Agenda item

To provide an overview of the Children and Young People’s Service and current priorities and performance levels. 

The Panel received an overview of services for children and young people in Haringey from Ann Graham, the Director of Children’s Services.   This included the current structure of the service, the context within which it worked, some key facts and details on what the service currently did.  Areas of key importance for Members were highlighted.   Corporate parenting was a particularly relevant area. It was a responsibility for all Members and specific training would be offered on it. 

The Panel noted that vulnerable young people were at risk of becoming both victims and offenders.  Gill Gibson, Assistant Director for Early Help and Prevention, reported that research on the 20 most prolific offenders in Haringey had revealed that high percentages of them had experienced poor parenting, loss of a parent and domestic violence.  The average age of their first exclusion from school was 11.  Large percentages had also gone missing and become victims of crime, often violence.  Despite all the services that existed for children and young people, it had proven difficult to make inroads. 

In respect of Special Educational Needs (SEN), the Panel noted that Haringey had above average rates for prevalence.  However, exam achievement levels for children with SEN were above the London average.  The Panel also noted the range of support and interventions that were provided for children with disabilities.  Transition to adulthood was a particularly important stage and joint work was undertaken with adult services to ensure that this went smoothly.

Working in partnership was particularly important and there were a number of bodies that were especially significant, including:

·         The Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB);

·         The Health and Wellbeing Board;

·         The Community Safety Partnership;

·         The Youth Justice Partnership Board;

·         The Early Help Partnership Board; and

·         The Schools Forum.

The government’s “Working Together to Safeguard Children” was the key piece of guidance on joint safeguarding arrangements and a new version of this had recently been issued.  OFSTED was the regulator that was responsible for children’s services and had recently completed a Joint Targeted Area Inspection (JTAI) focussing on neglect in respect of Haringey, the results of which had been reported to the previous meeting of the Panel. 

Eveleen Riordan, the Assistant Director for Schools and Learning, reported that, in respect of Early Years, 74% of Haringey children achieved a good level of development in early years in 2017, which was in the London top quartile.  99% of nursery and 90% of all early years settings had been rated as good or outstanding.  100% of schools in Haringey were now rated as good or outstanding.  GCSE results had improved at a faster rate than the average for London and England.  Exclusion rates and mental health issues were higher than the rates for London and England. 

The Panel noted that there were a number of key challenges to be faced and these included:

·         Hearing and responding effectively to the views of children and young people;

·         Reducing demand for acute services;

·         Recruiting and retaining social workers and managers; and

·         Addressing the current predicted overspend of £8.1 million. 

In answer to a question, Ms Graham stated that practice evolved and what had previously been thought to be beneficial to young children could sometimes be found to not work.   There was a collective responsibility amongst partners to improve outcomes.   It had always been known that school exclusions were extremely detrimental to a young person’s outcomes and there was now a national focus on reducing them.  Detailed work was currently being undertaken in Haringey on fixed term exclusions and a key part of this involved schools.   A bid had been made to the Mayor’s Young Londoners fund for £0.5 million for the next three years for work with partners to address these issues.

She reported that there was currently a focus on mental health and well-being in schools and work was being undertaken to put back some of the funding that had previously been provided for this but cut.   Strategic work was taking place with partners to develop a strategy for young people at risk from serious violence.  There had been a loss of youth services and consideration was now being given to putting some money back in.  £100,000 has been provided during the summer and an evaluation of the work that this funded was currently be undertaken.

Ms Gibson reported that the analysis of the most prolific offenders in the borough had proven to be a useful learning tool to design better services, both internally and with partners.  Bids had been made for external funding for a number of initiatives, including ones relating to domestic abuse and children living with alcohol dependent parents.  Councillor Weston reported that she had set up a Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Steering group to look at inequality in educational outcomes and this had also looked at the analysis.  A vulnerable to underachievement toolkit had been developed as part of the work that they had done.

Ms Graham reported that society was changing and the challenges for the current cohort of children and young people were likely to be different.  Social media was having a considerable impact and its adverse effects were being felt by a wide cross section of young people. 

In answer to a question, Ms Riordan reported that socio-economic factors were being considered alongside a range of other data to address youth offending.  It was likely that there would be a strong correlation with deprivation.  In answer to another question, she reported that provisional GCSE results could be provided to the Panel as well as details of SATs results.  It was noted that validated data on GCSE results would not be available until later in the year.  A full report with analysis was normally provided to the Panel when the results had been finalised.

In answer to another question, Ms Riordan reported that education would continue to be provided by the school if a child was excluded internally.  This sanction was normally used when schools were trying to keep a child within the school.  The Council did not have access to statistics on such instances. 

Ms Graham reported that a detailed action plan had been prepared in response to the JTAI inspection report and agreed by the Council and partners.  The successful implementation of the plan was important and she was chairing regular meetings to monitor progress.  As part of the response to the plan, a neglect tool had been developed and was being rolled out to all relevant partners.  David Archibald had been appointed as the new Chair of the Haringey LSCB and was also working to ensure that partners implemented the plan.  There had been an issue with a backlog of cases that had been referred to the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) but this had now been cleared.  Performance levels needed to be sustained and a process for ensuring this took place had been developed. 

AGREED:

1.    That the Assistant Director for Schools and Learning be requested to provide a briefing note on SATs and provisional GCSE results;

2.    That a regular progress reports be made to the Panel on the implementation of the JTAI action.