Minutes for Children & Young People Scrutiny Commission meeting, Nov 3 2008, 7.00PM official page

1.1  Apologies were received from Cllr Bell, Mrs Edwards.  Mr Wijeyesekera stated that he was representing Hackney Homes on behalf of its Chief Executive, Charlotte Graves.

2.1  Urgent Items

There were no urgent items.

2.2  Order of Business

The Chair requested that ITEM 7 on the agenda be taken after ITEM 5.

3.1  There were none.

4.1  The minutes of the 6^th October 2008 meeting were confirmed by those present as a true and accurate record.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Commission meeting on 6^th September 2008 be agreed as a true and accurate record.

4.2  Matters Arising

Cllr Taylor drew the Commission’s attention to the following matters listed as actions:

that the additional submission from Minihome nursery was tabled at the previous meeting.

Cllr Taylor highlighted the Living in Hackney Scrutiny Commission’s recent ‘Green Spaces’ review report, which makes recommendations about play areas.  Cllr Taylor reported that at the OSB meeting on 30^th October he had raised the connection between this and the ‘Youth and Crime’ report, which also makes recommendations about the importance of play for children and young people.  The report is being amended to reflect this connection.  Cllr Taylor remarked that such links between the work of Scrutiny Commissions are important and should be encouraged in future.

Representatives discussing the impact of Children’s Centres on their services and their interaction with the Centres to date.  Representatives will be present to address this from the perspective of Housing, Primary Schools, and General Practice.

6.1  Councillor Taylor gave a brief explanation of the background to this review for the benefit of invited panellists.  Last year the Commissioned reviewed the issue of ‘Youth and Crime’.  Through this review the Commission learned that it is possible to identify potential offenders before they reach five years of age.  It was concluded therefore that, if prevention is to be effective for the future, it is important to examine how 0-5 services are provided now.  That is how the Commission has arrived at reviewing the provision of early years services.

6.2  Cllr Taylor added that the Commission is also concerned to know the extent to which different providers of early years services have managed to join-up and work together.  The Commission is interested to learn:

§  whether things have improved;

§  to what extent they have improved;

§  whether they could improve more; and

§  how further improvement could be achieved.

6.3  Cllr Taylor then invited the panellists to introduce themselves and give a brief description of how their service area interacts with Children’s Centres and early years service provision.

Steven Tate, Assistant Director for Performance and Strategy, Neighbourhoods and Regeneration, LB Hackney

6.4  Mr Tate explained that the Neighbourhoods and Regeneration Directorate has a role in the strategic housing function across the Borough, and takes a lead in its physical, social and economic regeneration.

6.5  There are both formal and informal ways in which the Directorate interacts with Children’s Services and Mr Tate provided three examples:

(i)  Hackney has the third lowest employment rate of the 33 London Boroughs and has correspondingly high levels of unemployment.  There are also high levels of worklessness, with approximately a third of people in that situation have no previous employment experience.  The Council is working with a number of providers, including Jobcentre Plus, to tackle this issue. An example of this is the One City Partnership through which packages are being tailored to people in need of training and employment, rather than waiting for individuals to present themselves.

(ii)  Domestic violence has a terrible impact on families.  The directorate is supporting colleagues and partners in identifying families at risk at an early stage and this includes sharing knowledge with early years services.  The Directorate works to ensure those are risk are signposted to additional packages of support once they are identified.

(iii) In addressing homelessness the Neighbourhoods and Regeneration Directorate and the Community Services Directorate work closely together.  The impact on young people of living in temporary accommodation and moving frequently can be extremely detrimental.  Home services have been running workshops recently in two Children’s Centres for 20-30 parents to help them cope with these issues.  It is hoped that this programme will be extended further to other Children’s Centres.

6.6  Mr Tate explained that informal mechanisms are used to interact with Children’s Centres too, such as consulting colleagues in the Children and Young People’s Directorate when planning the regeneration of estates.

Neehara Wijeyesekera, Interim Head of Resident Services, Hackney Homes

6.7  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To receive information on the extent to which it is possible to evaluate the effectiveness of Children’s Centres including examples of those measurements to date.

7.1  Cllr Taylor invited Ms Brown to introduce the report on evaluating the effectiveness of Children’s Centres.

7.2  Ms Brown explained that the paper gives a flavour of the ways in which parents have fed back their views on the services available to them at Children’s Centres.  It was suggested that the report be taken largely as background information for the Commission.

7.3  Cllr Taylor invited Members to put any questions to Ms Brown.

Cllr Taylor began by asking whether those measuring the effectiveness were only talking to parents who have already been contacted regarding Children’s Centres.

Ms Brown explained that some of the examples in the report demonstrate how Children’s Centres have attempted to engage parents new to the service.  An example is the exercise conducted by Woodberry Down Children’s Centre to host a picnic in the park, at which a number of ‘unfamiliar’ parents were in attendance.  There are other supporting examples in the report.

Cllr Unluer asked if there is any up to date data on the breakdown of users.

Ms Brown reminded Members that presently this information is collected manually while an ICT solution called E-Start is being put in place.  The reason this has taken some time is that specific modifications are required for Hackney as all of its areas are liable for Sure Start funding so it is neither possible nor relevant to track information by postcode (which is how E-Start is run in many other locations).  Without this solution it is only possible to monitor indicators such as course attendance which can be broken down statistically.

Ms Brown added that Steve Belk, Executive Director for Learning and Standards at The Learning Trust, is now the IT Group Leader for E-Start should it will be possible to bring some of this information to a future meeting of the Commission.

Mr Sills stated that, when he was a Councillor, schools in his ward would send young people to him for advice and wondered if that is done with any families seeking advice at Children’s Centres.

Cllr Taylor added to this question by asking if Children’s Centres are in touch with local Councillors.

There was a general indication from Commission Members that this was not the case.  Ms Brown undertook to ask Children’s Centres  to send their programmes to all Councillors in their wards.

ACTION

That Kate Brown arrange for Children’s Centres to send their information brochures to all Councillors in their wards.

Cllr Demirci asked whether, apart from core services, other services are designed around identified user need or whether Children’s Centres provide additional services that they think are required.

Ms Brown explained that each Children’s Centre has to have a set of core services but can adapt its programme to the needs of the community.  There are now data books for each strategic area which help with the planning process.  In addition the steering groups and advisory boards are able to provide a view and once the E-Start system is up and running more  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To receive a description of funding streams for Children’s Centres.

8.1  Cllr Taylor stated that this report gives the Commission a clear indication of how complicated the funding arrangements are.

8.2  Ms Brown reiterated that it is complicated as funding comes from different sectors and organisations.

8.3  Cllr Taylor suggested that, going into this report in any significant detail would take a lot of time and it would be best for the Commission to note its contents.

RESOLVED

That the report be noted by the Commission.

9.1  Cllr Taylor introduced the summary letter from Ms Haggarty and explained that it had been published as such due to legal advice from the council that some of the statements in the original letter could not be published by the Commission due to their personal nature.

9.2  Mr Sills, advocating on behalf of Ms Haggarty, explained that she had been due to attend the meeting. Mr Sill raised several points, including the problem of people on the minimum wage being able to pay for childcare and young women getting pregnant in order to access housing.

9.3  Cllr Taylor thanked Mr Sills for his contribution but, as they are not directly relevant to 0-5 services, did not pursue the issue further.

10.1  Cllr Taylor drew to Members attention a new report from the Audit Commission entitled “Are We There Yet?”, regarding the governance and management of Children’s Trusts.  Mr Wall will circulate copies of the summary to Members of the Commission.

10.2  Cllr Khan and Cllr Siddiqui will both be attending a conference on Children’s Services and Cllr Taylor asked them to provide a short update to the Commission at its next meeting.

ACTION

Cllr Khan and Cllr Siddiqui to update the Commission on their findings from the conference.

10.3  Cllr Taylor informed Members that three sessions for interviewing parents, as part of the current review, have been organised and that they should indicate their attendance on the sheet provided.

10.4  Cllr Taylor closed the meeting by reminding Members that at their next meeting they would be considering the main thrust of the review so far, with a view to drawing conclusions and recommendations.