Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED -  That the minutes of the meeting held on Monday 18 June 2018 be agreed as a correct record.

Report of the Strategic Director, Communities and Environment and the Strategic Director, Care Wellbeing and Learning

Following the agreement of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee that the focus of the review for 2018/19 would be work to address skills shortages and increase employment opportunities.

The review will look to help the Committee to have a holistic view of the current skills and employment position and the challenges we face both now and in the future.  The Committee will also consider how the Council and/or its partners currently work, highlight gaps in provision and identify more effective partnership working opportunities for the benefit of Gateshead residents.

The scoping report for the review was agreed on 18 June and today’s session will include presentations from Jan Batchelor, Childcare Support Lead Officer and Ryan Gibson, National Facilitator, Careers Education, North East Local Enterprise Partnership.

The Committee first received a presentation from Jan Batchelor.  Jan advised the Committee that a Government Report – Unlocking Talent, Fulfilling Potential: a plan for improving social mobility through education in December 2017 advised that in our country today, where you start still all too often determines where you finish.  And whilst talent is spread evenly across the country, opportunity is not.  The plan set an overarching ambition: no community left behind.

It was also noted in the report that across the country, less-advantaged children fall behind their more affluent peer in the early years and the gaps widen throughout school and beyond.  Opportunity breeds opportunity and while advantage accumulates, so too does early disadvantage.

The Government has 4 stated ambitions

1.    Close the ‘word gap’ in the early years

2.    Close the attainment gap in school while continuing to raise standards for all

3.    High quality post-16 education choices for all young people

4.    Everyone achieving their full potential in rewarding careers

The Effective pre-school, primary and secondary education project (June 2015) was instrumental in the development of the government’s social mobility and education plan:  Its key findings were:

·         Pre-school has a positive and long term impact on children’s attainment, progress and social-behavioural development

·         At school entry (age 5), attending pre-school improved children’s academic and social outcomes with an early start (before 3 years of age) and attending a high quality setting being particularly beneficial.

·         At age 11, high quality pre-school was especially important for boys, pupils with SEND and those from disadvantaged backgrounds through enhanced maths outcomes for disadvantaged pupils and for those of low qualified parents.

At age 14, (Key Stage 3), those who attended high quality pre-school had higher attainment and better social-behavioural development.  By age 16 (Key stage 4) attending a high quality pre-school predicted better GCSE results.

In terms of Early Education and Childcare in Gateshead, research has shown the importance of high quality provision in improving outcomes for children.

Within Gateshead 96% of childminders and 100% of private, voluntary and independent nurseries, pre-schools and out of school clubs have been graded by Ofsted as either “good” or “outstanding”.

The Childcare Act 2006 and 2016 (CAO6/16) places a duty on Local Authorities to “secure sufficient childcare, so far as  ...  view the full minutes text for item CPL10

Report of the Strategic Director, Communities and Environment

The Committee received an update report on progress made since the final report was submitted to the Committee on 18 June 2018.  The final report was taken to Cabinet in July.

Highway Maintenance

A specific members seminar has been arranged on this issue for 10 October.  A progress report will be prepared for the OSC for the meeting in March 2019.

Short term funding measures in relation to closing the funding gap include:

·         Achieving the top level in the Department for Transports performance assessment approach which meant the risk of a cut of £138,000 has been averted.

·         A review of practice in relation to road repairs to examine if there is further scope for streamlining and efficiencies

Options are under consideration for keeping members informed better in terms of highway defects and repairs and other transport ward issues.

Enforcement of Traffic Restrictions/Benefits of Joint Working with the Police.

At the conclusion of the review the Chair of the OSC wrote to the Police and Crime Commissioner on these matters.  The Crime Commissioner forwarded the issue to the Chief Constable and the Service Director is undertaking correspondence with Sgt Sykes.

A members seminar took place on Speed Awareness on 5 September.

The issue of pavement parking is still undergoing discussions, currently this is something which can only be enforced by the Police. Officers are looking at whether new Anti Social Behaviour Legislation can be used.  Councillors were also invited to identify hot sports within their ward and the police could perhaps park a car to assist in acting as a deterrent.

RESOLVED –             (i)         That the progress made be noted.

                                    (ii)         That further progress reports be provided in due course.

Report of the Chief Executive and the Strategic Director. Corporate Services and Governance

The work programme report was presented to Committee.  Changes to the work programme are highlighted in italics and a subject to agreement with the Chair and Vice Chair of the Committee.

RESOLVED -  That the report be noted.