Agenda and minutes
Venue: Committee Rooms 1 and 2, Brent Town Hall, Forty Lane, Wembley, HA9 9HD. View directions
Contact: Bryony Gibbs, Democratic Services Officer 020 937 1355 Email: bryony.gibbs@brent.gov.uk
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Declarations 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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Deputations (if any) Minutes: None |
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Minutes of the last meeting held on 12 February 2013 PDF 124 KB Minutes: RESOLVED:
That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 12 February 2013 be approved as an accurate record. |
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Brent Youth Parliament update The committee will receive an oral update on the work of the Brent Youth Parliament. Minutes: Thivya Jeyashanker (Chair of Brent Youth Parliament (BYP)) provided an update to the committee on the work of the BYP.
Brent Students Climate Change Conference The Brent Student Climate Change conference had been held earlier in the day and had been very successful. The Chair and Vice Chair of BYP had addressed the conference on the subject of encouraging engagement and participation of young people and had received a good response. Amer Hajan (Strategic Youth Engagement Officer) explained that it was hoped that this would be an annual event in the future.
Next meeting of BYP The next meeting of the BYP was scheduled for Saturday 23 March 2013 at 10.00 am. All members of Brent Council were invited and encouraged to attend. Amer Hajan explained that all Brent Councillors would be formally invited to attend these sessions in future and for those who couldn’t attend, minutes of the sessions would be provided.
Training Training was provided to members of BYP and had thus far been very useful, including subjects such as media skills and equality issues. Feedback drawn from the evaluation forms completed by BYP members evidenced that these training sessions were received very positively.
Main Issue Tackling the issue of bullying would remain a key focus of BYP in the coming year, with particular attention being paid towards homophobic bullying. A number of strategies would be employed in the pursuit of this goal, including the development of a young people-friendly anti-bulling policy for distribution to Brent schools.
Council Budget The BYP had sought to be as involved as possible in the budget setting process. In particular, the BYP executive had aimed to make it accessible to the wider BYP membership, who in turn could feedback to their constituents.
Amer Hajan briefly outlined a number of developments regarding his work with the BYP. He had held one to one sessions with the BYP executive members to see how they can be better supported. The committee was further advised that the NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) had appointed two young people from BYP to sit on its equality, diversity and engagement board/committee. Councillors were invited to contact Amer Hajan directly to obtain further details about the work taking place with the BYP.
The Committee and Councillor Arnold congratulated all of the young people involved in the Student Climate Change Conference. It was reiterated by the Chair that should any issues arise that BYP considered appropriate for scrutiny by the Committee, these could be added to the committee’s work programme.
RESOLVED:
That the update on the work of the BYP be noted. |
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Schools Finance Update - 2012/13 PDF 94 KB This report provides an overview of the current situation regarding financial management in Brent Schools. It provides an update following a more detailed report that was presented to the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 19 July 2012. Minutes: Mustafa Salih (Assistant Director, Strategic Finance – Children and Families) introduced the report to the committee, noting that it provided an update on the current situation regarding financial management in Brent Schools. This followed a more detailed report which had been presented to the committee on 19 July 2012. The meeting was reminded that the financial management of schools was a function that was delegated to schools’ governing bodies. However, the council’s Section 151 officer retained responsibility for ensuring that sound financial systems and controls were in place. Furthermore, the council held an overall responsibility to ensure that the public funds provided to schools were spent appropriately. The council therefore maintained a strategic and supportive role in relation to the financial management of schools, conducting regular internal audit reviews and providing regular guidance updates, training sessions and seminars for schools.
Mustafa Salih explained that the report focussed on three key issues which had been identified previously as requiring improvement. These were; the outcomes of internal audit reviews, failure to comply with the School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) and, schools having entered into unfavourable leasing arrangements. Action plans had been developed and implemented for the latter two issues and improvements could be evidenced across the board. The fifteen audit reports that had been issued as part of the 2012-13 schools audit plan had demonstrated a much improved position from that achieved in 2010/11 and 2011/12, with the proportion of schools receiving Substantial assurance having increased from 35 to 80 per cent. Turning to the issue of compliance with the STPCD, Mustafa Salih advised the majority of Brent schools were now compliant. A few schools had been asked to provide additional supporting documentation to evidence their decision making around pay levels for senior posts. With regard to schools entering into unfavourable leases, the council had identified this problem in 2010. As the schools in question did not have the legal power to enter into these leasing arrangements, the Council was of the view that they should be treated as void from the outset. In addition to implementing an action plan to more broadly address the issue through the provision of advice and guidance, the council continued to work to extricate the worst affected schools from their costly finance leases. The council was prepared to contest any finance lease in court and at present, one case was due to go to trial before the high court in early 2014; the council was confident of success in this instance. However, the council had also successfully engaged in negotiation with some of the finance companies in question and would continue to do so where appropriate.
In concluding, Mustafa Salih noted that a Schools Finance Conference had been held on 31 January 2013 and almost every school had attended. Workshops had been held around different aspects of schools finance and up to date guidance had been provided. The council would continue with its approach to supporting good financial management in schools and would continue ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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Academies and Free Schools PDF 113 KB This report updates the Committee on the changes in types of schools in the borough, including academies and free schools. Minutes: Sara Williams (Assistant Director, Early Help and Education) presented a report updating the committee on the changes in types of schools in the borough. As with many other local authorities, Brent had a mixed economy of schools; most of its secondary schools were now academies, whilst the majority of its primary schools remained community or voluntary aided schools. It was anticipated that the transition of Brent’s remaining maintained schools to academies would be incremental. However, if the council wished to establish new schools in the borough, these would have to be delivered via the free schools route, with the council advertising via the Department for Education (DfE) for a free school provider. In view of this, the council had developed a set of partnership criteria but had not yet proposed any new school developments. There were, however, two sites for new schools that were likely to become available as a result of two developments. In addition, a free school which had been approved for a different borough had been relocated to Brent, with the DfE having purchased a site from the College of North West London. It was emphasised to the committee that the culmination of these changes on a national scale had resulted in the growth of an increasingly prominent autonomous school sector and it was judged that this pointed to the end of the local authority as a direct and large scale provider of support to schools.
Sara Williams explained that despite this changing role, local authorities retained a significant number of legal duties in respect to education and the wider needs of children as set out in the Statutory Guidance on the roles of the Director of Children’s Services and the Lead Member for Children’s Services, issued in 2012. In particular, educational attainment and school improvement remained important issues for the pursuit of borough prosperity and the equality of life chances for Brent’s young people. Research commissioned by the LGA and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) identified that the key to future school improvement was the development of a schools-led partnership working with the local authority. This partnership would enable schools to provide support to each other, as well as jointly commission external support. The Brent Schools Partnership (BSP) was currently in the early stages of development, having been launched in October 2012. The council would continue to work closely with all of Brent’s schools to represent the interest of pupils and parents across the borough. The council also provided an extensive offer of traded services to schools and further developments in the range of services offered were planned for 2013/14.
Sara Williams advised that new education funding arrangements for local authorities and academies would come into force for 2013-14, in the form of the Education Services Grant (ESG). The ESG would be allocated on a per-pupil basis to local authorities and academies according to the number of pupils for whom they were responsible, with each pupil attracting £116. In addition, local ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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Special Educational Needs (SEN) Strategy The Committee will have the opportunity to raise any issues and ask questions regarding the SEN Strategy document. Minutes: RESOLVED:
That the Special Educational Needs Strategy be noted. |
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School Places Update This is a standing agenda item to update the committee on the current situation regarding school places in the borough. Minutes: Sara Williams advised that there were currently five primary school pupils without an offer of a school place, due to their being very recent applications. Three of these pupils required places in Year 1 which was a very full year group across Brent. There continued to be a steady flow of children requiring school places in to Brent. Additional classes had been established at Preston Park and Stonebridge; however, it was acknowledged that places offered to parents were not always at a convenient or perceived reasonable distance. The council would review the numbers for the reception year in-take to assess whether the projections made for September 2013 were correct and whether further additional classes might be required.
Councillor Cheese noted that it could be difficult for parents who might have to take children to two different schools for the same start times. Sara Williams advised that officers were very sensitive to that issue. The Fair Access Protocol could be used in exceptional circumstances to keep siblings together but overall the council was only able to offer places where there were vacancies. Where parents were not taking reasonable efforts to get their children to school, the council would try to address this matter directly with them although could pursue legal action in extreme cases.
In response to a query, Sara Williams explained that there were adequate school places for all children moving into secondary school in September, with approximately 67% achieving their first choice. Years 10 and 11 were quite full at the present time.
RESOLVED:
That the update be noted. |
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Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme PDF 104 KB The work programme is attached. Minutes: The Chair drew the committee’s attention to the work programme and welcomed any suggestions for additional items from members. Thivya Jeyashanker advised the BYP’s surveys had found that careers advice was an issue of significance for Brent’s young people. Councillor Cheese requested that the item on educational attainment by ethnicity be brought to the next meeting of the committee.
In response to a request from Councillor Pavey, Sara Williams advised that updates on the Youth Service Review and how the Payments by results in Early Years was progressing could be circulated to the committee.
It was highlighted that it had been agreed that all reports to the committee include a section on child poverty implications and this had not yet been implemented. Priya Mistry agreed that this would be followed up. |
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Date of next meeting The date of the next meeting of the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny committee will be confirmed at the Annual Council Meeting scheduled for 15 May 2013. Minutes: The Committee noted that the date of the next meeting would be confirmed at the annual council meeting scheduled for 15 May 2013. |
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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: None |