The Chair of the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee introduced his report that updated members on the principle of undertaking a series of Reality Check visits by small groups of councillors to enable those elected members to engage directly with frontline staff. His report provided feedback from the visit to the Early Childhood Service that had taken place on Wednesday 7 December 2017.

The Chair informed that the visit had been very useful and had enabled to see first-hand evidence of the amount of partnership and co-operation work in evidence, and the enthusiasm for staff from all teams working together to provide improved outcomes for children and families.

A Member commented that visits should provide more opportunity for Councillors to speak to frontline staff. The Chair informed that, in general this had been a key feature of recent visits, and although time hadn’t permitted it on this occasion, Members had still gained substantial benefit from this particular visit as demonstrated by Member’s conclusions detailed in para 3.4.1 of his report.

Resolved – that the report be noted.