Agenda and minutes

The Committee is asked to elect a Vice Chair from its membership and agree the appointment of co-opted members for the 2016/17 Municipal Year.

RESOLVED

1.            That Councillor Caroline Ffiske be appointed as Vice Chair for the 2016/17 Municipal Year.

2.            That the following co-opted members be appointed for the 2016/17 Municipal Year:

·         Eleanor Allen, London Diocesan Board for Schools

·         Nandini Ganesh, Parentsactive Representative

·         Philippa O'Driscoll, Westminster Diocesan Education Service Representative

·         Nadia Taylor, Parent Governor Representative

·         Vic Daniels, Parent Governor Representative

·         Dennis Charman, Teacher Representative (for one meeting, after which a replacement would be sought)

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting.

Under Item 9, Schools Organisation and Investment Strategy, members asked that the following paragraph be added:

Councillor Alan De’Ath noted his concern about the Government’s requirement for apprenticeships to be contingent on English and Maths GCSE A* to C as it could exclude less academic young people from opportunities.

RESOLVED

The minutes of the previous meeting, held on 13 June 2016, were approved and signed by the Chair.

Apologies for absence were received from Eleanor Allen and Philippa O’Driscoll.

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.

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.

Maeve Crawford, resident, addressed the committee and asked members to look into the provision of relationship education for young people in the borough. Research had shown this type of education could; reduce violence in relationships, reduce rates of pregnancy, increase attainment, and promote less risky behaviours – overall contributing to improved mental health and emotional wellbeing.

Councillor Alan De’Ath responded that one of the recommendations of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health task force (Item 8 in the minutes) focused on improved training for staff to deliver relationship education. He suggested this was an area that could be examined in greater detail by officers.

Councillor Sue Macmillan said that, from her experience of speaking with young people across the borough, there was huge demand for more education about relationships. She noted that while schools were primarily responsible for this area the Council could make schools aware of the available information on this topic and the benefits for their students.

Nadia Taylor said she believed relationship education should be a core part of the PSHE curriculum and felt the Council should make a recommendation to the DfE to that effect.

The Chair noted that she had recently attended an Early Intervention Foundation meeting that was considering whole schools initiatives and the associated outcomes. She asked that an item on relationship education be added to the committee’s work programme for September and invited Maeve Crawford to provide input into the report.

Clare Chamberlain introduced herself to the committee as the Interim Executive Director for Children’s Services and presented the report updating members on items of note since the previous meeting. She highlighted the section on the Partners in Practice initiative (section 5 of the report) that the Council was working on with the Department for Education. Hammersmith and Fulham and its partner boroughs were considered as exemplars for social care practice and had put in a joint bid to fund a centre for social work training to support other local authorities. She also noted that new contracts had gone live for schools meals and the travel care and support service and looked to be going well.

Councillor Alan De’Ath noted the positive news that Ark Swift Primary Academy and Sir John Lille had both received ‘Good’ ratings from Ofsted in their most recent inspections, moving up from ‘Inadequate’ and ‘Requires Improvement’ respectively.

Councillor Caroline Ffiske asked officers to go into more detail on each of the bullet points in the year end summary of Family Services data (paragraph 5.4 of the report).

·         Point 1 - Clare Chamberlain noted that despite an ongoing reduction of referrals there had not been a similar reduction in the number of child protection investigations because the numbers of children at risk from harm had not reduced.

·         Point 2 – The new child protection case conference model (called the ‘Signs of Safety’) was far more approachable and engaging for parents and therefore more successful in reducing the number of plans.

·         Point 3 – It was noted that around four or five years ago there had been a Government drive to raise the number of adoptions that then levelled out over subsequent years. Recent court judgements had lowered the number over the past two years.

Dennis Charman highlighted the section on Ofsted judgements on local schools (paragraph 4.2 of the report) and noted that improvements were attributed solely to the leadership in schools rather than the teachers and other members of staff. He also requested that the white paper on education (concerning academisation) and the national funding formula should be considered together as an item for discussion in the Autumn term.

ACTION: David Abbott

Councillor Marcus Ginn, referring to paragraph 4.3 of the report, asked if all schools in Hammersmith and Fulham would be converting to academies. Councillor Sue Macmillan responded that messages from Government had not been clear and the full detail of the proposals would not be known until the white paper was published. She noted that since the Government’s original announcement in this area she had led two working groups with schools to consider their options in the new landscape and schools would continue to meet to discuss the best approach.

Councillor Alan De'Ath asked if a school’s conversion to an academy would have an impact on their admissions criteria. Councillor Sue Macmillan assured members that there would be no change in the admissions criteria.

Nadia Taylor, referring to the section on the Children  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Councillor Sue Macmillan welcomed Clare Chamberlain, the Interim Executive Director of Children’s Services and noted that she had led on the Focus on Practice initiative that had made a real difference, improving outcomes with families.

Councillor Macmillan informed the committee that since the previous meeting she had visited Sulivan Primary School, William Morris Sixth Form, Randolph Beresford Early Years Centre, and Ark Swift Primary Academy. She went to the Early Help south localities office to speak with staff and see the service in action. She also visited Ealing’s care leavers hub – a drop-in centre for care leavers that provided valuable support for young people, e.g. advice about housing and employment. They even put on a roast meal on Sundays. She noted that she would like to emulate that type of service in Hammersmith and Fulham.

Councillor Macmillan highlighted the school meals mobilisation and the change to the travel care and support service at Jack Tizard School, noting that the schools involved had been very positive and no complaints had been received. She extended her thanks to all officers involved.

In response to national concerns about mental health provision for young people, a Hammersmith & Fulham focused taskforce was set up to:

·         Summarise the local need for mental health and wellbeing provision.

·         Assess the services available in Hammersmith and Fulham which support good mental health and emotional wellbeing for young people.

·         Identify any gaps.

·         Comment on whether Hammersmith & Fulham young people and professionals have access to the right provision and services that young people want to use?

This report contains their findings and recommendations for improvements.

Councillor Alan De'Ath presented the report of the Child and Adult Mental Health taskforce. He informed the committee that, in response to national concerns about mental health provision for young people, a taskforce was set up to:

·         Summarise the local need for mental health and wellbeing provision.

·         Assess the services available in Hammersmith and Fulham which support good mental health and emotional wellbeing for young people.

·         Identify any gaps.

·         Comment on whether young people and professionals had access to the right provision and services.

The taskforce members met with local providers including Rethink, the Centre for Mental Health, West London Mental Health Trust, and GPs. They also met with schools, including the Bridge Academy, Lena Gardens, Brackenbury, and Jack Tizard – and young people, including the Youth Council who helped produce a survey that yielded over 3000 responses.

The taskforce produced recommendations on the following themes:

·         Access to Services, Information and Support Needs to Improve

·         Training Needs to be Strengthened and Sustainable

·         Transitions Arrangements

·         Hammersmith & Fulham Transformation Plan

·         Mental Health Challenge

Councillor De’Ath noted that mental health was a vast subject area and the taskforce was an initial look at the issue – all of the areas in the report could be examined further by the Council when looking to improve services. He thanked all of the people involved in the taskforce.

Nandini Ganesh asked if SEN schools and families had been involved in the taskforce and noted that there was confusion between autism and mental health issues in younger people. Cllr De'Ath responded that one of the recommendations of the taskforce was to increase understanding of mental health issues to address this problem. She also raised concerns that Hammersmith and Fulham did not have a behaviour and support team to carry out intervention work and that the CAMHS waiting list was too long – when people needed help they tended to need it relatively quickly. Cllr De’Ath responded by saying that CAMHS was not always the best place to address people’s issues, there were a range of other services but people needed a better understanding of what was available and the best pathway. He noted that currently most of the funding was spent at the extreme end of the care pathway whereas more should be spent earlier, on preventative care and support to stop major issues developing.

Dennis Charman made the following points:

·         The report should be sent to all schools in the borough for information.

·         There was a mismatch between the measures of deprivation the Government used to determine levels of funding that were reducing and the increasing levels of mental health need.

·         There was more work needed to determine why need was growing.

·         The proposal for school based services and signposting was a good solution to the problem of the lack of awareness of disparate providers.

·         However, if schools would be providing services and looking for early signs of mental health issues they needed to be properly resourced.

·         In cases where school-age children receiving support were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

This report provides an overview of childcare and other provision available for children and young people in Hammersmith & Fulham. It also outlines plans to improve systems to make information about such provision more accessible to families.

Clare Chamberlain presented the report that outlined school holiday childcare provision in the borough. Additional information on provision for young people with special educational needs and disabilities was circulated with drafts of the ‘Summer in the City’ activity leaflets.

Councillor Elaine Chumnery noted that the report did not go into enough detail about the affordability of childcare, a case study of a typical family would have been useful, as would information on where the Council could provide some support. She felt the report did not address the key problem with childcare provision – that it tended to be fractured, making it difficult for working parents to sustain appropriate provision over the long summer period.

The Chair requested a report looking at the future of childcare in the borough and asked that as part of the report, officers looked into the possibility of providing quality childcare provision in partnership with local employers. She also asked that the report include information on the support the Council gave, or could give, to working parents. The report was to be added to the work programme for the meeting in November.

RESOLVED

That the Committee requested a report, schedule for November, looking at the future of childcare in the borough. To include options for providing quality childcare provision in partnership with local employers and information on the support the Council gave, or could give, to working parents.

This report provides an overview of planned improvements to be made by the Family Services Directorate following the Ofsted inspection of services in January and February 2016.

Clare Chamberlain presented the report that outlined planned service improvements to Family Services following the recent Ofsted inspection. She highlighted proposed changes to the emergency duty team – which would be moving from a single person to a broader on-call system to increase capacity. She also highlighted the additional of providing access to independent advocates as it was felt they added considerable value.

Dennis Charman noted that he supported the proposals in the report and asked that the committee reviewed progress against them in six months.

RESOLVED

That the Committee review the post-Ofsted service improvements in six months.

The Committee is asked to give consideration to its work programme.

Councillor Alan De'Ath asked for a report on the admission policies of all secondary schools in the borough, including a map of their catchment areas and information on which primary schools the pupils came from. The Chair asked that the report included an overview of the most common questions that parents ask about school admissions policy and how the Council assisted parents to ensure everyone had equal understanding of the process.

ACTION: Wendy Anthony

Dennis Charman felt the Committee should consider the impact of the upcoming academies white paper and changes to the national funding formula for schools. The new legislation represented a significant change to local oversight for schools and members should be briefed on how the Council sees its role going forward. A report would be added to the work programme for November.

ACTION: Ian Heggs

The Committee is asked to note the date of the next meeting, which is to be held on 19 September 2016.

Dennis Charman informed members that this would be his last meeting as he was retiring soon. He said it had been a privilege to represent the voice of teachers on the Committee. The Chair, on behalf of all members, thanked him for his valued service and wished him a very happy retirement.