Agenda and minutes

1.1       RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on the 13 May 2015, be agreed as an accurate record of proceedings.

The Chair formally thanked Frankie Sulke for her hard work and support over the last 14 years and congratulated her on recently being awarded a CBE for services to education. The committee applauded her achievements.

2.1       Councillor Slater declared an interest in items 3 and 6 as he was the London Borough of Lewisham mental health champion.

3.1       Warwick Tomsett introduced Wendy Geraghty from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and presented the report to the committee, highlighting the following key points:

·         The report was a response to the committee’s recommendations arising from its review into Young People’s Mental Health. The recommendations had been helpful and the report showed how, acting on the committee’s recommendations, work was being incorporated into the HeadStart project.

·         There were still several further months of work before the next stage of the HeadStart project would begin.

3.2       In the discussion that followed the following key points were raised:

·         The Council was currently in stage 2 of a pilot project looking at promoting innovation and enhancing service delivery. The project would be working with the voluntary and community sector to help build resilience.

·         There was still no confirmation from central government as to when new waiting time standards for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services would be introduced.

·         Information would be provided to the committee as to whether there was a new programme at South London and Maudsley Hospital pioneering early treatment for those with eating disorders.

3.3       RESOLVED

That the report be noted.

4.1       Frankie Sulke, Executive Director for Children and Young People, introduced the report and highlighted the following key points:

·         The report highlighted the response to the committee’s recommendation from their meeting of 4 February 2015 where they recommended the Mayor reconsider the scheme of delegation regarding intervention by the Local Education Authority into governance arrangements at schools.

·         This recommendation was rejected by the Mayor for the reasons highlighted in the report in particular, the importance of the needs and outcomes of the children and young people being paramount at all times and this needing an emphasis on professional judgement on these kinds of decisions and also on making timely decisions on interventions.

·         The report does, however, agree with the need for good communication between all parties and having a strong communication strategy in place.

4.2       In the discussion the following key points were raised:

·         It was very important to have a strong communication strategy so a similar situation did not arise again. Although it was understood that it could be important not to slow down the process, it needed to be recognised that Councillors being involved and informed was key to positive outcomes for local residents.

·         The Audit Panel would be looking into the over-spend at Sedgehill at their meeting in November 2015 to fully examine the details of how it happened and whether lessons could be learned from the processes that were followed. 

·         Following the recommendations by the Children and Young People Select Committee, the Executive Director for Children and Young People had ensured that all Councillors had been updated on events at Sedgehill as they had occurred.

·         A meeting between the new Head once in post, and Ward Councillors would be beneficial and help with positive communications.

·         The Education and Adoption Bill 2015-16 was proposing to introduce new powers for the Secretary of State for Education to take a warning notice out on schools judged to be failing. This would give them equal rights with the Local Education Authority and represented a big change.

4.3       RESOLVED

That the report be noted.

5.1       Liam Islam, Young Mayor of Lewisham and Tyreese Hines, Young Advisor, gave a presentation to the committee on the role of the Young Mayor and Young Advisors. During the presentation, the following key points were raised:

·         Young Mayor elections were held every October, with polling stations set up in all secondary schools and sixth form education settings across the borough. All young people aged between 11 and 19 who live or study in Lewisham had the right to vote. Liam had been elected in October 2014.

·         In 2014 there had been 28 candidates for Young Mayor. A training day for all perspective candidates was organised by the Young Mayor’s Team, where they were given a campaign pack and talked through the process.

·         The Young Advisors and Young Mayor met weekly on Monday evenings. This was an open meeting for young people from school councils, youth groups, candidates, and any young people who are interested.

·         The role of the Young Mayor and advisors included: representing young people at events and meetings and in planning and decision making; attending civic events; and being consulted with on budget proposals.

·         Other events included: a voter registration campaign – visiting all the sixth forms and colleges in Lewisham to get people to register to vote; supporting the vote 16 campaign for the referendum on EU membership; working with Safer Neighbourhood Panels and in partnership with the Police and the new direct entry Superintendents; talking to Councillors and officers about young people’s priorities; and intergenerational work such as the quiz and big lunch with the Positive Ageing Council.

·         The Young Mayor and Advisors were also involved in International projects such as Euroscola funded by the European Parliament and partnership trips to Europe funded through the EU Erasmus + programme. As part of an on-going project, there were currently visitors from the Czech Republic and Sweden visiting and attending the committee meeting. The partnership project was based around cooking and healthy eating.

·         The Young Mayor and advisors had worked closely with the HeadStart Project and young people’s mental health was a key issue for them. HeadStart Lewisham was funded by the Big Lottery Fund to improve mental health of 10-14 year olds.

·         The Young Mayor had an annual budget of £30,000, ideas for expenditure were shaped through consultations at schools, school councils, youth clubs etc. These were then taken back to the Young Advisors meetings and the most popular ideas made into final proposals.

·         The Young Mayor noted his thanks to Katy Brown and Malcolm Ball from the Young Advisors Team for their support and commitment.

5.2       In the discussion that followed, the following key points were raised:

·         The Young Mayor and advisors felt they had been well consulted on the cuts and changes to youth provision in the borough, but recognised that it could always be useful to have additional information. The Young Mayor felt saddened by the cuts and the potential impact on youth provision but felt it was important to all work together  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.1       Naeema Sarkar introduced the report to the committee and highlighted the following key points:

·         The report explained the new obligations for Local Authorities as a result of the Care Act 2014 and the Children and Families Act 2014.

·         The acts have introduced new statutory rights for young carers to receive an assessment and be supported, meaning Local Authorities needed to be more proactive in identifying young carers.

·         LB Lewisham had appointed a Young Carers Social Worker who, supported by other practitioners, worked with young carers and liaised with adult social services to help identify young carers and carried out the bespoke assessments on potential young carers.

·         1.3% of children in England were currently identified as being “Young Carers”. In Lewisham there were 800 Young Carers identified with the majority being in the 9-15 year old age category.

·         There was a higher representation of young people from a Black or Minority Ethnic (BME) background and it was believed that this could be related to higher prevalence of poor adult health in the BME community in Lewisham but more work needed to be done to ensure that ethnicity was not a barrier to being identified as a young carer.

·         Outcomes last year in Lewisham included:140 assessments taking place; every assessed child being registered with a GP; and increased school attendance amongst the group.

·         Future work and targets included: the Council being increasingly proactive in identifying young carers; creating and maintaining a more accurate database of young carers; raising education and achievement amongst young carers; and understanding and adapting to the challenging financial situation. 

6.2       In the discussion that followed, the following key points were raised:

·         The Young Carers Social Worker worked with partners across departments and service areas to ensure they had as much information as possible to help identify and support young carers. This included: School nursing service; Headstart; NGOs such as Family Action; and Health Care Providers such as the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

·         Training sessions for teachers were available to help them identify young carers. Details from Primary Schools were passed on to Secondary Schools to ensure that Young Carers continued to have the support they needed.

·         Carers Lewisham and Lewisham Council had worked in partnership to create the Young Carers Charter. The ambition was for every school in the borough to sign up to this.

·         Referrals to the team were usually from schools or health visitors. Partnership working was key in ensuring that young carers were identified.

·         When working with Young Carers, there was always an emphasis on preserving attachments but in some cases, if the child was at serious risk of harm, action would need to be taken. Out of the 140 assessments which took place in Lewisham last year, 2 cases resulted in the children in question needing to become looked after (LAC).

6.3       RESOLVED

That the report be noted.

7.1       Katie Wood, Scrutiny Manager introduced the work programme report to the committee; asked for comments; and asked Members to specify any additional details or analysis required for the items scheduled at the next meeting.

7.2       RESOLVED

That an additional update be heard by the committee at their September meeting to include:

·         Youth Services: progress and implementation of savings

·         Children’s Centres saving proposals update

·         Child Sexual Exploitation

8.1       There were no referrals to Mayor and Cabinet.