Agenda and minutes

The Chairman, Chris Munday, welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies for absence was received from Sarah Sands.

The minutes of the meeting held on 15 July 2021 was agreed as an accurate record.

Daniel Morgan presented the reports. It was noted that recovery work had been taking longer due to lengthy waiting times for therapy assessments in Barnet. In addition, waiting times for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) resulting from the pandemic, became a priority as part of that recovery.

The integration of several different providers within Barnet had its benefits and disadvantages which would be addressed by the review to aid future planning.

Implementation of the Thrive Model in its entirety on mental health and wellbeing, was the main focus for NCL CCG.

In the interim, more investment had been put into the CAMHS out of hours services, eating disorders as well as specialist services at the Royal Free Hospital . 

Recruitment in areas such as Learning Disability and Autism as well as Care, Education and Treatment Reviews (CETRs) was underway to support specific needs of children as part of the transforming care programme, which was a joint initiative between NHS and the Local Authority.

Joanne Murfitt talked about the review of new services in addition to services already in place. One of the main focuses of the reviews across the North London Boroughs was to establish the financial implications across the NCL offer in relation to outcomes for people. Discussions were to be held with local care partnerships to integrate services and offer better delivery across community and mental health services, linked into the voluntary sector.

Next steps involved working collaboratively to develop a more tangible plan for the Borough and its partners by the new year.

Lisa Coffman asked about the timeline for information to be shared with families who had been waiting a long time for assessments. It was noted that although some engagement had already taken place, a concrete plan would be set by the new year with implementation to take place after April 2022.

In addition to a communications plan, Helen Phelan queried what opportunities were available for specialist partners to feed into plans in an integrated way. It was noted that following the initial phase of work that was completed with resident engagement and other groups, taking into account challenges, a new communications plan was needed to build on the core service offer with input from Barnet partners. 

Councillor David Longstaff enquired about timelines for completion of recovery work. Daniel Morgan said that recovery work involving multiple layers, was anticipated to be completed by end of the next financial year. Other areas of recovery was anticipated to take longer due to long Autism assessment times, dependent on workforce issues.

Councillor Longstaff said that it would be useful to understand the particular issues that affected Barnet specifically to be able to manage expectations. Joanne Murfitt said that a discussion pack was being put together which would include implications for Barnet. In addition to the communications plan, a short to medium plan would be shared with the Board.

Action: Daniel Morgan

Collette McCarthy asked how funding would be distributed amongst the different specialist services. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Ishaan Shah provided a verbal update on current work and provided apologies for absence on behalf of Dara Darkwah. Barnet Youth Assembly (BYA) had restarted at the end of October. The hybrid set up provided flexibility to engage online or in person which worked very well. Focus was placed on what BYA would look like for the coming year. The priorities for this year were LGBQTIA+ rights in education and the environment. Young people raised the question of things the Council and/or schools may have been doing in relation to UN Climate Change Conference (COP).

Robert Poole said that communications were held to address sustainability in the Borough including individual contributions that would make an impact in people’s lives.

Samson Olusanya said that the pupils at Christ’s College Finchley formed the Climate Council liaising with catering providers about sustainable packaging and how services were delivered which would be integrated into curriculum.  Further information would be shared with the Board following the Headteacher’s meeting.

Action: Samson Olusanya

It was also suggested that communications could be provided via Neil Marlow to capture the work being done by primary schools.

Councillor David Longstaff provided the following update on behalf of the Council: 

-       A Sustainability Strategy Framework will be presented to Policy & Resources Committee in December, which will outline the Council’s net zero ambitions and lay the groundwork for the forthcoming Sustainability Strategy.

-       Barnet’s Tree Policy 2017-22 aims to plant 4,500 trees over 5 years. Barnet is also exploring woodland creation through the planting of tiny forests.

-       More investment in parks and open spaces.

Joanne Kelly said that pupils at the Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) visited their new building site and spoke to construction workers about the materials being used and different energies the school could adopt to mitigate against climate change.  The pupils were also putting together a project to present to staff in school on how to support climate change. The Chairman suggested that the presentation be brought to this Board at a future meeting.

Action: Joanne Kelly

Another proposal from the BYA was for the Council hold some form of panel or ‘Question Time’ about the environment to help young people exercise accountability in terms of what Councillors were doing to address climate change and to involve other organisations by giving them a platform to talk about the work they were doing.

Ishaan provided an update on behalf of the Barnet Youth Board. The workshop revolved around the Youth Strategy. The Youth Board requested to have sight of the draft before it was published to ensure meaningful inclusivity throughout the process. The Chairman requested for the document to be shared with the Board.

Action: Joyce Mukoko

Robert Poole provided an overview on current and future work in relation to sustainability. The Sustainability Strategy for Barnet is being developed, A Sustainability Strategy Framework will be presented to Policy & Resources Committee in December. Barnet’s Sustainability Strategy Framework will provide the groundwork for the forthcoming Sustainability Strategy by defining the scope of the work, by asking that Committee approve the Council’s net zero ambitions and provides an overview of the boroughs carbon baseline. The carbon baseline will allow the Council to take a data led approach to tackling climate change and targeting sustainable interventions. The framework also outlines a series of high-level targets to be adopted which will form the basis of the Sustainability Strategy, this will be presented to Policy & Resources Committee in the new year. The Strategy will build upon the targets and actions included below and outline the approach the Council will take to ensure their delivery.

The Council worked to produce a holistic carbon baseline for both the borough and the organisation which will ensure informed decision making and an empirical approach to the tracking of progress. It will also allow the Council to target interventions where they are most needed. Since the move to Colindale, staff hybrid pool cars have been in place to encourage sustainable travel. The Long Term Transport Strategy 2020-41 was adopted by the Environment Committee in September 2020, which provided the vision for future sustainable transport in Barnet till 2041. 150 electric charging points had been implemented to date in the Borough with significantly more being installed.

It was noted that housing and buildings would be the biggest area of challenge as 60% of the Borough’s carbon emissions came from buildings; the solution will mostly rely on central government funding. However, access to several government grants allowed for improvements to be made to council buildings and social housing.

Baseline data showed that over 79 million trees would need to be planted for Barnet to reach net zero. The required skills was needed to meet challenges, which included upskilling the existing workforce.

It was noted that suggestions from young people was obtained at the Barnet Youth Board on the different schemes which had been taken into consideration.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Daniel Thomas, released a statement emphasising the need for the Borough to become more energy efficient.

Collette McCarthy asked if the strategy would be linked to wellbeing and economic outcomes. It was noted that the Council would take a data led approach, and equalities, employment and skills will also be considered.

Lisa Coffman suggested tapping into the religious communities where many initiatives were being held such as eco synagogues and eco churches. Robert said that there was a possibility to reach out to those communities when the strategy reached the public consultation stage.

Councillor Longstaff highlighted that schools most affected by air pollution were located next to roads owned by Transport for London (TFL) and as such would there be options to raise issues with TFL. It was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Lee Robinson presented the Life Chances Strategy which was approved at the Children, Education and Safeguarding Committee in March 2021. The action plan outlined the priorities of the Borough in relation to supporting life chances of all children in the borough including the most vulnerable.

Information on progress against each action was provided from different services as well as the impact on children and young people to provide more context. In addition, a section spotlighting blockers would be added to the plan in the future to show any issues stopping services from achieving actions.

Key areas that affected families included educational attainment and youth unemployment. Good support was available for Early Years and Care Leavers. A lot of support work continued in areas such mental health, Recovery, Reset and Renaissance (RRR) in schools as well as food security.

Councillor Longstaff commended the report and suggested that the wording of Priority 3 of the plan could be updated to ‘Delivering equal access to good, quality opportunities.’

None.