Meeting documents

Details of all Members’ interests in District, Town and Parish Councils can be viewed on the Council Website at

County Councillors membership of Town, City, Parish or District Councils and this will be displayed in the meeting room (Where relevant).

The Statutory Register of Member’s Interests can be inspected via request to the Democratic Service Team.

There were no new declarations of interest made at the meeting.

The Committee is asked to confirm the minutes are accurate(attached).

The minutes of the meeting held on 9 September 2020 were approved as a correct record.

The Chair 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 Chair’s discretion.

There were no questions submitted by members of the public.

To receive an update from the Governance Manager, Scrutiny and discuss any items for the forthcoming work programme.

To assist the discussion, the following documents are attached:

a)    The Committees work programme

b)    Outcome Tracker

c)    The Cabinet’s latest published forward plan published 1^st November 2020

The Chair directed attention to the Committee’s own work programme, outcome tracker and the latest version of the Cabinet Forward Plan (November 2020) and invited suggestions for possible future agenda items.

The Committee discussed the work programme in detail and agreed that the following items would be included on the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Presentation from Scrutiny Manager.

The Committee received an update from the Council’s Scrutiny Manager, Jamie Jackson on the context to the scrutiny review at the Council following the 2018 peer challenge. The scrutiny review was undertaken by the Centre for Public Scrutiny in early 2019 and the final report was agreed by Council in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Further to the recent Ofsted & CQC joint inspection, to consider progress update presentation and report.

Report from Director of Childrens Services (to follow).

Joint Ofsted and CQC inspection report can be viewed at https://choices.somerset.gov.uk/025/local-offer/area-inspection-by-ofsted-and-cqc

The Committee received a presentation from the Council’s Director of Children’s Services, Julian Wooster, providing an update about the Written Statement of Action (WSoA) which priorities the areas’ work on SEND for the next 18 – 24 months. The WSoA had been submitted to Ofsted on 5 November 2020.  The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To consider the HMIP Day 1 presentation (to follow).

The Committee received a presentation from the Council’s Deputy Director Children Services, Claire Winter together with the Team Leader Kat Brooklyn about the Youth Offending Service and the forthcoming Inspection which is due in the next year.  The last inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) was in 2016  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To consider report (to follow).

The Committee received a report and presentation from the Council’s Partnership Business Manager, Fi Phur about how has Covid-19 impacted on the delivery of the Children & Young People’s Plan 2019 -2022. The report covered the period April – June 2020 (Qtr. 1) and the figures for July – September 2020  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The Chair may raise any items of urgent business.

There were no other items of business raised at the meeting.  The next meeting will be on Wednesday 2^nd December 2020 beginning @ 1 pm.