Minutes:
Question 1
From Councillor Dulwich
“What has the Council been able to do to prepare for Brexit”?
Response from the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Community Leadership and Engagement.
We are a borough with rapid population change, acute deprivation and inequality of outcomes compared to the rest of London, meaning that any negative economic outcome as a result of Brexit is likely to have a significant impact, especially leaving without a deal. This is something this Council takes very seriously. To combat this the Council has continued to seek to attract new investment for the Borough. Furthermore, the Council’s current capital programme does not include any existing scheme in receipt of EU funding.
The Council has been preparing for all eventualities. We have been working in close partnership with other London Councils. We have also created a risk log which has sought to prepare for every eventuality and lists various areas of concern including with suppliers and contractors and which officers have been monitoring over the past months. The main areas of risk around which we have been taking mitigating actions include dealing with shortages of food and fuel, doubling our efforts on wider community engagement and participation, and ensuring our workforce including social care workers, many of which are EU nationals, have been provided with information and support on applying for settled status in the UK so as to minimise possible disruption.
Question 2 from Councillor P Bright
“Can the Cabinet Member for Educational Attainment & School Improvement update the Assembly on this year’s GCSE and A level results in the Borough”?
Response from Cabinet Member for Educational Attainment & School Improvement.
The Cabinet Member for Educational Attainment & School Improvement reminded the Assembly that our schools are not just exam factories. They are inclusive places where students of all abilities & backgrounds attend & learn together, offering a rich curriculum with nationally revered cultural education as well as health programmes.
Turning to this year’s results the exam specifications at GCSE and A level are still relatively new. They are tougher and mainly based on final exams with little coursework. A full report submitted would be presented to Cabinet in November 2019 once the Council had national comparative information on exam results.
Early results for Barking and Dagenham schools show a solid improvement on the headline measure of grades 9-5 as well as 9-4 in English and Mathematics which on the whole comparable with national averages. There had been some outstanding results across the various schools, the highlights including six students having achieved a ‘clean sweep’ of seven grade 9’s and several students gaining six grade 9’s.
The new A level exams have proved challenging both locally and nationally and with some falls on the headline indicators, so there had been a more mixed picture this year. Despite this challenging context Headteachers had reported that most students had achieved the grades to go on to their intended destinations, with increasing success for our students in gaining entry to the more competitive universities. The Cabinet Member summarised a number of successes across the various borough schools.
Question 3 from Councillor Perry
“What developments have we seen since the announcement that Barking & Dagenham is the preferred option for the three markets of London”?
Response from Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Social Housing.
Following recent misinformation on the reporting of the preferred location, the good news is that it has now been confirmed that the three markets will occupier the site of the former power station site at Dagenham Dock. Since the announcement the City of London (CoL) had been working with the Council and Be First on a number of work strands. Good progress is being made on a Memorandum of Understanding between all parties to ensure a shared vision for the markets’ location and its delivery. This is very important seeing as the host borough the Council would want to secure the maximum benefits whilst seeking to minimise the disruption to residents.
Pre-planning applications meetings are underway with the objective of an outline planning application being submitted next Spring. As part of this process more stakeholder consultation is being planned. CoL are carrying out initial research into the feasibility of removing redundant powerlines as well as drawing up an approach to the remediation of the former power station site.
The public consultation which closed on 6 August has 252 responses which were largely positive, albeit not surprisingly many had concerns about increased traffic on the local road network especially the A13. CoL favour maximising the use of the River Thames as a transport solution. The Council already had ambitious plans to improve the particular section of the A13, and it was hoped this project would provide the impetus with the appropriate agencies.
Work is also looking at the scope for a Food College to benefit local students to obtain the appropriate qualifications so as to secure good jobs on the food industry.
A further briefing will come before members in a few months at which amongst other things the design of the buildings will be discussed, there being a desire of both the Council and CoL to achieve an iconic design that everybody can be proud of.
Question 4 from Councillor Oluwole
“Since its’ opening in May as the first Youth Zone in London, how successful has the Future Youth Zone been in engaging young people from across the Borough”?
Response from the Leader of the Council
Since April, when His Royal Highness Prince Harry, officially opened the Future Youth Zone 4,500 young people have taken out membership with more than 1,600 visits a week. On average young people from the borough had made over 20,000 visits, of which nearly 20% received free school meals.
A vital role of the Youth Zone is to raise civic pride and encourage young people to give something back to the community, on top of providing a safe and vibrant place to go to outside of home and school.
This is the very first Youth Zone in London, and yet another reason for Barking & Dagenham being on the map for new innovative thinking and good practice. So far, there had been visits from the Mayor of London, the former Home Secretary (now Chancellor) and the current Home Secretary, as well as a host of other people who want to see for themselves the work the Youth Zone is doing. The Leader had written to both the Chancellor and the Home Secretary calling on the Government to support a Youth Zone model and a national network across the rest of the country. It was no coincidence that the Chancellor name dropped Future Youth Zone in his speech on the Spending Review last week.
The Leader took the opportunity to announce today that the Council had already starting to invest time and effort (but not Council monies) in developing a second Youth Zone in the Borough, giving young people the best start in life to become the leaders of tomorrow.
Supplementary question - Councillor Oluwole asked that as a Champion of good health would the Leader in collaboration with the Cabinet Member for Educational Attainment & School Improvement approach CUC London to include sports science courses.
The Leader stated that the Youth Zone was only one element of a whole educational package which when taken together would provide the Borough’s young people the best facilities possible. The Council had invested £m’s in our Schools, the family of which needs to remain together and managed in such a way that it maximises young peoples’ learning opportunities together with CUC London, with whom the Council had been in regular contact. The University continued to look at the best provision of courses which included providing bespoke programmes for young teachers and social workers as well as working with the NHS and doctors. This would also include sports science courses.