Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Alice Clarke-Perry and Santiago Bell-Bradford.

There were no declarations of substitute members.

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.

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This applies to all members present at the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.  

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 17 September 2019 be confirmed as an accurate record of proceedings and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

The Sub-Committee noted that the analysis of data for four year trend data for targeted cohorts would be completed shortly.

The Chair raised concerns that during an event held during Black History Month, a Headteacher had stated that, during an assembly given at their school, none of the children and few of the staff had heard about Windrush.

None.

For members of the public to ask questions relating to any subject on the meeting agenda under Procedure Rule 70.5. Alternatively, the Chair may opt to accept questions from the public during the discussion on each agenda item.

None.

a)    Presentations on approaches and projects being used across schools

b)    Islington Trauma Informed Practices in Schools - handout for governors

1) The Committee received a presentation about projects and approaches being used in schools from Anthony Doudle - Head of School Improvement – Primary, Emma Simpson – Secondary English Consultant, Penny Kenway – Head of Early Years and Childcare, Tracy Smith – EY Lead for Teaching and Learning, Helen Cameron – Health and Well-Being Manager and Hamish Mackay – Head of iWork.

The following points were noted in the discussion:-

a)        Exploring Islington Solutions to a national challenge.

·           Schools were engaging positively with this agenda.

·           When pupils attended school regularly they would learn and remember more.

·           It was important to develop a pupil ‘growth mindset’.  Pupils might not be able to do things ‘yet’ but the more they practised or the harder they worked, the better they would get.

b)        Equalities Reference Group

·           A charter was being drawn up from the good practice in schools which had best engaged with parents and pupils from target groups. 

·           The Charter would be made available to the Committee once published.

·           Best practice included:- staff standing at school gates to build relationships with parents, welcoming parents into school, workshops for parents, mentoring with children and celebrating all pupil achievement.

c)        Bright Start Islington: The Early Years

·           Experiences before two years of age made a big difference to future healthy development.

·           The concern that only 61% of children who had access to early education took up the offer.

·           A timetable of early childhood services during the school term was circulated. It was noted that community centres could be used to encourage families to use free services.

·           Those families that were less likely to use these services needed greater support and there needed to be greater data analysis on which families were not accessing these services and why.

·           It was noted that children who were identified as having severe and complex social and emotional and/or special educational needs were often identified through social workers, health visitors.  These children would not need a diagnosis to access free services.

·           All families were contacted a number of times about access to early learning and it was known that low income groups could really benefit.

·           It was accepted that there was need to persuade more about the benefits of early learning, particularly for those disadvantaged.

·           There was a need to support BAME and refugee women who may feel uncomfortable accessing services due to language barriers.

·           It was considered that parents could be approached with details of the importance of early learning during their children’s health check.  The Committee noted that Children’s Services were putting together a strategic action plan and would be looking at how best to encourage families in need to use early help services.

·           The Committee noted that there could be cultural pressure in some families for the mother to look after children in the early years and it may be necessary to work with these groups.

·           There was an 84% take up of early learning for those aged 3 and 4.  This meant that some children  ...  view the full minutes text for item 129.

Councillor Kaya Comer-Schwartz, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Families presented an update for the Committee.

The following was noted in discussion:

·         It was noted that the Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education curriculum would be mandatory by September 2020 and work was being carried out on delivering this.

·         It was noted that officers were currently drafting the Executive response to the Scrutiny review of Permanent and Fixed Period Exclusions from School.

·         It was hoped that resources would be pooled to deliver mental health support.  The Executive member stated that issues were clearly evidenced and the outcomes would be closely monitored.

·         The extension of the contracts for Lift, Platform and Rosebowl were required so that there would be no break in provision and to enable the service to look at having a longer term sustainable plan.

Andrea Stark presented the quarter 1 performance report on progress against the relevant Corporate Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the relevant services within the People Directorate.

The following was noted in the discussion:

·         3.20 – It was expected that this indicator would move to green over the course of the year where the Motivational Practice model had made a significant impact.  A further detailed update would be provided for the next meeting.

·         3.22 and 3.23 – These indicators would be closely monitored. Officers were currently working to deal with the limited supply of foster care and residential providers and a further, more detailed update would be provided for quarter 2.

·         3.6 & 3.9.  A query was raised regarding the reasons for the discrepancy in direction of travel between these two indicators given the figures supplied. The Committee were advised that a response would be supplied.

·         3.5 – 3.9. There were some signs of improvement but all these indicators needed further work.

·         It was noted that in some cases academies were excluding more pupils than other schools.  Officers were holding meetings with these schools and were confident that the academies could be encouraged to use other strategies.  It was also noted that, where there had been exclusions in two schools, their results had nonetheless not increased.

RESOLVED

a) that the report be noted;

b) a response be given regarding the discrepancy in relation to CS PI Nos 3.5 and 3.9.

RESOLVED that the Work Programme be noted.