an opportunity to comment on the report. 

Children and Young People’s Mental Health services – Mr Gibbens provided an answer to a question about Troubled Families and mental health issues that Ms Cribbon had asked at full Council on 12 February 2015.  He said that any young person referred to the Children and Young Persons’ Mental Health Services was seen on the basis of clinical need, regardless of their status as a looked after child or as a participant in the Troubled Families programme.  Kent County Council also commissioned a specialist children in care team, which worked within the Sussex Partnership Trust in providing specific support for looked after children as this was separate from the core mental health element of the service, which was commissioned by the clinical commissioning groups.

5.            A view was expressed that the value of this planned service could only be seen when it was put into practice, and some troubled families which currently struggled to access the service would not gain any immediate benefit from the new arrangements. A major challenge still existed in the form of those young people who had missed out on receiving services and had developed additional or more severe problems as a result.

6.            Mr Scott-Clark then gave a verbal update on the following issues:-

Smoke-Free Children’s play areas; pilot with Ashford Borough Council – this pilot had received much support and good feedback from local parents, and the aim now was to spread it more widely.

Scarlet Fever: national increase in cases – this notifiable disease mainly affected children in the winter and spring, and, although there had been a national increase in cases in the last two years, Kent’s rate of increase was below the national average. The County Council’s Public Health team was working with Public Health England to ensure that all nurseries and primary schools had information about what to look out for and what to do if a case were suspected, including infection control procedures.

7.            He responded to comments and questions, including the following:-

a)    a speaker whose baby had a rash was told by both her GP and NHS Direct to consult the other. She expressed a concern that other parents might also experience the same confusion between services, which did not seem to be equipped to deal with such enquiries, adding unnecessary distress as a result. Mr Scott-Clark agreed that the advice received had been inadequate and undertook to look into the issue; 

b)    GPs would previously have been accustomed to seeing cases of scarlet fever, but its rarity in recent years meant that many GPs were no longer familiar with the symptoms and so would struggle to  identify it;

c)     cases of scarlet fever had so far been sporadic rather than clustered, but infection control and treatment had been managed well; and

d)    the pilot scheme for smoke-free playgrounds could prove to be self- enforcing, as parents using playgrounds would pressure each other not to smoke in front of their children.

8.            The verbal updates were NOTED, with thanks.