Agenda, decisions and minutes

That subject to the addition that Councillor Webley-Brown be marked as having attended the last meeting, the minutes be agreed.

1.1       RESOLVED:

That subject to the addition that Councillor Webley-Brown be marked as having attended the last meeting, the minutes be agreed.

Councillor Edison Huyne, who was attending the meeting as a guest, declared a non-pecuniary interest in item 5 as he was a Council appointed member on the Board of Youth First.

2.1       RESOLVED:

Councillor Edison Huynh, who was attending the meeting as a guest, declared a non-pecuniary interest in item 5 as he was a Council appointed member on the Board of Youth First.

That the Lewisham Mayoresses: Dawn Atkinson, Natasha Ricketts and Christina Normanto; and Jentai and Marvin from the Young Advisors be thanked for attending the meeting and for their insights and contribution to the discussion.

3.1       Angela Scattergood, Director of Education presented the report to the Committee. Pinaki Ghoshal, Executive Director for CYP was also in attendance.

3.2       The Lewisham Mayoresses: Dawn Atkinson, Natasha Ricketts and Christina Normanto were invited to give evidence to the Committee and highlighted the following key points:

·         They had been running a Community Food Store in Deptford for the last three years and the number of people needing their support was increasing. They currently provided food for over 105 people/families providing food for more than 500 people per week, with 50 more on the waiting list. Emergency cases and referrals had also risen.

·         They were seeing families where the parents were missing meals to provide for their children and not able to afford food for their children. They were also supporting working people such as NHS workers who still needed the service to provide basic necessities for their families.

·         The store had had a uniform and warm clothing drive recently and items had been really needed by their families.

·         The Mayoresses spoke of people who were having to sacrificing their cultural beliefs to be able to provide food for their families even if it did not conform to their usual cultural dietary requirements.

·         The members paid £3.50 per week for access to the service and even that was becoming too much for some of the members.

·         The problem was not confined to Deptford where the Food Store was based but was across Lewisham and London.

·         The Mayoresses stressed that the fact that children in London were going hungry in 2022 was devastating and more needed to be done.

3.3       The Young Advisors, Jentai and Marvin were invited to give evidence to the Committee. They highlighted the following key points:

·         A lot of school uniform has to be bought from specific shops and can be very expensive which is difficult for young people and their families

·         The quality of the school food for the price was not always very good and the portions were not always adequate size or was food that sometimes young people did not like.

·         Young people needed financial support to help their families.

·         Heating homes is really expensive and the pre-pay meters were needing topping up regularly.

3.4       Cllr Howard and Cllr Sorba highlighted the Committee’s visit to Watergate School and the challenges faced by staff, parents and young people. A summary of the visit is included in the agenda documentation. Cllr Howard highlighted that transport to and from school was one of the key issues raised as well as the energy costs and accommodation challenges experienced by families.

3.5       Following all the presentations the following key points were raised by the Committee.

·         The Council had produced webpages including information about support available and information on benefits. These were being publicised to schools. Schools were also one of the biggest referrers to food banks.

·         The Council had undertaken a campaign to promote applying for Free School Meals to families and there had been an increase in numbers  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

The Committee requested that the following comments be referred to the Public Accounts Select Committee:

·         CYP_SAV_01 – Review of Children Centres Budgets. The Committee was concerned about the associated risk of the move to the pilot hub model advocated by government only coming with funding committed for three years and the potential long-term impact of the cut on children and young people and their families. The Committee was concerned that the cut could reduce preventative support and result in more significant pressures on other budgets should peoples’ needs then escalate.

·         CYP_SAV_04 – Youth Services Budget Review. The Committee was concerned about the impact of the cut on levels of provision for children and young people in the borough and also for the staff providing these services.  The Committee was particularly concerned that the shift to focus Council support on more targeted provision, with a necessary reduction in support for universal provision, and the mitigations outlined in the proposal would make the recruitment of staff harder for providers. 

·         COM_SAV_08 – Reduction in Opening Hours at Lewisham Libraries. The Committee was concerned regarding any reduction in opening hours at Lewisham libraries considering the important role libraries played on a range of services and in particular in their part in the response to the cost of living crisis and the Council’s strategy on “Warm Welcomes”.

4.1       David Austin, Director of Finance introduced the report to the Committee. Pinaki Ghoshal, Executive Director for Children and Young People and Sara Rahman, Director of Families, Quality and Commissioning was also in attendance. Councillor Chris Barnham, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People was in attendance online. During the discussion that followed, the following key points were raised:

·         Members of the Committee raised concerns regarding the saving proposal COM_SAV_08 of cuts to Lewisham libraries opening hours. There was particular concern regarding the role they were playing in “Warm Welcomes” and support being provided to residents during the cost of living crisis and that any cut in hours would be detrimental to this work.

·         Regarding All_SAV_01. This would be £2 million applied equally across all budgets to help meet the additional costs of the staff pay awards. In CYP Directorate, it would be applied across all budgets and mitigated by leaving posts vacant in certain situations and looking at agency spend and grades of staff. For CYP Directorate the total was £500,000 which was proportionate to the CYP budget within the scale of the Council budget.

·         Regarding CYP_SAV_04 Youth Services Review, members of the Committee were concerned given that youth services were part of the Council’s early help approach and played a key role in providing support for young people and families. Combined with the cuts to Children’s Services members voiced concern that reducing spend in early help would lead to increased spend at later stages.

·         The Committee heard that disinvesting in early help could lead to additional costs, however, focusing on where to spend was crucial and the current proposals was about re-balancing the spend in the context of losing budget to ensure as targeted an approach as possible. The Department for Education was providing investment for Family Hubs which would increase the overall budget to Children’s Services and could allow for more targeted support across all ages.

·         A member of the Committee commented that Youth Workers needed long-term contracts and job security. There was a reduction in those training to be Youth Workers nationally. The Council wanted to look at other roles within the Council that Youth Workers might be suitable for such as roles within the Council’s Adolescent Strategy.

·         The Committee suspended standing orders.

·         The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People highlighted the level of cuts to Local Government since 2010. Since 2010 budgets to Sure Start Children Centres had been cut dramatically since 2010. The Council was working to get additional funding to provide the best service possible.

·         The funding for the pilot Family Hubs was for a limited time of three years and members of the Committee voiced concerns reagrding what would happen after the three year period. The Committee were informed it was very challenging to predict future funding from central government but that the base budget would not necessarily be lost, so in three years’ time if the national funding picture was different then new decisions could be made on how to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

That the item on Youth First on the Select Committee work programme be moved from the January meeting to the March meeting of the Select Committee.

5.1       Councillor Luke Sorba introduced the report to the Committee and explained that the Children’s Social Care Improvement Report had been postponed until the January meeting and that he therefore proposed that the item on Youth First be moved to the March meeting of the Committee to enable enough time for consideration of each item.

5.2       RESOLVED:

That the item on Youth First on the Select Committee work programme be moved from the January meeting to the March meeting of the Select Committee.