Agenda and minutes

To approve as an accurate record, and the Chair to sign, the minutes of the meeting of the Children and Education Policy and Accountability Committee held on 10 February 2015.

Nandini Ganesh noted that the second paragraph under the heading “Post 19 Provision” on page 5 should be included under the heading “Personal Budgets”.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 10 February 2015 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Caroline Ffiske, Eleanor Allen (London Diocesan Board for Schools Representative), Andrew Christie, Executive Director of Children’s Services and Brenda Whinnett, Youth Voice Coordinator.

If a Councillor has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a particular item, whether or not it is entered in the Authority’s register of interests, or any other significant interest which they consider should be declared in the public interest, they should declare the existence and, unless it is a sensitive interest as defined in the Member Code of Conduct, the nature of the interest at the commencement of the consideration of that item or as soon as it becomes apparent.

At meetings where members of the public are allowed to be in attendance and speak, any Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest or other significant interest may also make representations, give evidence or answer questions about the matter.  The Councillor must then withdraw immediately from the meeting before the matter is discussed and any vote taken.

Where Members of the public are not allowed to be in attendance and speak, then the Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest should withdraw from the meeting whilst the matter is under consideration. Councillors who have declared other significant interests should also withdraw from the meeting if they consider their continued participation in the matter would not be reasonable in the circumstances and may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest.

Councillors are not obliged to withdraw from the meeting where a dispensation to that effect has been obtained from the Audit, Pensions and Standards Committee. 

There were no declarations of interest.

The report provides a brief summary of current and proposed arrangements for ‘youth voice’ (consultation and engagement of young people) in Hammersmith and Fulham.  It also introduces the Youth Council manifesto for 2015-16 and proposals for working with the Committee.

Some members of the Youth Council will be attending the meeting and will give a brief presentation outlining the Youth Voice in Hammersmith and Fulham and to explain where the Youth Council fits in that structure and its proposals on working with the Committee.  A copy of the Youth Council’s manifesto film will also be shown at the meeting.

The Committee welcomed Rahima Begum, the H&F Youth Parliament member, Darnell Christie, the deputy H&F Youth Parliament member and Johnley Videna, Youth Council member, who came to talk to the Committee about the Youth Council’s role and priorities. They also played a DVD they had prepared which outlined the Youth Council’s manifesto. It was noted that the top 5 issues identified by the young people were the living wage at work, giving young people a voice in improving communities, mental health, work experience and voting at age 16.

The Committee were invited to ask the young people questions and the following points were raised:

Facilities for Young People

One co-opted member referred to the bulge in school placements noting that there would be a lot more young people in the borough who would need more facilities other than schools, such as youth clubs, and that this was something the Youth Council could monitor. It was reported that the Youth Council consults with young people mostly through schools and also some other facilities.

Work Experience and Apprenticeships

The Youth Council was working with the Workzone, which would be going into schools and holding workshops to promote opportunities and services that were available for young people and help support them, such as with work placements and working on CVs.

One member noted the difficulty in finding work experience places as many organisations would not take young people under the age of 18 and asked what could be done to work with employers in respect of this. The “Take Over Day” was referred to as a successful example of young people gaining work shadowing experience within different areas of the Council. It was noted that the quality of the work experience was important to make sure the young people got the best out of it.

Ian Heggs reported that careers advice was now delivered by schools and the local authority helped schools to give impartial advice. There had been only a 2% take up of apprenticeships in the borough, so this needed to be promoted to encourage take up. Young people also needed to be ready for apprenticeships so this would be looked at.

One of the co-opted members referred to a scheme in the USA where businesses who provided work experience was published which helped to encourage businesses to take part. He suggested that the Council looked at this to develop an expectation that schools and businesses should be involved in work experience.

One of the young people noted that schools were only now starting to look at other courses and apprenticeships and felt that there needed to be an emphasis on non-academic courses.

Engagement

The young people were interested in ensuring that other young people had an active voice and felt part of the community so they were listened to. They had met with decision makers and been involved in consultations to help ensure their points of view were heard.

The Youth Council was made up from representatives  ...  view the full minutes text for item 62.

To invite questions from members of the public present.

Members of the public with more complex issues are invited to submit their questions in advance in order to allow a more substantive answer to be given. Questions can be sent to the contact officer shown on the front page of the agenda.

There were no comments raised under this item.

To note the Executive Director’s update report.

Ian Heggs, Director of Schools Commissioning, presented the update report on Andrew Christie’s behalf, noting the following:

Primary School Admissions

It was reported that the number of pupils without a place continued to reduce and it was expected that by September there would be very few without a place.  All pupils would have been offered a place however it may be that some places were not what was preferred.  The Committee was told that 90% of pupils were offered their top 3 preferences.  There were 70 pupils without a place but there were sufficient places, in particular with the opening of the new Burlington Danes Primary School.

SEN

In respect of the transition of SEN statements, as outlined in pages 38 and 39 of the report, it was noted that there was pressure on the system to complete the transitions within 3 years.  The Council was asking for a longer period to complete this as a lot of training and support was needed to be able to transfer the statements into the plans.  The Council was waiting to hear whether the new Government would extend the time frame for transitions.  The Parentsactive representative commented that parents were generally anxious about the process, in particular about the personal budget element.

Resources for schools who had some pupils with complex needs was raised and Ian Heggs referred to the changes introduced last year where each school was required to published their own offer for SEN.  He noted that not all schools could offer all resources and facilities but each would have different needs and resources.  H&F had a good offer in terms of its special schools but there was not a wrap around support in relation to post 18 which the department was focusing on.

Focus on Practice

In response to a question relating to this section in the update, Steve Miley commented that the aim was for social workers to engage with families and to be able to do that the case loads would need to be reduced.  The discussions that took place at supervision meetings should be more focused on practice.

Teaching Assistants

A member raised a query about assessments of teaching assistants as he had experienced a spelling list for his daughter which was spelt incorrectly.  It was noted that teachers required qualifications but the teaching assistants did not and the member should raise this issue at the school to be looked at.

Councillor Sue Macmillan, Cabinet Member for Children and Education, updated the Committee on the following:

·            SEN passenger transport service - she was working very closely with parents, headteachers and governors to try to move forward with the service.  A proposed solution would be going to Cabinet the following month for consideration and the Committee would be reviewing the proposed service at a meeting in the autumn.

·            all private schools in the borough had been contacted in respect of the possibility of sharing their facilities.  A meeting was held at the end of March to discuss this, where representatives from 5 schools attended and went through what they were already doing.  It was a positive meeting and the schools were willing to share even more facilities with the boroughs pupils.  Work would be done to see what the private schools were willing to provide and this would then be advertised to schools in the borough to let them know what facilities were available.

·            The Youth Parliament results events was successful and inspiring; there had been 6 candidates running for the Youth Parliament positions.

·            Councillor Macmillan had visited Ark Swift Primary School and was pleased to see the progress at the school.  She had also visited the Haven and followed up issues that had been raised with her in respect of parents with disabled children.

·            Work was underway with KidZania to open a facility in Westfield for children aged 4 to 14 years old, which was funded through section 106 agreement funds.  All children in the borough aged between 4 and 14 would have a free ticket to the facility.

·            A visit took place with the Looked After Children and care leavers team and front line workers.  Councillor Macmillan spent half a day with the team and it was a useful visit to discuss various issues.

Councillor Sue Fennimore, Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion, responded to a question on how the Council worked with food banks to make sure children went to school fed, noting that her focus was to do everything that could be done to wipe out poverty.  There had been a lot of work done in relation to food banks and a report would be going to the Health, Adult Social Care and Social Inclusion PAC on this and this report could be shared with this committee.

One issue raised by one of the co-optees related to schools experiencing a high turnover of pupils due to children moving in and out of the borough because of a change in their housing.  He noted that due to the short notice, schools were unable to do any transitions and he asked what happened to the children who moved out of the borough.  Councillor Fennimore commented that there was a housing crisis in London and there were few houses where families could be accommodated.  Housing was one of the Council’s top priorities and Councillor Fennimore was working with the Cabinet Member for Housing to look at housing issues and how they could  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65.

The attached interim report of the Childcare Task Group outlines the key findings of the group, which includes an executive summary, the terms of reference for the group, its methodology, the statistical context, the current childcare provision in the borough, evidence gathering, policy and additional information.

The interim report identifies several key areas that the task group would like to investigate in more detail, reporting to the Committee on each of these throughout the next municipal year. The first of these detailed reports is regarding the importance of accurate information for local families and the current performance of the Hammersmith and Fulham Family Information Service, and is included at section 3 of this report for the Committee’s consideration.

The Chair of the Childcare Task Group, Councillor Natalia Perez Shepherd, introduced the interim report that outlined the work of the Task Group so far, which included meeting a number of different witnesses, holding an online survey for parents, meeting two Quality Childminder Forums and much more.  It had been envisaged that the a final report would be submitted to this meeting but the Task Group decided to focus on key areas which needed more time to consider, which were:

·               The importance of accurate information for local families and the current performance of the Family Information Service (FIS)

·               Improving support for childminders and the effectiveness of the offer of childminding services for local families

·               The role of Children’s Centres in delivering effective, high quality childcare in Hammersmith and Fulham

·               Building on the findings of the 8-6 out-of-core-hours pilot for support in schools

·               Innovative solutions for growing a skilled workforce.

The Task Group would feed back to the Committee on this areas in the next municipal year and one of the items had already been addressed in the report; the FIS was the first area highlighted to look at in more detail.  Feedback from parents was gathered and the report highlighted the key issues regarding the FIS which were as follows:

·            The service was not being used by the majority of families in the borough

·            The service was not well promoted and families were unaware of the website

·            The website itself was not easy to navigate and it was difficult for families to find the information they required

·            Providers had been unable to update their details directly and requests for updates have not been responded to.

Redouan Maarouf, Service Manager (Contact & Assessment Service) was in attendance to answer any questions about the FIS and reported that the backlog of information had now been updated.  The queries would be dealt with twice a week and the website monitored daily so there would not be any delays from now onwards.  The FIS was based in the Front Door service which was the key contact for all child protection queries that took priority, so it was questioned whether it was the best place for the FIS to be situated.

The Task Group had looked at options that could improve the service of the FIS, and the following recommendations were identified:

·           To explore the options for the FIS website to be improved. This should include the potential for automatic updating of childminder information via the Ofsted data feed, the sharing of data between existing sources of information and for the website to deliver a more user friendly experience for families and childcare providers.

·           That the local authority reviewed the location for the management of the FIS within Children’s Services including options for future staffing arrangements.

·           That the corporate communications team were consulted about promotion of a new improved service once it was implemented.

Steve Comber, Policy Officer, reported that officers had looked at the above options and noted that a single designated officer would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 66.

(1)    The Committee is asked to give consideration to its work programme for the next municipal year.

(2)    Members of the Committee to feedback on any visits to schools that have taken place in respect of recent Ofsted Inspections.

(3)    Attached is the current list of Key Decisions for information.

The agenda items scheduled for the next meeting would be as follows:

·        Support to Bi-Lingual and Multi Lingual Families

·        Young Carers, including the role of the school community in identifying young carers.

·        Workload of Teachers

It was noted that the Childcare Task Group would report back on items it had considered to the CEPAC meetings.  The Parentsactive representative invited the Task Group to talk to parents of disabled children.  The Chair responded by asking that there be a specific report on childcare for children with disabilities and for the Parentsactive representative to work with the Chair of the Task Group on this.

Action: Councillor Perez Shepherd, Nandini Ganesh and Steve Comber

As part of the new system of Members of the Committee feeding back on any visits to schools that have taken place in respect of recent Ofsted Inspections, the following updates were given:

Fulham College Boys School – The Chair reported back on her visit held with Philippa O’Driscoll, and the following points were noted:

·         The approach to young people was empathetic, inclusive and supportive, with schemes such as the Duke of Edinburgh Awards

·         There was a pilot project specialising in EAL fair access

·         The studio school had a programme for young people to help build capacity for EAL and assessment needs

·         The school had positive relationships with employers e.g. Mitie, a facilities management company who work on local estates.

·         The school had hired a young person who had completed an apprenticeship in their own maintenance team.

·         There was strong pastoral support and work was done with young people with autism in liaison with the Queensmill School

·         One challenge noted that the school still lacked popularity in the community and this view had not been updated to reflect the school’s performance.

·         There were ambitious plans for a community sports facility.

Larmenier and Sacred Heart RC Primary School – Philippa O’Driscoll updated the Committee on her visit with Nadia Taylor to the school, and the following was noted:

·         The school was outstanding and the academic results were extraordinary

·         its extra curriculum activities  had depth and richness

·         there was an in-depth understanding of art history, where a former teacher stayed on to provide this

·         there was a choir in every class and each year had an allotment section

·         there was a clear vision at the school, looking at the child’s eye view of everything

·         a lot of work had been done in respect of bullying, having child mentors at the school.

It was suggested that a visit to Larmenier and Sacred Heart RC Primary School be arranged for other headteachers to use as good practice.  Ian Heggs noted that there were strong links with headteachers and they shared best practice; at each term the headteachers shared key issues within their cluster.  He noted that one of the comments raised in the visit in respect of training and advice would be picked up through the lead adviser who visits the school.

The Committee thanked Laura Campbell, Committee Co-ordinator, as this was her  ...  view the full minutes text for item 67.

This is the last meeting of this municipal year.  The dates for the next municipal year will be agreed at the Annual Council Meeting on 20 May 2015.

This was the last meeting of the municipal year. The Committee noted that the dates of the meetings for the next municipal year would be agreed at Annual Council on 20 May 2015.