Agenda and draft minutes

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Venue: Skype Meeting

Contact: Samantha Parker  Tel: 01772 538221, Email  sam.parker@lancashire.gov.uk

Note: This is a meeting of both Children's Services Scrutiny and Education Scrutiny Committees 

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillor Christine Melia, Mrs Janet Hamid and Mr John Withington.

 

 

 

2.

Disclosure of Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

Minutes:

None were disclosed.

 

3.

Minutes of the Children's Services Scrutiny Committee meeting held 26 February 2020 pdf icon PDF 93 KB

Minutes:

Resolved: The minutes of the Children's Services Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 26 February 2020 were agreed.

 

4.

Minutes of the Education Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 3 March 2020 pdf icon PDF 97 KB

Minutes:

Resolved: The minutes of the Education Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 3 March 2020 were agreed.

 

5.

Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Lancashire pdf icon PDF 21 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed Edwina Grant, OBE, Executive Director of Education and Children’s Services; Hilary Fordham, Chief Operating Officer, Morecambe Bay CCG; and Sharon Hubber, Director of Children’s Social Care to the meeting. Also welcomed to the meeting were Ambarin and Oscar (Youth Parliament representatives).

 

Ambarin and Oscar gave the committee a verbal presentation on their experiences during lockdown. Members were advised that young people had experienced an increase in mental health and wellbeing issues like stress, loneliness and worry. Also there were feelings of boredom and feeling trapped.

 

The Childhood Trust had reported that the lockdown had been extremely difficult for children as they no longer had access to support at school or other organisations.

It was reported that many young people were talking to their friends online but young people without social media were finding lockdown difficult not being able to see their friends.

It was felt that the impact of the lockdown had increased the level of anxiety for pupils. It was reported that they felt they were not receiving proper education and there was panic and confusion as they did not know what their exams would be like.

Members were advised that pupils who were at school felt trapped. There was no movement as they had to remain at their desks. This affected primary school children more as they did not understand the situation.

One of the biggest problems for young people was motivating themselves and putting the work in with children not going back to school until September feeling they were falling behind. Members felt that motivation was an important issue and enquired if there had been particular support measures from schools that had worked well. Some schools had set up online support using Microsoft Teams where pupils were able to communicate with their teachers. Another program used was Show My Homework. There was also recorded lessons for pupils. It was felt schools should increase their care of online learning. There should also be catch up sessions for pupils who did not do the work during lockdown.

It was reported that there was uncertainty amongst Year 11 pupils regarding GCSEs and how everyone was going to be graded and what going to college would be like. Another problem for Year 10 pupils was that they were having to teach themselves some of the course modules and concerns that they might not understand the work or interpret it incorrectly.

It was stated that there is a need to get pupils back to school as quickly as possible without causing a second outbreak in Lancashire.

The committee enquired if there was any way it could ask the young people of Lancashire what they would like. It was pointed out that many schools had websites that questionnaires could be sent to. The committee could also communicate with the youth councils.  The committee asked if officers could look into this. It was also felt that the county council could write to the schools asking them to engage more with the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 208 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The committee was informed that a single combined work programme for all of the Lancashire County Council scrutiny committees was currently being formulated. A draft copy of the work programme was presented.

 

The topics included were identified at a work planning workshop for members of the Internal Scrutiny Committee held on 29 May 2020.

 

The committee felt it was important to get the perspectives of service users, especially from young people and parents for a future meeting. Particularly through lockdown and what was needed to catch up on their education. It was important to find out what support was needed for children, young people and parents. It was also vital to look at children's social care.

 

 

 

Resolved: That;

 

  i.  The perspectives of children, young people and their parents be obtained as part of the work programme going forward in order to understand the support needed for them.

  ii.  The Scrutiny Officers be delegated the development and delivery of this work programme, identifying appropriate methods of scrutiny, in consultation with the Chairs.

  iii.  The work programmes (2019/20) of the current Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Committees be temporarily suspended and for these to be kept under review.

 

7.

Urgent Business

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member’s intention to raise a matter under this heading.

Minutes:

There were no items of Urgent Business.

 

8.

Date of the Next Meeting

The next scheduled meeting of the Children's Services Scrutiny Committee is due to be held at 10.30am on the 2 September 2020.

 

The next scheduled meeting of the Education Scrutiny Committee is due to be held at 10.30am on the 10 November 2020.

 

Minutes:

The next meeting of the Children's Services Scrutiny Committee was due to be held at 10:30am on Wednesday 2 September 2020.

 

The next meeting of the Education Scrutiny Committee was due to be held at 10:30am on Tuesday 10 November 2020.