Minutes:
1) Mr Love said he attended the opening of the new sport and teaching block at Borden Grammar School in Sittingbourne on 27 September 2024. Around 100 people attended the event and it was anticipated that the facility would be much used by all of the students. Mr Love was pleased to hear from the head teacher about some of the great work being done in the school.
The newly appointed headteacher welcome event was held on 3 October, run jointly by KCC and the Kent Association of Leaders in Education (KALE). This was a good opportunity to share what was being done well including the Outstanding Ofsted grade for social services, significant progress with SEND, the good student level outcomes and above national levels of schools who Ofsted deemed to be ‘taking effective action’. Kent’s headteachers played a vital part in schools and the wider system. Mr Love expressed gratitude for the headteachers’ dedication and support to Kent’s children, young people and parents.
Mr Love had attended the KALE annual conference in the morning before the committee meeting. He endorsed school leaders’ commitment to share good practice and learn fresh insights from guest speakers.
The School Funding Forum took place on 11 October and Ben Cooper, from Swalecliffe Primary School was elected as the new chair. Mr Love said that he looked forward to working with Mr Cooper.
Congratulations were given to Michelle Bramble, a dedicated member of the Community Learning Services workforce, for achieving a remarkable honour. Michelle had recently been awarded the prestigious Local Government Association award in recognition of her outstanding efforts as an Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Champion within KCC. Michelle had played a pivotal role in influencing, changing, and enhancing the way KCC operated by promoting equality and inclusivity in our workplace. Mr Love said that it was fantastic to see the contributions of KCC staff members celebrated in this way, highlighting the importance of leadership within the organisation.
Mr Love said that a number of reforms had been made to the special educational needs services and the aim was to set the services on a sustainable financial footing. The work was also about quality of service. Over the preceding 18 months, it was noted that Members had held him to account over issues. He said that he had not pursued a quick fix but was working to make underlying changes. It was reported that the performance for the issuing of EHCPs within 20 weeks had improved with 197 being issued in September, with 64.0% within 20 weeks and in October, 118 had been issued, with 76.9% within 20 weeks. The results illustrated the start of the journey. No cases were over 26 weeks, which was down from 107 weeks being the oldest case at the start of the year.
2) Mrs Chandler said the Department for Education (DfE) published the long awaited policy paper on children’s social care reform: Keeping children safe, helping families thrive. The Secretary of State made an oral statement in the House of Commons. There was commentary in the paper about independent care providers. Greater control over the profits made by independent care providers was welcomed. There was also discussion within the paper about rebalancing the system towards preventative work. There were some indications that there might be further funding but Mrs Chandler would report back once there was further clarity.
Mrs Chandler attended the National Agenda and Reforms Conference and Kent Academy Social Care Awards on 24 October 2024. The conference included guest speakers, Isabelle Trowler CBE, Chief Social Worker for Children and Families and Yvette Stanley, the National Director of Ofsted who gave their perspective on the national reforms in children’s social care. The awards recognised the good work that was undertaken across the county by Children’s Services and was a celebration of the fantastic practice in children’s social care which was often in very challenging circumstances. Rebecca Button received the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement award and was also shortlisted in the Lifetime Achievement category at the Social Worker of the year national awards.
The Kent Fostering Service’s Award Ceremony was held on 8 November and celebrated the outstanding work by Kent County Council’s foster carers. Every year the awards ceremony had gone from strength to strength and 2024 was no exception. KCC received a phenomenal 348 nominations for foster carers, Kent Support Homes Hosts and staff, which was the highest to date. The awards reminded all of the truly inspirational work that was undertaken to provide our most vulnerable children with a safe and loving home.
Mrs Chandler was delighted to announce that Kent Children in Care Councils (OCYPC, OCYPC Extra and the Young Adult Council) had won first place at the Coram National Voice Awards 2024. The National Voice Awards was an annual award programme that recognised the exceptional contributions of Children in Care and Care Leavers in England. The awards were open to Children in Care Councils, Care Leaver Forums and other projects in Children's Social Care. Kent Children in Care Councils won the award in 2024 for a project they have been working on for several months, called 'Listen Up'. They had created a training workshop and made a film to raise awarenesses of the importance of professionals listening to children and young people.
KCC had won the National Leaving Care Benchmarking Forum Team of The Year Award for the 18+ food bank project. This was achieved through outstanding hard work and leadership to deliver the project across the service from Mario Silva, Team Manager in 18+ Care Leavers. The 18+ Foodbank Project was launched in April 2023 by a small group of personal advisors from the 18+ Care Leavers Service; the aim of the project is to support our care experienced young adults in times of need. The project worked in collaboration with The Family Foodbank and The Hygiene Bank Medway to offer an in-house food and hygiene bank service to young people within the service and was available to all Kent Care Leavers. Last week The NLCBF noted: “The Kent team recognised and responded to the cost-of-living crisis, and so the 18+ Food Project was developed to support young people through this critically important time.”
A new fostering film from over 100 councils in the UK, including Kent County Council was launched on 17 October. ‘Everything’ was the seventh film produced by a growing partnership of councils and children’s trusts to promote local authority fostering. The film was linked on the KCC website.
Mrs Chandler attended the ‘Big Mental Health Conversation’ which welcomed 200 young people from 25 Kent schools to coincide with World Mental Health Day. This was funded and hosted by KCC and the NHS Integrated Care Board. All the young people there appreciated the opportunity to be part of the workshops and to talk about the issues.
On 14 November 2024, KCC hosted a visit to two of its new reception centres by Minister for Children and Families, Janet Daby, and Minster for State at the Home Office, Dame Angela Eagle, alongside senior leaders from Home Office and Department for Education. The visit was positive, with Ministers impressed by how the centres are being run. Discussions were held on improving the National Transfer Scheme (NTS) and a national response to the needs of newly arriving UAS children.
Since 1 January 2024, 2600+ UAS children have been referred to KCC, with 2100+ transferred to the care of other local authorities under the NTS.
KCC had six operational reception centres providing temporary homes for newly arriving UAS children in Ashford, Cranbrook, Faversham, Dartford, and Ash. Four of these centres were new and had been open since July 2024. Three more centres will open between now and Summer 2025 in Gravesend, Canterbury and Sholden. All the centres had successfully registered with Ofsted, either as children’s homes for children aged under 16 or supported accommodation for children aged 16 or 17. Feedback from Ofsted and stakeholders who had visited the centres had been positive and the centres continued to engage stakeholders and communities.
3) Further to questions from Members, it was noted that:
· Significant progress had been made with the issuing of EHCPs within the set timescales. Changes relating to the performance targets for EHCPs would be reported to Members.
4) RESOLVED to note the verbal updates.