Issue - meetings

The Portfolio Holder presented the annual review of progress against the summary action plan within the Children and Young People’s Plan 2009-2011.

The Chairman asked for an update on the temporary closure of the Mottingham Unit. The Director CYP responded that Mottingham Primary School had been struggling to achieve sustainable improvement for some time.  The Director felt that it would not be good practice to place statemented children in the autistic unit at the current time.

The Committee considered the Foyer Scheme and the Director CYP reported that the issue had been flagged up in inspections.  A Member asked whether any of the other developments in the Borough had been considered for the Foyer Scheme.  The Portfolio Holder reported that he had every intention of continuing with the policy and that it was regrettable that the development had not been passed by the Planning Committee but there was still scope to continue talks with Adult and Community Services and pursue the issue.  Another Member suggested that more flexibility should be adopted when considering locations for the scheme.  Councillor McBride asked if it would be possible to receive a briefing from Adult and Community Services outlining how the matter was being pursued.  The Director suggested that this would be a good area for review in the post-inspection action plan and also suggested that Officers from the Housing Department be asked to attend the meeting when the Inspection Action Plan was considered. 

With respect to the delivery of services within the Children and Family Centres Councillor Judi Ellis reported that there was not a crèche available at the Cotmandene Centre and questioned why the report stated that all centres ran activities and sessions.  The Strategic Commissioning Manager stated that he could not respond to the question at the meeting and would provide clarification outside the meeting.

With respect to the issue of 3 year CRB checks, Alison Regester reported that she did not believe that the checks were taking place in early years settings and that she was wary of the whole of Area of Focus 6 as it may not reflect the true picture.  The Strategic Commissioning Manager reported that the figures listed related to children of statutory school age and not pre-school children.  The Director CYP reported that this issue had been reported to Ofsted who had jurisdiction for pre-school settings and that Officers would continue to pursue this issue.

Alison Regester also reported that some pre-school providers had been considering changing their provision, which would have an impact of overall provision in the Borough.  Mrs Regester reported that as far as she was aware the changes were not being tracked.  The Director CYP undertook to investigate the issue.

The Portfolio Holder highlighted that the format of the CYP Plan was likely to change in the future as a result of legislative changes that would be made.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder be recommended to note the progress made as at April 2010 in addressing the priorities included in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11