The agenda for this meeting was for the committee to note a number of reports on the performance of the council's Children and Young People’s Services, as well as for them to consider the council's proposed budget reductions.

Proposed Budget Reductions

The committee were asked to note the proposed changes to the council's budget, and to provide feedback to the Public Accounts Select Committee. The proposals include £5.833m of General Fund savings and £0.163 of Housing Revenue Account¹ savings. The report included for discussion describes the severe financial constraints imposed on the council due to government cuts:

Very severe financial constraints have been imposed on Council services with significant reductions made year on year for over a decade.

The report also suggests that the council may need to use its reserves to set a balanced budget in 2025/26.

The report includes for discussion explains that Lewisham Council has received requests from the Metropolitan Police to reduce the cost of providing school transport for children and young people with Special Educational Needs. The council will stop providing transport on two routes, although no pupils currently use these routes. The report states that alternative transport arrangements may be offered to these pupils.

The report also includes a proposal to increase the fees charged to residents for using council owned garages. This is because garage fees in Lewisham are lower than in other London Boroughs. A full review of the council's garage portfolio is scheduled.

Lewisham Council is also proposing to stop providing funding for local assemblies, although these are enshrined in the council's Constitution. This decision has been taken because there are concerns that assemblies are not the most effective way of engaging residents.

Assemblies are a commitment in the Council’s Constitution. ... Over time Assemblies have become an important mechanism by which we engage formally with residents. However, there have been concerns that Assemblies are not the best mechanism for delivering community engagement as they generally engage residents who are already democratically engaged and not those more representative of our diverse communities.

The report describes that a previous proposal to reduce the number of assemblies was rejected because of the redundancy costs it would have incurred.

The report also describes a proposal to reduce the subsidy the council loses when it pays housing benefit to certain supported accommodation providers. These include charities, not for profit landlords and specialist interest groups.

To review HB claims from a number of providers of supported accommodation including those who are charities, not for profit landlords or specialist interest groups and where possible, encourage them to change their status to one that negates a financial impact for the Council or look at options for withdrawing HB payments where the subsidy is not sufficient to cover the cost to the Council.

The report notes that this could increase demand for temporary accommodation.

If housing providers evict tenants rather than allow them to stay based on lower levels of housing support from universal credit claims, there may be increased demand for accommodation through Lewisham’s homelessness service.

The report also included for discussion sets out the council's plans to work with Believ to install electric vehicle charging points on council owned land. Believ will fund the installation of the charging points. Because the locations of the charging points have not been decided, the impact of this scheme on residents cannot yet be assessed.

This Project requires detailed conversation with the funders (Believ) to ensure Housing is able to access funding as other local authorities have. ... Impact on residents is not identified and addressed. The EEA will need to particularly address the potential impact on disabled residents.

The council is proposing to increase the price of its leisure centre concessions by 10%, and to reduce the provision of concessions by introducing a minimum 2% price increase for pay-as-you-go activities. The report states that the council will encourage residents to find more affordable ways of staying active.

Advise residents on more affordable methods of keeping fit and undertaking physical activity e.g., walking for health.

The report also notes the potential negative impact on physical and mental health from residents reducing their activity levels, and the potential for reputational damage to the council.

The report sets out the council's proposal to reduce the amount it spends on providing additional one-to-one support to residents in care homes.

These savings are in addition to those already identified for 24/25 Care Home Reviews of 1-1 additional support. Robust reviewing processes are helping to ensure that only support that continues to be needed for individuals is provided.

The report notes that a similar proposal was included in the council's Medium Term Financial Strategy.

Lewisham Council is proposing to save money by reducing the number of qualified social workers in the borough by 10, and to replace them with practitioners with alternative qualifications. This proposal is being made because of changes to national policy, which no longer requires social workers to be the lead practitioner for ‘Children in Need’. The report suggests that this would reduce the council's reliance on agency staff.

Responding to new permissions set out in revised statutory guidance and enabled by the Families First Pathfinder (FFP) programme, the safeguarding social work workforce across the CYP Directorate is being realigned to adopt a different operating model and will be reducing the number of Qualified Social Workers (QSW) in the establishment by 10 posts, replaced by alternatively qualified practitioners.

Lewisham Council is also proposing to save money by delivering its youth services in-house.

This proposal outlines potential savings of £300k from the Youth Services budget over a two-year period, detailing the implications and possible mitigations. The saving would be achieved through the redesign of the new Youth Offer following the agreement to deliver a new youth strategy for Lewisham, including bringing the delivery of youth service in-house – and working with other providers/funding streams to provide a more joined up youth offer.

The report explains that the council will redesign its youth offer and work in partnership with other providers to offset any potential reduction in services that could result from this decision.

In Year two an additional saving of £200k is proposed. While some off this will be offset against existing back-office costs, as it stands this has the potential to impact on front line delivery. ... Through the Youth Alliance it is expected that other sources of funding will ensure that there is a wide and rich youth offer available for Lewisham young people.

The report also included for discussion sets out the council’s plans to make further savings from its Housing Revenue Account. The council is proposing to rationalise its bulk waste collections to make them more efficient. This would involve using larger vehicles, and a move towards an appointments-based system for collections. The report states that this proposal will require extensive resident engagement.

The report also included for discussion sets out a proposal to make the council's Grounds Maintenance Services more environmentally sustainable. This would be achieved by introducing more ‘no mow’ and restricted mowing areas, which would reduce the council's fuel consumption and increase biodiversity.

Unvalidated Outcomes 2024 Standards Report

The report included for discussion sets out the provisional, unvalidated results for Lewisham primary and secondary schools, comparing performance to national and regional data where it is available. It notes that early years outcomes have remained positive, and phonics continues to improve. The report describes that performance at Key Stage 2 is above the national average. The report states that a team of 'Lewisham Professional Partners' have been working with schools across the borough to support improvements.

Lewisham Attendance and Children Missing Education

The report included for discussion sets out Lewisham's current performance on school attendance, persistent absence, and children missing education. It explains that new statutory guidance from the Department for Education came into effect in August 2024. This guidance requires local authorities to provide a core attendance support service to all schools, regardless of their status.

In March 2024 the Department for Education (DfE) announced the white paper ‘Working together to Improve School Attendance’ will become statutory from August 2024. This means all schools regardless of status will receive a core service from Lewisham attendance service.

The report states that Lewisham will have to monitor the attendance of all Lewisham pupils and identify area-wide barriers to attendance. The report explains that Lewisham Council will provide a range of services to schools to help them improve attendance, including attendance surgeries, network meetings and an attendance advice line. The report explains that Lewisham schools performed better than the national average in 2023/24. The report describes the council's use of Studybugs² to monitor school attendance. The report included for discussion describes the council's work with the Sir William Boreman's Foundation, which provides charitable funding to support children’s attendance at school in Lewisham and Greenwich. The fund has been used to purchase uniforms and school journeys for pupils.

The report included for discussion sets out the work of the council's Children Missing Education (CME) Service. It explains that the service continues to reduce the time it takes to close cases, and that 65% of referrals are because families have moved into or out of the borough.

The CME Service continues to reduce the time of closing cases within a three-month period, it is now at 99 per cent. The rise in “not known / refused” ethnicity is a concern which will need to be further investigated.

The report also describes a new protocol that was introduced to ensure that children who are receiving a reduced timetable are being provided with their full entitlement to education.

Exclusions and Managed Transfers

The report included for discussion sets out Lewisham’s performance on fixed term and permanent exclusions from schools. The report explains that Lewisham schools perform better than the national average. It also explains that Lewisham Council uses managed transfers as an alternative to permanent exclusions, where the pupil is transferred to the Lewisham Pupil Referral Unit or another alternative provision. The report states that persistent disruptive behaviour and verbal and physical assault against adults were the most common reasons for exclusion in 2023/24.

Youth Justice Service Inspection Findings

The report included for discussion sets out the findings of an inspection of Lewisham's Youth Justice Service by HM Inspectorate of Probation. The overall judgement was ‘Good’, although the service was asked to improve how it uses and analyses performance data, to ensure that its quality assurance processes are consistently applied, and to improve risk and safety practices.

Access, Inclusion and Participation: Lewisham school admissions and Fair Access arrangements

The report included for discussion sets out the work of the council's School Admissions and Appeals service, and its work with the Lewisham Fair Access Panel.

The report explains that demand for secondary school places in Lewisham is high and that, in the 2024/25 academic year, five secondary schools were required to admit pupils over their Published Admission Numbers.

There were 221 Lewisham residents without a school place (who were unlikely to be offered a school place within Lewisham or out of the borough) before the end of the iterative process. Lewisham had to strategically increase secondary schools’ places available to meet the need.

The report describes that over 1000 Lewisham children will be attending secondary schools in neighbouring boroughs in September 2024.

The report also explains that the council is continuing to coordinate in-year admissions to Lewisham schools, although it is no longer legally required to do so. The report notes that Lewisham Council receives a high number of late applications for school places each year, and explains the challenges this presents to the service.

Late for good reason includes applicants who have recently moved into the area or where a parent has been hospitalised and not able to make an application on time. Those who apply ‘late’ often include siblings of older children and may not qualify for their preference of school and will be offered the closest alternative. There were further complications with late applications and parents wishing to change their preference schools on their application due to the Grammar schools testing applicants later in line with DfE guidance on Covid.

The report states that Lewisham Council received 184 requests for a priority secondary school place based on medical or social need, and a further 256 similar requests for primary schools. None of the secondary requests were agreed, and only one of the primary requests was agreed. The report proposes a consultation on removing the medical/social criteria from Lewisham's admissions arrangements.

The report also included for discussion describes the work of the Lewisham Fair Access Panel, which is responsible for allocating school places to vulnerable and hard to place pupils. The report explains that the new School Admissions Code has restricted the criteria for referring pupils to the Fair Access Panel, and requires decisions to be made more quickly.

A new Admissions Code which came into effect on 1st September 2021 has tightened what cases can be discussed at the Fair Access Panel, to further strengthen and protect the most vulnerable pupils. Full details of the Fair Access placements are reported in the Fair Access Annual Report 2023/2024.

The report explains that demand for places at Rockbourne Park School³ remains high, and that a large proportion of the panel's work relates to pupils who are unable to access a mainstream school place.

Select Committee work programme

The Committee reviewed its work programme and confirmed the agenda items for the next meeting.