Agenda item

To consider questions received from Elected Members and which are asked pursuant to Standing Order No. 11.

 

(a)  Councillor Fielding

 

‘Given that this Council has declared a climate emergency and has both zero 40 and zero 45 ambitions, what is the Council’s current policy and attitude to permitting the extraction or recovery of coal under any circumstances in our borough?’

 

(b)  Councillor Hunt

 

‘At the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 1^st December, 2020 it was revelated that the Council does not have a Road Safety Strategy.  When will this be in place?’

 

(c)  Councillor Kitching

 

‘When compared to the established structure, is there currently a shortage of Social Workers in Barnsley?

 

In answering please can the Cabinet member provide staff numbers at the start of 2021, details of how many Social Workers have both left and joined the authority since then and the current number of staff analysed between permanent and agency employees.’

 

(d)  Councillor Hunt

 

‘In August 2020 Cabinet considered and approved the response to the Scrutiny Task and Finish Group’s findings and recommendations in relation to poverty. One of these recommendations was for additional investment to enable a locally delivered boroughwide outreach provision. The Cabinet report states “As part of our recovery arrangements we are reviewing the advice services available within each locality area as part of the alignment of Area Councils recovery work. As part of this we will review whether there is scope to recommission as a borough-wide provision.” Please can an update be provided as to how this review is progressing and whether a borough wide provision is to be recommissioned?’

 

The Chief Executive reported that she had received a number of questions from Elected Members in accordance with Standing Order No. 11.

 

(a)  Councillor Fielding

 

‘Given that this Council has declared a climate emergency and has both zero 40 and zero 45 ambitions, what is the Councils current policy and attitude to permitting the extraction or recovery of coal under any circumstances in our borough?’

 

Councillor Lamb, Cabinet Spokesperson for Place (Environment and Transportation) thanked Councillor Fielding for his question and stated that in the current political climate, it was highly unlikely that any mining license would be granted for the extraction of thermal coal by the Coal Authority, the statutory body set up to manage the UK’s remaining mining industry.

 

It was also highly unlikely that Barnsley Council would grant planning permission for any new surface or underground mine.  However, there may be a situation where coal must be removed for safety reasons under an Incidental Coal Agreement granted by the Coal Authority. This was where coal outcrops found near the surface by earthworks had to be removed for safety purposes.

 

Councillor Fielding thanked Councillor Lamb for his response and, as a supplemental question asked whether he was aware of the role of the Planning Authority in the granting of Incidental Coal agreements.

 

Councillor Lamb responded by stating that he was aware of the Authority’s role in this matter.

 

(b)  Councillor Hunt

 

‘At the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 1 December 2020 it was revealed that the Council does not have a Road Safety strategy. When will this be in place?’.

 

Councillor Lamb, Cabinet Spokesperson for Place (Environment and Transportation) thanked Councillor Hunt for his question and stated that following the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 1 December 2020, a local strategic Safer Roads Working Group had been formed by officers from across the Council and partner organisations, including South Yorkshire Police, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue and the South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership.

 

One function of the Group was to set the strategic vision, ambition and priorities to improve road safety and reduce the number of road traffic collisions occurring on the network.

 

The Group had met monthly since August 2021 and had begun developing Barnsley’s new Road Safety Strategic Plan. It was currently undertaking a scoping exercise to determine Key Performance Indicators and what resources were available across the partnership.

 

Once the Group had established this baseline position, the Group would further develop the local Strategic Plan. The aim was to have agreed and published a local Road Safety Strategic Plan for April 2022.

 

In addition, a local Road Safety Action Plan had been produced, which collated all the actions and recommendations from the Health Needs Assessment and the Overview and Scrutiny meeting in December 2020. The coordinated partnership working, creation of the Working Group and development of the Strategic Plan were all included in the Action Plan.

 

At a regional level, South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership was also developing a new strategy that would be published imminently. The Safer Roads Working Group would ensure that Barnsley’s Road Safety Strategic Plan set out how Barnsley would contribute to the regional strategy and, importantly, local priorities and ambitions about Road Safety.

 

Councillor Hunt thanked Councillor Lamb for his response.  He stated that last week was Safeguarding Awareness Week.  It was also Alcohol Awareness Week as well as Anti-Fraud Week.  All these were well covered by the Council on its social media channels.  It was also Road Safety Week last week which received zero coverage and he, therefore, asked as a supplementary question why the Council did nothing to mark Road Safety Week.

 

Councillor Lamb commented that he thought he had seen coverage of this, however, he had no responsibility directly for the Communications Service and he was not, therefore, aware of what the situation was in this respect.

 

(c)  Councillor Kitching

 

‘When compared to the established structure, is there currently a shortage of Social Workers in Barnsley?

 

In answering please can the Cabinet member provide staff numbers at the start of 2021, details of how many Social Workers have both left and joined the authority since then and the current number of staff analysed between permanent and agency employees’.

 

Councillor T Cave, Cabinet Spokesperson for Children’s Services thanked Councillor Kitching for her question and stated that there was currently a national, and local, shortage of Social Workers to meet the nationally reported increase in demand to children’s services.

 

Compared to the established structure:

 

On 1 January 2021, Barnsley Council employed 118.73 FTE Social Workers equating to127 actual staff members (some staff worked part time).

The range included in these figures included newly qualified, Social Workers and experienced Social Workers. It did not include any Social Work Managers.

 

On 18 November 2021, Barnsley Council employed 111.22 FTE staff equating to 117 Social Workers. This was an overall reduction of 7.51 FTE social work capacity.

 

There was a proactive, rolling recruitment programme in place to recruit new Social Workers to the borough.

 

Barnsley Council had invested in 12 additional Social Workers until 2023.

 

Children’s Services have employed 9 additional Family Support Workers to work alongside and support Social Workers in light of the national and local increase in demand and workload pressures.

 

There had been no agency Social Workers employed during this period.

 

Councillor Kitching thanked Councillor Cave for his response and asked as a supplementary question whether the Cabinet Member felt that this current deficit in Social Workers of 7.51 FTE was having an impact on the delivery of social care to children and families in the Barnsley borough.

 

Councillor Cave thanked Councillor Kitching for her supplementary question.  He responded by sharing with Council the national picture around children’s social care and he referred Members to the Association of Directors of Children’s Services recent report.  As of the 31^st March, 2020 there were an estimated 2.5m initial contacts with Local Authorities an increase of 5% in the last two years.  There were 642,980 referrals to Children’s Social Care in 2019/20 and increase of 19% since 2008.  Adults encountering domestic abuse, mental health difficulties or substance misuse were the most common reasons why children came to the attention of early help and/or children’s social care services.  The number of Section 47 enquiries continued to rise, 162% since 2008.

 

Many authorities had reported a reduction in funding ranging between 15-30% and indeed the funding for the Troubled Families Programme continued to prop up delivery of early help services in Children’s Services.  In relation to the impact of the Covid pandemic on Children’s Services in the 6 months to 30^th September 2020 it was estimated that 81,900 children were in care an increase of 34% in 12 years and it was up 6% since 2018/19.  There were an estimated 284,000 referrals to Children’s Social Care in the 6 months up to September 2020.  There was a 4% increase in the number of children who were subject to Child Protection Plans as at the 30^th September, 2021 compared to the same period last year.  These figures clearly demonstrated increasing pressure and demand.

 

It was not surprising that all Council’s and Children’s Services were under significant pressure including Barnsley’s and this was particularly felt by front line staff.

 

Councillor Cave wanted to express how proud he was of the way Barnsley’s front line staff had continued to deliver right through the pandemic despite the pressures and the performance figures were testament to that and would continue to be.  There were, of course, worries and he continued to be concerned about the pressure on the front line social work staff.  He was particularly concerned as it was children that were being affected not just social workers, carers and families.

 

In Barnsley today, at least one in four children lived in poverty and this was not right.  In addition, in relation to the take up of free school meals, 30% of those identified as being entitled to those meals did not take them up.  This was also not right and needed to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

 

Unlike most local authorities Barnsley had a stable and experienced work force with no agency social workers being used for over four years.  The Council had responded to the pressures and had invested in an additional 12 Social Workers and 2 additional Team Managers until 2023.  There were ongoing proactive recruitment campaigns to recruit to the large number of additional posts, but this was challenging as people were not changing their employer and moving during the pandemic.  The Authority had also recruited 9 additional Family Support Workers who would work alongside Social Workers to support them pending the recruitment to all posts.  It had also now been agreed to seek agency Social Workers for a limited time and further recruitment and retention initiatives were being considered to strengthen future resilience in the work force.  The Authority was, therefore, massively focused on having an effective Social Work Team in place.

 

(d)  Councillor Hunt

 

‘In August 2020 Cabinet considered and approved the response to the Scrutiny Task and Finish Group’s findings and recommendations in relation to poverty. One of these recommendations was for additional investment to enable a locally delivered boroughwide outreach provision. The Cabinet report states “As part of our recovery arrangements we are reviewing the advice services available within each locality area as part of the alignment of Area Councils recovery work. As part of this we will review whether there is scope to recommission as a borough-wide provision.” Please can an update be provided as to how this review is progressing and whether a borough wide provision is to be recommissioned’.

 

Councillor Platts, Cabinet Spokesperson for Adults and Communities  Services thanked Councillor Hunt for his question and stated that the pandemic response had impacted upon the capacity and ability to follow up on the recommendation and work was ongoing with a view to presenting a report to Cabinet in early 2022.

Work had, however, continued with Barnsley communities through extensive support offers including the Covid-19 support programmes, Holiday Activity Fund programme, and the new £2.3m Household Support Grant which the Council was matching with a further £1 million of investment to support communities through the Winter period and the ‘cost of living’ crisis.  She also reported that Area Councils were still commissioning advice and support services and during the pandemic these services had continued via the telephone and indeed as many contacts had been made during the pandemic as before.  She was sure that these services would continue until the review was completed.

 

Councillor Hunt thanked Councillor Platts for her response which was very much welcomed.  Both he and Councillor Platts were members of the North Area Council and they saw what fantastic work the CAB and DIAL did with regard to outreach in the area and this type of work was continuing in other areas of the borough.  He then asked as a supplementary question whether Councillor Platts envisaged that the service levels that were likely to be in place following the review would be at least in line with what was currently seen in the North Area but throughout the borough.

 

Councillor Platts stated that she was not able to predict what would come out of the review, but it was hoped that there would be at least the same cover as was currently in place.  In addition, it may be possible that going forwards Area Councils were able to purchase additional provision should they wish to do so.  This would, however, be dependent upon the findings of the review.