The Committee will receive a report on improving three key priority areas for residents:

1.    Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour and Drug Related Crime;

2.    Education Aspirations; and

3.    Employment Aspirations.

The Committee received the report setting out the findings of the Overview and Scrutiny Review on improving the following three key priority areas for residents:

1.    Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) and Drug Related Crime;

2.    Education Aspirations; and

3.    Employment Aspirations.

The Committee discussed and commented on each of the main sections of the report. The discussion can be summarised as follows:

·         Tackling Anti-Social Behaviour and Drug Related Crime

Recommendation 1: The Council works with partners, such as the Police and housing providers, to: Develop one central place for residents to report anti-social behaviour incidents.

The Chair reported that he had engaged with Registered Social Landlords about the need to find one central place in Tower Hamlets to report ASB. He strongly supported this recommendation and wanted the Council to take this forward.

A Member also requested that the Committee should receive statistics, showing the impact of the introduction of this measure. 

Recommendation 4: That the Council and the Metropolitan Police Service work with the Safer Neighbourhood Board and ward panels to carry out a number of activities etc.

The Committee wished to ensure that young people were directly involved in this and the decision making initiatives.

·         Education Aspirations

Recommendation 5: The Council partners with schools to collectively campaign to reduce pupils changing schools throughout the year and promoting social cohesion.

It was requested that the section should provide fuller details regarding the need for schools to work closely together to understand the pupil’s circumstances, particularly the needs of the vulnerable pupils. 

Recommendation 6:The Council monitors and adopts appropriate milestones to close the gap in 5 GCSE levels attainment for white British children within the next 10 years.

The Committee discussed the ten year milestone for improving outcomes and the merits of reducing this to a five year milestone with greater monitoring. Mindful of the factors taking into account at the scrutiny review, the Committee agreed to retain the 10 year milestone. The Committee noted that this was a longstanding and an important issue that needed to be address. It was felt important that the Council should adopt and monitor appropriate milestones.

The Committee also stressed the need to focus on early year  intervention and engagement with parents at this stage and requested that this be reflected in the report.

Recommendation 7: The Council works with schools and partners to support parents and young people with information around a range of education and career pathways, including those into university.

The Committee expressed a wish for this to be young person led and reflect the type of support they wanted.  It should include details of the age range.

·         Employment Aspirations.

Recommendation 14: The Council promotes the benefits of apprenticeships with parents and carers

This should state parents and guardians.

This should contain more information on Apprenticeships in terms of reasons for the take up, expenditure and the Apprenticeships levy.

At the invitation of the Chair, the young representatives commented on the report. They felt that consideration should be given to providing information on a digital forum. They also stressed the need to target younger secondary school children in terms of raising aspiration as they felt they would be most receptive at that age.

The Chair Moved and it was:

RESOLVED:

1.         The Overview & Scrutiny Committee note the report and recommendations and the Committee’s comments are taken into account.