An opportunity to question the Cabinet Member for Children and Families, Councillor Elin Weston, on developments within her portfolio.
Minutes:
Councillor Elin Weston, the Cabinet Member of Children and Families, reported on key developments within her portfolio. A review of support for care leavers was in the process of being completed. Work to establish a schools improvement trust was a priority and significant support with this was being provided by school head teachers in the borough. Work was also being undertaken with schools to address the impact of funding formula changes for them. Efforts were continuing to ensure that children’s social care services were in good shape and were ready for any inspection by Ofsted.
In respect on cladding on tower blocks, the only issue that had been raised to date in relation to schools buildings was in respect of Brook House Primary School. Samples of cladding from the school building had been sent for testing and any issues arising would be dealt with in light of advice from the Fire Brigade. Assistance had been provided by the Council to relief effort for Grenfell Tower residents and this had included the provision of two childrens social workers. An offer had also been made to provide two social workers for Camden Council to assist in the decanting of families from blocks to which remedial works were required.
She responded to questions from the Panel as follows;
· All schools were required to publish admissions criteria and applications were determined according to these. The majority of places were allocated on distance. Those that were not offered places at their preferred schools would be offered a place at the closest Haringey school which had a place available, and would be placed on a waiting list for their preferred schools. There was a right of appeal for those whose applications had been unsuccessful.
Panel Members raised concerned about the operation of appeals. The Cabinet Member agreed to raise the issue with the Assistant Director for Schools and Learning. She commented that appeals processes were strictly governed by a code that they were required to follow and had little discretion. The Director of Children’s Services commented that parents often thought that they had choice regarding schools rather than the right to express a preference. He felt that it was important that schools explained the admissions process clearly to parents. The advice that parents currently received was variable in quality.
· Voluntary aided schools had their own admission criteria and these were usually very similar to those of other schools. Faith schools normally also included priority for children based on their faith. There was a 50% cap on the number of children who faith schools could select on the grounds of faith.
· Job descriptions for Haringey nursery and children centre workers had last been updated in 2015/16.
· Very good results had been achieved by each of the recent OFSTED inspections of schools in Tottenham that had taken place. All had received good or outstanding ratings, with the result that 97% of Haringey schools now fell into these categories. It was noted that it was not only academies that had made rapid improvements. The Cabinet Member stated that it was hard to generalise as to what schools did to bring about improvements but excellent teaching and leadership and high expectations were key factors. The Cabinet Member commented that there were very few local authorities with such a high percentage of schools that were as highly rated as those within Haringey.
· 860 free places would be provided for 2 year olds from September. In terms of the 3 and 4 year old offer, it was anticipated that 3,299 15 hour places would be provided and 1,131 30 hour places. Likely levels of take up were not yet clear.
· An evaluation of the effectiveness of the Early Help service was underway and would be completed by the autumn. This would include data analysis and trends would also be examined. In addition, focus groups were being used to consider qualitative issues.