-
Agenda and minutes
Venue: Bodichon, Muriel Matters House, Breeds Place, Hastings. East Sussex, TN34 3UY
Contact: Chantal Lass tel: 01424 451483 email: class@hastings.gov.uk
Items No. Item Minutes and Matters Arising (Chair) PDF 83 KB
Minutes:
Clive Galbraith thanked the group and welcomed Carole Dixon to the position of chair.
Carole thanked Clive for his hard work and enthusiasm and in particular noted his consistent desire for change and improvement.
Declarations of Interest
Minutes:
None.
Minutes and matters arising
Minutes:
RESOLVED – that the minutes of the meeting held on 15th April 2019 be approved as a true record.
Matters arising:a) Professor Whitty follow up visit was held last week. It was to help councillors understand what was said and what was done and achieved on the day. Darrell Gale director Public Health had a follow up meeting with Chris Whitty. But he is looking at establishing a county pot of funding which he would like to make available to councillors for research to better understand health needs in deprived Boroughs. Professor Whitty is now Chief Medical Officer for England and it is hoped his visit will be influential in shaping future policy towards public health in coastal towns.
b) There is a programme of stakeholder meeting groups about the proposed merger of local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) into a single East Sussex CCG. It is expected it will come in to effect on the 1st April next year if agreed.
c) Work on the coastal prospectus for the LEP is proceeding in parallel with the South East LEPs development of a Local Industrial Strategy (LIS). There is now cross-over in the employment of consultants between the 2 work streams which may be beneficial.
d) No further news on Hastings Pier other than the owner is apparently putting his hotels in Eastbourne on the market and committing to the future of the 2 Piers.
Education and school exam results PDF 425 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
(Helen Kay, Programme Director, Hastings Opportunity Area)
Members asked questions arising from the key stage 2 part of the presentation:
Question: What is the definition of a disadvantaged child as referred to in the presentation?
Answer: A child in receipt of Child PremiumQuestion: How are disadvantaged children doing?
Answer: This is demonstrated in the first couple of slides (attached to minutes).Question: Are any schools in particular not doing so well?
Answer: Baird school just received a good OFSTED rating so we had high expectations, it did not do as well as we hopedIt was noted that Hastings schools are performing above the national average at key stage 2, the question is how to keep hold of the progress from KS2 and translate it to key stages 3 and 4. ARK have made great progress this year and St Leonards is making good progress too, even though it isn’t at its 2017 levels.
Performance across secondary schools is improving however there is still progress to be made in maths. There is new leadership in place across these schools.
Helen informed the group that the data in the presentation is provisional and not yet validated so there may be some change in the future.Question: Are there figures to show comparisons against other opportunity areas?
Answer: No as Hastings is the only area with this dataQuestion: Should we be looking at students who require additional support needs?
Answer: This hasn’t been done yet but would be a good idea.Helen commented that the academy trusts are doing a lot of good work. The opportunity area is doing more work at primary level to prevent exclusions and the numbers of school movers should start to come down.
The group asked for the results to be shared when they are validated.
East Sussex College - Exam results title tbc PDF 1 MB
Minutes:
(Jim Sharpe, Principal at East Sussex College Hastings Campus)
Jim informed the group that the results are un-validated so there may be some change in the final results. This is the first full school year post merger and we are pleased with performance.
The new 2 year A-Levels are much harder and there is a much higher retention from first year to second. Hastings Campus is performing a pilot for the new T-Levels.
Members asked questions:
Question: Is there a specific reason for the drop in English results?
Answer: There has been a change in specification so instead of it being on a seen text it is now on an unseen one so it is much harder. The college has also struggled to retain good quality English teachers.Question: You mentioned less mental health support being available, why is this?
Answer: There is less funding available to support the posts in the college to help with mental health issues.Question: Is the amount of pupils needing to retake GCSE’s more or less than last year?
Answer: It is broadly the same; however the cohorts are getting bigger. 1500 students a year do maths and English retakes.The Firs - Developing an Asset within the Community PDF 657 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
(Carole Dixon, Chief Executive, Education Futures Trust)
Education Futures Trust took on the Firs which was a derelict site built on top of a landfill. Volunteers have since been working really hard on clearing and improving the site. The last 2 years have been really constructive and have developed a plan with large community input. People have contributed what they want to see in the final outcome.
The area is across two wards – Baird, which is in the bottom 1% for deprivation, and St Helens which is (relatively) affluent. The community will have access 24/7 and there will be gyms and table tennis tables. There are concerns around vandalism and dog fouling.
The site is attractive to young people who can use the facilities in their own time. There is a Multi Use General Area (MUGA), a five a side pitch and a baseball pitch. This pitch is used by the South Coast Pirates who recently won their league and went on to play in the semi-final nationally. Volunteers teach stool ball to young people as it is a Sussex sport.
The educational provision is really crucial to this site. Students with challenging behaviour or ones that do not work well at schools and ones at risk of crime use the site.
There has been an opening event attended by 220 local people. They played, made models and painted. Most people came from Malvern Way with their buggies. A new project called secret garden has just started, it attracted £10k and there is now a garden with storyteller areas this is a testament to what can be done. There have been loads of community donations and we are currently looking at CHART funding.
Hastings Opportunity Area - delivery update PDF 601 KB
Minutes:
(Helen Kay, Programme Director, Hastings Opportunity Area)
Members asked questions about the presentation:
Question: What is going to happen next with funding potentially ending in 2020?
Answer: It is dependent on the political situation. The opportunity area may continue with reduced funding next year. The more progress and impact that can be demonstrated the more likely that there will be a successor programme.It was suggested a working group be set up to look at building on the progress of the opportunity area.
The Town fund
Minutes:
(Simon Hubbard, Director of Corporate Services, Hastings Borough Council)
Simon commented that although there has been lots of publicity around the money arriving, the question is how is this going to be set up. Hastings Borough Council has heard from Central Government that there will be a prospectus in the future. Simon said he is not sure what it is for yet. Local authorities are looking at working in a regional context. As soon as Hastings Borough Council knows more, then they will inform partners and convene the partnership discussion.
Brexit Update
Minutes:
(Simon Hubbard, Director of Corporate Services, Hastings Borough Council)
The following observations were made:- Regional structures are in place covering a range of transport, order, supply and community elements. HBC feeds into both national structures via East Sussex County Council (ESCC) and into Sussex Resilience Forum.
- Assistance and liaison has been organised with the Food Bank to help ensure supplies if there is a hard exit.
- Environmental Health now authorised to issue food export health certificates – a particular issue for the fishing fleet.
- If a hard or rapid exit looks likely additional monitoring staff will be put in place over the holiday period
- There was a general concern about cover over Christmas if this becomes an emergency over this period.
- Fortunately there was no evidence of a local spike in hate crime, but the police were monitoring this.
- Businesses were encouraged to check out this growth hub and LOCATE websites for information
Members were urged to report any concerns regarding hate crime, potential protests or disorder and feedback via 101.
Next Meeting Date
Minutes:
27th January 2020 - Agreed
-
My council
Contact
Got a question about democratic services?
Content
The content on this page is the responsibility of our Democratic Services team.