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Bank holiday information - Easter

Bank holiday information for our services, including opening times and emergency contacts. All recycling collections will take place on the usual days.

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 5, Guildhall, Swansea. View directions

Contact: Liz Jordan 01792 637314 

Items
No. Item

1.

Disclosure of Personal and Prejudicial Interests.

Minutes:

No disclosures of interest were made.

2.

Prohibition of Whipped Votes and Declaration of Party Whips

Minutes:

No declarations were made.

3.

Minutes of Previous Meeting(s) pdf icon PDF 316 KB

To receive the minutes of the previous meeting(s) and agree as an accurate record. 

Minutes:

The Panel agreed the minutes of the meeting on 28 August 2019 as an accurate record of the meeting.

4.

Public Question Time

Questions must relate to matters on the Agenda and will be dealt with in a 10 minute period.

Minutes:

No members of the public were present at the meeting.

5.

Update on Progress with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services pdf icon PDF 232 KB

Gavin Evans, Youth Support Services Manager

Minutes:

Joanne Abbott-Davies, Assistant Director of Strategy & Partnerships, West Glamorgan University Health Board attended to present an update on progress including performance, strategic vision and services to support health and wellbeing of children and young people, and to answer the Panel’s questions.  Gavin Evans, Youth Support Services Manager for the Council also attended for this item.

 

Discussion points:

 

·         Swansea’s compliance with Welsh Government performance targets for CAMHS, from the point of referral, is improving.

·         Waiting time before children and young people are referred, is also getting better in Swansea.

·         Education and Social Services are involved in CAMHS strategic steering group.  There is a shared direction of travel.  It is complicated but trying to get to more joined up process.

·         There will be an integrated CAMHS service with a single point of contact.  Planned to be in place June 2020.

·         Emotional Health and Wellbeing is aimed at primary school age.  Money has been received from a grant for youths age 11 to 18.  This should help children who are now in comprehensive, who went through primary and did not get picked up for CAMHS.

·         Transition is both - from primary into secondary, and secondary onwards.  A group meeting is being held to try and improve the transition from primary into secondary.

·         Referrals in future will be much broader, not just through GPs (schools, other professionals etc).  There is still work to do on the new standardised process for referral. 

·         Need to be clear about what alternative interventions are available for individuals who do not meet criteria for CAMHS.

·         Cwm Taff provide the CAMHS service in West Glamorgan Health Board.  The Health Board buy in the service from Cwm Taff.

·         Cabinet Members for CFS sit on CAMHS Partnership Board. If members inform them of any children waiting a long time for the CAMHS service, they can chase it up.

·         Panel feels new plans for CAMHS look good.  However lots of issues in the past and Panel needs to keep monitoring it.  Agreed to have another update on CAMHS in 12 months.

 

Actions:

 

·         Add ‘Update on progress with CAMHS’ to Work Programme in 12 months (October 2020).                                               

6.

Briefing on Youth Offending Service pdf icon PDF 2 MB

Jay McCabe, Principal Officer Bays+ and Youth Justice Services

Minutes:

Jay McCabe, Principal Officer Bays+ and Youth Justice Services, attended to update on developments since the disaggregation of Western Bay Youth Justice Service in March 2019 and the formation of Swansea Youth Justice Service in April 2019, and to answer the Panel’s questions. 

 

Discussion Points:

·         Timeline - The first Management Board meeting was held in July 2019; a Management Board training session was held on 30 October 2019; and the second Management Board meeting was held on 7 November 2019.  In future the plan is to hold Board meeting bi-monthly.  The hope is that individuals on the Board will take personal responsibility for an area.

·         The Youth Justice Service is now integrated with Child and Family Services in Swansea.

·         Youth Justice Board will be carrying out a mock inspection in December 2019 to help review the improvement journey and make recommendations for areas of improvement before the next inspection that will be within 18 months from June 2019.

·         Going forward the Department will have a much broader sense of how the service is performing (not just performance indicators).

·         As this is a new service, the Panel would like an update report on the Swansea Youth Offending Service in approximately 12 months to check on progress.

·         Early intervention is key. 

·         Definitely seeing benefits of integrating locally. There is much more planning and joined up working between the Youth Offending Team, Children’s Services, Early Intervention and Prevention etc.

·         Many positives have been retained from the regional work.

·         The Cabinet Member for Education attended for this item and welcomed this report.  Of opinion previous set up did not work, members of Board were not happy and performance indicator were too narrow. 

·         Agreed that case studies on the service will come to the Panel in March 2020, to help members understand it better. 

·         Very bad inspection of regional youth justice service but recommendations are very useful for newly formed youth justice service in Swansea.  Very positive to see how team have come up with solutions and developed processes.  

·         Department discussing doing qualitative as well as quantitative assessments.  Historically many PIs have been performance driven.  Need more qualitative information to identify individuals experience and the outcomes.

 

Actions:

·         Add an item ‘Update on Youth Offending Service’ to the work programme for October 2020.

·         Add an item ‘Case studies on Swansea Youth Offending Service’ to the work programme for March 2020.

7.

Presentation - Update on report to Welsh Government on safe Looked After Children Reduction Strategy

Julie Thomas, Head of Child and Family Services

Minutes:

Julie Thomas, Head of Child and Family Services attended to update the Panel on this issue and answer the Panel’s questions.

 

Discussion points:

·         Welsh Government priority for reducing number of looked after children in Wales was discussed.

·         Panel informed about the detail of the visit by WG officials. Swansea had received very positive feedback following their presentation, and the proposals put forward in terms of safely reducing the number of children looked after within Swansea were accepted with no additional information required.  Proposals and soft targets reflect the work that has been ongoing in Swansea for a number of years so no significant change to practice or CFS Improvement Plan was required.

·         Regular reports are made available to the Panel through reporting of CFS monthly performance report.

·         Panel would like to invite the Minister to a Panel meeting to discuss Welsh Government targets.

 

Actions:

·         Invite Minister to attend a panel meeting to discuss Welsh Government targets.

8.

Work Programme Timetable 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 310 KB

Minutes:

The Panel considered the work programme.

 

 

9.

Letters pdf icon PDF 172 KB

a)    Letter to Cabinet Member (28 August 2019 meeting)

Minutes:

Letter received and considered by the Panel.

Letter to Cabinet Member (28 October 2019 meeting) pdf icon PDF 175 KB