Agenda and minutes

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

(i)                 to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)               where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)             the meeting notes at the start of the meeting at the item ‘Reserves’ that the Reserve Member is or will be attending as a reserve;

(iv)              if a Reserve Member whose intention to attend has been noted arrives after the commencement of the meeting, then that Reserve Member can only act as a Member from the start of the next item of business on the agenda after his/her arrival.

RESOLVED:  To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Member:-

To receive declarations of personal or prejudicial interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

(a)               all Members of the Committee, Sub Committee, Panel or Forum;

(b)               all other Members present in any part of the room or chamber.

RESOLVED:  To note that the following interests were declared:

To consider whether any of the items listed on the agenda should be considered with the press and public excluded on the grounds that it is thought likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted, that there would be disclosure of confidential information in breach of an obligation of confidence or of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1972 (as amended).

RESOLVED:  That (1) all items be considered with the press and public present;

(2)  Agenda Item 8 – Final Report of the Challenge Panel on School Nursing, be considered before Agenda Item 7 – Question and Answer Session with the Portfolio Holders.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 18 October 2006, be deferred to the next ordinary meeting of the Sub-Committee.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 18 October 2006 be deferred to the next ordinary meeting of the Sub-Committee.

To receive deputations (if any) under the provisions of Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 10.

RESOLVED:  To note that no deputations were received at the meeting under the provisions of Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 10.

To note the appointment of Mrs D. Speel and Mr R. Chauhan as Parent Governor representatives at the Overview and Scrutiny meeting held on 21 November 2006.

RESOLVED: To note the appointment of Mrs D Speel and Mr R Chauhan as Parent Governor representatives at the Overview and Scrutiny meeting held on 21 November 2006.

The Chairman welcomed the Portfolio Holder for People First – Children’s Services and the Portfolio Holder for Legal Services and Issues Facing Young People to the meeting and the following questions were asked:

Every Child Matters – Be Healthy

Question 1:  There is a growing awareness of the importance of healthier food provisions in schools.  What is the Council doing to ensure that schools are practically applying healthy eating principles at lunch and break times?

The Portfolio Holder for People First – Children’s Services responded as follows:-

·                     The local authority had appointed a dedicated schools’ dietitian in 2006 to work with and support schools in meeting the new food-based and nutritional standards;

·                     The schools dietitian was supporting school catering staff, in those schools with their own catering service, to adapt menus in line with the new mandatory food based standards for school lunches;

·                     The provision of hot and cold lunches provided by the Council had been improved to meet new food-based standards;

·                     Gaining the Healthy Schools award would involve ensuring that schools were providing healthy food options throughout the school day.

·                     Dietetic support would be given to schools to help meet new standards for food - other than lunch, that come into force in September 2007.

In response to a supplemental question, the Portfolio Holder explained that a daily portion of fruit was provided to all children in First Schools and milk was provided to children under 5 years old.  There had been a national campaign to reduce obesity through healthy food and exercise programmes.  Schools provided drinking water or allowed children to keep drinking water on their desks.

In response to a Member’s request that the Sub-Committee be provided with information on how each school was providing drinking water, an officer explained that schools could not be forced to provide such information.

Question 2:  What is the uptake of hot school meals in Harrow? How does the Council envisage providing school meals in the future?

The Portfolio Holder for People First – Children’s Services explained that the average free school meal (FSM) eligibility in High Schools was 19.6% of the total High School headcount, with take-up amongst those eligible for FSMs over 88%.  In addition, all High Schools were offering hot meals to all children who were eligible to receive them.

The average FSM eligibility in the 27 First & Middle Schools that offered hot meals was 23.7% of the total First & Middle school headcount in those schools.  Take-up amongst those eligible for FSMs in the 27 schools was over 94%.  

It was reported that the Government had stated that each Local Authority should have a strategy in place, which would demonstrate how the Government targets regarding the quality and sustainability of school food plus the introduction of a hot meals service would be met.  As part of this strategy, Harrow was maximising opportunities to increase the availability of hot meals on a phased basis through a range of locally developed initiatives.   The strategy was currently being drafted and would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

Report of the Director of People, Performance and Policy

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Director of People, Performance and Policy, alongside a verbal report of the Chairman of the Review Group, on the findings of the Challenge Panel on School Nursing.

The Chairman of the Panel thanked those involved in the Challenge Canel, in particular the Scrutiny officer and officers from the Primary Care Trust and North West London Hospitals Trust. The Chairman also emphasised the need for Scrutiny Members to put pressure on the decision makers to ensure that the necessary funding would be made available.

RESOLVED:  That (1) the final report of the Challenge Panel on School Nursing be noted;

(2)  the findings and recommendations of the Challenge Panel, as set out in the report, be endorsed;

(3)  the report be forwarded to Cabinet for noting at its meeting on 15 February 2007;

(4)  the report be forwarded to the Health and Social Care Integration Board for noting.

Members raised concern that scrutiny reports referred to Cabinet were not always considered at the next meeting and Scrutiny Members were not presenting reports to Cabinet.

The Portfolio Holder for Legal Services and Issues Facing Young People informed the Sub-Committee that if specific examples were provided, he would investigate.

RESOLVED:  That the above be noted.

In accordance with Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 6.7 it was

RESOLVED:  To continue until 10.10 pm.