Agenda for Children, Young People & Education Scrutiny Panel on Thursday, 23rd March, 2023, 7.00 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Conference Room, Civic Centre, Silver Street, Enfield, EN1 3XA. View directions

Contact: Email: Democracy@enfield.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

1.

WELCOME & APOLOGIES

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

 

Apologies were received from the following:

 

Sarah Fryer, Cllr Ahmet Oykner and Cllr Abdul Abdullahi

2.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members of the Committee are invited to identify any disclosable pecuniary, other pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests relevant to the items on the agenda.

Minutes:

The following declarations of interest were received:

 

Cllr Andrew Thorpe declared a non-pecurinary interest in item 5 as his wife is a Teacher in the borough.

 

Cllr Adrian Grumi declared a non-pecurinary interest as a Governor at a school in Enfield.

3.

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING pdf icon PDF 80 KB

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 10 January 2023.

Minutes:

AGREED that the Chair signed the minutes of the meeting held on 10 January 2023 as a true and correct record.

4.

The Development of Family Hubs and Children's Centres pdf icon PDF 356 KB

The panel are recommended to note the report.

Minutes:

Ivana Price and Helen Finnemore presented this item highlighting the key points from the report.

 

In December 2022 Enfield successfully signed up for DFE funding. A proposed programme delivery for family hubs

 

Following questions from Members Officers explained that the Ponders End Hub will be soft launching in summer. It will be a one stop shop from start for life and youth services. This provides families with the convenience of having one place to go rather than being sent to different centres across the borough. There is also a virtual assistance offer.

 

Members has queries on the opinions of youth centres regarding their space being used as a hub. To which officers confirmed that the majority of the youth activities are done in the afternoon and evenings, while the children’s are done in the morning and day time so the youth services wont be reduced.

 

Officers clarified that the start for life offer will be translated into other languages. Family support will use translation services and work with local community groups to make them aware of access to the services. There is a communication plan in place which includes outreach, the council website, and other partnerships. Enfield are also recruiting a Family Hub Manager.

 

Members requested more information on the vision for family hubs and children’s centres by March 2025. Officers explained that they envision to have a Family & Youth hub in Ponders End, Craig Park and Enfield Town. The team are currently undergoing a mapping process with property services.

 

 

5.

Violence towards teachers pdf icon PDF 103 KB

The Panel are recommended to note the report and appendices.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Peter Nathan and Paul Bishop presented the report highlighting the key points.

 

Most of the violence reports is towards support staff. Schools carry out risk assessment on the children involved. Enfield has approximately 56,000 children with violence problems, which is relatively low.

 

Enfield facilitate training for schools and the schools also hold their own training.

 

The report states that Cllr Andrew Thorp requested information to be included in the report, however this was requested by Cllr Ruby Sampson.

 

Members asked what can be done to understand more about what violence is happening in schools. Officers explained that they rely on reporting from the schools which needs to improve. A newsletter was recently sent that encouraged schools to report incidents to the council. If a school is run by an academy they report voluntarily. In relation to the numbers going up in the report, this is likely due to the number of reports we receive going up.

 

Members requested more detail to be included with the data provided in the report. Officers recommended to do this in another year, once there is more robust data as reporting is being encouraged.

 

Cllr Ruby Sampson commented that the report doesn’t reflect the experiences of teachers in Enfield. Officers explained that the Council can only collect the data which the schools provide.

 

Following a question from Members, officers explained that the main reasons for the serious incidents reported are in relation to children with special educational needs as they can often have triggers.

6.

Youth Offenders - activities to help stop reoffending, youth centres and cadets pdf icon PDF 469 KB

The panel are recommended to note the report.

Minutes:

Ivana Price and Linda Crawford presented this item, highlighting the key points from the report.

 

Members had questions on the youth buses to which officers clarified that there are currently 2 provisions in 3 hotspots. These are driven by the resource of youth workers being on the bus 3 times a week.

 

Members raised questions on the use of home modelling and early warning systems in youth offending. Officers explained that there is a new initiative turn around project to help identify these young people and can then offer them support. There are already mentoring programmes in schools and a small council youth service mentoring project. An enhanced mentoring project is to be launched in June which secured a £700k grant.

 

The Chair commented that there are lots of excellent programmes and asked how we are measuring if they are working or not. Officers explained that they are externally funded projects and the Council are required to provide clear reporting to the funders.

7.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 89 KB

To note the completion of the Work Programme for 2022/23 and that the Children, Young People and Education Scrutiny Panel Work Programme for 2023/24 will be discussed at the first meeting of the new municipal year.

Minutes:

Noted.

8.

Date of Next Meeting

To note the dates of the future meetings will be confirmed following Annual Council on Wednesday 10 May 2023.

Minutes:

Noted.