Agenda item

For Cabinet to note:

The Scrutiny Review of Youth Transition  and agree the  proposed Cabinet responses to the recommendations of the review set out at appendix 2.

The Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel, chaired by Councillor Hearn, has been undertaking a piece of in-depth work regarding the challenges facing young people growing up and reaching adulthood in Haringey.  It began this work in 2014-15 and reported its preliminary findings to the Panel meeting on 9 July 2015.  The Panel commissioned further work with the aim of enabling it to make final conclusions and recommendations. The scrutiny report will outline the outcome of this further work and the findings, conclusions and recommendations that the Panel has made and Cabinet will provide a response to these recommendations.

The Deputy Leader invited Councillor Hearn, Chair of the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel to introduce the Scrutiny Review on Youth Transition.

Councillor Hearn started by speaking briefly about young people that have successes in their lives and the difference made by having a support network of: parents, family members, teacher, and mentors. The review had focused on examining the key areas of support that can help young people in Haringey make a success of their lives. It was important to consider that going to university was not the only option to achieving success in life and there was a need to promote the many ways for young people  to achieve goals in life , for example through apprenticeships.

The Panel had understood the importance of schools helping prevent exclusions and stopping young people from becoming NEET [Not in School, Education, Employment and Training]. The Panel noted that often schools had a good internal knowledge of the young people most at risk of leaving school without skills and educational aspirations. Schools were doing some good individual work with these pupils and achieving successes in this area, in turn, making a difference to the young person’s future prospects

During the review, the Panel recognised that, sadly, equality and diversity issues still had an effect on outcomes for young people and these were caused by wider external issues out of the control of the Council and schools.

Cllr Hearn was further interested in finding out why three of the recommendations were partially agreed instead of fully agreed.

The Deputy Leader thanked Councillor Hearn for her presentation and in Councillor Goldberg’s absence, responded to the review recommendations.

The Deputy Leader agreed that the review provided a powerful set of evidence and a steer for how Haringey Council and its partners can enhance and develop the range of services they provide, or facilitate, for young people.  The life chances of young people would be greatly affected by the choices they make while at school and the influences around them. The recommendations of this scrutiny review helped to set out a way of supporting young people to make effective choices and so improve their lives. The Deputy Leader continued to highlight some key positive changes already being achieved to support these choices:

-          Every Post 16 school and college has a  good or outstanding rating with results now the highest they have ever been.

-          Residents taught in Haringey make more progress than those taught out of borough

-          A level exam results are significantly above the national average.

-          The STEM commission will also  publish its findings soon and the Council anticipate this will help Haringey to improve further by proving clear recommendations for targeting those areas vital for the area and country’s growth and for young people’s opportunities.

The Deputy Leader thanked the Scrutiny Panel and all those who participated in the review for their hard work. 

RESOLVED

That the Scrutiny Review be noted and the responses to the review recommendations as outlined in Appendix 2 of the report be agreed.

Reasons for Decision

The evidence supporting the Panel’s recommendations was outlined in the main body of the report [Appendix 1]

Alternative Options Considered

The evidence supporting the Panel’s recommendations was outlined in the main body of the report [Appendix 1]. The Cabinet could have chosen to not accept the recommended response by officers to them, as outlined at Appendix 2. The potential implications of alternative courses of action were referred to within this as appropriate.