Agenda and minutes
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Contact: Democratic Services Tel: 020 7364 0842 E-mail: farhana.zia@towerhamlets.gov.uk
Media
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APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE To receive any apologies for absence. Additional documents: Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from Mrs Fatiha Kassouri, Parent Governor and Mr Keith Makin, Independent Scrutineer.
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DECLARATIONS OF INTERESTS PDF 214 KB Members are reminded to consider the categories of interest, identified in the Code of Conduct for Members to determine: whether they have an interest in any agenda item and any action they should take. For further details, see the attached note from the Monitoring Officer.
Members are also reminded to declare the nature of the interest at the earliest opportunity and the agenda item it relates to. Please note that ultimately it is the Members’ responsibility to identify any interests and also update their register of interest form as required by the Code.
If in doubt as to the nature of an interest, you are advised to seek advice prior the meeting by contacting the Monitoring Officer or Democratic Services. Additional documents: Minutes: No declaration of disclosable pecuniary interest were made by the members.
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APPOINTMENT OF VICE-CHAIR Additional documents: Minutes: Mr Ahmed Hussain nominated Dr Phillip Rice for the position of vice-chair. The nomination was seconded by Councillor Andrew Wood. No further nominations were made. The Children and Education Scrutiny Sub-Committee RESOVLED to: 1. Elect Dr Phillip Rice as the Vice-Chair of the Children and Education Scrutiny Sub-Committee for 2020-21.
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Additional documents:
Minutes: The Chair, Councillor Bex White asked members to note the Children and Education Scrutiny Sub-Committee’s terms of reference, membership, quorum and dates of meeting for the municipal year 2020/21. She informed members these had been agreed at Full Council on the 30th September 2020. The Children and Education Scrutiny Sub-Committee RESOLVED to:
1. Note its Terms of Reference, Quorum, Membership and Dates of future meetings as set out in Appendices 1, 2 and 3 to this report; and
2. AGREED to hold future meetings of the Children and Education Scrutiny Sub-Committee at 5:30 p.m. if held virtually and at 6:30 p.m. if meetings are held in person at the Town Hall.
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MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING PDF 323 KB To confirm as a correct record of the proceedings the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the held on 11th August 2020.
Additional documents: Minutes: The minutes from the previous meeting of 11th August 2020 were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.
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REPORTS FOR CONSIDERATION Additional documents: |
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Educational Impact of Covid-19 A verbal update to be provided.
Additional documents: Minutes: The Sub-Committee received a verbal update on the impact Covid-19 is having on education in the borough, the steps taken to minimize disruption to children and the support provided to schools.
The Sub-Committee heard from Councillor Danny Hassell, Cabinet Member for Children and Schools, who praised the leadership of Headteachers and education professionals who had in difficult circumstances, with varied government messages, worked tremendously hard to open schools in September 2020. He said this was a key moment for the borough with a range of partners helping to ensure schools could return safely.
Councillor Hassell said everyone was aware of the importance of safeguarding as well as health and wellbeing of children; and the role schools played in narrowing the inequalities gap. He said the Tower Hamlets Education Partnership (THEP)had supported and shared good practice, which had been invaluable in ensuring schools and pupils were well equipped with digital solutions, to narrow the gap between disadvantage groups.
The Sub-Committee heard from Tracy Smith, Executive Director, Tower Hamlets Education Partnership and Headteachers Brenda Landers of Swanlea Secondary School and Maria Lewington of John Scurr Primary School, on their experience of dealing with the impact Covid-19 was having on schools.
In response to questions from Members the following was noted: · Ms Maria Lewington said not all children have access to technology at home. The Covid-19 pandemic had highlighted the quality of the technology being used and access to it. For instance, children may have access to a family iPad, laptop or computer however this was not necessarily of high quality and caused challenges such as siblings competing to have access to it. Ms Landers added that whilst remote learning meant children could view a video, it was not the same as children taking part in a lesson at school. · In response to how much of a gap is there in terms of learning, that has been lost because of school closures due to the pandemic and how long will it take for children to catch up, Ms Landers said with the exception of year 10 and year 12 students, students in the other year groups had time to catch up with their learning, with staff at the school working, with families to put together interventions. The overwhelming majority of students would make up the deficits in their learning. However, students in year 10 and 12 had missed a significant amount of time on their study courses and it was uncertain if the government would be providing any additional support, for these students when they took their exams. Ms Lewington added the gaps they had experienced were in the transition of children from home to primary school and the transition from primary to secondary school. · Ms Landers stated the lockdown had demonstrated how resilient children are in adapting to new situations. She said some students had coped better than others with the lockdown and home learning, however young people with challenging home lives had suffered. She said many students were enthusiastic and focused ... view the full minutes text for item 6.1 |
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Food provision for vulnerable families PDF 340 KB A presentation to be made at the meeting.
Additional documents: Minutes: Councillor Danny Hassell, Cabinet Member for Children and Schools introduced this item stating the pandemic had intensified the challenge to ensure children do not go hungry, especially when out of school. He said vital food support had been made critical during the pandemic and work was ongoing with the voluntary sector and other providers to ensure networks, such as schools could play a key role in tackling food hunger. He said at the early stages of the pandemic there had been different systems of free school meals support, with various government schemes, each differing in their complexities. However, the government had now issued a block grant to support vulnerable families during term time as well as during school holidays, allowing Councils to provide targeted support to vulnerable families. The Sub-Committee heard from Ms Ellie Kershaw, Tackling Poverty Programme Manager, Ms Elizabeth Marshall, Bow Food Bank and Mr Paul Jackson, Headteacher of Manorfield Primary School.
Ms Ellie Kershaw gave a presentation providing statistical information on the number of people claiming benefits and the impact Covid-19 was having on vulnerable families and individuals. She said the number of households that are claiming Universal Credit in Tower Hamlets had risen quite significantly, with a substantial number of younger people moving onto Universal Credit. She said this had nearly doubled since February 2020. Likewise, there had been a rise in the number of households claiming council tax reduction and housing benefit. Ms Kershaw said claims for housing benefit had increased by 2000 cases, although she expected this to be far worse, because the figure did not include universal credit claimants. She said the DWP did not share data on Universal Credit however there was a cross-borough, London group of authorities who were asking the DWP to share the data, in order to gain a better picture of what was going on. Ms Kershaw provided members with an update on what the local authority was doing to tackle food inequality and said schemes had been introduced to provide families with support. For example, over Christmas every child eligible claiming a free school meal would receive a £25.00 voucher to use in a local supermarket. She said schools had also been asked to identify those not eligible for a free school meal but who they were concerned about. Ms Kershaw said the vouchers would be provided to 18,600 children and said this was being funded by the DWP winter Covid grant.
Members heard from Ms Marshall of Bow Food Bank who said the Bow Food Bank was an independent charity which had been set up about six and a half years ago. It initially operated out of Bow Church but had witnessed an increase in the number of people using the food bank with an excess of a 100 people a week - many families with children. She said this resulted in the charity setting up another food bank in Bethnal Green however, the number of people visiting kept growing from 100 a week to 200, ... view the full minutes text for item 6.2 |
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Tower Hamlets Safeguarding Partnership PDF 92 KB A presentation to be made at the meeting. Background reading papers attached.
Additional documents:
Minutes: Mr James Thomas, Corporate Director for Children and Culture made a presentation to the Sub-Committee outlining the work of the Tower Hamlets Safeguarding Partnership. He was joined by Mr Az Odabashian, Acting Detective Chief Inspector Public Protection (Met Police) and Mr Chetan Vyas, Director of Quality and Safety (WEL CCG). He informed Members there had been a smooth transition from the former Board to the Partnership and highlighted three areas which gave new responsibilities to the statutory safeguarding partners. Mr Thomas said under the new requirements equal responsibility in safeguarding children in the borough had been given to all partners rather than just the local authority. The changes also required independent scrutiny of the Partnership. Mr Thomas said the government had not prescribed how this would happen and had left it open to local partners to decide. The Partnership decided to appoint an independent scrutineer to oversee their work but were clear they could not rely on one person. He said the Partnership would develop a range of methods for independent scrutiny, with the Children and Education Scrutiny Sub-Committee also having a role in that process. Thirdly, changes had been made to how reviews are undertaken, with a move away from serious case reviews to the new local learning reviews. This gave local partners more leeway to establish the scope and determine how they carry out the reviews. Ms Thomas said that since establishing the baseline for the changes, they had started to bring in more rigour to the partnership in terms of fulfilling their responsibilities, understanding the safeguarding system, looking at what is working well and what needs attention to drive improvement. Mr Thomas said they relied on data, listening to what children and young people told them plus a range of activity including learning reviews and audits. Mr Thomas informed members considerable time had been spent in setting the core priorities of the Partnership for 2021/22 and three key areas had been identified. (1) Domestic Abuse and the Impact on Children and Young People (2) Staying Safe Online and (3) Exploitation and Adolescent Safeguarding (Joint with Safeguarding Adults Board). In response to questions from Members the following was noted:
· The framework for serious case reviews were set nationally, however under the new local learning reviews, the Partnership has more discretion as to how these are carried out. Mr Thomas said there would be both national and local learning reviews so wherever there is a death and reason to think that it could have been prevented, the Partnership had a responsibility to carry out a rapid review within 15 days, to determine whether a full local review should be carried out. Mr Thomas said the guidance is on learning and not on blame. The national panel takes a thematic approach so instead of looking in detail at one incident they gather a cluster of incidents and do a comprehensive piece of work nationally. Mr Thomas said they were looking at how they could replicate this locally because by looking ... view the full minutes text for item 6.3 |
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ANY OTHER UNRESTRICTED BUSINESS CONSIDERED TO BE URGENT Additional documents: Minutes: Councillor Salava-Macallan asked if the Schools Forum meeting dates could be added to the Corporate calendar, with access to minutes and agenda as is standard practice in other Councils. She said it was important to ensure public had access to these meetings.
o ACTION: Mr Jonathan Solomons to look at this and get the meeting dates added to the corporate calendar.
On behalf of the Sub-Committee, the Chair expressed thanks to all council employees for their hard work over the pandemic in what had been a very tough year.
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