Agenda and minutes
Venue: Room C1, 1st Floor, Town Hall, Mulberry Place, 5 Clove Crescent, London, E14 2BG
Contact: David Knight, Democratic Services Tel: 020 7364 4878 E-mail: david.knight@towerhamlets.gov.uk
Media
No. | Item | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
DECLARATIONS OF DISCLOSABLE PECUNIARY INTEREST PDF 67 KB To note any declarations of interest made by Members, including those restricting Members from voting on the questions detailed in Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act, 1992. See attached note from the Monitoring Officer. Additional documents: Minutes: No declarations of disclosable pecuniary interest were received. |
||||
UNRESTRICTED MINUTES Additional documents: Minutes: The Chair Moved and it was:-
RESOLVED
That the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on ……………… be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record of the proceedings.
|
||||
Minutes of the meeting held on 25th June, 2018 PDF 89 KB To confirm as a correct record of the proceedings the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on held on 25th June, 2018 Additional documents: Minutes: The Chair Moved and it was:-
RESOLVED
That the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 25th June, 2018 to be approved as a correct record of the proceedings. |
||||
Minutes of the meeting held on 11th July, 2018 PDF 88 KB To confirm as a correct record of the proceedings the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on minutes of the meeting held on 11th July, 2018
Additional documents: Minutes: The Chair Moved and it was:-
RESOLVED
That the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 11th July, 2018 to be approved as a correct record of the proceedings. |
||||
Minutes of the meeting held on 23rd July, 2018. PDF 108 KB To confirm as a correct record of the proceedings the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 23rd July, 2018. Additional documents: Minutes: The Chair Moved and it was:-
RESOLVED
That the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 23rd July, 2018 to be approved as a correct record of the proceedings. |
||||
REQUESTS TO SUBMIT PETITIONS To receive any petitions (to be notified at the meeting).
Additional documents: Minutes: No requests to submit petitions were received. |
||||
OVERVIEW & SCRUTINY COMMITTEE QUERY AND ACTION LOG 2018/19 PDF 46 KB To note and comment on the Action Log. Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee received and noted the Query and Action Log 2018/2019. |
||||
UNRESTRICTED REPORTS 'CALLED IN' No decisions of the Mayor in Cabinet on 25th July, 2018 in respect of unrestricted reports on the agenda were ‘called in’.
Additional documents: Minutes: Nil items |
||||
SUPPORTING EDUCATIONAL ASPIRATION IN TOWER HAMLETS Additional documents: |
||||
Overview of the Council's Work PDF 397 KB To receive a presentation from Councillor Danny Hassell Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Young People on the Council’s vision and the work to support children’s educational aspirations. Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee received and noted a presentation from Councillor Danny Hassell Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Young People on the Council’s vision and the work to support children’s educational aspirations.
The main points of the discussion may be summarised below:
The Committee noted that:
· (i) In Tower Hamlets healthy life expectancy 10 years less than average (ii) There is a Low birth weight and high infant mortality (iii) 42% of children are in low income households (iv) 76% of children have English as an additional language (v) Good Level of Development increased from 46% to approximately 69% in 4 years (vi) Key Stage 2 performance is at 71% which is the expected level in Read Writing and Mathematics (RWM) against 64.4% in England as a whole (vii) The higher level, RWM 11.8% against 9.9% across England (viii) Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (GPS) is at 42.1% against 34.4% nationally (ix) KS5 16% went to Russell Group Universities as against 12% inner London and nationally; · Ofsted outcomes amongst the best nationally 100% of nursery, primary and special schools Good or Outstanding and 90% of secondary schools Tower Hamlets Education Partnership is delivering school improvement SEND strategy driving earlier identification and better pathways to adulthood; · The 14 to 25 strategy is under development to improve choices, pathways and opportunities into employment and Further/Higher Education; · The Key priorities for 2018/19 are (i) continue raising standards, improve progress and narrow the gap for the lowest attainment (ii) stretch for the most able (iii) intervening quickly when needed (iv) ensuring good value for money in all spending and continuing to invest in school improvement (v) securing standards and making schools financially sustainable including through the primary place review; · The position with regard to Key Stage 2 (i) Improvement in all subjects (ii) Pupil premium pupils achieved 65.7% in Reading, Writing and Mathematics expected standard as opposed to 46% for England (iii) In Mathematics, Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling and Reading, Writing and Mathematics students perform better than all pupils nationally; · The number of A Levels taken per A Level Student increased to 2.9 entries (up from 2.7), increases in the proportion of students passing A Levels graded A* to E.
|
||||
Research Data To receive a presentation from Juanita Haynes (Senior Intelligence and Performance Manager) on the analysis of the research data. Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee received and noted a presentation from Juanita Haynes (Senior Intelligence and Performance Manager) on the analysis of the data with regard to attainment and progress.
The main points of the discussion may be summarised below:
The Committee noted that:
· The progress a pupil has made from the end of primary school (Key Stage2) to the end of secondary school (Key Stage 4) is Progress 8. This measures the progress that a student has made and a positive score indicates that the student has made greater progress than other students with the same attainment at Key Stage 2, whilst a negative score indicates that they have made less progress. With a score of zero being the national average; · When considering the GCSE results for 2016/17 Tower Hamlets is at 47.2 points attainment which is higher than the national average (46.4 points) although lower than the London average (48.9 points); · Whilst disadvantage pupils have a lower attainment than all other pupils the gap is smaller in Tower Hamlets (2.8 points) as against in London (9.8 points) and England (12.8 points); · With regards to white British pupils they have the lowest Attainment 8 scores, 36.7, which is significantly below the borough average and their peers nationally. Whilst in respect to those young people not in education, employment and training (NEET) that around 10 per cent of young people aged 16-17 are NEET. The Committee indicated that it would wish to see the outcomes of the work being undertaken to address educational attainment, employment and training; · The achievement of pupils across eight qualification including English and Mathematics is measured under Attainment 8; · In 2015/16 there were 2,081 young people from Tower Hamlets in higher education, of which almost 50 per cent achieved an Upper second class honours degree. Whilst of those graduating in 2014/17 almost 50 per cent were in full-time employment; · Findings from the 2017 Pupil Attitude survey showed that most pupils (primary and secondary) wanted to attend university; and · Almost 47 per cent of primary and secondary pupils choose a professional career for example a doctor, lawyer, manager, teacher;
In conclusion, the Chair stated that he wished to look at amplifying opportunity for the next generation and it was agreed that:
The Committee would:
1. Wish to see more details on what is being done for all those children and families from the communities within Tower Hamlets and how bridges are being built to help those who want to achieve; 2. Want the opportunity to look again at this issue to get a comprehensive oversight of what is being done to meet the aspirations of young people in Tower Hamlets; 3. Require to see the figures in both the reginal and national context where ever possible to so as to provide a contextual analysis; and 4. The types of jobs/careers the data for example are students going into either full or part-time employment and is it career based employment or not. |
||||
To receive a presentation on the partners’ work from:
· Queen Mary University (Mike Wojcik, Chief Executive Officer of Queen Mary University of London Students’ Union and Professor Stephanie Marshall, Vice Principal Education) · Tower Hamlets College, New City College Group (Alison Arnaud, Borough Principal) · Tower Hamlets Education Partnership (Tracy Smith, Executive Director) Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee received and noted three presentations on the partners’ work which is summarised as follows:
1. Queen Mary University
The Committee noted that:
· The student voice is at the heart of Queen Mary’s community life. The Students’ Union (SU) is the voice of all students studying at Queen Mary University of London, and a critical friend; · The SU has charity status, robust governance, and an entrepreneurial subsidiary trading company, surpluses are re-invested back into improving student lives’; · The SU works to improve the student experience, representing student views, supporting academic, personal and skills development and their welfare and well-being, and providing hundreds of student-led activities. For example nearly a 1000 students are involved in community volunteering, over 6000 members of societies, and similar figure in sport and fitness; · Queen Mary’s is a Russell Group institution based in east London, teaching across the full disciplinary spectrum. Our curriculum is constantly changing to broaden the student experience, build social capital and enhance prospects on graduation, allowing graduates to make a positive societal impact. · The Russell Group were the first institution to deliver Degree Apprenticeship programmes and remain at the forefront of this type of delivery; · Queen Mary’s sponsor two local Multi Academy Trusts, including the local Tower Hamlets St Paul’s Way Trust School. In addition, they have developed positive links with a number of local organisations such as Tower Hamlets Youth Sports Foundation, Local Schools, Tower Hamlets Council, and the Mile End Community Project. · Queen Mary’s new pilot Social Cohesion Project with community sport will provide university students training and key skills for young people in Tower Hamlets in order to improve their awareness of life style improvements, delivered by role models that Queen Mary’s believe will inspire long term positive changes; · In addition to the significant support to St Paul’s Way School Trust, and the Drapers Academy, Queen Mary’s have partnered with the Phoenix School, Tower Hamlets Council, award winning skills and training charity Tower Project to deliver Project SEARCH. Project Search is an education-to-work programme for young people with learning disabilities and Autistic Spectrum Conditions, and provides 8-12 students full time internship opportunities for a year. The overall aim being long term employment; · Prospective students are increasingly considering Degree Apprenticeships over traditional study options with the promise of zero student debt, up to 4 year’s work experience, a competitive salary and often a guaranteed job at the end of their degree; · Queen Mary’s currently run a Digital and Technology Solutions Degree Apprenticeship in partnership with FTSE 100 and blue chip entities like IBM, Goldman Sachs & Bloomberg. Queen Mary’s also deliver in partnership with a number of local SME’s and act as a broke for any 10% employer transfers; · For 2019 entry Queen Mary’s have submitted proposals to ... view the full minutes text for item 6.3 |
||||
UNRESTRICTED REPORTS FOR CONSIDERATION Additional documents: |
||||
Children's Services Improvement Report PDF 58 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: The Committee received and noted a report that will be considered at Cabinet on 26th September 2018 that provides an update on progress in delivering improvements to Children’s Services in response to the report published by Ofsted in April 2017 which rated the Council’s services ‘inadequate’. The Council’s improvement plan aims to achieve a standard of at least ‘good’ in summer 2019, when it is likely to be next inspected, which is the minimum our children and families deserve. The council has now had four monitoring visits from Ofsted. The main points of the discussion are summarised below.
The Committee noted that:
· The most recent visit, on 15-16 August 2018, had focused on Permanency Planning and the Public Law Outline (PLO), i.e. how the council performs its obligations as a corporate parent. Inspectors evaluated the quality of care planning for children in care, in particular the achievement of timely permanence for all children who are unable to live with their birth parents. They assessed progress since the last inspection and focused on areas of practice that had required significant improvement.The Monitoring Visit letter was published on 10th September; · Ofsted had found that: “while there has been improvement in key areas since the last inspection, there are still considerable weaknesses in permanence planning and in assessments for children who cannot live with their parents. Overall, the quality of practice with these vulnerable children is improving, but it is still too variable. Senior leaders agree with inspectors’ findings. They are determined to accelerate the pace of change and are taking appropriate action to address the significant deficits in the children in care services.”; · Some key improvements noted by Ofsted include:
· Decisions about whether children should become looked after are now underpinned by effective and accessible legal advice; · Improved performance management arrangements mean that senior leaders and frontline line managers are very knowledgeable about service performance; · Long-term and short-term placement stability is beginning to improve; · Better sufficiency planning is leading to increasing availability and choice of placements. The revised sufficiency strategy has successfully focused on the development of existing foster carers to increase capacity; · The recently developed edge of care team (November 2017) has been instrumental in decreasing demand for placements, particularly for older adolescents, and in reducing overall numbers of children in care; · The head teacher of the virtual school provides strong leadership and a clear strategic vision for improvement across all keys stages and for children leaving care.
· There was however a number of areas where improvement is needed, for example:
· Management oversight of the permanence planning process is weak and options for permanence are not considered simultaneously, which prolongs uncertainty for children; · When children come into care, only 22% of initial health assessments are completed within timescales. This has not improved since the inspection in 2017; and · Assessments for children in care are not updated routinely and too often, when cases are in court, the assessments focus on the concerns about the parents.
· Ofsted noted that ... view the full minutes text for item 7.1 |
||||
OSC Work Programme Report PDF 194 KB Additional documents: Minutes:
· In Paragraph 4 the Public Sector Equality Duty (as set out in the Equality Act 2010) aims to embed equality considerations into the day to day work of public bodies, so that they tackle discrimination and inequality and contribute to making society fairer; · The Overview and Scrutiny Committee and scrutiny sub-committee work programmes include key equality considerations of the Strategic Plan, including reducing inequality, promoting community cohesion and enabling community engagement. Identifying and prioritising issues, which are important to local residents, will play an important role in developing the work programme to drive service improvement. Specific items to be covered by the Committee in 2018/19 in this area include: reviewing the borough’s approach to supporting education and employment aspirations, reviewing implementation of the challenge session recommendations on cohesion and the Social Value Act; · Key to addressing equalities issues, is making scrutiny more accessible to residents. Accordingly, the October meeting is planned to be held in the community to providing greater opportunities for residents to contribute during meetings.
|
||||
CABINET FORWARD PLAN PDF 160 KB To review and plan around committee priorities Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee received and noted the Forthcoming Decisions Plan (or ‘Cabinet Forward Plan’) that contained information on those significant decisions that the Council expects to take over the next few months. |
||||
PRE-DECISION SCRUTINY OF UNRESTRICTED CABINET PAPERS PDF 66 KB To consider and agree pre-decision scrutiny questions/comments to be presented to Cabinet.
(Time allocated – 30 minutes). Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee received and noted those questions to be presented at Cabinet by the Chair in relation to unrestricted business on the agenda – See Appendix 1 |
||||
VERBAL UPDATES FROM SCRUTINY LEADS (Time allocated – 5 minutes each) Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee received and noted a briefing from Councillor Marc Francis the Scrutiny Lead Resources that referenced the recent consideration of Anti- Community Commissioning for the year ahead. |
||||
ANY OTHER UNRESTRICTED BUSINESS WHICH THE CHAIR CONSIDERS TO BE URGENT To consider any other unrestricted business that the Chair considers to be urgent.
Additional documents: Minutes: Nil items
|
||||
EXCLUSION OF THE PRESS AND PUBLIC In view of the contents of the remaining items on the agenda the Committee is recommended to adopt the following motion:
“That, under the provisions of Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting for the consideration of the Section Two business on the grounds that it contains information defined as Exempt in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972.”
EXEMPT/CONFIDENTIAL SECTION (Pink Papers)
The exempt committee papers in the agenda will contain information, which is commercially, legally or personally sensitive and should not be divulged to third parties. If you do not wish to retain these papers after the meeting, please hand them to the Committee Officer present. Additional documents: Minutes: As the agenda circulated contained no exempt/confidential business and there was therefore no requirement to exclude the press and public to allow for its consideration. |
||||
EXEMPT/ CONFIDENTIAL MINUTES Nil items Additional documents: Minutes: Nil items |
||||
EXEMPT/ CONFIDENTIAL REPORTS 'CALLED IN' Nil items Additional documents: Minutes: Nil items
|
||||
PRE-DECISION SCRUTINY OF EXEMPT/ CONFIDENTIAL) CABINET PAPERS To consider and agree pre-decision scrutiny questions/comments to be presented to Cabinet.
(Time allocated 15 minutes). Additional documents: Minutes: Nil items
|
||||
ANY OTHER EXEMPT/ CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS THAT THE CHAIR CONSIDERS URGENT To consider any other exempt/ confidential business that the Chair considers to be urgent.
Additional documents: Minutes: Nil items |