Final Evidence Summary 9th Feburary - 25th ... - Islington Council

of servicing of political and democratic processes, in terms of paperwork and admin work, were
considered alongside the costs of other services when considering the budget.
36. Another submission stated that Disability Action in Islington (DAII) and Islington People’s
Rights (IPR) had both received money from the Government’s Transition Fund. The submission
asked whether these organisations were representative of all Islington’s residents.
37. One submission suggested that the Council look to use the pupil premium to help schools
provide services that would help to tackle child poverty. The evidence on services needed came
from some of the work that has been done interviewing parents in the borough about the
difficulties they face.
38. Key issues highlighted in the submission include: affordable before and after school
childcare to help parents who are looking for a job, internet access for children who don’t have it
at home, homework clubs, free additional activities and lessons in music and sport, holiday
provision for working parents and free or affordable indoor facilities after school and during
holidays.
39. The submission highlighted that many of these activities complement each other and could
be provided together (for example, after school childcare or homework clubs could be combined
with giving children access to computers and the internet). The submission also proposed that
a group of schools in an area could look to share services so that even if every school could not
provide everything, there would be a range of services available in a local area. The submission
suggested that the Commission look to encourage the Council to use the pupil premium to
provide these types of affordable provision consistently across the borough.
Education – Referenced in 1 submission
“There are only two ways of people moving from poverty and exclusion to social mobility: of
narrowing the Spirit Level gap: these are employment and education and training; the one
leading to the other.”
40. The quote above is from a submission that asked why the Commission has not given more
specific attention to the issue of education and training during the Fairness Commission
process.
41. The submission suggested that education is one of the most important tools for increasing
social mobility and asks whether the complexity and challenging nature of raising educational
performance and attainment has deterred the Commission from fully tackling it. .
42. The submission did praise the work of the Commission so far but expressed disappointment
that there had not been an individual meeting for education and argued that it was a disservice
to the residents of Islington not to give due attention to education.