Agenda, decisions and minutes

Councillor Hilary Moore was elected as Chair of Children and Young People Select Committee.

Councillor Luke Sorba was elected as Vice-Chair of Children and Young People Select.

1.1       RESOLVED: That

1.    Councillor Hilary Moore be confirmed as the Chair of the Children and Young People Select Committee.

2.    Councillor Luke Sorba be confirmed as the Vice-Chair of the Children and Young People Select Committee.

3.    Councillor John Paschoud and Councillor Jonathan Slater be formally thanked for their work on the Children and Young People Select Committee.

That the minutes of the meeting of Children and Young People Select Committee held on the 1^st March 2016 be agreed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

2.1       RESOLVED: That

The minutes of the meeting of Children and Young People Select Committee held on the 1 March 2016 be agreed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

Presentation only

The Young Mayor and Deputy Young Mayor sent there apologies as they were unable to attend the meeting. The item would be rescheduled for a later meeting.

4.1       RESOLVED: That

The Young Mayor and Deputy Young Mayor sent there apologies as they were unable to attend the meeting. The item would be rescheduled for a later meeting.

The Committee wished them well in their forthcoming exams.

5.3       RESOLVED: That

1.    An additional report on the Children’s Social Care Workforce Strategy be added to the work programme.

2.    The report on attendance and exclusions going to Committee in June should be entitled “Annual report on attendance and exclusions” on the work programme.

3.    That the Chair consider the proposals listed by the Committee and propose an amended work programme for consideration by Business Panel. The Committee would be able to review this at its next meeting.

5.1       Katie Wood, Scrutiny Manager introduced the item, during the presentation to Committee the following key points were highlighted:

·         The Committee should consider and agree the provisional work programme and make comments and suggestions as necessary.

·         The draft work programme incorporated items already suggested by the Committee, suggestions from officers and suggestions by virtue of the Committee’s terms of reference.

·         In light of the recent Ofsted inspection in Autumn 2015 and the subsequent action plan; the work programme included regular updates on the Ofsted Action Plan.

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

·         The report for the Committee’s review into Independent Advice and Guidance would come to the Committee’s meeting in June.

·         The Chair of Children and Young People Select Committee had recently attended the Young Advisors Group and discussed topics for the Committee’s in-depth review. From these discussions, the proposal of a review into the transition from primary to secondary schools was raised.

·         A review into childcare provision in Lewisham could be a topic for an in-depth review. This could include changes to legislation such as the increase in hours to 30 free hours for 3 year olds from 2017. The Council currently didn’t have a childcare strategy and therefore this review could be timely in helping to shape policy in this area.

·         Although, the Committee had undertaken a review into childcare provision which was published in December 2013, there had been a number of legislative and provisional changes meaning it could still be a timely and relevant topic for an in-depth review.

·         A one-off report looking at further education provision in the borough was put forward as a proposal, this was thought to be particular important in the light of the ongoing area reviews and the implications for future provision in the borough.

·         A proposal of a report on Academisation was put forward. The Education Commission would be looking into this and the report to Committee in June would include their findings prior to going to Mayor and Cabinet.

·         The possibility of having a report to Committee on best practice for Pupil Premium Grant spend was put forward. It was agreed that a copy of the recent review into this by London Borough of Brent would be circulated to Committee members.

·         It was important that reviews and reports were timely and focused on areas where the Committee’s intervention could make a difference. Transition from primary to secondary could feed into good practice work being undertaken. The nursery provision was also a relevant topic as the Council needed to produce a childcare strategy and this review would therefore be timely.

·         An additional report on the children’s social care workforce strategy should be added to the 2016/17 work programme as a one-off report for the Committee.

·         The report on attendance and exclusions going to Committee in June should be entitled “Annual report on attendance and exclusions” on the work programme.

5.3       RESOLVED: That

1.    An additional report on the Children’s Social Care Workforce Strategy be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

That the report be noted.

An update on progress be reported to the Committee at its meeting in June 2016.

6.1       Cllr Moore, Chair of Children and Young People Select Committee introduced the item to the Committee and explained that it was an update report for keeping the Committee up to date with the process and was for noting.

6.2       In response to question and challenge from members of the Committee, the following key points were highlighted:

·         The advert inviting tenders was open until the week ending 22April 2016. Any organisation could submit a tender and there would be a desktop analysis to score each proposal once the closing date had passed.

·         The tender evaluation process and then subsequent preparation of an award report was due to conclude by end of May 2016 with the final decision be made by Mayor and cabinet in June 2016.

·         There was no further scrutiny scheduled as part of the award process prior to Mayor and Cabinet but the usual call-in options were available to members. An update could however be brought to the next meeting of Children and Young People Select Committee.

·         In response to concerns raised regarding the Equalities Analysis Assessment that listed the impact of the mutualisation as likely to be largely positive, the Committee were informed that the current level of service would be funded for three years and the ability to generate further income by the mutual would therefore allow the overall impact to be positive.

6.3       RESOLVED: That

The report be noted.

An update on progress be reported to the Committee at its meeting in June 2016.

That the report be noted.

7.1       Sara Williams, Executive Director for Children and Young People, introduced the report to the Committee and noted that the full report highlighting the full findings of the Commission would come to the next meeting of the Committee in June.

7.2       Following questions and challenge from members of the Committee the following key points were raised:

·         Concerns were raised regarding the consultation process in particular regarding the consultations with school governors and with the Co-optees on the Children and Young People Select Committee. The Director of Children and Young People would investigate this. There would be further opportunity for Committee members to comment and in-put into the proposals at the Committee’s next meeting.

7.2       RESOLVED: That

The report be noted.

There were no referrals to Mayor and Cabinet.

9.1       RESOLVED: That

There were no referrals to Mayor and Cabinet.