Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Rajan-Seelan.

Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting, the nature and existence of any relevant disclosable pecuniary or personal interests in the items on this agenda and to specify the item(s) to which they relate.

Personal interests were declared as follows:

• Councillor Ketan Sheth – Lead Governor of Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
• Councillor Ethapemi – governor for Brentfield Primary School
• Alloysius Frederick – Chair of governors for All Saints Trust, consisting of a number of Brent schools
• Councillor Fraser – close family member employed by Brent social services

To hear any deputations received from members of the public in accordance with Standing Order 67.

There were no deputations received.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record.

The minutes of the meeting held on 5 March 2025 were approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

There were no matters arising.

To update the Committee on school standards and acheivements during the 2023-24 academic year, from Early Years to Key Stage 5.

The Chair opened the discussion by welcoming and thanking colleagues for attending, including 4 headteachers from various Brent schools. He invited Councillor Grahl, as Lead Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Schools, to introduce the report.

Councillor Grahl began by highlighting that the report provided the opportunity to recognise the strengths in what she saw as a thriving school community as well as identify weaknesses and discuss challenges facing schools, staff and young people. As detailed in the report, she felt there was strong performance in many areas of children and young peoples’ educational journeys with nearly every school in the borough rated good or outstanding by Ofsted. There were also very good outcomes for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) who had always been a priority in Brent, and this was reflected in the recent CQC SEND Local Area inspection of Brent. She also drew members’ attention to the current reforms going through parliament in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which would help to support some of the work the Council and partners were doing to tackle inequalities, such as universal breakfast clubs and ending forced academisation.

Nigel Chapman (Corporate Director Children, Young People and Community Development, Brent Council) added that, overall, he felt satisfied with the outcomes in Brent schools, whether that was Ofsted ratings or overall outcome measures for individual children. He felt the Brent school system, regardless of how that school was governed, all worked closely in collaboration with each other and the local authority. He reassured the Committee that there was no complacency and it was recognised that there were groups, as referenced in the report, who were not performing as well as the rest of the cohort. However, by the time disadvantaged groups had finished secondary school they had performed well, and he felt this was a testament to the strength of the school system overall that once children were in school and remained in school their outcomes were positive. Attendance had been a big focus since the Covid-19 pandemic and Brent was above the national average for overall attendance of children in schools, which was attributed to school leaders’ ability to encourage and provide a welcoming and appropriately challenging atmosphere for children.

In relation to attendance, Nicky Lobo (Headteacher, Roe Green Infant School) added that there had been a change in expectations to monitor the attendance of under 5s for infants and early years settings. She highlighted that it was very challenging to ensure the attendance targets for under 5s were on par with primary and secondary school and it was a time-consuming process to monitor. Roe Green Infant School reviewed attendance every week to maintain overall outcomes. Whilst she highlighted the challenge in meeting and monitoring attendance targets for under 5s, she did feel that it was a step in the right direction that this was something that the government wanted to focus on.

The Chair thanked presenters for their introduction and informed the Committee that a request  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To present an overview of the current workforce practices, challenges and strategic responses relating to the recruitment and retention of social care professionals in Brent Council, including the specific and ongoing challenges for Brent, particularly in relation to recruitment and retention of regulated professionals, and a summary of the measures that have been implemented to address those issues, including planned initiatives for the next 12 months.

The Chair welcomed the joint report regarding the workforce challenges facing both adults and children’s social care and invited the lead cabinet members to introduce the item, drawing out any points they wanted to highlight.

Councillor Grahl (as Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Schools) welcomed the opportunity to look critically at how the Council was addressing challenges in retention and recruitment. She highlighted that the report showed Children, Young People and Community Development had done sustained work in this area and some successful interventions had helped bring down the number of agency staff and retain good quality social workers for longer. As examples, she highlighted the generous package of incentives for new permanent staff, including a golden hello, co-operation with London boroughs through the London Pledge to fix agency wages and promote staff moving to permanent contracts, and offering individualised career support in social work teams to promote permanent contracts and bring placement stability to children and young people. She emphasised the importance of acknowledging that, whilst recruitment and retention was important for the Council to make it more economically viable and minimise risk, it was also important for young people to give them the stability they needed as their social worker could be one of the most important people in that person’s life, and having a high turnover of staff meant those crucial relationships were easily disrupted, potentially affecting their outcomes in life. 

Councillor Nerva (as Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Public Health & Leisure) highlighted the longstanding parity of esteem issues between children and adults, which was not unique to Brent. He advised the Committee that work was being done in Adult Social Care to level out that parity. He highlighted that Brent operated and lived in a mixed economy in terms of social work, but he highlighted the range of social care support provided by workforces outside of the Council and the importance of training for those individuals. Going forward, training, retention and lifetime career opportunities would heavily feature in the tender approach for the new home care contract.

The Chair thanked the Cabinet Members for their introductions and invited the Committee to ask questions of the officers, with the following points raised:

The Committee highlighted section 6.3 of the report which detailed the reasons social workers were leaving the profession, citing poor supervision and management as one of the reasons for 38% of respondents. The Committee felt the report did not address that specific point and at several points had quotes from staff highlighting good management, which they felt was contradictory to the finding and asked what was being done in relation to management supervision. Palvinder Kudhail (Director Early Help and Social Care, Brent Council) explained that the survey referred to in 6.3 had been a London-wide survey which Brent had then used the findings of in its own services. In the children’s service, the majority of social work managers were permanent, which she added was not meant to say that a permanent manager  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To present the Scrutiny Recommendations Tracker to the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee.

The Committee noted the recommendations tracker.

Notice of items to be raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Deputy Director – Democratic and Corporate Governance or their representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 60.

None.