Agenda and minutes

Venue: Civic Centre, High Road, Wood Green, N22 8LE

Contact: Rob Mack, Principal Scrutiny Officer 

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

FILMING AT MEETINGS

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.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair referred Members present to item 1 on the agenda in respect of filming at meetings and Members noted the information contained therein.

2.

Apologies for absence

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Dixon and Hakata.

3.

Items of Urgent Business

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).

Additional documents:

Minutes:

None.

4.

Declarations of interest

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.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

None.

5.

Deputations/Petitions/Presentations/Questions

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

Additional documents:

Minutes:

None.

6.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 158 KB

To approve the minutes of the meeting of 19 September 2019.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Panel noted that exam results data for June 2019 was still provisional at this stage.  In respect of the review on Alternative Provision, this would not now be finalised and submitted to Cabinet until February next year.

 

AGREED:

 

That the minutes of the meeting of 19 September 2019 be approved.

7.

Cabinet Member Questions - Communities

An opportunity to question the Cabinet Member for Communities, Councillor Maker Blake, on developments within the areas of his portfolio that come within the Panel’s terms of reference (i.e. youth service and combatting youth offending).

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Mark Blake outlined key developments within his portfolio:

·         Funding that the Council had received from the Mayor’s Young Londoners Fund had been used for Haringey Community Gold project and youth outreach work.  Over 1,000 young people had been involved in a range of activities so far.  Haringey Community Gold had also provided a significant part of the summer programme.  In addition, training sessions and apprenticeships had also been offered; 

·         The Young People at Risk Executive Group had met on 19 September and would be meeting bi-monthly to provide strategic oversight of the strategy.   It was chaired by the Director of Children’s Services.  A new delivery plan for the strategy would be developed in the new year;

·         He had recently chaired a workshop on reducing the number of children that come into contact with the youth justice system that had been held with colleagues from the voluntary sector.  Recommendations from the outcomes of this were currently being developed;

·         There was a commitment to build a youth space for Wood Green as part of regeneration of the area.  This would act as a hub for youth provision as well as providing a base for generic youth work. Some potential sites were being looked at and he was pressing regeneration colleagues for this to be progressed quickly;

·         He had attended a meeting of the exploitation panel, which reviewed with high risk social care cases.  He had been impressed with the work and commitment of staff.  It was highly pressurised and challenging work and it was important that those who worked on the front line were listened to so that improvements could be made.

 

In answer to a question regarding the location of potential sites for the youth space in Wood Green, he stated that it was best that this was somewhere that was considered neutral territory in respect of “post code” issues.  There was a wider culture of violence though, not all of which was linked to gangs.  A lot of violent incidents were not reported to the Police.

 

In answer to a question regarding the use of schools for youth provision, he stated that he had been invited to speak at the Headteachers Forum.  He was happy to develop a proposal jointly with the Cabinet Member for Children and Families to take this forward.  He was mindful of the fact that many schools relied on the money that external lettings brought in but progress could still be made if only a few schools agreed to assist.  The Panel noted that the latest bid to the Greater London Authority (GLA) included a commitment to work with two secondary schools and there were high hopes of a positive response.

 

He shared the concern of Panel Members regarding the safety of pupils returning home from school. The new Borough Commander had introduced changes to rosters though and these would provide a greater Police presence between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., which was when many problems occurred.   The Police would need to be involved in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Transformation Update pdf icon PDF 225 KB

To consider developments within the Haringey CAMHS Transformation Programme, particularly Haringey’s national Trailblazer status.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Charlotte Pomery, Assistant Director for Commissioning, reported that the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) transformation programme had been developed following a review that had been undertaken in 2015.  There were a number of risk factors, which included neglect and adverse childhood experiences.  Access to services was being improved but there were disproportionate numbers of referrals between the east and west of the borough and from Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities.  The review had identified a lack of early intervention and key partners had been working together to address the issue.

 

She reported that £1 million in additional funding had been obtained through the successful Trailblazer bid.  This would be used to develop early intervention services in non-stigmatising settings and, in particular, schools in order to improve access.  Work was also being undertaken to reduce waiting times for services, with a 4 week target.  In addition, a successful application had also been made for inclusion in the Schools Link programme.   Work was also being done to develop a different strategic structure for CAMHS.  This involved moving from the current tiered structure to the “I Thrive” model of service.  Further developmental work was needed on services for children and young people with autism and a learning disability and also to address waiting times.

 

Panel Members welcomed the developments and commented that it was important that they were communicated to school governors.  In answer to question, Ms Pomery stated that the Trailblazer programme had emerged out of a government Green Paper.  It was envisaged that the pilot project would eventually lead to a wider roll out programme.  The learning from the pilot in schools in the east of the borough would be used to develop services elsewhere.  In respect of the transition process to adult services, work was being undertaken to improve the process.   The issue had also been referred to in the NHS long term plan. The Panel noted that a special joint meeting of the Panel with the Adults and Health Panel on transition had taken place in March and a further one was planned.

 

In answer to a question regarding the low percentage of young people who sought help from services, Ms Pomery felt that this was due to a range of issues.  These included lack of awareness of mental health issues, lack of knowledge of access routes into services and the stigma associated with mental health in some communities.  The long waiting times for services that there had been until recently had also acted as a deterrent.

 

Concerns were raised that the involvement of Bruce Grove Youth Centre in the More than Mentors programme to improve transition from primary to secondary school could act as a deterrent for children from other post code areas.  Ms Pomery agreed to look into this issue and report back. 

 

She reported that it was known from the Alternative Provision review and anecdotally that mental health was a significant issue in schools and gaps in support had been identified.  Impact and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.

Tackling Childhood Obesity pdf icon PDF 697 KB

To consider an update on action being taken to reduce childhood obesity within the borough.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Linda Edward and Marlene D’Aguilar from the Council’s Public Health Service reported on current action to address childhood obesity.  It was a complex issue and there were clear links to deprivation.  Data from over a 10 year period showed that the percentage of children who were obese had plateaued.   However, there were clear inequalities and children in the east of the borough were three times more likely to be obese than those from elsewhere. 

 

The approach that was being adopted was based on prevention with a range of services and activities were being provided.  It was recognised that no single service could deal with the issue on their own and a whole systems approach was being followed with the aim of ensuring that health was in all policies.  There were a range of initiatives taking place:

·         Haringey had been the first local authority to ban the advertising of products with high fat, sugar or salt as part of its corporate advertising policy;

·         Cycle training was now offered to children from the age of nine and up to and including adults;

·         There was a commitment to introducing School Streets across the borough.  This had been introduced at Lordship Lane School and was to be extended to other schools in due course.  It involved the reduction of access for cars during school drop off and pick up times, with the aim of encouraging walking and cycling;

·         Health Impact Assessments were being considered as part of larger planning and regeneration developments within the borough;

·         Schools and residents could apply for their road to become a Play Street, which closed streets off for a period of time.  In addition, the had been a Weekend of Play, which involved 80 small community events in parks; 

·         A community hackathon took place in August and the views of young people about physical activities were sought as part of this.   They emphasised the importance of activities that involved the whole family.  They also reported that youth violence deterred many young people from participating in activities;

·         During the school summer holidays, a wide range of activities had been offered for children and young people, including ones specifically aimed at girls;

·         131 local businesses had signed up to the healthy catering commitment to reduce fat, salt and sugar in hot food takeaways.  In addition, the new London Plan had allowed a 400 metre barrier to be placed around schools. No further hot food takeaways would be given planning permission within this.  In addition, it would now be compulsory for all existing hot food takeaways within these areas to sign up to the healthy catering commitment; 

·         The clinical obesity pathway had been significantly revised.  In addition, the role of the school health service had also been revised in order to give a stronger role for school nurses;

·         An infant feeding strategy was being developed;

·         There were now a number of water and milk only schools within the borough.  Some schools had also introduced 15 minutes of physical activity every day as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

10.

Educational Attainment and Performance pdf icon PDF 125 KB

To report on the latest data concerning educational attainment and performance as well as action to address school improvement and under performance.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

James Page, Chief Executive of Haringey Education Partnership, reported on recent education attainment and performance statistics, as outlined in the report.  He highlighted the following:

·         In Early Years, there had been a considerable improvement in those pupils reaching the good level of development (GLD) standard from 50% in 2013 to 75% in 2019 and current performance was above the London  and national average;

·         In Key Stage (KS) 1, outcomes for the expected and greater depth standards were both above national averages in all subjects;

·         For KS2 attainment, all subjects were in line with or above national averages at expected standard level. 66% of Haringey pupils achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and maths combined, which was above national but below the London average.  Performance for reading within this had suffered a dip of 3.5% though.  At greater depth standard, reading, writing and maths combined and writing separately were all above the London average;

·         GCSE performance (KS4) had been strong.  It was above the national average but below that for London.  In respect of Progress 8 scores, these were higher than both the national and London averages;

·         ‘A’ Level performance was also strong and the borough’s results were 50th nationally.   The number of young people taking vocational courses within the borough at post 16 level was very small though; and

·         There was evidence that Turkish and Black Caribbean young people were not performing to the same levels as other groups.

 

Panel Members felt that the overall figures for the borough masked the impact of poverty by smoothing out considerable variations in performance between schools.  Data on performance levels in different schools would be better able to highlight this.  Children being tested in phonics were likely to find the tests very challenging if English was not their first language, especially if their mother tongue was not phonetically based.

 

Mr Page stated that there was a considerable amount of data available, including details of performance by individual schools as well as different groups within the borough.  Variance between schools was tracked.  Disadvantage was a major factor influencing performance and schools who were able to buck the trend were of particular interest.   However, some lack and minority ethnic (BAME) groups were performing less well than the disadvantaged group as a whole and there were a range of other factors that also influenced performance.  Work was being undertaken to address BAME achievement and, in particular, black Caribbean children and young people.  Having English as an additional language could be factor for some younger children but the underperformance of some groups was present at all stages.  The levels of underperformance were also greater for these groups with English as an additional language than in comparable local authorities.  He reported that there was currently a programme to train an expert cadre of EAL trainers.

 

Panel Members expressed disappointment that there was a lack of detail in the report on programmes to address the performance issues that the test and exam results had revealed.  They requested that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

11.

Work Programme Update pdf icon PDF 90 KB

To consider the current workplan for the Panel.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Panel Members felt that falling school rolls was a significant issue and could benefit from an in-depth review.  It was noted that reduced rolls were already having a serious impact on some primary schools.  The range of different types of schools within the borough and their respective status impacted on Council’s ability to plan for school places.  A review that addressed the range of different types of school within the borough could consider what would be the most effective response to the changes that had taken place. It was felt that falling school rolls should be included as part of a wider review on school structures.

 

AGREED:

 

That the Panel undertake an in-depth review on the range of school structures within the borough and its impact and that this include specific consideration of falling school rolls.