Agenda item - Chair's Communications

17.1    The Chair gave the following communication:

          Firstly, attendees will note that Deb Austin, Executive Director for    Families, Children and Learning is not here today. This is because it’s her birthday and she is taking some very well-deserved leave. In her          absence, Jo Lyons is here to provide assistance, and of course, will be         able to answer any questions. I’m sure everyone here would like to wish           Deb a very happy birthday.

          We have a few new Committee members joining us today. Becky           Robinson is the new chair of PACC, and Matilda Whisker is our new youth representative. Thank you to both           Diana Boyd and Louise Brown     for their contributions to the Committee. Alongside Matilda and          Becky, I’d also like to welcome Emma, who is our new Democratic     Services Officer for this Committee – so welcome to you all and thank           you for joining us. 

          Government turmoil over the last few months has meant considerable delays to projects which have a real impact on the city. We await further         information on the so called ‘Local Authority’ Multi-Academy Trusts, which we had intended to bring to the January           Committee, but now can    no longer given that we don’t have that information, as well as    more than the initial response for the Government to the Care Review,           or indeed, whether those plans will go forward at all.

          There are some urgent things that children and young people need resolving and so far, dither and delay has meant that urgency hasn’t been met. I am also concerned about the impact of cuts to services in         the planned budget next week for children and       young people. Twelve        years of austerity has not only let our city down, but it has failed. As we           head into our own budget setting process over the next few months, I          urge the Government to answer calls from the Local Government       Association to Save our Services – many of which, support children   and young people.

          When local councils are trusted and funded to deliver services for our       communities – we   deliver. Last month I visited our Adult Education           Hub, which opened last July. Here we deliver lots of courses for adult learners – whether that is ESOL, digital, maths, wellbeing, or      employability. In that visit I also met with some of those who’ve used the     centre – including refugees from Ukraine and other parts of the world. If           I ever needed convincing further, it’s clear that we are doing excellent        work there that we can all be proud of, and I want to commend the team        on their excellent work. You can view the range of courses we offer at           https://adulteducation.brighton-hove.gov.uk.

          I’ve also visited our Adolescent Service and met with some of the young   people who are using that service. This team includes our Youth    Offending Service, who were inspected as Outstanding last year, and ru-ok? They all do great work, working with young people, who are both victims and perpetrators of crime, and really are a team to be proud of.

          I was really pleased that at the last Committee we had such a good discussion about children in care and fostering placements. As corporate parents, we all have a responsibility for our children and young people           who are in care or care experienced, and we have to do everything we can to support them. To that end, I am looking forward to Corporate           Parenting Board next week, which we sadly delayed in September due       to the passing of Her Majesty the Queen, and I hope to see you there.

          I also wanted to highlight that this week we have launched a new website         for Our City, Our World, our environmental education programme        showing what pioneering work is           being done in Brighton and Hove schools. I want to thank all of those involved in       delivering that, not   least, Katie and Mita. If you would like to visit that website and see      the           offer that we provide to schools, and some of the work that schools are       doing on the topic of environmental education, you can go to    ourcityourworld.co.uk.

          I expect we may hear more about this later – but I also wanted to      highlight and congratulate Georgia and Deneb, who were in the House      of Commons chamber last Friday as our members of UK Youth Parliament. I am sure they had an excellent day – and I know from   watching parts of the debate that they represented the city and our     young people well. Councillors can watch the debates back on the UK           Parliament YouTube channel – it’s about two and a half hours and I   recommend watching bits of it if you can.

          Councillors will remember that last year, this Committee heard a report         on our response to the Power of Youth Charter. Part of that commitment included mentoring being           offered by Councillors to young people. I’m       delighted to say that the finer details of this scheme have now been           worked out and Councillors on this Committee will very soon   receive an     invitation to take part in a pilot with members of youth council. This pilot will enable us to fine tune the scheme, ready for wider roll-out, both of Councillors and of young people, after the May 2023 local elections, and           I hope that you would all take part in that scheme.

          Finally, this week is Youth Work week and I want to both celebrate that,         and encourage Councillors, if they can, to attend some youth work     sessions that are happening this           week across the city to see the real        impact of youth work on our young people.