Interview with Councillor Jasmine Ali Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member to get an overview on Children, Young People and Education.
Minutes:
The commission first heard from Councillor Jasmine Ali, Deputy Leader and Cabinet member to get an overview on children, young people and education. Councillor Ali informed the commission on the successes of the Council in education, especially Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) where in the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) carried out a pilot inspection within the borough and received excellent feedback on Southwark Independent Advice and Support (SIAS) team for their support to children, young adults and their families. Good progress has also been made on mapping and monitoring activity on inclusion and curriculum in the borough with 95% good and outstanding schools in the borough, this has been led by Reema Reid, Head teacher at Hollydale Primary School.
In relation to education and its finance, Southwark is at the forefront of recouping the deficit of £21m in Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) by engaging in talks with Department for Education (DFE), Councillor Ali informed the commission that she had written a letter to the Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi MP on bridging the financial gap, this was supported and signed by other London boroughs. The School Inclusion Charter should be signed by head teachers in June 2022, subject to final amendments and signatures from other partner agencies in the safeguarding board. Councillor Ali reiterated from her address at the previous commission meeting that exclusion numbers have been reduced to very low levels in Southwark as a result of the hard work by the council teams and councillors, in addition DfE are investing another £3m in setting up a task force around reducing exclusions, consisting of professionals and social workers.
With regards to mental health there is a £2m investment in building resilience in schools around mental health, in addition to services provided by Southwark Council for promoting better mental health amongst young people such as The Nest, other campaigns like ‘Fund the Hub’ are also being funded by health colleagues to help young people. On matters relating to youth violence such as shootings and stabbings, CQC has fed back that youth funding teams have been performing over and above expectations to bring young people through the justice system.
The commission also heard on Social Care with regards to Child Protection Services, there are 313 children on child protection plans, 462 children in care and 565 young people leaving care. During the pandemic, the child protection registry grew by 30% which is an increase of 100 more children, however none of these 100 children came into care which was a result of strategies in place to keep families strong and together. Corporate parenting committees have ensured that all young people get guaranteed job deployment opportunities and their testimonies are being heard. Youth New Deal has also enjoyed many successes due to successful cross country partnership working as discussed at the last commission meeting.
Councillor Ali then responded to the following questions emailed to her from the commission prior to the meeting:
· Can the Cabinet Member give an update on the consultation around closing Townsend School particularly plans to support children’s continued education and development?
· Does the Cabinet member have projections for falling rolls in Southwark over the next 5 years and possible consequences – are more class changes and closures possible?
· The Cabinet member has written to councillors noting that more families are getting their first choice for secondary school – is this because of increased popularity of local schools or falling rolls/decrease in demand?
On the closing of Townsend school Councillor Ali explained to the commission that this school would not be closing at this point of time as it was found that on investigating the financial issues and the deficit, that the redundancies for teachers would cost money and it might be a better option to federate the school with other schools. The redundancy money could be utilised as a backfill for future costs incurred during the federating process, however this is a new approach and has not been tried before and also that additional work needs to be done before implementing this approach.
Councillor Ali answered further questions from the commission on the anxiety faced by parents due to the public interests in schools like Townsend closing and Nunhead reducing their plans from 130 to 90 pupils. Financial viability is the key factor in the determination of closing any school with Townsend a novel approach has been adopted by trying to federate it to prevent it from closing down and with Nunhead their financial deficit would not be recovered with their plan at 90, individual cases of schools are discussed at member officer groups and a lot of complex factors are considered including sustainability of the building and trends in rolls. Funding from DSG for primary and secondary schools are formed in blocks which further complicate matters in recouping the deficit as monies have been moved between different blocks. Closure of schools sometimes have no relation to the council, as in cases where the diocese decide to absorb the school with the rest of the church schools, impact of Brexit and impact of the pandemic where people consider affordable places outside London as they are able to work remotely. The commission agreed the need for a strategic approach to this issue and the need for it be considered by the commission in the coming council year.
In relation to falling rolls in Southwark, Greater London Authority (GLA) and the regeneration team have been looking at the trends, and analysis are being carried out, primary schools projections would continue to fall to the year 2027. The pupil place planning report due to come out in October 2022 will give a better idea of trends.
On reasons for more families getting their first choice for secondary schools; Higher number of available places in Secondary school since September 2013, new schools coming online and reduction in number of applicants overall, 750 fewer applications than in September 2015, however this year there have been 57 more applicants for Secondary school.
Councillor Ali then answered the commission’s questions on the following topics:
In relation to team/s around the child there is a pilot task force consisting of social workers, psychologists, family therapists, and youth services teams supporting multiple needs. The more significant amount of funding has been given to schools to provide better social care and is completely schools led with the help and support from councils, DfE would then review and monitor its progress.
With regards to youth services and crime levels the Council have put together a Youth New Deal which has worked well, Local Economy team have reported back on many young people that have managed to get jobs and secure employment opportunities through the procurement, building and development of a digital platform for thousands of new opportunities in real time. In addition to this a youth parliament has also been setup and publicised in schools.
On children not going into care during the pandemic which is at a record low, children coming through the care system need care to be shaped around their individual needs as they vary between children and young adolescent people. Some are adopted, others have guardianship and some end up living with their grandparents or a relative. Young people who coming into care makes it a lot more difficult for families to cope as they have their own world view at these ages and care workers have to work with them. The objective has been to keep children with their families and provide support for the families so young adults can have better life opportunities with regards to university and employment. However some children and young people are not suited to fostering and are put in care homes which has funding of £1.5m from the DfE.