Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Fiona Baker.

None received.

Resolved      that:

The minutes of the meeting of the Children’s Trust Joint Committee held on 24 November 2021 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Chair invited those who wished to do so to declare interests in respect of items on the agenda.

No declarations were made.

There were none.

The Joint Committee considered a report of the Director of Children’s Services seeking approval of the NCT Business Plan for 2022-23 and the Trust’s provisional contract sum for 2022-23. A copy of the report was marked as item 5 on the agenda.

It was noted that the approval of the Business Plan was a matter reserved for both councils as owners of the Trust and had therefore been brought to the Children’s Trust Joint Committee for approval by both councils. This had followed receipt of a progress report to the Joint Committee on 24 November 2021.

The Chief Executive of the Northamptonshire Children’s Trust stated the plan was built on that of the previous year’s when the Secretary of State had commented it was one of the best he’d seen.  It had been developed with the workforce, children and young people and colleagues around the table.  There had been a number of challenging times and there would be more to come but they were moving well together. 

The Business Plan talked about the vision and values.  The Strategic Framework document had vision and was committed to children and young people.  There was strong and stable leadership and that would be triangulated with what was happening at ground level. 

Answers to queries on the report were given as follows:

     i)        The placement situation had worsened nationally over the last couple of years.  Directors had contributed to a social care review and they were currently waiting for the outcome of that.  Locally they needed to build the best relationships with providers so that they became the preferred supplier.  They only wished to work with providers that wished to give the best outcome for children and young people.  As the situation improved they could mitigate the challenges of the past.  They were getting there but it would take some time.  Some work was being undertaken regionally in this and the East Midlands Region had put in for a grant;

    ii)        How they approached Clinical Commissioning Groups and education was complex and it could be really difficult to find the right placement for children with increasing amounts of needs.  They had been unsuccessful in their bid to the Department for Education so they would look at a contingency plan and see how they could create some capacity to meet the demand;

   iii)        It was important to develop some in-house capacity and there was a need to work together with partners.  They had discussed forming family hubs.  More money would be received from health.  There was a need to be clear about what could be done to assist so that more opportunities were opened up.  Keeping families together was what was required;

   iv)        The business plan and contracts were inter-linked.  There was a £0.3m increase from 2021/22 to 2022/23 which would be provided by North Northants Council (44%) and West Northants Council (56%) as agreed;

    v)        The Trust had set out £2.99million of savings to be delivered in 2022/23.  The Trust had also request £1million  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

Resolved that:  This item be deferred to the next meeting.

There being no further business the meeting was closed.