Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Graham and Ngongo.

Councillor Jeapes was attending another council meeting and had submitted apologies for lateness.

None.

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.

None.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 21 January 2020 be approved as a correct record and the Chair be authorised to sign them.

The Chair advised that Item B2 would be considered as the first item for discussion.

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.

Tania Townsend, Children's Partnership Development and Strategy Manager, introduced the report that summarised the progress of the Fair Futures Commission recommendations.

The following main points were made in the discussion:

•               The Fair Futures Commission sought to reimagine Islington as a fairer, child-friendly borough, taking account of the borough’s inequalities and the changing political and financial landscape. The Commission was led by young people and informed by young people’s experiences.

•               The Commission had held a number of engagement events prior to concluding. These included borough tours led by young people, showing council officers their local area through their eyes, and a “Fair Futures Hack” event where young people proposed solutions to local issues.

•               The Commission had considered the impact of austerity on young people’s lives. It was commented that austerity had affected young people from both lower and middle incomes and some of the young people taking part in Commission events had lived the majority of their lives under austerity.

•               The Commission’s recommendations were focused around five long term ambitions: 21st century skills for growing up, 21st century skills for work and the future of work, a child-friendly place to live and grow, connected communities, and alliances for ambitious and fairer futures.

•               Work to implement the recommendations extended beyond local authority services for children and young people; all public services could learn from the recommendations.

•               The Commission’s recommendations had informed many high profile council programmes, including the ‘100 Hours Work of Work’ initiative and the ’11 by 11’ cultural enrichment programme.

•               The Commission had recommended that young people’s voices should be heard in development proposals. This was to be trialled in the Holloway Prison development and council new build schemes.  

•               Work to make Islington a child-friendly borough included the further development of play streets and developing affordable workspaces with childcare facilities. The Commission’s recommendations had led to the removal of ‘No Ball Games’ signs from estates.

•               Islington Council was developing a young entrepreneur mentoring programme.

•               In response to the Commission, a specific policy had been included in Islington’s draft Local Plan about developing a child-friendly borough. 

•               Young people had reported feeling unsafe on public transport and the council was engaging with the British Transport Police to address this.

•               The Commission had been influential across London and other boroughs, as well as the GLA, were currently developing their own commissions.

•               The Commission had been an effective vehicle for challenge and change. The Commission’s recommendations had changed mind-sets within the council and partner organisations. It would be important to continue to collaborate with young people in future.

•               The Committee queried what had been learned from the process of carrying out the Fair Futures Commission, what the challenges had been and what could have been done better. In response, it was advised that it can be challenging to engage with certain groups of young people, however, the Chairs of the Commission had been very helpful in engaging with ‘hard to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 161.

Andrea Stark, Director of Employment, Skills and Culture, and Lorraine Blyth, Post-16 Participation Manager, introduced the report that provided an update on the committee’s review of Post-16 Employment, Education and Training.

The following main points were made in the discussion:

•                  The Chair stated that the scrutiny review was carried out in 2017-18 and that she felt that the review did not sufficiently address the role of school sixth forms and colleges. It was advised that this would be reviewed further at a later date.

•                  Officers summarised recent developments in the council’s employment support services, stating that the services had progressed significantly since the time of the scrutiny review.

•                  Recent service developments included an employment and progress coach being based within the Youth Offending Service and the capacity and expertise of the iWork service being increased with the result that the service was able to offer more employment coaching and was also working to develop the coaching skills of young people to enable them to support their peers.

•                  Islington had 820 young adults claiming jobseekers’ allowance. However, data available to the Public Health service indicated that up to 2,000 young adults were NEET (not in education, employment or training).

•                  Islington Council was providing consultancy support to schools on how to develop their employment support offer.

•                  At the time of the scrutiny review there was a particular concern about the employment support available to young people in Alternative Provision and New River College. Since the review had concluded, New River College had received new funding from the Richard Reeves Foundation to develop their employment support offer and this had made a significant difference to young people who were not in mainstream education. The Chair declared a personal interest that she was a governor of the Richard Reeves Foundation.

•                  The council was funding some community groups to work with young people who were not well suited to traditional employment pathways. 

•                  A member noted that the initial scrutiny review highlighted concerns about the support available to young people dropping out of college; namely, how the support available to these young people had developed in recent years. In response, it was advised that the council’s Employment and Skills team was now providing tutors, as well as employment coaches, as it was recognised that some young people needed additional support to remain in education.

•                  In response to a question, it was advised that a number of young people engaging with the Youth Offending Service had learning disabilities. It was important that progression support for those young people was tailored to their specific needs. The service had recently engaged with an Educational Psychologist and this had helped the service to better understand the needs of the cohort. 

•                  The service had significantly increased the amount of engagement with employers in recent years. Officers were working to support employers in developing apprenticeships and other training opportunities. The importance of maintaining positive working relationships with employers was emphasised.

•                  In  ...  view the full minutes text for item 162.

The Committee considered the draft recommendations and discussed how they were informed by the evidence received at previous meetings.

In relation to Recommendation 4, it was noted that exercise and happiness was also a crucial component of pupil wellbeing.

The Committee thanked officers for their contribution to the scrutiny review.

RESOLVED:

That the draft recommendations be agreed.

The Committee requested that a further report on the performance of school sixth forms and colleges be submitted to a future meeting.