The Health Social Care and Well Being Overview and Scrutiny Board today (7th Feb) looked at the Annual Report of the Swansea Safeguarding Adults Board including reviewing the action plan and progress made.

What Is A Vulnerable Adult?  -  Vulnerable adults are individuals over 18 who are or may be in need of community care services by reason of mental or other disability, age or illness including those who may be unable to take care of themselves or protect themselves against harm or exploitation.

The Board considered many issues contained in the report including:

• Safeguarding Board Membership
• Training staff across adult sector
• Auditing and monitoring
• Regional collaboration
• The preventative framework
• Awareness raising

The Board agreed to raise a number of issues from the discussion with the Cabinet Member for Social Service via a letter from the Chair.  This will be compiled by the Chair and be available on the Agenda of the next meeting which is scheduled for the 6th March 2012.

The Board thanked Deborah Driffield and Meryl Williams from Social Services and their staff for the important work they are doing.

The Children, Young People and Learning Overview and Scrutiny Board completed a review looking at youth support services in April 2010 and have received regular updates on progress since then.  The Board at its meeting on the 20th February will look at the latest progress update which will include asking questions on progress with recommendations, for example :

• Are we planning an integrated, responsive, accessible and effective range of services in partnership with other providers?
• Are the youth support services offered across Swansea sustainable, of a consistently high quality, inclusive and accessible.
• Is the service providing a good level of universal services supplemented by targeted provision in partnership with other providers?

Work has already been completed on many areas where recommendations were made including:

• ‘ Swansea Youth Service reviews its accessibility with the view to removing itself from constraints of the education calendar year, particularly important to offer services in school holidays’.  This request was particularly relevant to the part-time Youth Club provision within the Youth Service which currently operates for 39 weeks of the year in line with School Terms. There are insufficient resources to extend this provision to a full 52 week opening. However changes in staff terms and conditions (required under European Employment Law) will ensure that youth club provision is operational for up to 46 weeks of the year and this will include some school holiday periods. The Service is moving towards this, with the support of WG Revenue Funding for Youth Work.
• ‘That Swansea Youth Service provides its service through a combination of building based, outreach and mobile provision including areas for young people to “hang-out” socially that are safe and of a high quality’.   Wales Assembly Government Capital funding (2008-2011) has enabled the 4 Youth Service buildings to be up-graded in terms of the fabric and facilities on offer.

The Environment & Communities Overview & Scrutiny Board met with the Cabinet Member for Culture and Tourism and the Head of Libraries last week.  The Board were very interested to receive the latest performance information on the Libraries Service  and  Members commended Steve Hardman as Head of Libraries and his staff for the excellent service that they provide. This is reflected in the fact that the City and County of Swansea is in the top quartile of performance in Wales.

 Out of the fourteen Welsh Public Library Standards, Swansea Libraries complied with ten and partially achieved one other standard.  As a comparative indicator, the average number of standards achieved across Wales was nine, with the highest achieved being fourteen and the lowest, six.

 The discussion at the meeting was wide ranging and the questions posed by the Board were ably answered by the Head of Libraries. The Board were particularly impressed with how the service deals with the needs of Welsh speakers within a limited budget. They were also pleased to hear of the recently refurbished library at Penlan, linked to the Community First building, and the joint working between Penlan Communities First and library staff to encourage more people to use the service.

 The Board discussed the important contribution that the Library Service can make to literacy in Swansea and felt that it is very important that schools are encouraged to make the most of their local Libraries. The Board felt that there is also an important role for Councillors as school governors to promote this.

 The Board also discussed differences in opening hours at separate libraries and will be following this issue up with the Cabinet Member.

The Children, Young People and Learning Overview and Scrutiny Board have over recent months been looking at the role of the teaching assistant in the primary sector in Swansea.

The Board chose to look at this issue because it has become evident that the numbers of teaching assistants employed across schools in Swansea (and across Wales) had increased substantially over the past ten years along with what we expect of them.  Councillors thought it was time to take stock and look at how the Authority and schools can plan and develop the role of the teaching assistant into the future.

The review is now complete and the Board were very impressed with the dedication, quality and knowledge of those teaching assistants that they met and felt that if this is an indication of the support staff we have in schools it is extremely encouraging.

The Board found some areas for improvement around the role of the teaching assistant particularly in relation to regular appraisals and consistency of training.  Councillor would also like to see teaching assistants used more in the drive to improve oracy,  numeracy and literacy.

The Board made a couple of small amendments at it meeting on 23rd January and have now agreed to forward it to Cabinet on the 8th March.  Click here for a link to the draft report and recommendations arising from the review.

The Children, Young People and Learning Overview and Scrutiny Board completed a review looking at child poverty and its links with educational attainment in July 2010 and have received regular updates on progress since then.  The Board at its meeting on the 23rd January will look at progress to date which will include asking questions on progress with, for example :

• Initiatives that support parents and families to develop the tools for parenting and life skills
• Continuing to work towards breaking the cycle of unemployment in families including supporting NEETs projects and those
  initiatives that raise young people’s aspirations after leaving school
• Using the Children and Young People Plan as a basis to drive commitment and ownership by all those organisations involved with
  children and young people living in poverty
• Develop clear ways to measure progress and monitor the impact of child poverty

Work has already been completed on many areas where recommendations were made including:

• A Web Based Directory of Children and Young People’s Services has  been produced by the Children and Young People Strategy Unit. Just over 700 agencies are currently included in the database.
• The End Child Poverty Network (ECPN) has produced a Good Practice Guide for Schools called “Tackling Child Poverty in Wales”.
  Schools in Swansea receive this guide with a request that they consider using the checklist included. The checklist is a useful tool for schools to evaluate their current practice to identify areas of development.
• The Chief Executive has identified Child Poverty as one of his key priorities and has established a Child Poverty Forum re-affirming the Council’s sign up and commitment to tackling child poverty in Swansea.  The aims of the Forum were to agree a definition of poverty, identify best practice, develop an action plan, make linkages and innovate, develop outcome measures and consider policy proofing. Members of the Forum have undertaken some initial mapping work in relation to existing Council led programmes and projects which are designed to tackle various aspects of poverty.

Photo credit – http://www.flickr.com/photos/gatesfoundation/5485758219

Councillors from the Partnership Overview and Scrutiny Committee visited Hafod Primary School earlier this week.

Welcome to the school!

The purpose of the visit was to follow up their scrutiny of Swansea Local Service Board. Specifically the idea was to test some of the things they had been told about the Local Service Board’s Prevention and Early Intervention Programme by seeing how it actually worked on the ground.  Hafod School was an ideal place to do this as it is involved in a number of initiatives associated with the project including Team around the Family, ‘So to Do’ and Restorative Practice.

The visit, which was hosted by Head Teacher Rachael Webb and Chair of Governors Beverley Hopkins, included the opportunity to meet with children and staff as well as a number of ‘police friends’ who have been working in partnership with the school on a number of projects.

Indian dancing

A special assembly gave the councillors the chance to see the school’s photo story, to hear a presentation by the children on the school’s rights based approach, to take part in what might be the coolest school song ever and to see a display of Indian dancing that even some of the staff spontaneously joined in with!

There is clearly a special atmosphere at this school which has more than its fair share of social challenges. This was evident from arrival when we were greeted by very confident and capable children rather than by the staff. The layout of the school and lively way it has been decorated (by staff in their spare time) all reflected the commitment to a rights based approach and the desire to make the best use of every space.

The schools work in the community and with families is also striking and it here that the whole issue of partnership working comes to the fore. Here is a brief description of the So to Do project (from the CYP website) that is a key part of this:

The ‘So to Do’ part of the project was able to offer immediate responses to some of the community issues – increased policing of parks, joint work with Trading Standards officers to visit shops selling liquor, a police presence at the school enabling young people the opportunity of establishing a rapport with the officer, a youth night, Holiday activities etc

A number of key points about partnership working on the ground emerged during the visit:

• The school had fully embraced the frameworks agreed at strategic partnership level – in particular those agreed by the Children and Young People Partnership
• There was clearly enthusiasm for the partnership project – Head Teacher Rachael Webb described it as ‘the best partnership project I have ever been involved in’
• The role of the Police was clearly critical particularly their willingness to embrace a new way of working. This positive culture change was lead from the top and reflected a willingness to push the decisions made at partnership level down though the organisation
• There was a feeling that the relationship with the strategic level was two way with issues such as information sharing, for example, being taken up and that there was a ‘sea change’ on this issue 
• There were still some difficulties – joint working with social services was not yet all that had been hoped for although this was improving
• There was some anxiety about imminent changes to the current partnership model of working given that the current structure seemed to be working so well
• The desire to always get to the root problems that children faced was likely to generate new work for partner agencies – this was not seen so much as a problem but as an inevitable consequence of ‘doing things the right way’
• The school’s involvement in ‘So to Do’ is part of a pilot – there was a recognition that support might be less if it was rolled out more widely

Everything about Hafod School was certainly impressive and overall the visit confirmed the difference that partnership working, in terms of this project at least, was making on the ground.

Clls Jeff Jones and Janet Thomas with Inspector Mitch Davies and Chair of Governors Beverley Hopkins

The scrutiny councillors reviewing support for carers in Swansea met with the Crossroads Young Carers Project earlier today.  The councillors were impressed by the hard work of the project workers – Donna and Sarah – to reach and support young people who have a caring role. 

The project offers support for young people who find themselves helping to look after a family member who has a long-term illness, disability, suffers from a mental health issue or a problem related to drugs or alcohol.

The Young Carers Project can: find out what the young carer needs; provide counselling, information & support; offer transport to youth clubs & activities; help others like school, understand a young carers’ situation; help with accessing local facilities; give practical support; help develop life skills; give breaks from caring and provide opportunities to meet new friends.

The project is funded in large part by a grant from Children in Need although this funding comes to an end next year.  The Young Carers Project also has  small grants from Neath Port Talbot Cymorth monies and Swansea Council.  The Project also has access to Grants for Young Carers from Swansea Council Social Services which can be used to pay for things equipment, extra tuition and activities.  The project also receives charitable donations.

72 young carers from Swansea are registered with the young carers project but this figure is not a true reflection of the numbers of young people who are in a caring role in the City and County of Swansea.  The 2001 Census identified 800 young carers in Swansea but this did not include in its definition of caring, mental health issues or drug & alcohol problems.

Some recent work has been done on identifying the numbers of young carers in comprehensive schools across Swansea and numbers were estimated at 900.

The project workers told the councillors that they have to use eligibility criteria to assess young carers for specific support like the young carers youth club and that the project runs a waiting list for the youth club.  Expansion of the youth club for young carers is not possible at the moment because of financial constraints. 

The councillors learned though that once a young carer is assessed the Young Carers Project draws up an action plan to help them and to sign post them to other services and support. 

The councillors were pleased to hear that the majority of young carers registered with the project were planning on going onto to further education rather than opting to become full time carers.  The councillors felt that this was such an important project which offered such valuable support services for young carers.

The councillors will meet with the Cabinet Member for Social Services tomorrow and will no doubt raise many of these issues with him.