Education Select Committee - Meetings, agendas and minutes

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was underway in respect of fostering and adoption services,commissioning and safeguarding.• The Tri Borough Education Service had agreed a full cost recoverymodel with the School Improvements Service.• A Tri Borough Head Teachers Representative Board had beenestablished with a successful first meeting, helping to build networksacross the three authority areas. Head Teachers were also beginningto meet in specialist sub groups across the boroughs.In response to a Member question the Committee was also informed of thecriteria to be applied to the allocation of school’s capital funding. Bids wouldbe assessed against the need for places, parental demand, value for money,innovation and deliverability. Following a question from the public galleryMembers noted that the West London Free School was currently consultingon its Primary admissions policy and the Council would be submitting a formalresponse. No rental terms had yet been agreed with the Council.A further request that the Director’s report be provided in written form atsubsequent meetings was noted but the Chairman remained of the view thatverbal updates provided the opportunity to capture more immediate and up todate information than that supplied with the agenda papers.RESOLVED that -(1) the minutes of the meeting of the Education Select Committee held on17 January 2012 be confirmed and signed as an accurate record of theproceedings;(2) progress with implementation of the recommendations of the EducationSelect Committee be noted; and(3) the Director’s report be noted.41. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCEApologies for absence were received from Councillor Belinda Donovan,Michele Barrett (Headteacher Representative), Fiona Cook (Parent GovernorRepresentative), Sue Fennimore (Parent Governor Representative) andSuzanne Weston-Peters (Westminster Diocesan Education Service).42. DECLARATIONS OF INTERESTCouncillor Mercy Umeh declared a Personal interest in respect of adiscussion concerning children’s mental health issues under the itemconcerning the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board Annual Report as shewas a volunteer with the West London Mental Health NHS Trust. Since theinterest was not prejudicial Councillor Umeh remained in the meeting andparticipated in the discussion thereon._____________________________________________________________________________________________________Minutes are subject to confirmation at the next meeting as a correct record of the proceedings and any amendments arising willbe recorded in the minutes of that subsequent meeting.
43. LOCAL SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN'S BOARD ANNUAL REPORT 2011The Committee received and considered the Local Safeguarding ChildrensBoard (LSCB) Annual Report for 2010/11. The report set out in detail theactivities of the partner agencies, both individually and collectively, in order tosafeguard and promote the welfare of children within the borough. It alsodealt with governance and accountability arrangements, monitoring andaudits and specific areas for monitoring such as sexual exploitation, earlyintervention and missing children.Members noted the key priorities of the LSCB during the course of the year.These included promotion of improved participation of agencies at coregroups and conferences, reducing long term child protection (CP) plans andincreasing the rate of CP plan removals, analysing re-registrations and multiagency audit work. There had also been a focus on understanding thereasons for the continued high numbers of children subject to CP plans whichhad led to a detailed strategy for more robust and targeted plans. Thenumbers of children with CP plans had now returned to 2008 levels.The Committee was informed that during the course of the year the LSCBhad conducted a serious case review into the death of a 12 year old who hadspent almost 8 years as a Looked After Child, developing a number ofrecommendations and an action plan which Ofsted had evaluated asoutstanding. Following inspection in June 2011 Ofsted had also praised theLSCB for its outstanding partnership working at strategic and operationallevels, its fulfilment of statutory duties, the community and professionalleadership it exercised, its robust auditing of the agencies work and itsdemonstrable commitment to tackling challenging issues.Members also received details of the Board’s future priorities which includeda continuing focus on CP plans, the action plan arising from the Ofstedinspection, implementation of the Munroe Review recommendations andactions from the Serious Case Review relating to Looked After Children. Themain short term priority was to integrate the LSCB into a tri borougharrangement in order to help better share information and best practiceacross the three authorities. A local multi agency group would continue tooperate subsequently.The Chairman welcomed the report, the progress it captured and the honestdisclosure where there were challenges and disappointments. Members tookthe opportunity to enquire further about a range of safeguarding relatedactivities and performance related to the report. In response to thesequestions the Committee was informed that;• Hammersmith & Fulham was 40% above the national average inrelation to the number of permanent placements for children in care.• The high proportion of child protection re-registration in some months(up to 50%) was a difficult indicator to interpret since monthly volumeswere low and open to distortion and it included all those registeredwithin the past 10 years. A more meaningful statistic would be reregistrationwithin 12 months. Overall performance was currently 19%_____________________________________________________________________________________________________Minutes are subject to confirmation at the next meeting as a correct record of the proceedings and any amendments arising willbe recorded in the minutes of that subsequent meeting.
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Education Select Committee - Meetings, agendas and minutes

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