Agenda item - Chair's Communications

49.1    The chair gave the following communication:

          I’d first like to welcome Leon who is my mentee from the mentoring     scheme for councillors as part of the Power of Youth Charter.

          As this is the last Committee before the local elections, I wanted to use         my chair’s communications today to reflect on some of the things I’m   most proud of in the nearly three years that I’ve been chair. Although it     started slightly rocky with the closure of the Friends Centre within my          first week, I believe that adult education in this city has a bright future           through the Adult Education Hub. This truly excellent council-run service is supporting adults to learn, including refugees, in our city. Our Youth    Council is now bigger than it was when I first became chair and full of           excellent young people and our Care Leavers Forum is taking a leading           role in our Corporate Parenting Board. We launched our Fairer Brighton        & Hove framework, which links together work tackling           those who face        barriers. The Youth Employment Hub is excellent, and I really hope the           Department for Work and Pensions continue funding this beyond the end       of the year.

          In April, some of our children’s centres are transitioning to family hubs   which means they will support children and young people up to the age          of 19 rather than 5. Our Youth Offending Service received an     Outstanding inspection in all twelve categories, which is incredibly      rare. Our Anti-Racist Education Strategy and the recruitment of the   country’s first ever Anti-Racist Lead Practitioner in social work. Our Trans Inclusion Schools Toolkit was reviewed, and version 4 continues           to make the lives of young trans people better. We fought           academisation at Moulsecoomb, even though unsuccessfully and we       will fight it at West Blatchington. We lobbied the Government, and we even caused our very own Boris Johnson to u-turn over school        closures in January 2021. Our City, Our World has seen so much work     going on in schools on environmental education which you will hear more about later on today. We got home to school transport back           on track. We became the first council to sign up to the Power of       Youth Charter.

          I have had the pleasure as chair of this Committee of working with some   fantastic people both inside and outside the council, so I wanted to give          my thanks to some of those I’ve worked with the closest in my time as         chair. Firstly, Alison Michalska and Richard Tyndall from SESLIP, who           have always been great advisors and supporters when I needed         someone who could tell me whether I’m on the right track. Chris Robson, our independent scrutineer. Brendan, Brian, and Alan in Comms as well      as Sarah, our Local Democracy Reporter.

          Everyone I’ve met with from the third sector who have helped guide us       – Katie and Ryan from Allsorts, Jo and everyone at H&KP, Mike and       everyone at BYC, Sally and her predecessor Rachel at AMAZE, Laura        and her team at Oasis, the team at TDC, Vanessa and the team at      BMEYPP and PaCC.

          All of our schools heads, governors, and wider community – thank you   for being so engaged with what we have done. And a huge thank you to           the Educators of Colour Collective for being so brilliant.I also want to    those who’ve been on this committee – Adam, our parent governor          reps, our youth council reps, our colleagues from the      voluntary aided           sector and of course PaCC.

          And within the council: Emma, Lisa and Clare who have supported this         Committee from Democratic Services. Chris and James in the     background making the webcast work.           Natasha who is brilliant both         during and outside of this Committee as our legal advisor.

          All of the many Debbies – Debbie Corbridge, Debbie Greensmith and      Debbie Garrett. Carolyn Bristow – who is always behind the most     excellent things. Richard, Saul, and Gillian for all their work on pupil    admissions. Tracie and John who support our fantastic youth council. Carla, Amir, and the team at both the Adult Education Hub and Youth           Employment Hubs. Jo and the newly created Family Hubs team. Katie   and Mita who support young people in environmental education. Mark,    Ashley, and the standards & achievements team. Sarah and EMAS.   Camille and others in our PSHE and equalities    team, including Sam          who of course no longer works for BHCC. Sue Franklin and her           team of education psychologists. Mia and the Home to School Transport     Team. Tom, Gerry (sorry), Karen, Kirsty, Tania, Millie and every single       one of our pod managers and social workers. Justin, our Head of         Safeguarding, and his team. The two Clare’s who support foster         panel, as well as our chair, Elaine Dibben. Lastly - Anna, Georgina, and          Jo – and of course, I would never not mention the brilliant Deb Austin           who I have enjoyed working alongside immensely. We are lucky to have         such a brilliant leadership team in Families, Children and Learning.

          This will be the last committee for some colleagues who are standing down at the next set of elections or may not get re-elected or sit on this           Committee again. I wanted to therefore end by recognising that Councillor Vanessa Brown is standing down at this set of local elections        after an incredible 28 years as a councillor for this city. Vanessa has in           her time been focused on children & young people, including as Cabinet          member for   four years. She can count in her many achievements, her     relentless focus on making the lives of young people in our city better.      Although we may not always agree, I have always respected Vanessa           for her knowledge, experience, and willingness to work together across       political divides. I hope Committee will join me in thanking Vanessa for          everything she has done.