Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Helal Uddin and Councillor Shad Chowdhury.

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.

No declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests were made by the members.

However, for the record, the Chair Councillor Bex White declared that she knew Dr Helen Jones who was speaking in relation to item 4.1.

To confirm as a correct record of the proceedings the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the held on 21^st June 2021.

The minutes of the previous meeting of 21^st June 2021 were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting save to note that Councillor Abdal Ullah was not in attendance for the meeting. The Sub-Committee signed off the minutes.

A presentation to be made at the meeting.

The Sub-Committee received a verbal update on the impact of Covid-19 on the mental health and emotional wellbeing of young people.

Mr James Thomas, Corporate Director for Children and Culture introduced the item saying mental health and emotional wellbeing was one of the three key priorities of the Tower Hamlets Safeguarding Children Partnership. He said there had been an increase in the number of young people and families experiencing mental health issues since the pandemic, with increased levels of isolation, anxiety and worry about prospects amongst young people as well as increased cases of domestic violence and breakdown of family relationships. 

The Sub-Committee heard from Mr Harry Forshaw, a youth worker from Spotlight, who explained what his organisation had done to support young people during the pandemic before hearing from young people who had attended the meeting.

Mr Shaw Chifamba a second-year university student stated he had been involved with the work of Spotlight for approximately two years and had held several mental health positions both in University as well as in sixth form college.

The main points made by Mr Chifamba were:

• Students had expressed feelings of isolation, depression and sadness following the first wave of the lockdown and pandemic, with many students finding it difficult to cope with family dynamics and poor living conditions.
• The dream of experiencing university life and face to face learning had been quashed due to the pandemic with many students suffering from insomnia. He said that he had been able to access data from university servers which indicated that the average time that students were online was getting later and later and that lack of sleep was becoming more of an issue.
• Mr Chifamba recommended the Sub-Committee to look at what online resources were available to support young people and said it was not always ideal for a young person to see a doctor, wait for a referral and engage with professional mental health providers, in the traditional way.
• Quick and simple access was required so young people could, for example join an online forum and talk to a professional straight away; to providing information which young people can read and be more aware of their mental health.

Mr Taryak Hussain addressed the Sub-Committee stating that he was a volunteer with Spotlight. He said Spotlight had supported him as a young person and therefore he wanted to give back to the community. Mr Hussain said his own mental health had suffered during the pandemic, with him receiving mental health treatment due to complications in his life.

The main points made by Mr Hussain were:

• Young people with mental health issues suffered from low self-esteem and lacked the ambition to succeed. Feelings of isolation, low-mood and depression were common among young people.
• The pandemic and lockdown had resulted in young people being unable to socialise with friends and feed off each other to maintain a positive mindset.
• Despite the lifting of restrictions, staying home had become the norm. This unhealthy cycle needed to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.1

A presentation to be made at the meeting.

Mr James Thomas, Corporate Director for Children and Culture stated that Ofsted and the CQC had undertaken the local area inspection at the beginning of July 2021. It was envisaged the outcome would be reported to the Sub-Committee at this meeting however the letter from Ofsted had not yet been published.

Mr Thomas said the inspection outcome would be addressed to both the council and the CCG and said the timeframe for the inspection had been delayed due to the pandemic. He said the inspectors had carried out a full inspection including interviewing young people and observing sessions from early years to further education settings.

Mr Thomas referred to the self-evaluation and said a number of improvements had already been put in place to address the weaknesses identified. Mr Thomas said it was best for the report and outcomes to be presented to the sub-committee, once in receipt of the letter from Ofsted. 

In response to questions from members the following was noted:

• Referring to page 40 of the agenda pack, and the statistical information provided for the number of Education, Health & Care plans completed within the statutory timescales, Councillor Wood enquired if the numbers were correct and if so, why there was such a disparity for Tower Hamlets compared with London and England. Mr Thomas confirmed the figures were accurate and said their performance for this had been completely unacceptable. He said there were several reasons for this. The team was under-resourced and were dealing with year on year increases in EHC plans. Sickness absence had also contributed to the backlog. However, a recovery plan had been implemented and resources for the team had been increased. He said the progress is tracked monthly and the latest figures show 41% are being completed within the timescales. Mr Thomas acknowledged there was still a way to go to see further improvement.
• In response to the High-End Needs recovery plan, Mr Thomas said this was being refreshed in consultation with the DfE. He said the overspend for the High-End Needs block was a national issue and many local authorities were under funded. He said they had a accumulated deficit of £12m which as average for the size of the local authority.

• ACTION: The Ofsted letter to be circulated to the Members of the Children and Education Scrutiny Sub-Committee, on its publication so members can comment and raise questions in writing. 

The Chair thanked Mr Thomas for the update.

A presentation to be made at the meeting.

Mr James Thomas, Corporate Director for Children and Culture introduced the Children’s Safeguarding Partnership’s Annual Report. He said Mr Keith Makin, the Independent Scrutineer would be presenting his views in relation to the progress made, however wanted to state that the statutory changes made in 2019 to the partnership shifted the onus of the partnership on all three stakeholders and strengthened the partnership with the appointment of an independent scrutineer.

Mr Thomas said the partnership had begun to make progress and had effectively learned from the rapid reviews relating to serious concerns. He said the partnership had completed its first local child safeguarding practice review, which had been done to a high quality. Mr Thomas said the systematic multi-agency quality audits of safeguarding practice meant the partnership had a much stronger scrutiny of data sets. He said the local system was relative to others in London and nationally, and meant they were able to provide effective support to families in the majority of circumstances. He said there were relatively low numbers of children in care or those subject to protection plans, but these had increased during the pandemic. Mr Thomas continued stating the partnerships response to the Covid pandemic had resulted in the partnership working closely together. Mr Thomas said they had appointed three young scrutineers to be part of the partnership and had peer reviewed themselves with other Boroughs.

The Sub-Committee then heard from Mr Keith Makin, the Independent Scrutineer of the Safeguarding Partnership. Mr Makin explained his role and said he is the ‘critical friend’ to the partnership. He said he brought his London and country wide knowledge and challenges the partnership to perform better. He said the Partnership’s handling of the covid-19 pandemic had led to fortnightly meetings to pick up on immediate issues and he was impressed with the responsiveness of the partnership.

Mr Makin said one of the challenges the partnership needed to address was the training profile. He said this needed to be strengthened however there was a process underway to do that. He said the appointment of the three young scrutineers was something different because they were in the 14-16 age bracket and not 20 plus as other partnerships had appointed. Mr Makin stated he was also impressed with the young people’s voice being heard at the Scrutiny sub-committee and said that was what the partnership was aiming to do.

In relation to the wider partnership there was work underway to engage with the education sector and specialist provision, as well the independent and voluntary sectors plus the business sector. Mr Makin said the partnership aspired to make links with all these sectors who are involved in a young person’s life. He said this was a journey, in which good progress was being made.

Lastly, Mr Makin said a good start had been made to engage with adult services, with a joint conference planned on domestic abuse in November 2021. He said the Adult Safeguarding Board was a statutory Board whereas the Safeguarding  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.3

No other business was discussed at the meeting.