Agenda item
ANY OTHER UNRESTRICTED BUSINESS CONSIDERED TO BE URGENT
Minutes:
The Chair, Councillor Bex White stated the Sub-Committee would receive two updates’, one relating to the SEND Inspection and the other to why a Serious Case Review had not been undertaken in relation to the girls who went off to Syria.
SEND Inspection – outcome and next steps
Mr James Thomas, Corporate Director for Children & Culture, stated that at the last meeting of the Sub-Committee the outcome of the inspection was embargoed and as such the findings could not be shared with the Sub-Committee. However, the report relating to the SEND Inspection was published by the DfE on the 27th September 2021. A copy of the report had been emailed to Members. He said the report set out the strengths and weaknesses relating to SEND and it was fair to say that the DfE considered the self-evaluation completed by the Council and its partners to be an honest assessment of the areas that required improvement.
Mr Thomas stated that not all aspects of local provision across the partnership was good. He said the four weaknesses highlighted - quality of education, health and care plans, waiting times for speech and language therapy provision, waiting times for ASD assessment and comprehensive engagement and communication with parents and carers were going to be the areas where the partners would be focussing their efforts. He said in terms of what happened next, the Council and the CCG would draw up a written statement of action, looking at these areas, which they had to submit by the 24th December 2021 deadline. Mr Thomas said they would be working with the DfE and NHS England to ensure government oversight, support, and challenge. Mr Thomas added that the inspection of Tower Hamlets was towards the end of a five -year cycle of inspection and usually a re-inspection would occur after 2 years. However due to the interruption caused by Covid-19, this was not going to happen. Mr Thomas said the government was introducing a new framework of inspection and any follow up inspection would likely be part of the new framework.
Mr Thomas said the sub-committee was to deep dive the issue at its February meeting, where further scrutiny of the SEND Inspection would take place.
The Chair, Councillor Bex White confirmed the update on the actions taken, following the SEND inspection was scheduled for the February 2022 meeting.
Serious Case Review -Syria
In respect to the questions raised about why a serious case review was not undertaken in relation to the girls from Bethnal Green who had left for Syria, Mr Thomas confirmed he was in receipt of the letter from Members and said further information about the previous decision was being gathered. He explained a serious case review was undertaken by the Local Safeguarding Board however due to changes made by Government in 2019, the Local Safeguarding Board had evolved into the Local Safeguarding Partnership, where the onus of responsibility is shared equally between the Council, CCG and Police. He said the Partnership and the Independent Scrutineer would be examining the evidence, recordings and notes from when the incident took place in 2015 and would be discussing this.
Mr Thomas said he would share the outcome of their discussions with members at the next meeting of the Sub-Committee.
Time Change of future meetings
The Chair explained that due to the Sub-Committee’s remit of Children and Education and with most meetings involving young people, she was proposing a time change for all future meetings, from 6:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. to allow for young people to participate.
Councillor White asked members of the Sub-Committee to let her know their views regarding this and said she’d be writing to the Head of Democratic Services and the Monitoring Officer requesting for this change.