Agenda and minutes

To agree the Council’s procedure rules for hybrid meetings.

RESOLVED –

THAT the guidance on remote meetings be agreed.

Apologies were received from Councillors Nasim Ali and Stephen Stark and Co-opted Members Margaret Harvey, Imogen Sharpe and Reverend Guy Pope.

There were none.

The Chair made the following announcement: “In addition to the rights by law that the public and press have to record this meeting, I would like to remind everyone that this meeting is being broadcast live by the Council to the Internet and can be viewed on our website for twelve months after the meeting. After that time, webcasts are archived and can be made available upon request.

If you have asked to address the meeting, you are deemed to be consenting to having your contributions recorded and broadcast, including video when switched on, and to the use of those sound recordings and images for webcasting and/or training purposes.”

Ahead of moving to the main agenda items, the Chair informed the Committee that two Cabinet Members were stepping down: Councillor Mason (Cabinet Member for Best Start for Children and Families) and Councillor Hai (Cabinet Member for Young People, Equalities and Cohesion). On the behalf of the Committee, she thanked those Members for their contribution over the years. In addition to those Members, two key officers were also leaving their roles, and therefore affiliation to the Committee: Richard Lewin (Director of Education and Integrated Commissioning) and Jon Abbey (Managing Director for Camden Learning). The Chair expressed thanks for their contribution on behalf of the Committee.

There were none.

To approve the minutes of the meetings held on 14 December 2021 and 18 January 2022.

RESOLVED -

THAT the minutes of the meetings held on 14 December 2021 and 18 January 2022 were agreed as an accurate record.

There was no urgent business.

Report of the Director of Camden Learning.

A summary and analysis of the attainment and achievement of pupils in Camden schools in 2020/21. In addition to analysis and information about results and performance, it also identifies some key areas of development and priorities for the future.

Consideration was given to a report of the Managing Director of Camden Learning who introduced and summarised the findings of the report as a presentation to the Committee. The key themes broadly covered the quantitative data analysis of the outcomes of key stages, the notable differences between key groups and finally the attendance and exclusions of young people. Other key points were as follows, that:

·       Ofsted had resumed to business as usual and Camden schools were all rated Good or Outstanding.

·       Phonics had a particular focus and that performance was recognised as an important indicator of later achievement.

·       It was recognised that learning and achievement following the past two years needed to be considered in the context of the pandemic when comparing to other years.

The Chair thanked the Managing Director for Camden Learning for the presentation and opened the Committee to comments and questions.

The following points were made by Members in response to the report:

·       It was praised that that the exclusion statistics for primary schools as a whole were in good stead compared to national statistics, however it was noted that key groups suffered a disproportionately high level of exclusions.

·       It was clear that basic literacy was critically important as a gateway to other learning.

·       The openness and transparency of the report was praised.

·       The differences between girls and boys within ethnic groups should be analysed in more detail in future reporting, to present a better picture.

·       The mental health support for young people, and their families, who were excluded from school should be given more attention.

·       The investment in the first 1001 days of a child’s life was important to ensure issues were detected earlier by taking a more preventative approach.

·       The report showed that the transitions between early years, schools and post-16 pathways were operating less autonomously and increasingly towards a whole system approach.

·       The Department for Education (DfE) measurements of categorising white British boys as an ethnic group was inappropriate and officers confirmed they would work to dissect those statistics further in later reports.

The following was answered by officers in response to questions:

·      

-       Mental Health of young people was a universal challenge.

-       They were looking to redress resources on school staffing and create an officer job description which covered wellbeing and attendance to ensure they were prioritised.

·       – the most common reason for exclusions was assault or persistent disruptive behaviour. For Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) children, this was particularly magnified at secondary school. It was important to see those behaviours reduce and keep vulnerable young people in school. Camden schools learned from best practice from each other using peer groups.

·      

-       There was a passion and drive to address early years reading shortfalls in the borough, which was acknowledged in the Education Strategy. The life chances of a child who could not read by age 7 was significantly diminished. To improve, they were looking  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Report of the Director of Education and Integrated Commissioning, Supporting People.

The report summarises health outcomes for children and young people (CYP) in Camden and outlines work being undertaken to improve or maintain these by the Council, north central London (NCL) Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and other local partners. It draws on the most recent Child Health Profile (March 2021), and other local data setting out areas of strength and areas for development and reflects our work to deliver Our Camden Plan and Camden 2025 vision that people lead healthy, independent lives.

It has been a challenging year with covid and lockdowns having a significant impact on services as the level of need has increased in many areas. This includes a rise in mental health needs, pressure on eating disorder capacity and simultaneously services experiencing workforce challenges in recruiting and retaining staff. However, our partners have continued to be resilient in managing these challenges. They have been working with us to continue to develop and offer innovative solutions for Camden families like Minding the Gap, the integrated paediatric service and closer to Camden plan.

Consideration was given to a report of the Director of Education and Integrated Commissioning, who introduced the update and presented slides to the Committee. He outlined the following key points:

·       The pandemic had a significant impact of the health and wellbeing of children and young people, particularly in relation to mental health and eating disorders. He additionally noted that this was at a time where the NHS was facing increasing workforce and budgetary challenges.

·       - due to the increasing demand of mental health services, they were continuing to ensure the right support was available by developing and working to mitigate the crisis. This had been supported by an increased budget for this area, re-commissioning of services, working closely with charities, embedding Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) staff within schools and increasing training for teachers in schools.

·       – this area had experienced a significant increase in demand and was nationally a standout issue. Services were joining together to improve eating disorder services.

·       – they were adopting a system approach to deliver new initiatives and increasing awareness. Immunisation linked to the wider health and wellbeing work, which was also overseen by the Health and Wellbeing Board.

·       – a parent and child psychological support service had been introduced as part of the 1001 days initiative. It was noted that health visiting was an issue that needed to be addressed and an action plan had been developed.

·       : tackling autism assessment backlogs, healthy weight initiatives, smoking during pregnancy and asthma prevention.

The Chair thanked the Director of Education and Integrated Commissioning for his presentation and invited comments and questions from the Committee.

The following comments were made by Members in response to the report:

·       During the pandemic it had been difficult for more deprived families to maintain their health and wellbeing; parks were overcrowded, and homes were limited in space for online exercise classes.

·       The lived experiences of many families trying to access mental health support seemed to have a disconnect with what was presented in the report. There were not enough voices of the experiences of children and families in their experience of trying to access mental health care services.

·       Healthy School Streets was a great initiative to promote active travel for children in their everyday lives and it would be positive to see the outcomes of this scheme reported.

The following was clarified by officers in response to questions:

·       During the pandemic children and young people were prioritised for face-to-face treatment.

·       There had been a sharp increase in the number of children presenting in need of treatment; 1 in 2 of those young people had not been previously known to CAMHS.

·       During the pandemic there had been collaboration with other authorities to increase the number in Tier 4 provision beds for young people, to support the crisis teams.

·       Co-designing services with users was taken seriously and had fed into recommissioning of services. Officers  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Report of the Executive Director, Supporting People 

The committee has requested an updated report on their future work programme at each meeting. This report sets out the work programme for  2019/2020 for the committee’s consideration.

Consideration was given to the Children, Schools and Families Scrutiny Committee’s work programme and action tracker.

The Executive Director of Supporting People confirmed that the actions for 2020-21 detailed in the report were completed.

Going forward, the proposed skeleton programme was listed for the next municipal year. This mostly comprised of standard reports. He asked the Committee Members for any subject suggestions to the 2022-23 work programme.

The following was discussed:

·       Members raised that the work programme should have a more of a more strategic and collective theme, such as ‘building back better’. It was suggested that the Committee should focus on what Camden Council had promised to deliver and should hold to account the performance of pledges.

·       The Executive Director of Supporting People stated that throughout the year they had specifically themed meetings. Some of these themes were expectations of Ofsted, for example safeguarding, and were placed throughout the programme of the year.

·       Members requested for Healthy School Streets, Immunisation and An Annual Review into work on Exclusions to be scheduled into the work programme.

RESOLVED –

THAT the following themes be applied to the 2022-23 programme:

·       Healthy School Streets;

·       Immunisation; and

·       An Annual Review into work on Exclusions.

The Children, Schools and Families Scrutiny Committee is asked to note the proposed meeting dates for 2022/23:

· Tuesday, 19 July 2022

· Monday, 5 September 2022

· Monday, 14 November 2022

· Tuesday, 13 December 2022

· Thursday, 12 January 2023

· Monday, 20 February 2023

RESOLVED -

THAT the Children, Schools and Families Scrutiny Committee noted the following proposed meeting dates for 2022-23:

• Tuesday 19 July 2022
• Monday 5 September 2022
• Monday 14 November 2022
• Tuesday 13 December 2022
• Thursday 12 January 2023
• Monday 20 February 2023

There was none.