Apologies for absence was received from Mr Khoyrul Shaheed, co-optee from the Muslim Faith Community.

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.

Councillor Helal Uddin declared a non-pecuniary interest in that his daughter attended one of the schools being discussed at the meeting.

To confirm as a correct record of the proceedings the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the held on 17^th December 2019.

The following comments were made with regards to the minutes:

·       Correction required, it should be noted that it was Councillor Marc Francis who asked the Chair if he could attend the meeting.

·       Councillor Gabriella Salva-MaCallen thanked officers for making the amendments she requested to the minutes, specifically that SEND was an important and ongoing issue that should be further explored by the committee.

ACTION: for a spotlight session on SEND to be organised.

RESOLVED:

Having made the above amendment, the minutes of the previous meeting held on 17 December 2019 were approved as an accurate record.

The Chair varied the order of reports in order to allow the guest speakers to present first. Therefore the Primary School Places presentation item was discussed first, followed by the SEND Transport Review. For ease of reading the minutes will follow the order published on the agenda.

Officers apologised to councillors for the late submission of reports to the committee.

The Chair requested a pre-meeting for the Committee going forward starting at 6pm for 30 minutes.

ACTION: Officers to arrange pre-meetings starting at 6pm.

The Committee Noted:

·       That regarding independent travel there will be “Appropriate Person Training” for young to identify which adults to approach for assistance if lost e.g. MPS; BTP or TFL

·       In addition for young people requiring help in travelling to school, there was training undertaken with the MPS so that police officers develop an awareness of young people who might come to them for help

·       Training was also provided regarding the use of maps and the Service was exploring various Technical solutions e.g. Video Conferencing

·       The Committee noted that some parents might consider that the use of a taxi is more convenient for them.

·       It was important for young people to learn more skills to help them develop their confidence. This would be better for them in the long term because it would help them to develop their independence. Therefore it was not just about the here and now but the future

·       It was noted that the council’s consultation will run for 10 weeks and details were on the council’s website

·       There would be training for SEND ambassadors.

·       With regards to the level of service it was noted that the Service will not be as flexible as before but requests for assistance with travel would be handled in a compassionate manner

·       With regard to children living with hearing difficulties It was noted that the Council were working with the National Deaf Children’s Society. The Council would be writing to all families about the service developments

·       The Committee felt that those families who could afford to pay for travel should be able to, although this would require a revision of the Charging Policy. Charges could be made for those children post 16.

·       It was noted the changes aimed to introduce choice and give greater control to families for travel.

·       Children would receive training to enable them to travel and to develop greater independence.

·       The Committee advised that it was made clear to parents that the changes would not have a significant impact on the majority of families. They said it was important parents be given this reassurance.

ACTIONS:

It was noted there would be:

(I) a report on the Youth Service coming to a future meeting;

(ii) a possible extra meeting on SEND;

(iii) a look at the impact of housing on education maybe as a joint scrutiny challenge session with housing members;

(iv) a challenge session on cyberbullying.

RESOLVED:

1.    To note the presentation and actions.

The Committee heard from three school governor guest speakers on challenges schools faced and their experiences of mergers and federations. 

Speakers included:

Judy Knappet, Head teacher, Hague Primary School, Ros Coffey, Chair of Governors, Smithy Street Primary School, and JP Morrison, Director of Education, Diocese of Westminster.

Judy Kanppet:

·       One form entry school 210 children when full. At the time of merger it was not full it had 34 vacancies but because of class to teacher regulations they had to hire a second teacher.

·       Context of schools in west of borough having increasing number of vacancies in the school due to declining birth rates borough wide, demographic change, and fewer family homes being developed.

·       This was resulting in the inefficient allocation of resources such as the 15 hours nursery funding which was only used by four families.

·       School governors came together to discuss solutions. One solution was to work in collaboration rather than coopetition and working towards hard federated status.

·       Hard federated meant having one governing body for both schools. The schools retained their names but teachers and other resources were shared. This strengthened their curriculum and staff training opportunities. The bulk of savings had come from staffing.

·       Ms Kanppet reported that she felt very supported by the local authority throughout the merger process particularly by Helen Jenner – Education Consultant.

Ros Coffey:

·       Experienced a decline in demand for places at the school. She cited a few reasons for the decline including bedroom tax, lack of social housing and a fall in the birth rate.

·       In June 2018 she met with Christine McInnes and Terry Bryant from the Council to discuss the issue.

·       The school of governors suggested an amalgamation with the school next door which was Redlands School. Both school governors met and are in consultation with parents and the local community on the merger.

·       It was noted Redlands had a PFI in place for facilities managed but plans had been made to manage this over the seven year period.

·       The benefits of the merger were described. These included: maintaining the high level of learning both schools provided, school results had risen, increased community cohesion between parents and children at the schools, staff are learning best practice from one another and teachers are working with shared intelligence.

·       The merger will change the name of the school to ‘Stepney Park Primary’.  The new name would unify children and parents from both schools and encourage a joint sense of ownership.

·       Joint meetings between both school of governors, treating one another as equal partners and open dialogue between the schools enabled the schools to happily merge.

·       Governors came up with an innovative idea to ‘let’ unused spaces in the school with the intention of reclaiming the space if or when pupil numbers increased.

·       The school will have a simple and affordable new school uniform. They could be purchased using the school uniform grant.

JP Morrison

·       Reported that Tower Hamlets had 9 catholic schools in the borough.

·       He conducted a piece of research  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.2

There was no other business.