A passionate advocate for children and young people, families and schools here in Haringey, Cllr Zena Brabazon has been a mainstay in the Leader Cllr Peray Ahmet’s Cabinet since its inception in May 2021.
With Cllr Brabazon having been responsible for the Children, Schools & Families portfolio for the last two years, we look back at some of our achievements in this area over the last year and look forward to what is in store for the next 12 months.
Highlights from the last 12 months:
- Haringey’s Children’s Services achieved a ‘Good’ rating by Ofsted for the first time in the history of our borough following an inspection back in February. This grading is a significant milestone and watershed moment for Haringey. 98% of our schools are also currently rated either ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted, with those schools graded ‘Outstanding’ retaining that judgement.
- We’ve secured more than £40m in funding from central government – £29.9m as part of Haringey’s participation in the Safety Valve Programme, which will see our SEND service achieve a balanced budget over the course of the next five years, and £3.4m to develop four Family Hubs in our borough. A further £7m has also been secured to develop in-borough education provision for children and young people with SEND as part of the aforementioned Safety Valve Programme.
- We’ve made great improvements to our SEND Local Offer, and our newsletter, to carers/parents/families with children who have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), and – alongside that – we’ve built a strong relationship with the Parent Carer Forum/SENDPower, which now has over 150 members.
- In partnership with our schools network and our Alternative Provision Hub/the Haringey Learning Partnership, we have almost eliminated School Exclusions with a reduction from 26 to 2 since the 2017/18 academic year.
Looking forward to the next 12 months:
- We will build upon our ‘Good’ Ofsted rating for Children’s Services here in Haringey and we’ll be working with an Excellence Board to sustain improvement on our ongoing journey towards an ‘Outstanding’ grading. We also want to maintain the very high percentage (98%) of Haringey schools that are rated either ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding.’
- The launch and ongoing success of the Rising Green Youth Hub in Lymington Avenue, Wood Green has shown the intrinsic value of co-designing and co-producing facilities and provision for children and young people with the active participation and voices of children and young people themselves. We will continue to work closely with young Haringey residents to develop our Youth Voice and Participation Programme together.
- We will implement projects associated with the Safety Valve Programme, which will result in improved outcomes for children and young people with SEND and their carers/parents and families.
- We’re in the process of developing our overall strategic plan to support Haringey schools through the capital-wide challenges of falling rolls and tight budgets, as well as extending the Social Workers in Schools Programme across the secondary schools here in our borough.
