Agenda item

6.1

The Committee received the Executive Summary of the Sheffield Parent Carer Forum in terms of its report “The State of Sheffield 2014”.  The report summarised a study of the views and experiences of parents of children and young people (aged 0-25 years) with disabilities and/or additional needs.  The study aimed to gather data on issues raised by parent carers, to find out whether, and if so how, caring for a disabled child affects the whole family, and establish a baseline of parental satisfaction with local services prior to the implementation of the Children and Families Act 2014 and the Care Act 2014.  As well as being presented to this Committee, the findings and recommendations of the study have also been reported to the NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group and relevant providers of education, health and social care services.

6.2

The Executive Summary was supported by a presentation from Eva Juusola, Development Worker, Sheffield Parent Carer Forum, who was accompanied by Forum Trustees, Kate Quail and Michelle Cook.

6.3

Ms Juusola reported on the aims of the survey, details of respondees, where the findings had been presented and reported to, and details of some positive results, together with further work required.  Ms Juusola made specific reference to the findings in respect of challenging behaviour, and highlighted problems with regard to the capacity of support services, such as Speech and Language Therapy, Educational Psychology or the Autism Team.  She also referred to the findings in respect of work and child care, which highlighted the fact that a high number of parents had been forced to reduce their working hours, or had given up work altogether, to cope with their caring responsibilities.  In terms of conclusions, Ms Juusola referred to the impact of funding reductions on all areas within the public sector, the importance of limited resources being used strategically to achieve maximum impact, and to the importance of two key principles, namely early intervention and co-production.

6.4

Members of the Committee raised questions and the following responses were provided:-

·                Children and young people with disabilities and/or additional needs were six times more likely to be excluded from school.  The findings of the survey had indicated that schools generally did not make allowances in terms of the behaviour of children and young people having special educational needs, resulting in the high number of exclusions, as well as a number of such children being taken out of education and being home educated.  There was a need to secure specialist expertise and early intervention in order to reduce the level of exclusions.

·                It was very clear from the findings of the survey that the wellbeing of a high number of parent carers had been affected, and that they welcomed, and relied heavily upon, the respite care available.

·                Whilst there had been an element of engagement with the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), such engagement had been minimal, and had only included discussions with staff on the front-line.  The view of the Forum was that this issue was not considered as a priority for the CCG, although the Forum was mindful of the current budget restraints being placed on the Group.

·                Parents of children with additional needs often don’t see themselves as “carers”. The Forum has a large and diverse membership of over 1,100 families, which had been achieved through outreach, sensitive marketing, such as referring to “children with additional needs”, rather than “parent carers”, and offering activities in response to parents’ priorities, such as inclusive family events and information sessions.

·                In terms of links with senior officers of the Council, the Forum has started meeting with the Executive Director, Children, Young People and Families, with such meetings being very positive to date.  There were also plans to work closely with Tim Bowman, Head of Inclusion and Targeted Services.

·                In terms of monitoring the progress of the recommendations set out in the Executive Summary, the Forum planned to meet with Tim Bowman and other Council officers, to co-produce an action plan. 

·                There had been a considerable amount of negative feedback regarding social care services, with a number of comments being very scathing.  It was hoped that if the Scrutiny Committee could establish a working group to investigate the feedback, this would provide the Forum with a wider view of parents’ thoughts. 

·                Many children with disabilities have a Social Worker assessment in order to access social care services. Unlike a Family Common Assessment Framework (CAF), these assessments don’t normally take into account the needs of the whole family, and don’t include signposting to other services or help with accessing benefits. The Family CAF should be used for this.

·                The survey findings had highlighted the difficulties in terms of direct payments and personal budgets, including difficulties in managing them.  It was considered that a managed account should be offered from the outset.

6.5

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)       notes the contents of what was considered an excellent report, together with the information reported as part of the presentation and the responses to the questions raised;

(b)       thanks the representatives of the Forum for attending the meeting;

(c)        in the light of the concerns raised with regard to the interface between the Family Common Assessment Framework and the Children’s Social Care Single Assessment, requests Dawn Walton, Assistant Director, Prevention and Early Intervention, to attend the next meeting to provide an explanation on this issue; and

(d)   requests a short briefing note from Tim Bowman, Head of Inclusion and Targeted Support, to update the Committee on the work being undertaken with the Parent Carer Forum.