The Chief Officer for Service Transform &
Partnership (Children’s and Families) provided the Committee
with a verbal update on the work of the multitude of the services
covered by the directorate.
Phil Evans, The Chief Officer for Service
Transform & Partnership, presented the following information to
Members:
- The Children’s Mayor’s
manifesto had primarily focused on climate change and was a
positive indication for young people and their approach to making
the world a better place.
- The service was listening to
children voices and had developed 12 wishes of Child Friendly
Leeds. Wishes 5, everyone takes more action to protect the
environment from climate change, and 6, children and young
people can travel around the city safely and easily were most
relevant to the Committee.
- To achieve wish 5, long term and
short term goals had been set in order
to create an action plan, promote initiatives and establish targets
and best practice, supporting provision within schools.
- An Eco-Committee Conference, chaired
by the Committee Chair, was scheduled for Monday the
25th of March from 10am to 2pm, which engaged with
secondary schools to set priorities and provide resources. The
Youth Summit on Climate 2020 had been attended by 100 school
students and had help develop a tool kit for climate action for
young people.
- Vital Energi, a large Council contractor, had engaged
with Strawberry Fields and Ireland Wood primary schools to deliver
climate education workshops and was expected to engage with further
schools in Leeds. The ‘get creative for climate’
project had been launched to all Leeds primary schools and projects
were to be submitted by the 12th of July 2024 and were
planned to be showcased to Members.
- The Assets and Access team were
working with the Department for Education to improve building
sustainability and energy efficiency, assisted schools and relevant
estates to create premises development and facilities management
plans.
- The climate impact of commuting to
and from schools was considered and independent travel training was
ongoing to provide diverse travel options to decrease carbon and
transport needs, including plans for investing in specialist
inclusive learning centres. It was noted there were limited options
within social care.
- The further work identified by the
service was to decrease grey fleet milage as it was the highest out
of all Council departments, link up with corporate travel plans,
review travel arrangements for looked after children, provide
travel training and provide ultra low emission vehicles; however, resource
constraints and duty of care implications were noted.
The Committee’s discussions included the
following matters:
- With the vast distance travelled by
the services vehicles, the methods for reducing the need to travel,
through rotas and advanced planning, were queried. In response it
was outlined that work on this was in liaison with Asset Management
to ensure that sites were in the best locations and also providing a larger scope of options where
people can access services, as well as home provision options and
electric vehicles for social workers.
- With reports of poor bus provision
in West Yorkshire, the impact this had on younger people and their
opportunities and attitudes was queried. It was noted that the
evidence showed a wide scope of opinion, mostly anecdotal, and the
main concerns were regarding safety and environmental issues,
however, there was clear frustration with transport provision for
outer areas.
- Changes to improve transport
sustainability were broadly supported and since wish 6 had been
written a wider perspective had developed for travel options to
cause less of a carbon output rather than solely safety and
reliability.
- It was agreed that information
regarding social worker electric vehicle trials was to be provided
back to Members. It was noted that responses had been broadly
positive, but more work was required to capture data, however,
financial and infrastructure challenges may limit provision.
- Details regarding schools and other
relevant sites adaptability to changes in climate, particularly
heatwaves, was to be raised with the Assets and Access Team and
provided back to Members. The approach was covered by the
Department of Education and resource challenges were noted.
- Teacher workshops and best practise
discussions were ongoing and further information was to be provided
back to the Committee. Members noted there was lots of positive
work stemming from schools which could be shared with others and
climate action groups maps could be extended across schools to
network ideas.
- Members were a good bridge to
provide communication regarding the ‘get creative for the
climate’ project to schools and encourage engagement.
- It was noted that the
Children’s Mayor was to attend a future Committee
meeting.
RECOMMENDED – That the update,
along with Members comments, be noted.