Agenda and 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. 

By entering the meeting room and using the public seating area, you are consenting to being filmed and to the possible use of those images and sound recordings.

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 Councillors; Abela, Adamou, Grosskopf, Lawton and Isilar-Gosling.

Cllr White attended the meeting a substitute for Cllr Abela.  

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).

It was agreed to vary the order of the agenda. Item 9 – Haringey Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report, was taken before Items 7 and 8. The Minutes reflect the order the items were considered, rather than the order set out on the published agenda.  

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.

None

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting on 13 November were agreed as a correct record.

The Panel received the Haringey Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report 2022-23, as set out in the published agenda papers at pages 111 to 160, along with an accompanying sets of slides which were published as tabled papers. The annual report and presentation were introduced by David Archibald, Chair of HSCP. The Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families was also present for this item, along with the AD for Safeguarding and Social Care.  The following arose during the discussion of this agenda item:

a.    The Panel sought assurances around the confidence levels felt by the independent chair in terms of how Haringey was performing. In response, the independent chair set out that he was confident with respect of the improvements made in delivery of services and how well the Council and its partners worked in relation to safeguarding. It was commented that the Council and its partners needed to continually learn and to get better. There were a number of audits and other opportunities in this regard which would allow them to reflect on how well the Partnership worked and to improve further.

b.    The Panel commented that information sharing was often a key issue when different partners were working together and assurances were sort around how well information sharing was working. In response, Mr Archibald acknowledged that this was a key issue and that it was something that was often highlighted in case file reviews. The Partnership shared information well but that they were continuing to work on how to improve this.

c.    The Panel sought clarification about how the Partnership operated. In response, the Panel was advised that it was a partnership body that worked across borough and had three statutory partners – Police, Health and the Council. The Partnership was not externally based and all partners had to work together to achieve effective safeguarding. In response to a follow up, Mr Archibald advised that the Partnership undertook a huge amount of activity to improve the effectiveness of safeguarding in the borough. These included: Multi-agency training, including training on working together as different agencies; improved performance data collection and monitoring; and learning from the different reviews that the Partnership had to undertake.

d.    A co-opted member of the Panel raised concerns about the lack of accessibility in reports and highlighted the fact that a high proportion of parents in the borough did not speak English as first language. The co-opted member also questioned the extent to which schools had access to the Partnership and was engaged by them. In response, officers set out that it was the responsibility of the Partnership to ensure that the Annual Report was accessible and that the Partnership Executive Board would be working to ensure that it was more accessible in future. In relation to ensuring that schools were involved in decision making, the Partnership had recently recruited a former head teacher to sit on the Board and that they would also be seeking further opportunities to engage with other head teachers. Safeguarding  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

The Panel received the Council’s Draft Budget and 5 Year Medium Term Financial strategy (MTFS) 2024-2029 proposals, relating to the Panel’s remit. The Panel was asked to consider the proposals and to provide recommendations to Overview & Scrutiny Committee on these proposals. The report was introduced by Neil Sinclair, Head of Finance (People) as set out in the agenda pack at pages 7-92. The Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families was present for this item. The Assistant Director for Safeguarding and Social Care was also present for this item, along with the Assistant Director for Schools and Learning.

By way of introduction, the Panel was advised that the December Cabinet report set out that there was an overall budget gap of around £16.4m. This budget gap was largely due to demand pressures, particularly in Adult Social Services. Finance would be working with the Directorates between now and February to close this budget gap and to present a balanced budget to Cabinet in February. It was noted that nationally, a lot of councils were struggling to set a balanced budget and that it was a very challenging picture across the board.

It was noted that within Children’s there were a number of challenges arising from the demand pressures created from more people needing those services and from the increasing costs of those services. These included the reorganisation of SEND transport. Appendix 5 of the report set out that there were new savings around the transition of young people into adulthood. This was effectively a new investment in the Adult Social Care and was reflected as a new growth proposal in that budget area, but it sat as a saving within the Children’s budget. There were also around £3m of growth proposals in Children’s over the next three years, which reflected additional investment in recognition of the high cost of children’s social care placements and inflationary pressures within that market. The capital programme in Children’s showed £64m of new capital investment, mainly  in schools infrastructure which included the costs of dealing with RAAC and other maintenance challenges.

The Cabinet Member commented that the draft budget position in Children’s was a C. £600k overspend, which had come down from the Q1 position. The Cabinet Member commented that the fact the service had got to a position where it was presenting an almost balanced budget was very impressive and reflected a huge improvement from previous years. The Cabinet Member set out that the growth in transition services was something that had been in discussion for a long time, and was a key development. It was anticipated that having a dedicated focus on transitioning children with SEND, rather than doing so on an ad-hoc basis would be transformative for the lives of the young people involved and would also provide cost savings to the Council. The Cabinet Member set out that a lot of the pressures faced by Children’s were national pressures and were not down to the service. The increasing prevalence of private equity  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

The Panel received a report which provided an update on Haringey’s educational attainment for the school year 2022/23 at all ages from Early Years through to A-Levels. The report was introduced by Cllr Brabazon, Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families as set out in the published agenda pack at pages 93 – 110.  Jane Edwards, AD for Schools and Learning as well as James Page, Chief Executive and Haringey Education Partnership were also present for this item.

By way of introduction, the Cabinet Member advised the Panel that the report set out the good work that was done by HEP around going into schools and working with Head Teachers to improve standards. The Cabinet Member thanked James and his team, as well as Jane and her team for the incredibly positive results achieved. The Panel was advised that in almost every single area, Haringey was performing above the national average. The Cabinet Member set out that she would like to see the work on racial equity expanded into other ethnic groups so that the learning from the work could be expanded. The Panel was advised that Haringey had largely bucked the trend, following the resumption of the inspection regime after Covid, in that it had 98% of its schools achieving either good or outstanding.

James Page advised Members that this was the best set of results for our young people that Haringey had ever achieved, with every single primary measure scoring above the national average. The KS2 results had met the London average for the first time ever. Haringey was the fourth most deprived borough in London but its results did not reflect that. The Panel was advised that at KS4 & KS5, mathematical inflation due to Covid had been reversed and so 2023 results were directly comparable to 2019. KS4 & KS5 results had improved against 2019 in absolute terms. It was contended that given Covid and all the lost learning, that this should be seen as an astonishing achievement.

The following arose in discussion of this agenda item:

a.    The Chair welcomed the report and the positive narrative that it painted about progress in educational achievement. The Chair queried how HEP had managed to achieve such a positive set of results. In response, officers advised that HEP was able to glue Haringey’s schools together and form a collaborative network of schools. As a result, the schools were open to sharing and open to being challenged critically. The schools were also incredible aspirational for their pupils and they worked hard to remove barriers for challenged or challenging pupils. Officers emphasised the importance of the collaborative and collegiate work and the fact that the school leadership was also very strong, both in terms of governors and head teachers. Mr Page emphasised the fact that the support and the challenge was there and that the schools accepted being challenged. It was suggested that crucial to this was having the trust of Head Teachers, so that they were prepared to be honest about  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

RESOLVED

That the work programme was noted.

To consider any items admitted at item 3 above.

N/A

20 February 2024

20^th February 2024