Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Becky Haggar and Cllr Peter Money (Cllr Manjit Khatra was present as his substitute).

There were no Declarations of Interest made.

It was confirmed that all items were Part I and would be discussed in public.

Resolved: That:

1.    The minutes of the meeting held on 25 November 2015 be agreed as a correct record.

Officers provided a presentation on the draft revenue budget and Capital Programme of the Children, Young People and Learning Services for 2016/17. During the presentation it was noted that:

·         The draft budget proposals had been initially considered by Cabinet on 17 December 2015. Cabinet would next consider the proposals on 18 February 2016. The proposals would then go to Council for approval on 25 February 2016. This report would include comments made by the Policy Overview Committee. It was requested that the Committee agree a formal comment following the officer's presentation.

·         The December Cabinet meeting had considered the budget prior to the Council having received notification of its Local Government Finance Settlement. The impact of the finance settlement was still being worked through as there were still a number of other funding streams where the Council had not yet received an update and the indication was that this was likely to take place in February 2016.

·         The budget proposals had been compiled with the impact of the Government's deficit reduction programme in mind. This had seen a reduction of 56% (£67m) in Government funding to the Council since 2010/11, with indications being that the level of funding would continue to fall. The savings identified had taken into account the proposal to freeze Council Tax for an eighth successive year and funding the freeze for older persons into a 12^th successive year. Balances and reserves had been maintained at well above the minimum recommended level.

·         During 2015, the Council had agreed to provide significant additional resources for Children and Young People Services. This had included the continued use of agency staff at all levels. A structural review was undertaken to ensure that there was enough capacity to manage caseloads and that there were clear lines of management control and accountability. This resulted in a flatter management structure having being proposed.

·         The structure for Children's Services had now been agreed and recruitment activity was being undertaken. Senior management posts had been filled first. Two service manager posts had been filled, leaving one that remained vacant. There were now only six vacancies remaining of 23 Team Manager posts across Children's Services.

·         The recruitment of Social Workers had started in October 2015, with further recruitment activity due to be undertaken early in 2016. The recruitment activity was looking across the country and beyond in order to fill the posts.

·         The total cost to the Council of Looked After Children (LAC) was increasing. This was due to some children having increasingly complex needs rather than it being due to the number of LAC increasing. The number of LAC was in line with expectations for a population the size of Hillingdon's.

·         Around one third of Hillingdon LAC were unaccompanied asylum seekers, which suggested that the number of non-asylum seeker LAC was relatively low compared to other council areas. Asylum seeker LAC tended to be older teenagers in the 16-18 age bracket. The cost of looking after these children ranged from £3,400 to £6,000 per  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.

Officers introduced the report to provide Members with an overview of the standard and quality of education within Hillingdon schools. The report focused on attainment and achievement for the academic year 2014/15. The information was being presented to the Committee for comment prior to it being considered by Cabinet on 18 February 2016. It was noted that The Hillingdon School Improvement Plan 2015-18, which had been approved by Cabinet in 2015, was also included in the information presented to the Committee.

Within Hillingdon, the overall attainment of early years and primary age pupils had risen in 2014/15. Most key measures of educational progress and attainment showed significant improvement compared to 2014 data. Results remained in line with or above national averages.

Overall performance of Hillingdon pupils at Foundation Stage for the seven key subject areas showed significant improvement. Levels of development were good, with significant gains compared to 2013/14. For Writing, outcomes were 2.2% above the national average, while Media and Materials was 2.6% above average. However, performance for Speaking was 1.9% below the national average, while for Managing Feelings and Behaviour, it was 2.6% below average. The percentage of pupils demonstrating an overall good level of development increased from 52% in 2013/14 to 65.2% in 2014/15, although this was still below the national average of 66.5%.

Also at the Foundation Stage, boys outperformed girls against most measures. For literacy, boys were 3.9% above the national average and 6% above the London average. For maths, the attainment of boys was 1.6% above the national average. The achievement of girls was slightly below the national average, by 1.2% for literacy and 1.9% for maths. Overall for the areas of Communication and Language; Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Physical Development, the attainment of pupils receiving Pupil Premium funding was 7% below that of pupils not receiving the funding. Performance of pupils receiving the premium was 15% below other pupils for Maths and 17% below for Literacy.

Priorities for the Foundation Stage included continuing to support teachers to make secure and consistent judgements and focusing moderation on the areas of Personal, Social and Emotional Development; Communication and Language and Understanding the World. Work would be undertaken to ensure that girls made appropriate progress and strategies would be developed to help teachers to better support children whose first language is not English. Pupils receiving Early Years Pupil Premium would also be supported to help them make progress in line with their peers who are not in receipt of the funding. Finally, leadership and management skills of teachers of the Early Years and Foundation Stage would be supported in order to facilitate more effective monitoring and self evaluation.

In response to a Member question, officers advised that the 'Understanding the World' topic area covered the more traditional subject areas of geography, history and Information Technology.

A Member welcomed the progress made at the Foundation Stage, while noting that performance remained below the London average in all but one subject area. It was questioned why  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.

Officers introduced the scoping report for the proposed single meeting review by the Committee on 'Supporting Educational Aspiration for Disadvantaged Children.' The key aim of the review was to investigate the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and to identify what steps could be taken to improve this. Attainment of disadvantaged pupils was below that of their non-disadvantaged peers at all educational stages, up to and including Key Stage 4. Locally, the gap was closing at Key Stage 1 and 2, while there was a significant gap at Key Stage 3. There was a particular problem with regard to the attainment of white British boys who were from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The Committee's attention was drawn to the proposed Terms of Reference and also to the proposed list of witnesses for the review, both of which were contained within the officer's report. The Committee considered that the proposed list of six witnesses was too ambitious for a single meeting review. Accordingly, it was agreed that the number of witnesses would be reduced to four and that school governors would be removed from the list of potential witnesses.

Committee Members welcomed the proposed topic, noting that the review needed to consider existing examples of good practice and data to enable it to geographically identify where the most disadvantaged pupils were within the Borough. It was also requested that the review consider the impact of ethnicity, cultural diversity and gender on the performance of disadvantaged pupils.

Resolved: That:

1.    Subject to revision to the list of proposed witnesses, the Committee agreed the scoping report presented and instructed officers to make arrangements for a witness session to be held at the February 2016 meeting of the Committee.

The Chairman introduced the draft final report of the Committee's review on 'The Effectiveness of Early Help to Promote Positive Outcomes for Families.' The Committee was satisfied with the recommendations proposed by what was considered to be a well written report that covered all the key concerns identified during the witness sessions.

The Chairman thanked Members and officers for the contribution they had made to the final report.

It was noted that the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, which had informed the review, would not include standalone recommendations. However, the data contained within it would enable individual services to make informed judgements about how service provision could be targeted. Reference was made to recommendation 2a of the major review, which recommended that the use and sharing of data and intelligence required for effective service delivery be developed.

Resolved: That:

1.    The Committee agreed the draft report as presented by the Chairman.

2.    That the Chairman would present the draft report to Cabinet on 18 February 2016.

Resolved: That:

1.    The Work Programme be noted.

Resolved: That:

1.    The Forward Plan be noted.