Agenda, decisions and minutes

That the minutes be agreed as an accurate record of proceedings.

That the minutes be agreed as an accurate record of proceedings.

That the minutes be agreed as an accurate record of proceedings.

That the minutes be agreed as an accurate record of proceedings.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

None due.

There were no responses to be considered at this meeting.

There were no responses to be considered at this meeting.

The Committee resolved to recommend the following to the Public Accounts Select Committee in regards to budget cut proposal RES20:

1)    Children and Young People Select Committee re-iterate the comment below from Safer Stronger Communities Select Committee:

“That the true impact of the proposed cut and more details of the special characteristics of the nurseries involved needed to be known and understood prior to making a decision on the proposal so that the potential equalities impact on users can be outlined.”

2)    More information on the nurseries’ charging structures should be known prior to a decision being made.

3)    More information on the history of the subsidy to the nurseries should be understood prior to a decision being made.

5.1       David Austin, Acting Executive Director for Corporate Resources introduced the report to the Committee. In the discussion that followed, the following key points were raised:

·         A referral to CYP Select Committee from Safer Stronger Communities Select Committee was tabled at the meeting.

·         Members of the Committee expressed agreement with the referral.

·         A number of concerns were raised regarding the budget cut proposal RES 20 on nursery lettings. The Committee requested clarification as to why the anomaly had gone on for so long and expressed concerns regarding the lack of information and understanding of the possible impacts of the cuts.

·         Members of the Committee asked for clarification of the fee structure and history of the nurseries, and that a full Equalities Analysis Assessment be done prior to a decision being made on this cut proposal, as well as information on fees and places offered.

·         A member of the Committee raised a concern as to whether there were cuts to Clyde Nursery. The Committee heard that the nursery was Council maintained so the concerns the member had heard from residents related to the National funding formula. The Director of Education agreed to brief the Committee member separately on the National Fair Funding Campaign.

·         The previous proposed cut to the crossing patrol would be looked at once a full risk assessment had been carried out. Once this had happened, the proposals would go to the Children and Young People Select Committee and the Sustainable Development Select Committee for scrutiny prior to a decision being made by the Mayor and Cabinet.

·         Capital spend information was provided for scrutiny at the request of the Public Accounts Select Committee.

·         There was currently no requirement for school expansion for additional school places in mainstream schools.

·         The capital spend to date information in the report was the figures from May. The update monitoring from September 2019 could be sent to members.

5.2       RESOLVED:

The Committee resolved to recommend the following to the Public Accounts Select Committee in regards to budget cut proposal RES20:

1)    Children and Young People Select Committee re-iterate the comment below from Safer Stronger Communities Select Committee:

“That the true impact of the proposed cut and more details of the special characteristics of the nurseries involved needed to be known and understood prior to making a decision on the proposal so that the potential equalities impact on users can be outlined.”

2)    More information on the nurseries’ charging structures should be known prior to a decision being made.

3)    More information on the history of the subsidy to the nurseries should be understood prior to a decision being made.

That the report be noted.

6.1       Angela Scattergood, Director of Education Services, introduced the report to the Committee. In the discussion that followed, the following key points were raised:

·         More information was being requested from the high-performing schools to understand what factors were contributing to their success. One factor could be the quality of their interventions - using data to identify need and thinking about barriers for individual children.

·         The figures listed for 5 year olds were the Department for Education published figures based on the teacher assessments of the 17 early learning goals. 78% of children achieved a good level of development in 2017 in Lewisham. The phonic assessments in year 1 also showed above national achievement. The achievement gaps between ethnicities were narrow at this stage.

·         Paragraph 10.9 in the committee report listed measures that had been found to have an impact on improving outcomes for Black Caribbean pupils from academic research.

·         The London Borough of Hackney had undertaken a borough-wide review of its curriculum to make it more culturally relevant and inclusive.

·         Excellent early years provision, effective leadership and groupings of schools had been successful for improving and maintaining high standards and achievement in Primary provision in Lewisham.

·         The Director of Education had rercently met with the group Parent Engage and had also met with Lewisham Education Group. A member of the Committee felt that these groups should be allowed more contact with schools directly.

·         There was not currently a detailed understanding of the lower attainment at Key Stage 4 for dual heritage White/Black Caribbean young women. More needed to be done to understand this, in particular, looking at the impact of disadvantage, such as the numbers on free school meals, within the groups. Involvement of the community and mentoring was key.

·         The community was a resource that could be used to help, such as through positive role models and through partnership and collaborative working.

·         BAME mental health in schools was a key priority. The impact of interventions was monitored by the Health and Wellbeing Board. The Director of Education would be able to provide this information to members of the Committee.

·         The Joint meeting of the Children and Young People Select Committee and the Healthier Communities Select Committee had made a recommendation to the Health and Wellbeing Board around reducing disparity of outcomes and ensuring the robustness of the ethnicity data used.

·         The Executive Member for School Performance and Children’s Services commented that it was of great concern that there was race disparity nationally with Black Caribbean people 3 times as likely to be excluded; 10 times as likely to be stopped and searched and 4 times as likely to be arrested. He felt Lewisham should join with other local authorities to demand action from national government.

6.2       RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

That the report be noted.

7.1      Ruth Griffiths, Service Manager, Access, Inclusion and Participation, introduced the report to the committee. In the discussion that followed, the following key points were raised:

·         Early intervention was best practice for learners and could be done in collaboration with Heads, Governors and families. Managed transfers to Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) were increasing compared to exclusions. This was considered positive in terms of the likelihood of learners to be able to reintegrate into main stream schools after a managed transfer versus after an exclusion. The figures were closely monitored for transparency.

·         Persistent absences continued to be high at the PRU but were lower than the National average. The Council was working hard to reduce absences and had a dedicated welfare and attendance officer working at the PRU two days per week. Serious non-attendance would be pursued by the Council.

·         A member of the Committee commented that it was positive that no children with an EHCP had been excluded from Lewisham schools and asked whether this was similar to Lewisham’s statistical neighbours. This information would be looked into and the Committee would be updated.

·         The recommendations the committee made through its review into exclusions were being looked at and a response was due to be provided to the Committee at the next meeting.

·         A member of the committee asked what could be done to help young people get home safely after the end of the school day. The Committee were informed that there was a walking bus for younger pupils from the PRU to the Youth First provision. Staff at the school were also actively involved in helping dispersing pupils and getting them on buses.

·         A member of the Committee asked whether discussions could be had with Transport for London (TfL) to improve the frequency of some of the routes such as the 181 as they were very crowded and sometimes young people would have to wait for quite a long time.

·         In response the committee was informed that schools talked directly to TfL. The Executive Director for Children and Young People agreed that this could be discussed further with the Council transport lead.

·         A deep dive into secondary exclusions had been commissioned to understand more about why and how some schools had been very successful at reducing their exclusion and managed transfer rates. Early intervention was likely to be key such as monitoring and intervention strategies as well as parent engagement and student enrichment activities. 

·         The Committee had previously highlighted good practice in their Exclusions in-depth review.

·         It would be very expensive for school days to be extended and would require central government to increase funding.

·         A member of the committee gave an example of a MOPAC funded initiative in Enfield and Harringey focusing on increasing the number of walking buses and school patrols between schools and stations and bus stops.

·         Reintegration from the Pupil Referral Until to mainstream schools had increased. This was in part due to the increased transparency around communicating the work undertaken  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Report to follow

That the report be noted.

8.1       EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC – Councillor Luke Sorba announced that item 8 would be considered in private and members of the press and public were invited to leave. This was due to the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of schedule 12 (A) of the Local Government Act 1972.

8.2       Catherine Bunten, Service Manager, CYP Joint Commissioning introduced a report to the Committee. During the discussion that followed, the following key points were made.

·         A member of the Committee commented regarding cuts of £196,000 to the health visitors service listed in the report. The Committee had commented strongly last year around this cut and so was now surprised that the cuts were listed as still taking place.

·         The Executive Member for School Performance and Childrens’ Services commented that the recommendations in the report were draft and had not yet been agreed with the Mayor and Cabinet.

·         Councillor Luke Sorba, Committee Chair, informed the Committee that this matter was due to be discussed at Healthier Communities Select Committee as part of a paper on the overall public health budget at its meeting on the 8^th October.

·         Members of the Committee did not want to see the cut reducing the numbers or grades of the health visitors. The Committee requested that the Executive Member for Schools Performance and Children’s Services take the comments of the CYP Select Committee on board and take them back to Mayor and Cabinet.

·         A member of the committee commented that at the last meeting under the Early Help item, it had been agreed that a population needs assessment should return so the Committee could have more of an opportunity to look at the needs of the population and demographic change. The Committee had previously been informed it would be going to the Early Help Board and therefore requested that it return to CYP Select Committee either as an agenda item or an information item.

·         Members of the committee commented that they were concerned that the re-commissioning process within the Early Help Service was not looking enough at predicted demographic change and predictions for future service demand and specifications needed to be clearer in contracts. Consideration of whether one year or two year terms would be better was important.

·         Consideration could be made for a model where services were delivered in other settings outside of the children’s and family centres which could be hard to access from some locations.

8.2       RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The Population Needs Assessment should go to the CYP Select Committee either as an agenda item or an information item.

That the work programme report be agreed.

9.1       Councillor Luke Sorba, Chair of the Children and Young People Select Committee introduced the report to the Committee.

9.2       RESOLVED:

That the work programme report be agreed.

A referral was made at item 5, as outlined above.

10.1    RESOLVED:

A referral was made to the Public Accounts Select Committee at item 5, as outlined above.