Agenda and draft minutes

Please note that this meeting may be filmed or recorded by the Council for live or subsequent broadcast via the Council’s internet site or by anyone attending the meeting using any communication method. Although we ask members of the public recording, filming or reporting on the meeting not to include the public seating areas, members of the public attending the meeting should be aware that we cannot guarantee that they will not be filmed or recorded by others attending the meeting. Members of the public participating in the meeting (e.g. making deputations, asking questions, making oral protests) should be aware that they are likely to be filmed, recorded or reported on. 

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The chair of the meeting has the discretion to terminate or suspend filming or recording, if in his or her opinion continuation of the filming, recording or reporting would disrupt or prejudice the proceedings, infringe the rights of any individual or may lead to the breach of a legal obligation by the Council.

The Chair referred Members present to agenda Item 1 as shown on the agenda in respect of filming at this meeting, and Members noted the information contained therein’.

Apologies for Absence were received from Cllr Mark Blake.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business (late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items will be dealt with as noted below).

None

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered:

(i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent, and

(ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room.

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Register of Members’ Interests or the subject of a pending notification must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

None

To consider any requests received in accordance with Part 4, Section B, Paragraph 29 of the Council’s Constitution.

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To approve the minutes of the previous meeting.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting on 21^st September were agreed as a correct record.

Verbal update

The Panel received a short verbal update from the Cabinet Member for Children, Education and Families on developments within her portfolio. The Cabinet Member then undertook a question and answer session with the Panel. The following key points were noted in relation to the verbal update:

·         The Cabinet Member set out that the overspend position within the service of less than £1m was significant but was on an improving trajectory and it was hoped this position would improve further.

·         The service launched the Early Years Strategy last week.

·         A key development was around the government increasing amount allocated for each two-year old from £6 per hour to £9 per hour

·         The government was looking to expand 15 hours of free nursery for children from 9 months old from September 2025. Early Years was going to be an increasingly key service in that context.  

·         Haringey had launched its first family hub, with a commitment to launch a further 3 hubs using the £3.8m funding allocation over 3 years from the government.

·         The Turnaround project at Woodside High was underway. This is an early intervention scheme and links up with the very successful programme of having social workers in schools.

·         The Cabinet Member advised that Ann Graham and her team were up for a national award for social workers in schools. The ceremony was on 23^rd November.

·         97% of Haringey schools were Ofsted rated good or outstanding.

·         The Cabinet Member set out that there had been a meeting with school governors to push the Council to take a greater role in working with schools around issues such as governance, school finance, safeguarding and cyber security.

·         There was also an event with parents/carers and Council representatives, around housing and children with special educational needs.

The following arose during the discussion of this agenda item:

a.    The Panel welcomed the portfolio update from the Cabinet Member and some of the positive news contained therein.

b.    The Panel sought clarification around the Council’s policy to offer Council tax reduction to care leavers up to the age of 25 and whether there were reciprocal arrangements in place for Haringey care leavers who lived in other boroughs to receive a reduction. The Panel advocated that the Council should be lobbying for this to happen. In response, the Panel was advised that the lobbying for this had been led by the London Directors of Children’s Services, who were pushing London boroughs to have a joint approach, which included reciprocal arrangements around council tax discounts. Other authorities outside of London were facing pressure to also offer something similar.

c.    The Panel sought clarification about the extent to which there was a social worker in every school. In response, the Cabinet Member advised that there was not enough money to do this for every school. Secondary schools had access to a social worker in schools and that this was jointly funded by the government, the Council and the schools themselves. Officers set out that every school had a dedicated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

The Panel received a report and accompanying presentation on work that is being done to support the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people in Haringey, in the context of the post-pandemic period. The report was included in the agenda pack at page 9. The presentation slides were tabled at the meeting and are published in the tabled papers agenda pack at page 1. The report and presentation was introduced by Tim Miller, North Central London Integrated Care Board. Also present for this agenda item were Clive Blackwood, from Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health Trust; and Karel Stevens-Lee, North Central London Integrated Care Board. The following arose during the discussion of this agenda item:

a.    The Chair emphasised the impact that undiagnosed autism could have on people as they grew into adulthood and highlighted the importance of autism assessments within an early years setting. In response, health colleagues advised that there were 0-5 autism diagnostic services in place, and that there was a lot of autism support in schools and early years settings.

b.    The Chair queried whether there had been new services commissioned in the sector since Covid. In response, officers advised that all the services referred to in the presentation were new and that there had been significant growth in crisis and community mental health services. The Panel was advised that the mental health standard mandated that Integrated Care Boards had to invest more in mental health services than in other services. It was cautioned that it could take some time for the investment to feed through and to overcome the long-term structural underinvestment in these services.

c.    The Panel queried the information in the slides that 0.2% of cases in Haringey were eating disorders, suggesting that seemed very low. In response, health colleagues advised that they were cognisant that this seemed quite low and that there had been growth in service provision in this area. Health colleagues were also looking at how well they were informing families about the services and support on offer. It was also noted that the figures represent cases where an eating disorder had been diagnosed, and that there were probably a lot of young people who went undiagnosed. There were also young people with problems around eating that fell below the threshold of an eating disorder.

d.    In terms of numbers and provision for young people with eating disorders, the Panel was advised that there were a number of different providers.  There were 50 children from the specialist community outpatient facility at the Royal Free and these cases represented quite a high threshold in terms of the severity of their illness. There was also investment being put in place around early intervention services, including a specialist provision for NCL at the Tavistock.

e.    A Panel member advised that in the past the Tavistock offered a range of services for children and their families with ASD, including youth clubs, therapeutic sessions, and sibling sessions. The Panel queried whether this broad range  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

The Panel received a report which provided key performance data relating to Looked After Children. The report was introduced by Bev Hendricks, Assistant Director for Safeguarding & Social Care, as set out in the agenda pack at pages 17 to 24. The Panel was advised that at the start of August 2023, there were 373 children in care. This represented an increase of five since March. The number of unaccompanied asylum seeker children had increased to 35, still some 20 blow the national transfer scheme threshold. Family in acute stress being the reason for children coming into care had reduced to 21% down from 25%.  

The following arose during the discussion of this report:

a.    The Panel thanked officers for the report. The Chair asked whether the Panel could be supplied with more information relation to employment, education and training outcomes for CIC. Officers advised that this was reported to CPAC and that information on NEETS could be brought to the panel at a future meeting, but that it would require a qualitative response, rather than just giving figures in a report.

b.    In regards to permanency of staff, officers advised that this data was monitored closely by the service and could be included in a future CIC performance update to the Panel.

c.    Officers provided assurances to Members that they were maintaining focus on ensuring that there was a stable and permanent staffing structure in place. It was noted that there had been a stable permanent structure of Heads of Service and Team Mangers over the past four years. Officers advised that the agency rates within Children in Care fluctuated throughout the year.

d.    The Head of the YAS advised that her service was stable and that there were few agency staff. Officers flagged up that a huge amount of effort was put into staying with young people from when they went into the YAS at 16 until they left on their 25^th birthday.

e.    Officers set out that they worked with the Civil Service and currently had 7 care leavers in apprenticeships there. There was also 3 care leavers employed at Haringey Council.

f.     50 of Haringey’s care leavers were currently in university across a range of different courses. There was also a care leaver who was expected to represent the UK at a future Olympics in the marathon event

RESOLVED

Noted

The Panel agreed to undertake a scrutiny review on the housing allocation policy and children with SEND. It was agreed that the review would also set out possible areas for further scrutiny work around the broader subject area of housing and children.

RESOLVED

That the work programme was noted

To consider any items admitted at item 3 above.

N/A

4^th January 2024

20^th February 2024

4^th January 2024

20^th February 2024