Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to seek approval for the Service Plans for council services that are wholly or partially funded from the children’s services budget.

The Service Plan Annex 1 is available online at:

http://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.asp?CId=442&Year=2007

Advice of the Advisory Panel:

The Executive Members are advised to approve the Service Plans as set out in Annex 1 of the report.

Decision of the Executive Members:

RESOLVED:             That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:                  To ensure that service and group managers are in a position to implement the strategic priorities for the directorate.

Members considered a report that sought approval for the Service Plans for Council Services that are wholly or partially funded from the Children’s Services budget.

The Officer stated that service planning was now more complex, challenging and difficult to present and that Annex 1 (The Service Plans) was a shortened version of the final document.

Members made various comments on the Service Plan reports. It was noted that Members were pleased to see that the Education Development Service (EDS) continued to make progress with able, gifted and talented pupils. Members asked whether all schools would need to have learning platforms in place to ensure that Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) were implemented and Officers confirmed that all schools would need this.

Regarding the School Governance Service section of the report it was confirmed by Officers that they now had a good team of governance clerks and all previous staff issues had been resolved.

Members asked for an update on pupils outside of mainstream schools which was covered in the Access and Inclusion section of the report. Officers said that they were proposing radical changes at Danesgate and were proposing to restructure the pupil referment unit and were going to be extending the range of Key Stage 4 provisions for these pupils. The development of the Skills Centre at Danesgate was underway and this site would offer courses in construction, hairdressing and horticulture. This will be a more reliable source of provision which was a very positive move.

Members raised questions about the York Independent Living Travel Skills (YILTS) programme and asked if there was any further work planned for this area to help reduce the costs of Special Educational Needs (SEN) transport. The Officer responded that YILTS was a very positive programme and good for the children as well, giving them a sense of independence as well as leading to reduced costs for SEN transport by taxi.

In the section regarding the Youth Service Members asked if there was any additional information available and Officers said they were looking to support these families as well as forming partnerships to aid in the continuity of provision. A query was raised regarding the establishment of an Integrated Youth Support Service and merging with Connexions and the impact this would have on improving efficiency in future years. The Officer stated that it was too early to quantify these efficiencies yet.

Members raised a query about the percentage of growth regarding looked after children in the Children and Families section of the report and the Officer responded by clarifying that more looked after children are choosing to stay with foster carers until a later age and that they are happy to do so. There have been several inspections of the adoption service in York recently and the reports have been very favourable.

In the Section on Adult and Community Education Members raised concerns about the effectiveness of the in-house website for training. The Officer replied that as many Adult Education tutors are part time it allows the Council to make a very extensive provision that would be otherwise impossible.

Members stated that they were very pleased with the progress of the 2 year pathfinder in the Early Years and Extended Schools section of the report and agreed that the target of 500 children was ambitious. Officers responded that they wanted to give the best chance they could to all 2 year olds within the groups targeted.

In the ICT section Members noted that there were a vast amount of projects currently being undertaken and they raised concerns about prioritisation. Officers confirmed that work was going ahead to look at how effectively this could be managed.

Advice of the Advisory Panel:

The Executive Members are advised to approve the Service Plans as set out in Annex 1 of the report.

Decision of the Executive Members:

RESOLVED:             That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:                  To ensure that service and group managers are in a position to implement the strategic priorities for the directorate.