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Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Jonathan Moore  0207 527 3308

Items
No. Item

143.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Rakhia Ismail, Michelline Safi Ngongo and Nick Ward.

 

144.

Declarations of Interest

If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

 

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

 

*(a) Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

(b)  Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c) Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d) Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e) Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

(f)   Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

 (g) Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

Minutes:

None.

145.

Declaration of Substitute Members

Minutes:

Councillor Satnam Gill for Councillor Rakhia Ismail.

146.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 145 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED:
That the minutes of the meeting held on 17 May 2016 be confirmed as a correct record and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

147.

Chair's Report

Minutes:

The Committee noted that Councillor Diarmaid Ward had been appointed as the Executive Member for Housing and Development and as a result his membership of the Committee had ended. It was intended for the Council to appoint another member to the Committee at its meeting on 30 June.

 

148.

Items for Call In (if any)

Minutes:

None.

149.

Public Questions

Minutes:

None.

150.

Executive Member Annual Presentation pdf icon PDF 59 KB

Minutes:

Councillor Joe Caluori, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Families, made a presentation to the Committee summarising the highlights and challenges of the past year and his priorities for 2016/17.

 

The following main points were noted in the discussion:

 

·         Councillor Caluori reported that the launch of Project Pause had been a success. The project provided holistic support and long-term reversible contraception to women who had repeatedly had children taken into care. The project was seeking to work with 50 women who had 200 children taken into care. The cost of keeping a child in care was £48,000 a year and the project had already proved to be cost effective by decreasing the number of pregnancies likely to result in care referrals.

·         Analysis of the Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme was ongoing. This programme was developing the use of motivational interviewing techniques and it was hoped that such innovation work would lead to better outcomes and help to attract high quality staff to the service.

·         Islington children had received positive SATS results, with 79% of disadvantaged pupils achieving the benchmark grade. It was noted that Islington was in the top 10% of local authorities for value added scores. The council was working to develop new school places by expanding good and outstanding schools as required.

·         Councillor Caluori commented that there had been multiple changes to the Children’s Services management team over the past year and was pleased to report that overall performance had remained stable during this period of change.

·         It was reported that the unsatisfactory inspection of the Youth Offending Service had been a significant challenge and the council had needed to revaluate its work. The Executive Member was concerned by the re-emergence of serious youth violence and geographically specific gang activity.

·         There had been a variation in GCSE performance between schools and it was considered that differences between school intakes were not significant enough to warrant such a variation. It was hoped that improvements would be made in 2016/17.

·         There was a continued lack of Islington children progressing to higher education and the council was implementing mentoring projects and developing links with higher education institutions in order to resolve this.

·         The changing focus of the emerging Education Bill had been a challenge however the Executive Member welcomed that the government had abandoned its policy of forced academisation. There was a need for the council and local schools to develop their own vision of education in Islington. It was reported that the Islington Community of Schools was working well, however there were concerns that the government’s ‘Fairer Funding’ proposals would have a negative impact on the finances of Islington schools.

·         The number of children outside of mainstream education remained a challenge and the Executive Member welcomed the Committee’s review of the Alternative Provision service.

·         Tackling youth violence was a key priority for 2016/17 and it was hoped that the development of the integrated gangs team and changes to the leadership of the Youth Offending Service would have a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 150.

151.

Alternative Provision: Final Report pdf icon PDF 415 KB

Minutes:

The Committee considered the final report of the Alternative Provision scrutiny review. The Committee thanked officers for their work in supporting the review.

 

RESOLVED:
That the report be agreed.

 

152.

Outcomes Post-16: Scrutiny Initiation Document pdf icon PDF 123 KB

Minutes:

The Committee noted the proposal to further specify the review title to ‘Post-16 Education, Employment and Training’.

 

The Committee emphasised the importance of a focused review and the need to use time at meetings efficiently. It was requested that a reading list and relevant data be circulated to members for the August break.

 

It was requested that witnesses be selected to provide a range of views and asked to submit written evidence in advance of meetings. It was also commented that the Committee could accept written evidence in lieu of a presentation as appropriate.

 

RESOLVED:
That the scrutiny initiation document be agreed.

153.

Work Programme 2016/17 pdf icon PDF 217 KB

Minutes:

The Committee considered the draft work programme and selected three items for one-off review.

 

RESOLVED:
That the work programme be agreed subject to the inclusion of the following items for one-off review:

      i.        Update on trends and demand for places at Islington schools

     ii.        The Children’s Services response to Prevent

    iii.        The educational attainment of BME and White British pupils