Councillor Danny Hassell, Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Young People introduced the report stating this had been added to the agenda in response to a number of Member Enquiries relating to the closure of the Victoria Park One O’clock Club building and the scope for continued use of the building and activities provided for early years children within Victoria Park.

Councillor Hassell said the report outlined the history of the use of the building, the rationale for the decisions made and the collected record of the decision making process including information provided through responses to member enquiries.

Councillor Hassell said there were a number of issues regarding the suitability of the building for an Early Years setting. He referred to page 52 of the agenda which provided the history behind the stay and play sessions, the restructure and consultation process from 2011 onwards. Councillor Hassell said the decision to close the facility was taken after consultation with residents and service users. The building was not a value for money investment for further capital expenditure and as such it was agreed to be surplus to requirement.

Councillor Hassell referred to Appendix 15 and said outcomes for children had improved significantly with the Early Year offer being taken up by hard to reach families in more settings.

Ms Christine McInnes, Service Head for Education and Partnership referred to page 93 of the agenda pack and said it was important to understand the wider context of how the decision was made and the rationale behind it. She said the take up for early learning for 2, 3, and 4 year olds was relatively low and therefore money was invested to improve the Children Centres and the quality of service provided therein.

Information regarding the changes being proposed was in the public domain and pages 105 to 109 show the purpose of the consultation. Ms McInnes said there was no attempt to mislead the public. The key features on page 107 and the map on page 109 clearly show the impact the changes would have. She said as far back as 2016, the Victoria Park facility was at risk of closure. The briefing from the 14^th September 2016 at pages 167-180, shows the feedback from the consultation and how Olga School (Overland Children Centre) had come on stream. At that stage, it was clear there were insufficient number of staff to deliver early year provision through both Victoria Park and the Olga School sites. Appendix 7 and 8, pages 183 to 193 provide further information which was considered before a decision to close the Victoria Park facility was made.

Ms McInnes said the restructure of the Early Year Service had been successful, with improved quality of provision and better outreach to families. She said having Health Visitors in each Children Centre meant services were coordinated and accessible to more people. The decision to close the Victoria Park One O’clock Club was absolutely the right decision. She said no complaints had been received from service users or indeed local residents. The issue of dissatisfaction had only been raised through Member Enquiries.

Councillor Marc Francis, Member for Bow East ward was invited by the Chair, Councillor Sufia Alam to speak at the meeting.

Councillor Francis said the picture put forward by Councillor Hassell and Ms McInnes was a partial one and he welcomed the opportunity to state his case. Councillor Francis said the Victoria Park One O’clock Club had been set up fifty years ago and was given to the Council by the GLC (Greater London Council). The decision to close the Club in 2016 is simply not true.

The 2016 consultation put forward proposals for closure, but with capital investment the stay and play sessions could have continued at the Victoria Park setting. He said whilst the building itself is small there is a large outside space which families enjoyed and valued. Over the years, the community facility had not been invested in and was run down. Councillor Francis referred to the pictorial graphs on pages 64 and 65 of the agenda and said the decision making process had to be questioned. He argued the closure was a key decision for the Council to make and therefore should not have been a delegated to Officers.

The following points were noted, during the debate of this item:

·         Councillor Hassell verified legal advice confirmed the decision to close the Victoria Park facility and provide services through the Olga School setting were not deemed to be a key decision. Councillor Hassell said he would share the advice with members of the sub-committee.

·         Ms McInnes said Early Years provision is highly regulated and strict regulations must be adhered to. The location of the One O’clock Club, with its small footprint providing for a maximum of ten children meant any extension of the building would have been at considerable cost to the Council.

·         Ms McInnes said the question comes back to if the building would provide value of money and clearly it wasn’t going to do that. The facilities within the building such as the toilets were not DDA compliant, so further investment of capital would be have been required to make it usable. The cost outweighed the value for money consideration and as such the building has been given over to the Parks and Leisure Service who have repurposed it for horticultural provision.

·         Ms McInnes said Appendix 15 showed how the restructure of the service had resulted in the service reaching more families with improved outcomes, so therefore it was the correct decision to close the Victoria Park facility.

·         Councillor Francis suggested the decision to close the Victoria Park facility had been made with a ‘nod and wink’ to Officers. Ms McInnes said the inference Officers had colluded in making the decision to close the Victoria Park facility was not true and invited Councillor Francis to withdraw this remark, which he declined to do. The decision had been made following consultation with service users and in consultation with the Cabinet and portfolio lead for Children and Health, at the time, back in 2016.

·         With regard to the capital bid, Councillor Danny Hassell stated the footprint of the building had been mapped and the building was offered for tender to the voluntary sector. However, no bids were received.

·         Councillor Hassell stated that the closure of the building had not impacted on the services provided. The Early Years Service remained committed to providing ‘stay and play’ sessions in the Park, throughout the year at no additional cost to families. Councillor Hassell said former Cabinet Members had come to a decision given the change in information when the detailed survey of the building and the mapped floorplan led them to conclude the building would not provide value for money, through further capital investment.

·         Ms Debbie Jones, Corporate Director for Children and Culture said the debate had made serious allegations against her staff which she strongly objected to. She said her staff should be given the opportunity to counter the allegations made. She said she had hoped the publication of the agenda report would help to address the concerns raised by Councillor Francis.

·         Councillor Salva-Macallen said she had read the papers intently and believed this to be a key decision. She referred to Appendix 12, page 225 and Appendix 14 page 235, point 3.2 and stated it was unclear at what point Children’s Services had decided the building was ‘no longer required’. Councillor Salva-Macallen referred to the briefings at Appendix 7, page 183 and Appendix 8, page 193 and said she felt the closure of the building would constitute has a key decision.

·         Ms Christine McInnes responded saying if Members wished to reopen the Victoria Park facility, they would need to be clear on where else a cut in service ought to be made. Ms McInnes said sessions from Victoria Park would only cater for ten children at a time and the legal advice obtained from the Divisional Director for Legal Services clearly outlined that this was not a key decision. Ms McInnes said she’d be happy to share the advice from legal with members of the Sub-Committee.

·         Councillor Francis countered the email from legal is dated 17^th July 2019 after changes were made to the constitution on the 1^st July 2019. He said it was important for a political conversation to take place regarding the closure as it affected more than one ward.

·         Councillor Salva-Macallan suggested the issue be referred to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, to discuss the legal arguments of when and if the decision to close the facility fell in the remit of being a key decision or not.

·         Mr Mohammed Jolil, Interim Head of Early Help, addressed the Sub-Committee stating that he had been present throughout the whole restructure process. A reduction in staff meant a decision regarding the practicality of running stay and play sessions from the Victoria Park facility had to be made; especially in light of the building catering for only ten children. Mr Jolil said the vision of integrated health services within Children Centres and reaching out to more families was part of the consultation process which had been positively received by service users and the wider community. Regardless of the capital bid and issues with the building not being DDA compliant, there were additional reoccurring costs to maintain the felt covering in the grounds. This required re-felting every year due to tree roots making it unsafe for children to use. Mr Jolil said the closure of the building had not impacted on the number of stay and play sessions held in the Park and overall the move to the Olga School site had been a success.

·         Councillor Wood questioned why the building could not be extended or rebuilt. He cited an example in his own ward where a park building had been redeveloped to include a café. Councillor Hassell responded stating this was a Crown estate building so different rules applied. The issue remained as to if the building would provide value for money and its suitability to provide Early Year provision from it.

Councillor Gabriela Salva-Macallan, proposed and Councillor Andrew Wood seconded the decision to suspend standing orders and to extend the meeting by fifteen minutes from 9:30 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.

The Sub-Committee RESOLVED to:

MOVE the proposal and agreed to suspend standing orders until 9:45 p.m.

·         Dr Rice queried the capital expenditure for renovating the building and asked why it was not possible to make it a viable facility. Councillor Hassell referred Members to page 217 stating the estimated costing was set out in the table therein. He said the capital bid for repairing the roof was approximately £55,000 and a further £35,000 would have been required to make it compliant with Early Year standards. Hence a total of £85,000 was required, which would be subject to inflation. He asked Members to bear in mind that these are estimated figures so the cost could be more.

·         Councillor Salva-Macallan reiterated her suggestion to request the legal advice as to whether this was a key decision was referred to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee

·         Ms Christine McInnes and Ms Debbie Jones made clear that any decision to overturn the decision already made would require an alternative facility to be identified for closure.

·         Councillor Perry stated it was important for Members to keep perspective, because going forward Members will be making decisions regarding the Council’s budget and therefore it must be done with honesty and integrity.

Councillor Sufia Alam, Chair of Children and Education Scrutiny Sub-Committee, thanked everyone for their contribution and the frank and open debate on the issue. She said no disrespect was intended to Officers and the crux of the debate had been about if the decision made to close the One O’clock club was a key decision or not. Councillor Alam asked members if they concurred to referring this question to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for further debate.

The Sub-Committee RESOLVED to:

1.    Refer the matter of whether the decision to close the One O’clock Club in Victoria Park, was a key decision or not, to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and;

2.    Agreed the legal advice received ought to be made available to members of the Sub-Committee as well as members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, when this is discussed further.