Agenda and minutes
Venue: Committee Rooms 1 and 2, Brent Town Hall, Forty Lane, Wembley, HA9 9HD
Contact: Toby Howes, Senior Democratic Services Officer 020 8937 1307, Email: toby.howes@brent.gov.uk
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Declaration of personal and prejudicial interests Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting any relevant financial or other interest in the items on the agenda. Minutes: None declared. |
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Minutes of the last meeting held on 9 December 2010 PDF 124 KB The minutes are attached. Minutes: RESOLVED:-
that the minutes of the last meeting held on 9 December 2010 be agreed as an accurate record of the meeting. |
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Matters arising Minutes: My Place Project
The Chair asked for an update with regard to the My Place Project. In reply, Councillor Arnold (Lead Member for Children and Families) explained that the business case was about to be submitted and the outcome with regard to the funding bid would be decided soon after.
16-19 Agenda
Councillor Hector sought clarification with regard to funding avenues for those over 19 years of age. In reply, Councillor Arnold advised that the Young People’s Learning Agency was responsible for funding of 16-19 year olds, whilst for those over 19 years the Skills Funding Agency was the relevant authority. Members noted that the council did have a responsibility for those over 19 years who were vulnerable or have learning disabilities. In addition, the council provided the Brent Adult and Community Education Service (BACES) for this age group and the council also worked in partnership with colleges. Councillor Arnold agreed to clarify this matter further with Councillor Hector directly.
Safety at the school gates task group follow up
Andrew Davies (Policy Officer, Strategy, Partnerships and Improvement) advised that efforts continued to be made to encourage parents to become involved in the task working group led by Nicole Rush (Community Safety Officer, Environment and Neighbourhood Services), looking at improving safety around schools.
Genny Renard (Interim Head of Community Safety Team, Strategy, Partnerships and Improvement) added that meetings with parents had been offered during the evenings, mornings and also during the weekend, however there had been little take up so far. London boroughs as a whole were experiencing similar problems and changes were being considered to simplify arrangements to increase parents’ involvement. Genny Renard advised that Transport for London would continue to provide funding next year although it had been reduced by 40%.
Ms J Cooper reported that Oliver Goldsmith Primary School had been successful in involving parents to address road safety issues and children had given presentations to parents at the school on this matter. Councillor Arnold agreed to put forward Oliver Goldsmith Primary School’s initiative as a good example to the Primary Headteachers Group. |
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Children's safeguarding services in Brent PDF 89 KB The committee will receive a presentation on safeguarding services in Brent. It will be split into two parts – Child Protection and Looked After Children and provide members with:
· An overview of the services · The structure of the services and the models of service delivery · The numbers of young people that the services are working with · The pressures faced by safeguarding services · Performance indicators · Information on adoption and fostering, in addition to the reports on safeguarding. Minutes: Graham Genoni (Assistant Director – Children’s Social Care, Children and Families) and Elzanne Hook (Head of Looked After Children Services, Children and Families) gave a presentation to Members on this item. Graham Genoni began by outlining the Children’s Social Care structure, explaining that it was a comparatively large service area of approximately 450 staff and held a significant budget. One of the key aims was to increase the number of Brent Council foster carers which would also save the council money as it would reduce the need to rely on foster agencies who charged higher fees. Graham Genoni then provided information on the Brent Locality Service which worked with children in need, child protection, children in care and initiated care proceedings. Members heard that the worker allocated at the point of referral would remain with the child throughout their involvement with the service. The service now benefitted from being 100% permanently staffed in contrast to 30% two years ago and other social services units had experienced similar increases in permanent staff. The Children in Care unit consisted of two teams of young children in care and two teams of older children in care and cared for children unable to return to their parents and unaccompanied young people seeking asylum. Children were supported until they were 21 years of age or 24 of they were in full time education and the unit also provided an expert service for court proceedings. The unit was 90% staffed with council employed qualified social workers.
Graham Genoni explained that since the Baby P case in Haringey, social care activity nationally had risen considerably. Brent had experienced a 25% increase in referrals between 2008/09 and 2010/11 compared to 17.3% nationally and a 55% increase in children becoming subjects of child protection plans as of April 2010 compared to a 33% increase nationally. Of the referrals, the council had achieved 88% of initial assessments being completed on time as against a target of 75%, 87% of core assessments completed on time against a 80% target and a national average of 70%, 87% of child protection investigations progressed to conference within timescale against a national average of 66% and a 17% re-referrals rate against a national average of 24%. The figures illustrated that the council was performing well, including in comparison with other London boroughs and that it had improved significantly in the last two years. In terms of child protection plans, there was a high rate of emotional abuse which was linked with domestic violence between partners. The child protection plan figures were similar to the council’s statistical neighbours and although the number had peaked in August 2010 at 271, there were no signs that numbers were falling to any significant extent.
Elzanne Hook then provided Members with details of Looked After Children (LAC) information and advised that the number of LAC had increased to 376 compared to 350 in December 2009 and this was in line with the increase in referrals. The increase in legal proceedings ... view the full minutes text for item 4. |
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Children in care council - Care in Action The committee has invited representatives of Care in Action (CIA) to give a presentation on their current work and to start to build a working relationship with this group. Members of the CIA will be at the committee to speak to members. Minutes: Anne Edwards (Improving Outcomes Manager, Children and Families) introduced the young people in council care to the committee and explained that the presentation would describe the work undertaken by Brent Care in Action (BCIA).
The young people then took it in turns to give a presentation to Members. The committee heard that BCIA consisted of a group of young people in care and care leavers who met twice a month to discuss ways of improving the care system. BCIA was used as a vehicle to help achieve priorities and outcomes in the Brent Children and Young People’s Plan 2009-2011, these being:-
· Children and young people will remain safe and protected · Excellent education and training is available for all children and young people · Access to the very best opportunities in and out of school
BCIA aimed to encourage young people to take an active part in shaping the services they use to improve outcomes for those in care, provide a forum for them to express their views and influence services and support they receive and develop a partnership with councillors, directors and service managers to work together in ensuring a better experience of being in care. Members’ attention was drawn to the number of BCIA objectives as set out in the presentation and it was noted that there were 14 young people, eight male and six female, involved in BCIA, with an age range of 12 to 20 years. The committee then heard details of BCIA’s representation at local and regional level, the various consultations it was involved in, learning and development events and building partnerships. As well as the main BCIA, there was also a junior BCIA for children aged 7 to 11 years and a Brent Afghani Youth group, a group of Afghani males aged 15 to 17 years in care who met monthly. The presentation was concluded by outlining BCIA’s intended areas for development, which included the development of care leavers’ forum/group, training for young people and sustaining membership.
The Chair welcomed representatives of BCIA to the meeting, stating that they had been invited to address the committee to give an insight into the activities being undertaken by looked after children in council care, of which there were 376 in Brent. She reminded Members that all councillors had a role as corporate parents with responsibilities for looked after children and a key council objective was to improve the service in this area. |
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Impact of domestic violence on children and young people PDF 97 KB The committee will consider a report on the changes that are happening around domestic violence services in Brent, with a focus on the impact on children and young people. Additional documents: Minutes: Genny Renard gave a presentation to the committee on domestic violence and childhood. She began by stating that a multi agency forum worked to identify children who were at most risk which was higher where there was domestic violence and this was more prevalent in lower income households. Members heard that domestic violence could take many forms or criminal types identified by the police and could range from property damage and common assault to murder. In the three most recent domestic violence cases of murder in Brent, none of those involved had been known to the council or its partners. Domestic violence could also be of an emotional nature rather than physical and could include for example controlling behaviour, whilst familial violence was also increasing, in particular involving sons attacking mothers. There was no substantive piece of work on the number of children estimated to have witnessed domestic violence in the UK, but the best estimate was around 1.2 million children a year. However, Royal College of Psychiatry research found that children who have witnessed violence were more likely to be either abusers or victims themselves during their adult life and often females ended up with a partner who abused them. Whilst most children would make every effort to ensure they did not make the same mistakes as their parents, they often grew up feeling anxious and depressed and found it more difficult to get on with other people. Other research also suggested that primary school age children may have trouble with school work and in one study, 40% had lower reading abilities than children from non-violent homes. Genny Renard advised that there was a common link between domestic violence and child abuse and Home Office statistics revealed that amongst victims of child abuse, 40% reported domestic violence and 70% of abusive partners were also abusive fathers. Children who witnessed domestic violence also added 12% extra costs to the NHS for physical treatment and 40% to the mental health budget.
Genny Renard then informed Members of the work of the Brent Community Safety Partnership Unit, which included training teachers and providing learning packs, working closely with Children and Families, GPs and providing a 24 hour helpline to the police and other professionals. The unit also trained the Crown Prosecution Service and magistrates and domestic violence courts had a 40% higher conviction rate than standard courts as victims were more willing to go through the entire legal process. A Violence Against Women strategy was also being developed.
The Chair thanked Genny Renard for the presentation and asked that an update on this issue be provided at a future meeting. |
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School places in Brent - verbal update This is a standing item on the committee’s agenda. Members will be updated on the current position regarding school places in the borough. Minutes: Graham Genoni reported that there had been some improvement in respect of school places in primary schools and there were 411 children without a place at school against 460 vacancies. An additional 135 places would be provided by five primary schools although 90 of these would be on a temporary basis. There were a handful of children not placed for each secondary school year, however it was anticipated that they would be placed within four weeks and five schools currently had vacancies. Graham Genoni advised that a common reason for children not being placed was because they had just moved to Brent.
The Chair commented that some planning applications due to be determined shortly would increase the capacity of some schools and she requested that school places remain as a permanent item on the agenda for this committee. |
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Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme PDF 61 KB The Work Programme is attached. Minutes: The following requests were made to be added to the work programme within the current cycle:-
· Brent Music Service working with schools · Welsh Harp Environmental Educational Centre working with schools · The work of Family Support Services · Steps being taken to help children who were underachieving
In respect of the last request above, Andrew Davies advised that an analysis of school exam results was reported to the committee on an annual basis. |
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Date of next meeting The next meeting of the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 29 March at 7.00 pm. Minutes: It was noted that the next meeting of the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, 29 March 2011 at 7.00 pm. |
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Any other urgent business Notice of items raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Democratic Services Manager or his representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 64. Minutes: Brent Youth Parliament
The committee received an update from members of the Brent Youth Parliament. The Brent Youth Parliament had held elections on 29 January attended by 60 members and also by councillors. A new Chair had been elected for a two year term and five Executive portfolios had been also been created. A theme for a new campaign was also under consideration and the top ten themes would be identified on 11 February and the final decision would be made at the next Brent Youth Parliament meeting. Members noted that Brent Youth Parliament had attended New Years Day parade where significant funds had been raised. Brent Youth Parliament membership was very diverse and it would continue to try and protect services for young people and highlight their needs and councillors and officers were encouraged to consult with them and young people to help achieve this. |