Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from any members of the Committee.

Councillor Maria Gatland gave her apologies, Councillor Margaret Bird attended in her absence.

Dave Harvey gave his apologies

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 6 January 2018

The minutes of the meeting held on 6 February 2018 were approved and signed as an accurate record.

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

There was nore

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

There was none.

To propose that the Children & Young People’s Sub-Committee take the lead role on scrutinising the delivery of the Improvement Plan.

The Executive Director of People was in attendance to present to the Sub- Committee a report which recommended that the Children and Young People Scrutiny Sub-Committee take the lead role in the scrutiny of the progress of the Children’s Improvement Plan.

The Chair and Sub-Committee Members welcomed the proposals and acknowledged that under the current arrangements there was a degree of overlap. The Sub-Committee would be better placed to receive reports and deliver in depth scrutiny of the progress made against the Children’s Improvement Plan.

The Scrutiny and Overview Committee would still receive periodically, high level progress summary.

RESOLVED: that

(i) The content of the report be noted, and

(ii) The Children and Young People Scrutiny Sub Committee would lead on the scrutiny of progress against the Children’s Improvement Plan and would hold officers and Cabinet Members to account.

Question Time with the Cabinet Member for Children Young People and Learning, Councillor Alisa Flemming.

The Cabinet Member for Children Young People and Learning provided a presentation to the Sub-Committee which included some of the highlights in education and youth engagement. It also included the achievements, priorities and challenges of the Children’s Services improvement Plan.

The Sub- Committee learned that the education standards for Croydon schools were continuously improving and attainment levels were above the national average at the end of early year’s foundation stage and KS4. Children Looked After (CLA) pupil outcomes at the end of KS1 had also improved. 50% of Croydon pupils attend an outstanding school and 86% attended a good school.

A lot of work had gone into school place planning, including extending and modernising of many schools and purpose building of new schools.

The 0-25 SEN service had been moved under the directorate of the youth and engagement department. Officers had been working with Croydon College on inclusive post 16 provision. There was also a new Free School planned to open by 2020.

Members were informed that the Children in Care Council had been relaunched as part of the improvement plan for children’s services to encourage looked after young people to help shape the services they received. Approximately 68 young people aged 11-18 took part in a successful takeover challenge exercise in November 2017 where they took over the role of the chief executive and partners such as the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and other voluntary sector organisations for the day.

The Croydon Young Mayor elections was due to take place later this month. There were 28 very strong applications received from ambitious young people who were dedicated to making the borough better for young people.

There had been ongoing improvements made to children’s services as part of the improvement plan. Investment through an increased budget to deliver the improvement plan had been agreed. Recruitment and retention of social workers and support staff remain a priority and the Strengthening Families social work practice model had been adopted. The Children’s Safeguarding Board had been strengthened under the guidance of the new Chair.

In response to a Member question on the provision for children on the Autistic Spectrum, the Cabinet Member stated that one of the key priorities was for education provision as a high number of young people were still travelling out of borough for education. The Cabinet member acknowledged the importance for pupil transition to mainstream schooling with remained a challenge as some schools were still not accepting children. There had been a lot of work completed by officers on the local offer and a single point of contact for families to obtain information on what was available in the borough. Increased provision in the borough would address issues related to demand on transport for children, many of whom attended schools out of the borough. Moving forward, local schools for local children was a key priority.

Members commented that more focus was needed on ensuring appropriate training for staff at mainstream school to enable provision to be made available for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15/18

To note the reponses from Cabinet to recommendations made by the Children and Young People Scrutiny Sub-Committee at its meeting on 19 September 2017.

The Sub-Committee noted the responses from Cabinet following the recommendations made by the Committee at the meeting on 19 September 2017.

The Sub-Committee further noted that the response to recommendation 2 and stated that the training offered was useful and would be beneficial to new councillors.

Members stated that training sessions at the beginning of appointments to the Sub-Committee should be pre requisite with ongoing training throughout the year.

The Sub-Committee NOTED the responses from Cabinet.