Agenda item

To receive a report from the Head of Democratic Services presenting the formal response to the recommendations arising from the Scrutiny Board’s recent Inquiry ‘Is Leeds a Child Friendly City?’

The report of the Head of Democratic Services presented a formal response to the recommendations arising from the recent Scrutiny Inquiry ‘Is Leeds a Child Friendly City?’

The Inquiry concluded in April 2019 with the Scrutiny Board’s conclusions and recommendations published in August 2019. Appendix 1 of the submitted report provided the formal response from the relevant Directorates for Members’ consideration.

In attendance at the meeting were:

• Councillor Jonathan Pryor – Executive Member for Learning, Skills and Employment
• Councillor Fiona Venner – Executive Member for Children and Families
• Steve Walker – Director of Children and Families
• James Rogers – Director of Communities and Environment
• Sharon Yellin – Chief Officer/ Consultant in Public Health
• Phil Mellen – Deputy Director for Learning
• Sue Rumbold – Chief Officer for Partnerships and Health
• David Feeney – Chief Planning Officer

The Chair expressed his view that this had been a good piece of work by the Scrutiny Board and in general had welcomed the positive responses to the recommendations.

The Board went through each of the recommendations as set out at Appendix 1 of the submitted report with the following key points highlighted:

Recommendation 1:

·  The Board welcomed the ongoing commitment towards exploring engagement opportunities between children and young people and the Scrutiny function in general, which would involve the Youth Voice Summit events where appropriate;

·  It was noted that the Youth Voice Summits during 2020 would be focused on climate change.

Recommendation 2:

·  In welcoming this recommendation, it was acknowledged that a number of reviews were now being undertaken to identify and strengthen engagement links with particular groups of children and young people.

Recommendation 3:

·  Both the Chair and the Director of Children and Families spoke on behalf of the Chief Executive to relay his acceptance and support for this recommendation;

·  As set out within the report, the Board noted the series of actions now being taken that were also linked to the ongoing Corporate Reporting Review.

Recommendation 4:

·  The Chief Planning Officer welcomed this recommendation and confirmed that young people were being fully involved in revising the Council’s Statement of Community Involvement (SCI), which is a statutory document that sets out how the Council consults on planning applications and planning policy documents;

·  It was noted that the new SCI would be open to consultation next year.

Recommendation 5:

·  Acknowledging the close links with recommendation 4, the Chief Planning Officer explained that the revised SCI will have a section dedicated to the engagement of children and young people.  While it was noted that the Council is unable to set out requirements in this regard, the revised SCI is to set out why engagement and consultation with children and young people is important as well as showing how this can be done effectively and will include examples of good practice to inspire.

·  The Board welcomed that the new SCI would also include greater emphasis around early engagement.

Recommendation 6:

·  Reference was made to the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) Your Views annual survey as a potential source of data to identify performance indicators and capture the views of young people in terms of feeling safe from harm. While it was noted that further work is being undertaken by the OPCC to attract more responses from young people, an offer was made by the Director of Children and Families to share good practice advice with the OPCC;

·  Linked to this, particular reference was made to the success of the local My Health, My School (MHMS) survey that is undertaken within schools and the potential to utilise this already embedded approach to help capture any additional information from young people.

Recommendation 7:

·  In welcoming this recommendation, it was highlighted that many of the communication channels already in place to communicate advice and information to parents will be maximised once the mapping of parenting advice and skills has been completed, as set out in recommendation 8.

Recommendation 8:

·  As set out within the report, it was noted that a number of examples of good practices linked to parental engagement have been captured and will be disseminated to help achieve a consistent approach across the city. This will also help inform the development of a parental engagement strategy for the city.

Recommendation 9:

·  Particular reference was made to the development of an Effective School Council Toolkit based on the annual training provided by the Health and Wellbeing Service, which will be made available (at cost) to Leeds schools.

Recommendation 10:

·  As set out within the report, the Board welcomed the ongoing commitment of the Council linked to the ‘You, Me, PSHE’ scheme of work which has been mapped against the new statutory guidance for relationships education and health education.

Recommendation 11:

·  In noting the availability of the findings arising from the recent evaluation of the MindMate Champion programme and MindMate lessons, it was agreed that the Scrutiny Board would be kept updated surrounding the review of the lessons arising from this evaluation.

Recommendation 12:

·  The Board was pleased to note that an event was taking place in the Civic Hall that evening to enable young people to raise relevant issues and concerns directly with local bus providers, including issues on affordable fares, accessibility of buses in Leeds, appropriate conduct of drivers towards young people whilst using public transport and also climate change.  It was highlighted that any recommendations arising from this event would be shared with Scrutiny.

·  The Board’s co-opted representative for Looked After Children and Care Leavers shared a particular suggestion put forward by care leavers which aimed to make travelling to employment and training opportunities across the city more accessible for care leavers.  This involved care leavers utilising any free bus passes that older people would ordinarily be eligible to access but have chosen not to.  The Chief Officer for Partnerships and Health agreed to raise this during the event.

Recommendation 13:

·  It was noted that initial ‘Partners in Play’ meetings have now taken place to help shape the action plan linked to the Play Partnership and that this action plan will be shared with the Scrutiny Board once available.

The Board requested that a further recommendation tracking report be brought to the first meeting of the Children and Families Scrutiny Board in the new municipal year.

RESOLVED –

(a)  To note the content of the report and the formal responses to the recommendations.

(b)  That a further tracking report is scheduled for June 2020 as part of the first meeting of the Children and Families Scrutiny Board in the new municipal year.