Agenda and minutes

Councillor Hart welcomed members of the Board and thanked them for their attendance.

Councillor Hart also welcomed Cllr Reuben Thompstone, Cabinet Member for Education, Children and Families as Chairman to the Barnet Children’s Trust Board.

The minutes of the Board held on 14 March 2013 were agreed as a correct record of the meeting.

The board heard a presentation from Mr Graham Sherfield an Ofsted inspector. Mr Sherfield informed the board of Ofsted’s new regional structure and advised that there will be eight regional directors to cover each area. Mr Sherfield went on to explain that going forward Ofsted will operate across four Services, namely:

• Early years and childcare
• Children and families Services
• Schools
• Adult learning and skills

Early years and childcare

Mr Sherfield then explained that one report would cover a range of children’s centres and this started in April 2012 and inspectors would work with providers to improve performance.

Children and families Services

Mr Sherfield explained the new arrangements from CAFCA in September 2013. There will be a single inspection of Services and that is being currently piloted in June/July.

Schools

Mr Sherfield highlighted that if a school received a ‘satisfactory’ rating following an inspection from now on this meant that the school required ‘improvement to be good’. He also advised that nationally, the time allowed for inspections is up to three visits; the first visit would be about four to six weeks after the report and advised that inspectors would work with and support schools to improve.

Mr Sherfield advised that some schools may require improvement from this year and that HMIs may start working with schools to help them progress to good or outstanding.

Mr Sherfield explained that the school data dashboard launched in Feb 2013 is helping governors to see at a glance how schools are improving compared to other schools.

In response to a question from Mr Chris Kiernan, Director for Education & Skills, Mr Sherfield explained that there will be no HMI support assigned to schools when a satisfactory effort is being made by the school to improve to good or outstanding. Mr Sherfield also highlighted that Ofsted would require improvement from this year and noted that HMI’s may begin to work with schools prior to September 2013 when the new arrangements for inspections comes into effect. 

Mr Tim Beach questioned how helpful will the findings, following the inspection be, if written in a letter format instead of a report. Mr Sherfield explained that a team would visit a school for about three to four days and that the expectation would be that any findings, judgements or recommendations would be presented in a letter format and not a report and that this letter would only be about two or three pages in length.

Adult learning and skills

Mr Sherfield highlighted that for Adult learning and skills services, Ofsted will be helping providers to improve by focusing on teaching, learning and assessments and advised that the focus will be on teacher education. Mr Sherfield highlighted that there will be a much shorter notice of two working days for inspections of adult learning centres.

Cllr Thompstone highlighted concerns that there will be a greater expectation on Governance; particularly around standards, including what is quality, type of report and teaching subjects different part of the school, issues performance management of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Miss Val White presented a paper on Education Strategy and noted that this work started last autumn and that it was commissioned by Miss Kennally. Miss White highlighted that there has been changes around school funding and encouraged the board to discuss what the current roles of the partnerships are and suggested to the board that this is done through consultations and workshops.

Miss White explained that the Education Strategy is a partnership document and that providers have a part to play with maintaining excellence. Miss White highlighted that Barnet is second in the country to Camden with changing demographics.

Miss White advised of broadening the partnerships for young people aged 16 and over to be able to remain in education, employment and training for longer. Miss White explained that this strategy would provide an opportunity for partnerships to support governors and governing bodies.

Dr Stephens recommended that Miss White works collaboratively with education mentors to address health issues affecting Barnet’s children and young people and also encouraged that the academic list is reviewed and aim to include this into the Education Strategy.

Mr Jack Newton, Head teacher at the Grasvenor Avenue Infant School suggested that the Executive Management Group (EMG) that contributed to the development of the Education Strategy; identify and clarify the responsibilities and roles across the partnership and to produce a strategy.

Jay Mercer informed the board that the Children’s Service is currently working with parents on the Public Health Program.

Cllr Hart highlighted that 16 of the 22 schools have now signed up to become academies and emphasised that corporation is vital for the improvement of Children’s health from all the academies.

The Board noted and approved the strategy and requested that Miss White keeps the Board updated on further progress.

Judith Barlow from Central Community Health Care presented a report to the board around the direction of travel for the children’s joint commissioning programme 2013/14 which will inform commissioning intentions for 2014/15. It was highlighted that the aim is to develop this into an integrated team to lead on this change process.

Miss Barlow advised that the Barnet Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is in the process of drafting a section 75 agreement to help fund the joint health team.

Miss Kennally was in support of approving the proposed direction of travel for the Children’s Joint Commissioning plan and advised that the section 75 agreement will help pool resources together to fund the integrated joint commissioning team.  Miss Kennally encouraged the board to challenge themselves to pool resources together.

Dr Andrew Howe stressed the importance of the CCG, NHS England and School Nursing and Health visitors working together. He also expressed concerns around the number of School Nurses and visitors.

The Board approved the direction of travel to support the programme of work that is being proposed prior to formal agreement from the local authority and the CCG.

Mr Jay Mercer provided a report for approval from the board for the end year performance report and forward plan for performance monitoring of the Barnet’s Children and Young People Plan.

Mr Mercer explained that the forward plan is updated every year and that the Executive Management Group (EMG) will monitor the plan’s performance at each meeting.

The board’s attention was drawn to the template in Appendix 6 A, titled ‘Performance Table - 02.05.2012 - End of Year Update Draft’. Mr Mercer explained that all partner agencies would complete this template on a periodic basis and submit in advance of the next EMG meeting.

Mr Mercer referred the board to the full performance report for the previous Children and Young People Plan 12/13 up to end of March in Appendix B, titled ‘End of year Performance Review’ and explained that the structure for monitoring the 2013/14 plan will be different.

Cllr Thompstone expressed that the priorities and the action plan outlined in Appendix 6 A of agenda item 6 of the report has been a useful piece of work.

Dr Andrew Howe referred to page 55 of the agenda and advised that NHS England is focused on increasing the MMR for the number of Resident children immunised by their 2^nd birthday from 91% to 95%. The board were in agreement that this was an important key measure in the Barnet’s and Children’s and Young People Plan and that this issue should be tackled specifically within the plan.

The Board agreed that EMG should continue to monitor performance against the Children and Young People’s Plan and provide a periodic highlight report to the Barnet Children’s Trust Board.

The board heard a presentation from the Met police, by DCI Gary Randall about gangs in the borough.

DCI Randall drew the board’s attention to the NW9 and HA8 areas in Barnet as more concentrated hotspots for violence.

DCI Randall advised that Barnet is listed as ninth in London for youth violence and highlighted that during the summer period there is a rise in gang violence including stabbings. DCI Randall highlighted the preventive measures that have been working including enforcement and advised that 80% of warrants have been successful. The option of a gang letter from the Housing also supports eviction. DCI Randall explained that offences fell dramatically after the introduction of the gang letter.

DCI Randall encouraged the board to focus on outcomes and not the cost for supporting troubled families. DCI Randall asked for input from Social Care and referred to Girls in Gangs and child exploitation and encouraged the board to keep these two areas on their radar.

DCI Randall informed the board of the work which needs to be done through mentoring in local schools around the NW9 and HA8 postcodes to assist children in later years. The board was told on the work already been done with Middlesex University and the Saint Giles Trust but further support is needed from Local Authorities.

Mr Jay Mercer advised of the development of MASH from the end of July to bring together intelligence to deal with this issue effectively.

Angela Trigg, head teacher at Barnet Academy raised a question about the communication and intelligence between the school and the police and asked if head teachers have been informed about which pupils are high risk. DCI Randall explained that there is a risk to notifying teachers without sanitising the data beforehand.

Miss Kennally informed the board of the meeting taking place on Friday 28^th June to discuss ‘gang strategy’ and also advised that at this meeting that the roles of the Barnet Children’s Trust Board and the Children’s Safeguarding board would be also be discussed to agree more clearly defined roles for who does what, using the tools we have available for better information sharing.

Janet Matthewson noted the areas needed to target, especially in relation to violence against young girls and Children Safeguarding and agreed this is where efforts are needed.

The Board agreed that partners would support the renewed focus on youth violence and gang membership through the multi-agency gang meeting.

Mr James Mass informed the board that the Children and Young People Plan (CYPP) 2013 – 2016 as previously approved had been formatted and circulated.

Miss Kennally suggested that the board should focus on three cross-cutting priorities going forward and add these three priorities should be added to the front of the Plan and use these to structure general items going forward.

Thursday 12 September 2013 at 2pm, at Hendon Town Hall, NW4 4BG.