Agenda item - Chair's Communications

80.1    The Chair gave the following communication:

I want to start by saying well done to Natasha Watson, who is our committee lawyer. She was recently awarded the significant contribution to Local Government Award at the National Local Government Lawyers award. The comments about Natasha were deservingly gushing and I would like to add in my gushing praise too. We are incredibly lucky to have Natasha supporting our committee and I can’t think of anyone who should have received this award more.

Government reviews & consultations

There are a number of important topics on the agenda today including the schools white paper (which the government kindly published on my birthday in March). Officers have already been looking at the ramifications of this but we thought it was important that councillors had a chance to have a political discussion first today.

Officers are also reviewing the SEND Green Paper which was published in March also and the Social Care review published at the end of May. We will be intending to submit a consultation to the SEND green paper and we expect the social care review will mean some changes to us as a local authority – which makes the early help review on the agenda today ever more urgent.

We know already that we offer good services and I was delighted to visit Roundabout Children’s Centre last week to see the brilliant work they do last week. I would encourage all councillors to try and visit our children’s centres if they can just to see what is on offer.

Corporate Parenting Board

I am pleased following a decision at Policy & Resources committee in May that the Corporate Parenting Board will now report to this committee rather than P&R. I would encourage all councillors to attend these meetings whether they are on CYPS or not – they are not only expertly co-chaired by young people but they are also a real insight into the challenges that our children in care and care leavers face.

As my colleague Cllr Zoe John announced at the meeting last week, we are hoping to find a new name for the board – so please do let us know if you have any suggestions.

The next meeting will be held in September, which I sadly can’t attend as I will be on my honeymoon. But I do hope to hear from those who have attended about what happened at the meeting.

Environmental Education

Councillors will remember that this committee has previously discussed the importance of environmental education. That’s why I’m really pleased that more than 50 school leaders recently attended a sustainability event organised by Brighton & Hove environmental education (BHee).

The day-long ‘Our City, Our World’ conference was held at Varndean School and brought together headteachers, governors, and sustainability leads from local schools across Brighton & Hove.

Coming together gave us an important opportunity to discuss pressing topics for schools such as climate literacy and leadership for sustainability.

As ever, I’m really impressed by the work that goes on in education settings in the city on the climate crisis. I want to pay particular thanks to the 10 schools currently engaging in our pilot project which councillors will receive more information on at a future meeting of this committee.

Pupil admission numbers

I thought it was worth updating that there will be two meetings held in the coming weeks which councillors on the School Organisation Working Group are invited to. One for primary phase and one for secondary phase schools, to discuss the ongoing challenges we have with pupil admission numbers.

These events will give councillors the chance to hear from heads directly and I hope to see you there.

Power of Youth

Finally, last week we celebrated power of youth day and I just wanted to reiterate how much I value the contribution of young people in decision making. Since the last meeting, I was pleased to attend a ‘Youth Manifesto’ event at BYC, where I encouraged young people to get in touch with councillors of all colour rosettes to let them know what matters to them.

In a few weeks time, we will be hosting Youthwise at BMECP centre and I hope to see some councillors this event too to hear directly from our city’s young people.