Back to top arrow icon Back to top

Agenda and minutes

Venue: This meeting will be held virtually. To view live (or replay) please visit: https://youtu.be/pLpwkSTgIOI

Contact: Martin Bradford - Email: martin.bradford@hackney.gov.uk 

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

1.1 Apologies for absence were received from the following:

  • Cllr Clare Joseph
  • Graham Hunter (Co-opted member)

2.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

2.1 The following declarations were received by members of the Commission:

·  Cllr Peters was a governor at a special school in Hackney;

·  Cllr Chauhan was a member of NEU and a teacher at a school outside of Hackney;

·  Justine McDonald was a Headteacher at a school in Hackney;

·  Jo Macleod was a governor at a school in Hackney;

·  Shabnum Hassan was a governor at a school in Hackney.

3.

Urgent Items / Order of Business

Minutes:

3.1 There were no urgent items the agenda was as published.

4.

Covid 19 - Service Update (19.05) pdf icon PDF 30 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

4.1 The Commission continues to receive updates from both Children and Families Services and Hackney Learning Trust on how services were responding to Covid 19, and subsequent recovery plans.  The Directors of the respective services highlighted key issues from the report as set out below.

 

4.2 Children & Families Service 

·  Referral levels continue to be lower than expected, though this had increased slightly as more children were returning to school.  Numbers were expected to grow further and the service was preparing.

·  Domestic abuse referrals remain higher than expected.

·  It remains difficult to put interventions in place to support children and young people and their families and some ‘bottlenecking’ is being experienced.

·  The courts still operate at below capacity, so a significant number of court cases were waiting to be heard in both youth justice and in the children’s social care system.  As a result there is a slight increase in the number of children on Child Protection Plans and in care.

·  As lockdown restrictions have eased, more cases are seen face-to-face and high risk cases are now back to the usual frequency of visits. A blended approach of face-to-face visits with virtual meetings was being used for lower risk cases.

·  Adventure playgrounds and youth hubs would be opening up for the summer but at reduced capacity to meet social distancing requirements.

·  DfE devices have arrived and are being distributed via schools and social work teams.

 

4.3 Hackney Learning Trust 

·  The numbers of young people attending early years settings continues to increase.  A number of childcare settings in the independent sector had recorded a significant drop in income from fees which has raised concerns about their future viability.

·  Schools have continued to provide home learning and where possible have continued with assessments to understand where children were in their learning.

·  The number of children attending primary school had also increased, and some schools had taken in pupils outside of year 1 and year 6.

·  The number of teaching staff attending school across both primary and secondary sectors was increasing in preparedness for a full school return in September.

·  In relation to exam assessments, advice had been provided to schools to help avoid unconscious bias.

·  The council had made £50k available to fund summer activities for more vulnerable children over the summer holidays and 17 schools were offering activities.

·  Devices from DfE had been delivered to eligible children via schools.  The Council also intended a phase 2 approach which would issue recycled laptops to local children and young people.

·  Whilst children were expected back in school in September, it was clear that IT devices would be needed beyond then for continued on-line learning and in the eventuality of a school may be required to close.

 

Questions

4.4 In respect of the distribution of digital devices, what work has been undertaken locally to increase the availability of wifi-hotspots around schools?

·  This has been a challenge locally.  Schools had been asked to audit access to IT and wifi access which found that around 10%  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Impact of Covid 19 on Educational Attainment and Educational Inequality (19.15) pdf icon PDF 38 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

5.1 Evidence from previous meetings had noted that the necessity to close schools to prevent the spread Covid 19 may be exacerbating local educational inequalities.  The purpose of the item was therefore threefold:

·  To assess how school closures have impacted on young people's education and contributed to the widening of the attainment gap; 

·  Set out the challenges faced by schools of extending in-school provision and the nature of support needed ahead of September 2020;

·  To identify those priorities and strategies that can assist children to catch up on study programmes and counter growing educational inequalities.

 

5.2 In addition to officers from HLT, the Commission invited a number of external guests to help explore the above issues:

  • Dr Rebecca Montacute, The Sutton Trust; 
  • Chris Brown, Principal, The Bridge Academy;
  • Richard Brown, Executive Head, Urswick Secondary School
  • Jane Heffernan, Executive Head, Cardinal Pole Secondary School

 

The Sutton Trust

5.3 Dr Rebecca Montacute presented the report Covid 19 and Social Mobility - the Impact of School Closures.  This report was part of a series of research publications which looked at the impact of Covid 19 throughout education, from early years through to University entry and on to the workplace.  The schools shutdown report was the first of this series.  Although findings were based on polling from April 2020, the findings from this have been verified in subsequent research produced by other agencies

 

5.4 A number of key points were highlighted from the report, these included:

·  Children have very different living situations which all impact on their ability to study and learn, this includes the availability of space in which to learn, the support provided by parents and the general living conditions of young people.  When schools are closed the impact of these living conditions on a child’s learning is more pronounced.

·  The qualification levels of parents was a significant predictor of how confident parents felt in supporting their child’s home education. Less than half of parents with ‘A’ levels or GCSE felt confident in teaching their children at home compared to over 60% of parents with a higher qualification.  So the level of support that children have been getting depends (in part) on the educational qualification of their parents.

·  Data analysis also underscored the digital divide among young people where children from more socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds were less likely to have adequate access to IT facilities (laptops and internet access).

·  Survey data also demonstrated that a significant proportion of children do not have access to appropriate work space in the home environment to enable them to study.  Again this was linked to socioeconomic status.

·  The amount and quality of work produced by children has also varied during lockdown and school closures, this appeared to be related to the type of school that children attended (private, state funded etc.) and whether children were entitled to FSM.

·  The research also found that teachers in poorer areas were less set-up and prepared to deliver on-line teaching in their school than teachers in more  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Childcare Sufficiency Assessment (20.30) pdf icon PDF 31 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

6.1 The Childcare Sufficiency Assessment is a standing item within the work programme to ensure that the Commission has oversight of the capacity, quality and uptake of local childcare services.  Due to Covid 19 and the closure of many child care establishments a full Childcare Sufficiency Assessment (CSA) has not been possible this year.   A report providing a snapshot of the position in March, along with the current position was presented to the Commission by the Head of Early Years.

 

6.2 The Head of Early Years presented a summary of the childcare sufficiency report to the Commission highlighting the following key findings:

·  The snapshot of childcare provision was undertaken in March 2020 which at that time indicated that there was sufficient capacity to meet the needs of local parents.  Just a few weeks later, many of the childcare settings were required to close in response to the Covid 19 outbreak and many of these settings remained closed.  Some settings have remained open throughout this time to support vulnerable children and the children of key workers.

·  Payments for the provision of free childcare provision (15 hours and 30 hours) has continued which has helped sustain those settings who rely on this source of income. Those childcare settings which are dependent on income from parental fees have however faced significant financial challenges as parents have not been utilising their services over lockdown. 

·  Those settings which have reopened have done so at much reduced capacity (40-60%) to comply with social distancing requirements and the need to maintain children in ‘bubbles’.  This has affected the income of these settings.

·  A number of settings remain closed because they do not have sufficient children wanting to attend to make operations viable.

·  There is much uncertainty around future provision and availability of childcare for parents as the real picture will not be known until the autumn when schools and settings return and parents return to work.  Additional business support has been provided by HLT to the sector to help them assess the viability of individual settings and claim government Covid-19 funding. Daily briefings have been provided to keep the sector up to date with government requirements and guidance.

 

6.3 The Cabinet member for Early Years, Family and Play thanked the Early Years team for providing oversight of childcare settings and the support they have continued to provide to parents throughout the lockdown period.  The Early Years team has supported the private sector to get financial support available including the Discretionary and Business Grants.  In terms of the next steps, the Early Help Review was ongoing and would consider the impact of Covid 19.  The service was developing an Early Years Strategy which may extend its scope to include rates relief, fees and charges and take up targets for specific settings.

 

Questions

6.4 Given the fragility of the childcare sector and its impact on parents being able to return to work, is there any additional funding in the pipeline for settings to help them through this challenging time  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Outcome of school exclusions - Update (21.00) pdf icon PDF 26 KB

Minutes:

7.1 There was insufficient time for this item and update on the recommendations being considered by the Commission. This update would be emailed to members of the Commission and included within the minutes of this meeting.

 

8.

Children and Young People Scrutiny Commission - 2020/21 Work Programme (21.15) pdf icon PDF 25 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

8.0 There was insufficient time for this item. Members of the Commission would be asked to suggest items for the work programme for 2020/21 via email.

 

 

9.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 107 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

9.1 The minutes of the previous meetings of the Commission held on the following dates were agreed by the Commission:

 

·  January 27th 2020

·  February 24th 2020

·  March 11th 2020

·  May 202th 2020

·  June 15th 2020

 

9.2 There were a number of further information requests from the Commission from the 15th June meeting which were distributed to the Commission or contained within briefings elsewhere in the agenda.

 

10.

Any Other Business

To include updates on children and young people related issues from other scrutiny commissions

Minutes:

10.1 There was no other business and the meeting closed at 9.30pm.