To report the outcomes and recommendations of the court judgements relating to Children and Families task and finish group to the children and young people scrutiny committee. The committee will consider and approve the outcomes from the task and finish group and decide if the recommendations should be reported to cabinet.

The chairperson of the task and finish group introduced the report and thanked officers for a good presentation of the subject matter. The report emerging from the group was clear and comprehensive in its presentation of the issues and recommendations.

The following comments were raised during the debate:

·         It was requested that the final report was emailed to all members of the Council and was publicised as widely as possible to show the work that was ongoing on addressing the issues in the court judgements.

·         The report demonstrated that decisions made in social services were often subjective and reliant on interpretation. The difficult decisions taken by officers in social services was acknowledged.

·         The manner in which the review was conducted over three days was supported as an exemplar for future task and finish groups.

·         The report demonstrated that change was occurring and the Council was making progress in addressing the issues in the court judgements.

·         The report of the group contained recommendations to the scrutiny committee, the executive and the head of paid service.

·         It was important that members of the scrutiny committee formed after the elections was made aware of the issues raised in the report.

·         It was suggested that experts from organisations such as the NSPCC should be involved in debates undertaken by the committee and this should be investigated in future.

RESOLVED: That the report and recommendations of the task and finish group are agreed for circulation to the executive and head of paid service.