Meeting documents

The Chairman will allow members of the public to ask a question or make a statement about any matter on the agenda for this meeting. These questions may be taken during the meeting, when the relevant agenda item is considered, at the Chairman’s discretion.  

The Chair invited the Scrutiny Manager to read aloud the following question in respect of agenda item 6 that had been received from Mr Robin Head who was unable to attend the meeting:

Earlier this year the leader of the Council trumpeted the announcement of a loan deal struck with the Department for Education involving Somerset receiving £116,000,000 for capital build for required new schools or school extensions to cope with new intake of students emanating from new housing linked with developments at Hinckley.

We now understand that this money cannot be taken up for at least 18 months as there will be no way of paying it back. Could we know how the County is going to support sufficient places for educating an increase in student numbers in Somerset? "Alternative sources" have been mentioned but not expanded upon.

Response

The Local Authority is reviewing its options to ensure it has a sufficient number of school places to meet increased demand not just brought about by the Hinckley C development but by significant housing developments in some parts of the County and demographic growth.

It was always the intention to ensure that we drew down as much funding as possible from third parties e.g. from developers and from Section 106 and CIL contributions.  We continue to receive Basic Need Grant from the DfE and wherever possible will submit bids for other funding as the opportunities arise.

The Chair invited the Scrutiny Manager to read aloud the following question in respect of agenda item 9 that had been received from ‘Family Voice’ who were unable to attend the meeting:

The young carers service has a case load of 178, in the Getset strategy it states there is an estimated on the 2011 census for 1750 young carers. Please could we have a more recent statistic for this report?

Will the revisions to young carers also alter the service level of agreement in relation to the report earlier this year?

Please could the report also include how the service currently and proposes to cover mental health with young carers that is described as a level 2 target intervention. The Future in mind government report. (Attached) Could this committee see a report on children’s and mental health provisions, and how Somerset can challenge the mental health and safeguarding with the loss of all youth clubs (that many young carers and children with some needs attended).

Response

In relation to young carers, a series of conversations as to how the service could be delivered in the future has started. There is no pre-determined outcome of these conversations and commissioners are keen to fully understand the views of young carers who are receiving support and young carers who are not receiving support in order to understand what is valued by young people and what the barriers are to accessing support currently.

Engagement begins with young carers w/c 29th October with specific events for our service users and this will be accompanied by an online questionnaire which we would encourage young carers and their parents to respond to as it will inform any future service design. Adults Commissioners will be leading on this going forward given their experience in working with the local voluntary sector.

In relation to youth and community provision, SCC is not the only financial contributor to this. Parish and Town Councils, Youth Investment Fund and others also fund provision.

This is an area where the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) is well developed, are accessing funding without SCC involvement and are commencing strategic conversations around what their own partnerships might look like. This includes mutual support and quality and collective bids for funding from large national grant schemes. Sustaining as much provision as possible for all young people, including young carers who access universal groups is a key focus from now until March 2019. Some positive collaborations are already well under way.

The Chair invited Tina Emery of the Somerset Parent Carer Forum to make the following comments in respect of agenda item 9:

Firstly, we would like to acknowledge the good work the young carers service is delivering and the hard work of the team.

The report lists what the service has delivered. Please can you clarify which parts of this has been delivered through funding by Somerset County Council and what was funded by the Young Carers charity or other grants.

Please can you confirm that there are clear published criteria for accessing the service and a published carers strategy that included Young Carers.

A recent government call for evidence highlighted that more needs to be done to support young carers. Current or past young carers (67% of respondents) responded that they have not received any support as young carers. With the government green paper on carers due to be published shortly, how confident is the council in its proposal to make cuts to the young carers service?

Response

In relation to young carers, a series of conversations as to how the service could be delivered in the future has started. There is no pre-determined outcome of these conversations and commissioners are keen to fully understand the views of young carers who are receiving support and young carers who are not receiving support in order to understand what is valued by young people and what the barriers are to accessing support currently. Engagement begins with young carers w/c 29th October with specific events for our service users and this will be accompanied by an online questionnaire which we would encourage young carers and their parents to respond to as it will inform any future service design. Adults’ commissioners will be leading on this going forward given their experience in working with the local voluntary sector.

Broadly speaking the Young Carers charity or grants contribute to respite activity or bespoke solutions and other activity such as assessment is paid for by SCC budgets.

Information relating to who is eligible for young carers’ support is available on the Somerset County Council website.

It was requested that responses to these 3 questions be provided in writing to the questioners and those responses be included in the minutes of the meeting and published on the Council’s website.