Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Bob Banks.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.  In particular she welcomed Simon White who would shortly be taking over as Interim Director of Children's Services.

In relation to Agenda item 6, Councillor Duffy declared an interest as a provider of post-16 services.

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Head of Legal and Democratic Services in writing or by e-mail indicating the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case 9 September 2015).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/e-mail address below.

None.

(previously circulated)

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 25 June 2015 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Chairman welcomed Diana Fulbrook, the Independent Chair of the Worcestershire Safeguarding Children Board (WSCB) to the meeting.  She had been invited to present the WSCB Annual Report 2014-15.

By way of introduction, the Independent Chair updated Members on areas of concern previously identified by the Panel and made the following points:

·       In relation to information sharing across agencies and schools, it was confirmed that the 'single view of the child' system was now available to all schools.  However, feedback had suggested that the system was tedious to access via Edulink.  Headteachers were now receiving further training and this was being rolled out across the county.  The system was not intended to be used for all children but was for use when a concern had been identified, allowing schools to check whether the child was known to other agencies.

·       It was confirmed that when a child moved schools, responsibility for chasing paperwork was with the receiving school.

·       A positive development identified in the annual report was the building up of representation on the Board from schools and other educational organisations.  The Board now had a representative from an independent school and a high school representative from an academy.  An issue remained about how the independent school representative would contact other independent schools in order to represent views across the sector.  It was confirmed that, although strictly speaking, free schools were not academies, the two types of school were not differentiated on the Board.

·       It was acknowledged that the cumulative impact of budget cuts across agencies had been felt by the Board, particularly in relation to availability of people to attend sub groups.

·       It was confirmed that the Independent Chair had held several meetings with the newly appointed Independent Chair of the Adult Safeguarding Board and several common themes had been identified.  She had also attended meetings of the Health and Well-being Board and the Community Safety Partnerships.

·       A question was asked about where responsibility for safeguarding lay in relation to free and independent schools.  It was suggested that there was an issue with the way the system was set up in that these schools were independent of the Local Authority and it was up to the school to ensure that safeguarding procedures were in place.  This would be monitored by Ofsted.  The Director of Children's Services reminded members that all schools had to comply with the Local Authority's processes, policies and procedures but free and independent schools also had specific responsibility for ensuring children were safeguarded, something that would be tested via Ofsted or another external review.  In response to a question about who would get the blame if something went wrong, the Director of Children's Services confirmed that this would be whoever had failed to comply with procedures.

·       Members were reminded that the role of the Safeguarding Board was to coordinate the work of other agencies – not to undertake the work itself.  In this way, the Board could be seen as part of the system of public  ...  view the full minutes text for item 210.

The Strategic Commissioner – Education and Skills had been invited to the meeting to update Members on the range of opportunities available for post-16 students.

He introduced the item by reminding Members that this was a live and pertinent issue.  He went on to make the following points:

·       There was currently lots of work underway in this area involving local businesses, colleges and 6^th forms.

·       Young people now had a very wide range of opportunities open to them.

·       Members were reminded that, although all students were now required to remain in some form of education or training until at least their 18^th birthday, this did not mean that the school leaving age had been raised, as this education or training did not have to take place in school.

·       There was ongoing discussion about whether 16 was the best time to hold key exams as it was no longer a key end point.  The key indicator of the number of students gaining 5 A* to C grades at GCSE was going to be replaced by 'progress 8' which would measure a student's progress in their best 8 subjects.  At the same time, levels at key stage 2 were going and the way in which progress was measured was changing.

·       With reference to the requirement to stay in education or training until 18, it was suggested that this would not be a major change as over 90% of students already did this.  Evidence demonstrated that remaining in education until 18 led to better wages, better health and better social skills.

·       Despite the new requirements, some young people remained not in employment, education or training (NEET).  There were currently over 600 NEETs in Worcestershire, or 3.8% of the age group, a figure that was well below the national average.  The proportion of young people recorded as 'unknown' was just below 5%.

·       Since 2011 schools had been in charge of providing impartial careers guidance, and since September 2014 they had also been required to have a careers strategy.

·       Outcomes for Y11 leavers in Worcestershire had improved significantly in the last four years and 2015 provisional data indicated that approximately 63% of young people would achieve 5 A* to C grades at GCSE.  These improved results had raised the aspirations of young people and made post-16 opportunities more important.

·       Members were reminded about the Connecting Schools and Business programme which linked to Open for Business and aimed to encourage greater involvement of businesses in the work of schools including governance and curriculum developments.

·       In Worcestershire, over 50% of young people went to college post-16 rather than staying at school.

·       The Employment and Skills Board (a sub-group of the Local Enterprise Partnership) was looking to act as a driver for businesses and post-16 opportunities including business engagement and entering the world of work.  Members were informed about the LEP commissioned feasibility study regarding the possible development of a University Technical College in Worcestershire.  No decision had yet been made but it was important to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 211.