Voluntary Sector Children and Youth Forum

Minutes of the meeting held at Half Moon

Wednesday 15th March 2017

Present: 10

Welcome & Introductions

Eleanor Image, as Chair for this meeting, welcomed everyone to the meeting. She thanked Half Moon Young People’s Theatre for hosting the meeting.

Half Moon’s work with children and young people in Tower Hamlets

Beccy Allen welcomed everyone to Half Moon and described their work. Please see information at https://www.halfmoon.org.uk/about-us/

Liaison with Christine McInnes, Service Head Education and Partnerships, Children’s Services LBTH

Christine talked about huge changes across the council; the budget reductions have had a huge impact and the local authority will look different. They have developed ‘Smarter Together’ to look at all aspects that can be more efficient. The change is taking up time and resources.

Ofsted has inspected Children’s Social Care and the draft report was expected soon, with the final report to be published mid-April. The inspection didn’t go well and there will be a lot of work to get back on track. Christine anticipates the Ofsted report will likely trigger an inspection of the Youth Offending Team too and perhaps also a SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) inspection which will be intensive. The last time SEND was looked at was in 2004 and now special needs provision does not reflect statutory requirements, and so there is a large piece of work to develop a new strategy. When it’s ready, Christine would like to send out to VCS organisations, and parents over the summer, with a formal consultation in the autumn. In Tower Hamlets, the Education and Health Care (EHC) Plan demands are going up rapidly and budgets are remaining the same-how do we make it work? Members asked that consultation goes to those that perhaps wouldn’t usually contribute.

Christine offered to send the draft strategy to Forum members. LBTH will do informal consultation first and then a formal consultation so there are opportunities for discussion.

The youth service restructure has just finished the formal consultation and it is being shared with staff. Christine’s section is also restructuring the careers service as there has been a reduction in European funding. There has been a strategic decision to move to an integrated employment service from the Council, and the careers service is also moving to that. Also the Secondary School Improvement Team which was traditionally funded by schools who now don’t wish to pay, has been deleted. The Early Years Service restructure is ongoing-Pauline Hoare has been appointed Head of Service. They are seeking clarity around commissioning. The recent council meeting agreed a budget which included commitments to a Voluntary and Community Sector Strategy and a Mayoral Growth Priority which include a commitment for £120,000 per year for 3 years for early years. There is however no budget available for commissioning.

Christine commented that the monitoring for grants is not going to be reviewed in the near future, even if disproportionate. The VCS Strategy moves from grant-giving to commissioning which will be more proportionate. However, Christine recognised that requests for too much detail may not help, and will check on why so much detail.

Actions / Whom responsible
Encourage feedback on SEND consultation when published / all
Follow up re detailed MSG monitoring / Alex to contact Christine

Next meeting date:

The next meeting will be in May.