Agenda and minutes

The Strategic Lead gave apologies on behalf of the normal Chair of the board, the Executive Director Children’s Service and welcomed the Members of the Board, observers and the youth ambassadors who were present, to the virtual meeting.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 08 February 2022 be agreed as a correct record.

Apologies were received from Chris Munday, Joanna Yong,  Matin Miah, Susan Curran, Adam Driscoll, Caroline Collier, Anindita Sarkar, Judi Dumont-Barter, Kester Holmes, Emma Burton-Lee, Jayne Abbott, Daniel Morgan, Graig Bradley.

Clarification was requested as to whether the meeting was quorate.  The Governance Officer confirmed that the quorum had been met.  Quorum required the Chair or deputy, one representative of the North Central London Clinical Commissioning Group, one representative of schools, one member representing the voluntary sector and one from London Borough of Barnet.  There was no requirement for an elected Member to be present.

Officers reported that there had been great engagement in the run up to the UKYP (UK Youth Parliament) elections.  Despite the added challenges of COVID and the recovery from COVID it had been the biggest turn out, with a variety of schools, young people who were home schooled and those who live locally but educated outside the Borough being involved.  The new youth members would be taking part in UKYP and BYC (British Youth Council) residential events to help prepare them.  The Youth Ambassadors would then hopefully attend future meetings.

ACTION:

Youth Ambassadors to be supported to attend future meetings.

The Officer presented “My Say Matters” with the support of the youth ambassadors.  They had launched the strategy and were now working on the momentum to keep things moving.  This had included a major launch project, meeting the Mayor and a script writing session for their involvement with Council.  Other parts would be placed on the website: https://www.barnet.gov.uk/mysaymatters

Members of the Board welcomed young people to the Board meeting.  The young people would have the opportunity to influence other areas such as Health and Wellbeing and advocate for other young people.  It was noted that My Say Matters was a multi-agency project within family services but that they were keen to ensure that it touched all areas of the Council and with other providers to help provide a joined up approach.

The Youth Ambassadors raised a number of areas of concern including:

1)    Their concerns about knife crime and mental health in the local area.  They felt that this was an increasing issue which needed to be tackled.  This included discussions in lower schools and age appropriate support in to be provided in schools.

2)    The question of how the Board could support them with their potential campaigns.

The Board responded:

·         That they could send things out to schools from September and raise it with the Directors meeting of Head Teachers.

·         A Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Partnership Board was being formed and the involvement of young people would be essential in creating its charter.

·         Other partners highlighted how they were working with projects such as Art Against Knives (https://www.artagainstknives.com/), and StreetDoctors (https://streetdoctors.org/) as well as Resilient Schools which tool a whole school approach to supporting mental health and emotional resilience including training mental health first aiders.

Other opportunities would also be explored and that they would look to put out an Instagram post after the meeting about some of the points raised.

The Board discussed that there were a large number of facilities and opportunities available to schools and it relied on individual schools taking up the offers.  This varied and it was noted that it might be useful to collate a menu of the different programmes so that it could be looked at holistically by schools.

ACTION:

1.    Assistant Director Commissioning to look at how the Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Partnership Board engages with young people.

2.    Practice Standards Manager to put out Instagram post after meeting.

The Officers presented the report.  Members queried what sort of items were envisaged for the “Library of things” and the example of drills, lawnmowers were given as a way to help reduce consumption and costs.

Questions were asked about how the information was being sent out to schools and the suggestion of the Directors briefing was made.

Members of the Board queried whether the plan was for one central location and noted that the proposals could involve a lot of electrical items which would potentially need to be PAT (Portable Appliance Tested) before and after being loaned.  Officers responded that the aim was to pilot one location and that they would be looking at how the centres could be embedded within neighbourhoods.

ACTIONS

1.    Information on the scheme to be circulated to Directors briefings for schools and to the Participation Officer for young people.

2.    Report on engagement to come to a future meeting.

A representative from ORS who had been commissioned to undertake the Young People’s Perception Survey gave an overview of the results.

A Member of the Board queried why the analysis had been conducted at the larger parliamentary constituency level.  The consultant responded that the snapshot sample size used was too low to allow meaningful results at ward level.

Another Board Member noted that demographic date on referrals was available.  This had highlighted potential questions around mental health stigma and reporting in some cultural and ethnic groups.  This was contrasted against middle class white males feeing disenfranchised.  Sessions had recently been held to look at transition and how different groups could be targeted.

It was noted that some of the results were at odds with other data, such as on mental health.  The Young People’s Perception Survey was just one set of data and did need to be tirangulated with other data and information.  It was reported that focus groups were being undertaken on the back of these results to verify and understand them.

ACTIONS

1.    Feedback from Focus Groups run as a result of the Young People’s Perception Survey 2021/22 to be given at a future meeting.

The Officer presented an update on the numbers of Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers locally.  Most were presenting themselves at police stations within the Borough and the average age was 16 with few age disputes.  The individuals would be supported through their asylum claims.  From July 2020 there had been a large influx, including those who had presented as adults claiming that they were young people.  This was mainly in the age 16/17 range and had resulted in more age assessments being required.

The assessments and outcomes could take some time and individuals were being supported through the process.  Some had to wait 12-18 months to have their substantive interview for their asylum claim which created significant anxiety, uncertainty and pressure.  There was work to provide support including through a virtual school.  Placing a child where an age assessment had not been resolved presented a potential safeguarding issue.  Separately there were concerns around health, vaccination status and other areas requiring support.

It was agreed that more needed to be done to ensure that different partners were properly engaged and to raise awareness.  Other local authorities were suffering the same pressures and the need to work together was highlighted.

Resolved that the update be noted.

The Board were invited to send suggestions for inclusion in the Work Programme at any time to the Chair.

The Forward Work Programme was noted. 

The list of abbreviations was noted.

There was none.