Minutes:
General Question 1 from Councillor Carpenter:
“It was very disappointing when Tory-led Government cuts forced this Council to cut back its ground-breaking Apprenticeship Scheme to just 30 places. However, I have heard that there is still a strong demand for creating apprenticeships across the Council. Departments so value the work of the young people recruited to our scheme that, to date, there have been 79 applications across all service areas for the assigned 30 funded places.
Would the Cabinet Member for Regeneration please let us know:
1. what measures are being taken to maximise the number of Council apprenticeships this year;
2. how many have been approved, and
3. what Departments or sections will have apprentices in 2011/12? ”
Response from Councillor McCarthy, Cabinet Member for Regeneration:
"Despite tough financial times, Members remain wholly committed to maximising the impact of apprenticeships in the Borough – both within the Council’s own workforce, and in partnership with others. Direct experience of the workplace with a training allowance, coupled with high quality technical training is an ideal model for many of our young people.
The budget made available for the 2011/12 apprenticeship programme included funding for a 50% salary contribution (total training allowance cost of £7,200 p.a.) for 30 new apprentice starts.
Due to the previous success of the apprenticeship programme, so far a total of 82 requests from LBBD departments have been made. This includes both departments that have recruited apprentices previously, and departments recruiting an apprentice for the first time, broken down as follows:
Customer Services Department:
Landlord Services 9
Waste Services 12
Grounds and Horticulture 5
Cleansing 5
Highways, streets and parking 3
Environmental Health & trading standards 1
Finance and Commercial Services
Insurance 1
Human Resources 2
Assets and Capital Delivery 4
Finance 1
Regeneration, Employment and Skills 1
Children’s Services
Children’s Centres 6
Catering Services 4
14-19 1
Programmes and Projects 2
Adult and Community Services
Community Safety and Public Protection 4
Leisure 2
Adult Care 19
Total 82
To meet the demand from the departments and to ensure more local residents benefit from a range of apprenticeship opportunities, it was decided that the available apprenticeship salary budget should be split equally amongst the departments.
Using this budgeted apprenticeship salary figure to support the recruitment of 82 apprentices, this results in a central Council subsidy contribution of approximately 20% to the overall salary, requiring the recruiting department to fund the remaining 80%.
During 2011/12 to date 12 new apprentices have already been recruited (5 Business Admin, 7 Health and Social Care) and 7 apprenticeships have been created in partnership with Elevate.
Officers in Children’s Services are exploring every opportunity to extend the number of apprenticeships in economically challenging times. These include a programme ready to commence with local pharmacies where 18 places will be created across the Borough.
Equally officers are pro-active in maximising the procurement gains from the letting of major construction contracts. The summary position is as follows:
|
Scheme |
Outcomes |
|
Live |
|
|
Rivergate Centre (Neilcott) |
4 Apprentices |
|
New Build Council Housing (Apollo) |
6 Apprentices |
|
Housing Refurbishment (UHL) |
6 Apprentices |
|
|
16 Apprentices |
|
Pipeline |
|
|
Skills Centre |
4 Apprentices |
|
Barking Riverside tbc |
20 Apprentices (Phase 1) |
|
BSF (revised) |
8 Apprentices |
|
UEL School |
4 Apprentices |
|
FreshWharftbc |
25 Apprentices |
|
|
61 Apprentices |
|
|
77 Apprentices |
The Council is joining with Barking and Dagenham College, Havering College and Havering Council to form an Apprenticeship Training Agency, which will create a “hub” for employers and young people who are interested in benefitting from apprenticeship opportunities. The council’s own scheme will benefit from this arrangement.
Alan Lazell, who is responsible for 14-19 Education, Employment and Training, has provided me with these figures and I will arrange for them to be circulated to Members. Alan is doing a sterling job and I would like to thank him on behalf of the young people."
General Question 2 from Councillor Tarry:
“Could the Cabinet Member for Children and Education comment on the performance of our Children Centres in the light of the results of a number of recent external inspections?”
Response from Councillor R Gill, Cabinet Member for Children and Education:
"We have had three OFSTED inspections of children’s centres thus far. Abbey, Furze and Sue Bramley were all adjudged to be Outstanding. At this point, we are the only local authority with a 100% record of Outstanding inspections.
Inspectors noted the role of the local authority in achieving such high standards. Strong leadership and management and a rigorous self-evaluation programme have ensured that all 18 of our centre remain focussed on outcomes, able to show the impact of all our services on improvements in the lives of young children and their families. We use data effectively to track and analyse the journey of an LBBD child through a children’s centre to Foundation Stage.
Our staff are well-managed and clear about the relationship between their individual targets and those in corporate plans and national strategies. They are clear about lines of accountability, and expectations about children’s centre standards are uniformly high.
There is effective input from a number of centrally-based staff who ensure the right levels of expertise are available across the core offer of family support, health services, jobs and training support, play and communication and day care.
There is a parents’ forum at every centre that ensures parents are able to contribute to the monitoring and evaluation of services. Parent forums are supported to access external funding for additional activities. Many parent forum members look for volunteering opportunities in our centres, then go on to access courses of study or employment. The parent forums are represented at the termly children’s centre community forum meeting to which all elected members are invited.
Our partnerships are strong. Children’s centre service are delivered in conjunction with health, Jobcentre Plus, training partners, day care providers and a number of third sector organisations. Inspectors commented on the ‘seamless and positive’ work with partners evident at all three centres.
There are over 5000 attendances at our children’s centres every week. This figure has grown month-on-month since monitoring began, showing that our residents see children’s centres as hubs for a wide range of community services and activities.
We have just been informed that we have been selected to pilot the Government’s new Payment by Results scheme which will reward high-achieving centres for evidencing the impact of services on children and families. We are currently one of only nine Councils participating in this pilot – another indication that our children’s centres are operating at the very highest level.
I am taking this opportunity to give you some information about education in our borough. We were invited by the Young People's Learning Agency to bid for funding from the Growth Capital Fund. I too would like to thank Alan Lazell, who prepared a bid for Robert Clack School for £3m. The bid was successful which means we will have an extra 150 places in our school sixth forms – this is a fantastic achievement.
Michael Gove – Secretary of State for Education – has just announced that he will be releasing additional capital funding for schools this fiscal year. Details of that funding will be discussed over the summer break and I will inform members of the outcome in due course.
The Secretary of State has acknowledged the need for school places in London and hopefully I will bring you more good news."