Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

Councillor John Riley declared a non-pecuniary interest as he was a Governor of Field End Infant School. He remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

Councillor Judith Cooper declared a non-pecuniary interest as she was a Governor of Charville, St Andrews and the Hillingdon Virtual School. She was also on the Children’s Board at Charville and her husband was a Governor at St Mary’s School. She remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

Councillor Dominic Gilham declared a non-pecuniary interest as he was a Governor at Pinkwell Primary School and Hillingdon Primary School.

Councillor David Benson declared a non-pecuniary interest as he was a Governor of Uxbridge High School and lectured at further and higher education colleges. He remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

Tony Little declared a general non-pecuniary interest as he was a Governor at Pinkwell Primary School and Harlington Community School. He remained in the room during the meeting and took part in the discussions.

The minutes of the meeting dated 26 June 2013 were agreed as a correct record.

It was noted that an informal session with Looked After Children (LAC) and care leavers had taken place earlier in the day. This had been attended by Councillors Cooper and Dhillon and Mr Tony Little. The following summary points from the session were provided:

• The children and young people had seemed to be so affected by the instability of their pasts that they were extremely anxious about any changes in their lives. This included the sometimes regular changes to foster carers and social workers and, on leaving care, changes to the Borough in which they lived.
• It was apparent that the issue of consistency for these children and young people was extremely important. This was highlighted by the suggestions for improvement that were made that focused on creating stability.
• A number of the children and young people had raised concerns that communication with their social workers was often poor. This led to uncertainty about what was going to happen to them in the future.
• A number of the children and young people had noted that there was a lot of bureaucracy when it came to obtaining paperwork and forms. This was especially problematic when social workers were on leave and non-urgent decisions could not be made without them.

It was acknowledged that the points raised in the above summary were mainly negative but that the children and young people had also praised the Council for the improvements to the service.

Witnesses

To assist Members with the review Tom Murphy, Head of Early Intervention Services; Josephine Mee, Participation Worker; Sarah Rayner, Children’s Rights Co-ordinator; and Howard Griffin, Sports Development Manager were present to provide evidence.

A summary of the evidence provided to the Committee is set out below:

Early Intervention

The Committee heard that the Council engaged with LAC placed outside of the Borough through:

• Tracking education, employment and training outcomes;
• Working to support and advocate better services provided to Hillingdon’s LAC in partner local authorities;
• Using the personal adviser network to provide support to all LAC in and out of Borough; and
• Developing a key worker model to encourage a more holistic approach to the support of all of Hillingdon’s LAC.

It was noted that the engagement of out-of-Borough LAC was a challenge to the service that required further work.

Officers and witnesses advised that one of the primary objectives of the Council’s support to LAC was to place them in foster care as this most replicated ‘normal’ life. Consequently, the Council tried to empower foster carers to act as parents and to encourage LAC to take part in regular sporting, social and other events based on their interests. However, it was noted that, the more complex the child’s needs, the more problematic it was to get them to engage in such activities. Nonetheless, the Council undertook work across its departments to engage these children and provide them with consistency in their lives.

Although there had been a request within one of the LAC’s written submissions that a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

Officers introduced the report and informed Members that the report set out the main financial issues facing Children & Young People’s Services and the work being undertaken to address these issues. Points raised included:

• Local Government funding being cut in the recent Comprehensive Spending Review.
• The estimated savings for the Council in 2014/15 were £17m.
• The Council held £30m of balances which was seen to be a healthy position.
• The Children and Families Bill 2013 was expected to present challenges to the Council’s budgets although details were not yet fully known.
• There had been significant changes to the Ofsted regime which was expected to have an impact across Education and Children’s Services, including the Borough’s schools.

It was agreed that the “Single Inspection Framework for Children in Need of Help and Protection, Children Looked After and Care Leavers” referred to in the report would be circulated to all Committee Members outside of the meeting.

The Deputy Director, Children and Families advised that an outline agreement had been reached with the UK Border Agency (UKBA) for a Gateway 2 agreement with the four gateway authorities of Hillingdon, Solihull, Croydon and Kent. She noted that discussions were ongoing but that on the following day she was attending a meeting with the UKBA and that the minutes from this meeting would be circulated for information.

It was agreed that the Group Finance Manager would attend the meeting on 09 October 2013 to provide further information to Members.

RESOLVED: That:

1. Steven Maiden to circulate the “Single Inspection Framework for Children in Need of Help and Protection, Children Looked After and Care Leavers” to Committee Members.
2. Merlin Joseph to provide minutes from her meeting with the UKBA regarding Gateway 2. Steven Maiden to circulate to Committee Members.
3. Steven Maiden to invite Peter Malewicz to the meeting to be held on 09 October 2013.

Officers provided an update on the late applications for places in the Borough’s schools in which it was noted that all 189 late applications to secondary schools had received a place. There was a comfortable surplus for secondary school places across the Borough. It was noted that there had been 411 applications to the Borough’s primary schools of which only 22 had not received a school place. This was due to unexpected delays with the approval of two Free Schools set to open in the Borough. However, since the agenda for this meeting had been circulated one of the free schools had been approved.

Members asked what was meant by children being offered a “reasonable” offer. Officers advised that for primary schools this meant that the school was within 2 miles of the child’s home and for secondary schools it meant that the school was within 3 miles walking distance or 1 hour on public transport.

A Member asked whether there would be significant surplus of reception class places. Officers advised that there was a small surplus but that this was spread throughout the Borough.

RESOLVED: That the Committee noted the Second Round Schools Admissions Update.

RESOLVED: That the Committee noted the Forward Plan.

RESOLVED: That:

1.      Steven Maiden add “Consideration of the Budget Planning Report” on to the Work Programme for 09 October 2013.

2.      The Committee noted the dates of the meetings and the Committee’s future meetings.