To approve the drawdown of tranche two funding against progress of the transformation programme of £6.49m which includes the £1m as approved under delegation from the Director of Resources and Assurance in July 2022 for Children's Transformation in immediate response to the Ofsted Inspection in July 2022.

The cabinet member children and families introduced the report and thanked colleagues for their support concerning the improvement journey for children’s services. The corporate director children and young people explained the purpose of the additional resource requested and the impact of the first tranche of the funding.

In discussion of the report it was noted that:

·       The children’s commissioner would make recommendations shortly;

·       Officers were confident that the improvement in case rates and other measures represented genuine change and that the actions taken early in 2022 were now starting to take effect;

·       It was important that the council explained the changes and improvements to children and young people, this was an area that had been poor in the past and work was ongoing to develop channels of communication.

Group leaders gave the views of and raised queries for their groups. Progress was generally welcomed and in response to points raised it was noted that:

·       The improvement plan would be fully scrutinised by the children and young people scrutiny committee;

·       All elements of the budget setting would be closely examined;

·       The children’s commissioner is expected to complete her report in December, all councillors would be briefed early in the New Year;

·       The additional management capacity had improved regularity and quality of supervision, care would be taken not to disproportionally remove that support in the future;

·       Learning reviews took place when complaints were received to ensure managers understood where things had gone wrong;

·       Numbers of children in the care of the council were expected to reduce as permanent arrangements were put in place for current cases;

·       The numbers of children coming in to care had already reduced and more resources should be able to be put into early help in future to further reduce numbers.

It was resolved that:

a)    Cabinet authorise the drawdown of tranche two funding as per the cabinet decision in March 2022 up to the value of £6.49m which is being funded from the Financial Resilience Reserve;

b)    Cabinet receive this report on progress of the children’s transformation journey as requested in the March 2022 cabinet upon drawing tranche two funding;

c)    Cabinet authorise delegation to the Corporate Director for Children and Young People in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Children’s and Family Services, and Young People’s Attainment; the Cabinet Member for Finance, Corporate Services and Planning; and the council’s Director for Resources and Assurance to take all operational decisions relating to the further £6.49m of funding available;

d)    Cabinet receive a further update on the precise allocation of tranche 2 funding in the new year of 2023 which will reflect up-to-date priorities and focus in light of the Ofsted Improvement Action Plan currently in development and also the recommendations of the Commissioner for Children’s Services, expected to be submitted to the Secretary of State in December.