Agenda and minutes

1.1 Apologies for absence were received from the following:

• Cllr Clare Joseph
• Shuja Shaik

1.2 Apologies for lateness were received from Cllr Hansen.

2.1 There were no urgent items and the agenda was as scheduled.

3.1 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.

4.1 Given the controversy over the process for awarding exam results in the summer of 2020 and the subsequent confusion and anxiety that this gave to young people, the Commission requested an update on A Level and GCSE exam results. In particular, the Commission sought assurance on the following:

- How local children in years 11 and 13 have been affected with particular reference to disadvantaged groups;

- The range of advice and support made available to help children navigate post 16 and post 18 options;

- Whether there was sufficient local capacity 16/18 options to meet local needs.

4.2 The Cabinet member for Education, Children and Children's Social Care introduced the response to this item.  When it became apparent that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds would be disproportionately affected by the use of an algorithm to determine grades, the Mayor and Cabinet member petitioned the government to reconsider, and were pleased that the decision was taken to return to teacher assessed grades as had originally been planned.  There was concern however, that this process had caused considerable anxiety and stress to local young people which could have been avoided.

4.3 The Cabinet member reassured the Commission that whilst school league tables would not be published this year, local schools had performed well and that the number of children staying on into local 6th forms had increased.  In general, these results had allowed children to progress along pathways in further and higher education, vocational training or the world of work.   The Cabinet member thanked local schools for their support in helping young people to achieve such good results and helping them navigate post 16 and post 18 options.

4.4 The Director of Education and Senior Secondary School adviser presented to the Commission (attached).  The key points from this presentation were as follows:

• The number local passes at A level achieving a grade A*- C was 87%, 13% higher than last year (74%%).  The increase recorded in Hackney was higher than the national average;
• At GCSE level, 1 in 4 young people achieved a high pass (grade 7-9) compared to 1 in 5 last year;
• At GCSE level, 54% achieved a strong combined pass in English and maths (grade 5+) compared to 48% last year (71% achieved a strong pass in English and 58% achieved a strong pass in maths).
• At GCSE level, 73% achieved a standard combined pass in English and maths (grade 4+) compared to 69% last year. These results were higher than the national average;
• Strong performances were recorded across local schools, even those where there was a high proportion of disadvantaged children (e.g. entitled to free school meals).
• As yet, it was not clear whether DfE would release any nationally aggregated data or analysis of the performance of different student cohorts (e.g. gender, ethnicity, FSM entitlement). An update was expected in October 2020.
• With the number of appeals likely to be low, there was a perception that the school assessed grades would seem to have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.1 The Commission continues to receive updates from both Children and Families Services (CFS) and Hackney Learning Trust (HLT) on how services were responding to Covid 19 and subsequent recovery plans.  The Directors of the respective services highlighted key issues from their respective reports as set out below.

5.2 The Cabinet member for Education, Children and Children's Social Care introduced the response to this item and highlighted a number of issues:

• The council had been working extensively on supporting schools to reopen safely for children, including engagement with local parents;
• The health and wellbeing of children and young people continued to be priority, particularly the identification of children who may experience delayed trauma;
• An increase in social care referrals was expected as children returned to school and the service was in discussion with the Finance Department for additional capacity to support this;
• Youth hubs were open and were engaging children in outside spaces and virtually to ensure that young people remained supported;
• Children’s Centres have remained open throughout and adventure playgrounds have been reopened over the summer to help children reintegrate with their peers.

Children & Families Service (CFS)

5.3 The Director of Children and Families Service highlighted a number of key issues from the report:

·  Referral levels continue to be lower than expected, and were down by 38% overall on comparable figures from last year.  Numbers were expected to increase as schools returned but no discernible difference had been recorded as yet. 

·  Notable increases in the system were recorded for the number of Children on a Child Protection Plan (CPP) with a 10% increase being recorded (to 288 cases).  This increase was the result of more children remaining on a CPP rather than new cases coming into the system, as there continued to be difficulty in undertaking appropriate interventions to help children and families improve and move off a CPP.

·  Similarly, there were also increasing numbers of children in the court and pre-court systems also due to the problems of getting appropriate interventions to support children (or to make appropriate assessments).

·  There were currently 456 looked after children in Hackney with the majority of new cases being unaccompanied asylum seeking children and adolescents whose relationships with their families had broken down. 

·  Domestic abuse referrals have fluctuated over recent weeks though levels appear to have plateaued.

·  There was more face-to-face communication with children and young people, though this continues to be risk rated.

·  Courts have reopened in July and as a consequence more local cases in the Youth Offending Team were being dealt with which had helped to ease the backlog of cases.

·  Summer activities offered through Young Hackney had gone well and more young people were accessing Youth Hubs. 680 children and young people had accessed Youth Hubs (3,146 total attendances). 

·  Digital devices arrived very late (late July) and CFS and HLT had worked together to distribute these to priority groups of children.

Questions from the Commission

5.4 In terms of staffing at CFS, how have caseloads been affected from  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.1 The death of George Floyd and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests have highlighted racial inequalities that exist across public services.  The Commission invited the Directors of the Children and Families Service (CFS) and Hackney Learning Trust (HLT) to set out the work to help identify and address racial inequalities and unconscious bias in the policies and practices of their respective departments.

6.2 The purpose of this item was three fold:

• To ensure that the Commission had oversight of work to combat racial inequalities across children and young people's services;
• To provide challenge to local strategies, plans or work that seek address racial inequalities; and 
• To assess whether further more detailed scrutiny is necessary for any identified service areas.

6.3  The Cabinet member for Education, Children and Children's Social Care introduced responses from both CFS and HLT.   The Cabinet member made the following points:

• Hackney has supported the Young Black Men Project for a number of years and this work has helped to bring change to local services.
• In response to the death of George Floyd, Hackney has embarked on further work across the Council in both CFS and HLT.
• Subsequent to a meeting with Headteachers, a black only space has been set up for local teachers for them to explore racial inequality issues in education. 

6.4 The Group Director for Children, Adults and Community Health provided an overview of the strategic work taking place across CYP services to address racial inequalities.

• It was acknowledged that progress to tackle inequalities had been slow and that greater urgency was required;
• There were three themes in the work to address racial inequalities across services:

6.5 The Director of CFS presented to the Commission (attached).  Key points from this presentation are summarised below.

• An action plan was already in place in CFS in relation to the Black Men’s Project though this has been developed further into an Anti-Racist Action Plan. This was developed by the leadership team within CFS alongside the black leadership group. The action plan has been developed to focus on those areas which  would have the greatest impact, these included:

• • Inclusive recruitment and aspirational support to staff:
  • Anti-racist leadership and practice with children and families;
  • Promoting anti-racist practice to influence broader care support systems.
• There was an acknowledgement that diversity in the workforce varied and that the senior leadership team was one area where improved diversity was required. A number of developments had taken place  to improve diversity across CFS which included anonymous recruitment and improved diversity on interview panels.  Additional data monitoring now takes to track disproportionality in the workforce.
• Planned work to improve recruitment included the establishment of a black leadership group and a review of training to ensure that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.1 Suggestions from local stakeholders together with additional topics suggested in last year's work programme, have been used to develop the plan of work 2020/21.  Key areas of work planned for the remainder of the year included:

• Strategies to help close the attainment gap;
• The performance and recovery plan of the SEND team;
• Strategic oversight of mental health services for young people.

7.2 It was not possible to include all those areas of interest to the Commission within the scrutiny work programme for 2020/21.  It was therefore decided to hold a number reconnaissance meeting in a number of service areas where members of the Commission would meet with service heads for an update.  A short briefing would be reported back to the Commission on the outcome of the meeting and whether any further scrutiny action would be taken.  Planned visits would take place for the following:

• Youth Offending;
• Youth Services.

7.3 Members were requested to report back any comments on the work programme to the Chair, and in particular, specific interests in planned scrutiny topics in which they would like to be actively involved. 

7.4 Members noted and agreed the work programme.

8.1 The Commission undertook two pieces of work in the 2019/20 from which it developed recommendations for Cabinet: Off-rolling in Schools and proposals for a Child Friendly borough. Letters to relevant Cabinet members detailing the recommendations of the Commission were noted.

8.2 Cabinet will consider and respond to the recommendations set out in these letters in due course.

9.1 The minutes of the meeting held on the 13th July 2020 were noted and agreed by the Commission.

10.1 There were no additional items.  The Commission noted that the date of the next meeting was 2nd November 2020. 

The meeting closed at 21.35.