The Sub-Committee will receive a presentation informing it of the financial challenges faced by Learning and Achievement and Children’s Services.
Minutes:
Children’s Services officers explained that a further 3,000 children were expected to arrive into Havering’s primary schools. These projections were based on known housing developments in the borough, once the scale of these developments was known. A rise in secondary school children was also now being projected.
Havering was the only London borough with a rising birth rate and had London’s largest net inflow of children into the borough. Havering was also the only London borough with rising levels of deprivation. The main reason for the population growth was the availability of relatively cheap housing in Havering. The numbers of child protection plans and looked after children were also increasing, putting a lot of demand on services.
The Council used to receive a range of specific grants for important projects such as the Early Intervention Grant but these had been significantly reduced. This had also been seen in reductions to the Dedicated Schools Grant.
There were currently 21,000 children in Havering primary schools, 15,000 in secondaries and 6,000 in Early Years settings. There were also around 250 children in secondary schools although officers explained that the vast majority of Special Educational Needs (SEN) children were in mainstream schools. Eight mainstream schools had additional provision for SEN children e.g. facilities for deaf pupils at Hacton Primary.
There were approximately 320 Early Years providers in Havering. Very few nurseries were attached to mainstream schools as there was not the capital funding available to build these.
Statutory services such as the provision of new education places and school quality assurance functions were funded by the Dedicated Schools Grant and core Council funding. As more schools became Academies, this had resulted in cuts to the Education Support Grant and the total grant reduction for Children’s Services in 2015 had totalled £1.8 million.
Some non-statutory services had been converted into traded services and schools were able to purchase services such as finance support, catering and education HR. Trade was also undertaken with schools across South East England and it was suggested that officers could report on this in more detail at a future meeting.
Saving proposals include £100,000 from discontinuing the meals on wheels service and £400,000 from services for children and adults with disabilities. The method for achieving the latter saving was currently being discussed.
Budget pressures included a review of transport for SEN children (which could be reported to the Sub-Committee) and Havering not receiving the full funding required for school expansions.
The Children and Young People’s Service (CYPS) covered areas including Children in Need, Child Protection Plans, Children in Care, Adoption and Early Help. A rise of 25% in referrals into Social Care was expected this year with large rises also being seen in the number of children with Child Protection Plans and the number of social worker assessments completed. The number of Looked after Children in Havering had however decreased slightly. The number of families using the Early Help service had increased by 22%.
Budget pressures in CYPS included the cost of using agency workers and the cost of placements for Children in Care. There were currently 70 agency social workers in Havering (29% of the total workforce) which cost £4.3 million annually. If 25 social workers could be converted to permanent status, this would save the Council £1 million. Officers recognised however that this was both a national and London-wide problem.
A reorganisation of the Early Help service would save £900,000 over three years. £1.8 million had been allocated for cost pressures arising from Looked After Children and £1.1 million for staffing establishment costs. Officers wanted the Early Help service to offer more sophisticated support to families which would reduce the need for support from social workers.
The service’s staffing structure would be reviewed over the next year and it was confirmed that Havering was on target to recruit 25 new foster carers by the next financial year.